TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Conference Types 
• How to Turn on the Conferences Tab in the Parent Portal
• How to Mass Create Calendar Event Conferences in the Web Desk
• How to Create Individual Staff Conferences in the Web Desk
• Mass Creating Staff Conferences in the Web Desk
• Reserving Calendar Event Conferences
• Reserving Staff Conferences
• Recent Updates

Conference Types 

There are 2 different kinds of conference types in Genesis that can be used to create Parent Conferences: Staff and Calendar Event. See below if you are not sure which one your school is looking for. It is up to the school to decide which method you need to use.

More often than not, for parent/teacher conferences, "Calendar Event" conferences work best.

Calendar Event Conferences: 

• These conferences are best suited for your Parent Teacher Conferences that are held and advertised by your school district a few times in the school year, tied to a Calendar Event that you have created.
• This conference type can only be created en masse by an administrator with access to the Web Desk>Setup>conference setup wizard
• These conferences are directly linked to the School Calendar Events via: Calendar>School>Calendar Setup
• Parents will see a "Schedule Conferences for..." button on the Portal when you create "Calendar Event" conferences.
• 

Staff Conferences: 

• These conferences are best suited for scheduling students into already determined time slots or daily/weekly office hours that teachers would like to leave available for parents to reserve at any point in the school year
• These can be manually created by any teacher/counselor who has access the Web Desk>Calendar; or manually by an administrator with access to Student Data>Modify Student>Conferences
• Staff conferences can also be created en masse by any administrator with access to the Web Desk>Setup->Conference setup wizard
• Parents will see a "Request a conference" button on the portal when you create a "Staff" conference.
• 

How to Turn on the Conferences Tab in the Parent Portal

Go to the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Conferences screen.

• 'Display Conferences Tab' - This is the on/off switch for conferences in the parent portal (each school has its own)
• If this is not checked, the Conferences tab will not appear for students in this school!
• Click here to learn more about the Conference Settings

Required Parent Portal User Info

Go to the Parent Access>Setup>Users>Modify User screen. 

All accounts need to be set up properly in order to see conferences. This is a common issue when parents report that they cannot see the conferences.

• 'Type of Logon' and 'Relationship' to the student must be set on each account that requires access to the conferences tab. See fields highlighted in red in the screenshot above.
• The tool to mass set these fields can be found via: Parent Access>Maintenance: 'Auto set the Type of Logon field on the Parent Logonid' tool.
  
  

How to Mass Create Calendar Event Conferences in the Web Desk

Create the Calendar Event(s)

Go to the Calendar>School>Calendar Setup screen.

• Go to the Calendar>School>Calendar Setup screen.
• First create a new School Calendar Event for each school that is hosting a conference 
  • ie: If you have 5 schools in your district and each one is hosting parent teacher conferences in the fall, then all 5 schools will need events created for them
• To do this, click on the "New Event" tab.
• Enter the relevant info and the correct dates on the "New Event" screen:
  
• Make sure you set "Attendance Taken this day?" to YES if kids are in school the day of the conferences.
• Click "Add" when you are done to finish adding the event.
• Reconcile attendance for each school that you created a Calendar Event for via: Calendar>Setup

Create the Conferences via Webdesk

To actually create and generate the conferences, go to Web Desk>Setup>Conference Setup Wizard

• To actually create the conferences, go to Web Desk>Setup>Conference Setup Wizard
• Fill out all required parameters and select your newly created Calendar Event. 
  • Remember to select the "Calendar Event" radio button on this screen - otherwise, the conferences you create will not be tied to your new Event.
• Make sure that you set the conferences to "show in the Parent Module"
• Click 'Preview Conferences' to see how your conferences are going to look in the 'Conference Preview Window'
• When ready, click 'Create Conferences in...'
  
  

How to Create Individual Staff Conferences in the Web Desk

You do this via Web Desk>Calendar>View Appointments/Conferences

Steps to Create an Individual Conference

You do this via Web Desk>Calendar>View Appointments/Conferences

• Your user account must have at least one staff member assigned to it who is flagged as a teacher or a guidance counselor. 
  • Users will find the means to assign staff members who represent them via: Web Desk>Setup>Home Setup (This list is populated by the teachers/staff members tied to your login)
• Click the ‘Add’ link corresponding to a day on the calendar to create an appointment on that date, or simply click on the ‘Add Appointments/Conferences’ tab above the calendar and fill in the date
• This creates an individual conference:
  
• Be sure to set the 'Status' of the appointment/conference to ‘Available' and to check off the 'Show in Parents' option so the appointment/conference is available to be booked by the parent 
• Once a parent books an appointment, it will then show in the staff member’s Web Desk as ‘Scheduled.’ 
• Every conference requires a Date, Start Time, Reason, Location, Subject, and Staff Member. 
• Do not add any students if you want the parents to be able to choose a specific time slot. Once the parent reserves the appointment, the student will be assigned to the conference automatically.
• Once created, the Web Desk Calendar will show each appointment’s start and end times in black to indicate that they are Available. 
• The only parent accounts that request these conferences are the ones that have a student attached, whose teacher or guidance counselor has Available Conferences on their Web Desk.
• For these conferences to display, you will need to check off "Show Schedule/Grades" for the school on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Scheduling tab.
  
  

Mass Creating Staff Conferences in the Web Desk

Go to the Web Desk>Setup>Conference Setup Wizard screen.

• Fill out all required parameters and select either single or multiple dates, make sure that you set the conferences to show in the Parent Module
• Click 'Preview Conferences' to see how your conferences are going to look in the 'Conference Preview Window.'
• When ready, click 'Create Conferences in...'

For Parents: How to Request a Conference in Parent Portal

This is the view from within the parent portal.

Depending on how you chose to create your conferences, the parents can either see "Schedule conference for..." (Calendar Event) or "Request a Conference" (Staff Conference)

The tabs to use in the Parent Portal: Student Data>Conferences:

• Each Calendar Event Conference has it's own tab that parents can click on "Schedule a conference for <Conference Name>" to start reserving their conference.
• The Staff Conferences are all located in one 'Request a Conference' tab. They will need to click "Request a Conference" to start reserving their conference.

NOTE: If you created a Calendar Event for your school, and parents only see "Request a Conference" in the portal, it means the settings are not aligned. You should review the setup via Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Conferences to make sure you have selected the appropriate choices. 

Reserving Calendar Event Conferences

Calendar Event Conference has it's own tab that parents can click on "Schedule a conference for <Conference Name>" to start reserving their conference.

Calendar Event Conferences Only!

• After they click on "Schedule a Conference for..." they will see a screen with each of their teachers/counselors.
• They will need to click on "Reserve" for all relevant teachers to finish reserving a "Calendar Event" conference.
• With Calendar Event Conferences, Parents can reserve 1 available conference per teacher per Calendar Event 
  • ie: In this multi-day Calendar Event the parent has reserved the first day with the English Teacher, they cannot choose another conference with that same teacher as all three days of conferences represent the same event
• Each Color Represents a different Conference Status 
  • Green = Available Conference
  • Red = Conference is reserved for another student
  • Dark Green = Conference the parent has reserved (and can cancel at any time)
  • Yellow = Conference that conflicts with an already reserved conference time (Parents can still reserve these, though they are warned against doing so)
• The "Graded" box checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course
• The display options checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course
• A FY attendance cycle set for the school via Setup>Schools>Modify School>Attendance Cycle
• For these conferences to display, you will need to check off "Show Schedule/Grades" for the school on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Scheduling tab.

A "Parent Conferences by Calendar Event" video can be found here.

Reserving Staff Conferences

Staff Conferences are all located in one 'Request a Conference' tab. They will need to click "Request a Conference" to start reserving their conference.

Staff Conferences Only!

• When a parent clicks on the 'Request a Conference' tab they will be presented with a list of their child's teachers and their available conference times
• Parents can select any week of school with the calendar at the top (the screen defaults to the current week). If they don't see a list of dates, they may need to click "Next Week" for example.
• Once a time is selected, they will be brought to the reservation screen for the day that the conference time was scheduled for:
  
• They can click "Reserve" to finish reserving a Staff Conference.
• With Staff Conferences, Parents can reserve any available conference time and can reserve as many as they would like 
  • ie: This parent has booked back to back conference times with the same teacher to get in extra time
• Each Color Represents a different Conference Status 
  • Green = Available Conference
  • Red = Conference is reserved for another student
  • Dark Green = Conference the parent has reserved (and can cancel at any time)
  • Yellow = Conference that conflicts with an already reserved conference time (Parents can still reserve these, though they are warned against doing so)
• For these conferences to display, you will need to check off "Show Schedule/Grades" for the school on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Scheduling tab.
• For Staff Conferences, you will also need these fields configured properly for parents to seethe conferences: 
  • The "Graded" box checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course
  • The display options checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course
  • A FY attendance cycle set for the school via Setup>Schools>Modify School>Attendance Cycle

When do Parents Receive Notifications about Conferences?

• The Notification alert gets sent immediately after the conference is reserved.
• Notifications for conferences go out only if parents reserve their own conference time.
• Conference reminders can be sent out automatically to parents 1, 2, and/or 7 days prior to the day of the scheduled conference. This is set via Core > Scheduler, by modifying the Notification Daemon task.

Example reminder email: 

• You can choose to disable alerts via Parent Access > Setup > Settings > School Settings > Conferences by checking off "Do Not Send Reminders." 
  • If checked, reminder notifications will not be sent to parent users.

Why does this parent NOT see conferences in the Portal?

Depending on the specific set up of your school, there can be a few different areas you need to review/resolve to get conferences up and working.

These are a few places to check to troubleshoot this:

• Verify that conferences have been GENERATED for the staff member(s). You can view the runs via Webdesk>Setup>Conference Tracking. You should see the staff member names on the left. If they are missing, no conferences were generated.
• Verify that the parent has an account and has kids tied to the account via Parent Access>Setup>Users.
• Verify the parent account has the “Type of Logon” set as GUARDIAN via Parent Access>Setup>Users>Modify User (AKA: Go to Parent Access>Setup>Users, search for the logon ID, click on their Logon ID to get to the Modify User screen.) 
• Verify the parent account has the “Relationship Status” set as Guardian 1, 2 etc via Parent Access>Setup>Users>Modify User (AKA: Go to Parent Access>Setup>Users, search for the logon ID, click on their Logon ID to get to the Modify User screen. This field is in the “Students Attached…” area.)
• Verify the Parent Account has a ROLE that has the “Conferences” checked off.  
  • You can see the role tied to their account via Parent Access>Setup>Users>Modify User. (AKA: Go to Parent Access>Setup>Users, search for the logon ID, click on their Logon ID to get to the Modify User screen. This field is in the “Students Attached…” area.)
  • Update the Role itself via Parent Access>Setup>Roles>Modify Role. Check off “Conference” and click SAVE.
  • Mass assign Roles to users by student list via Parent Access>Setup>Roles>Assign Roles.
• Check off “Show” on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Conferences screen
• Make sure the correct selection is made in the “Only display courses that” area for the school". i.e. – if the conference date is within Marking Period 1, make sure Marking Period 1 is selected. 
• If you created STAFF CONFERENCES make sure options in the “Can schedule for Staff” area are checked off. 
  • Also, make sure "Show Schedule/Grades" for the school on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Scheduling tab
  • Make sure the "Graded" box is checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course
  • Make sure display options checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course 
  • A FY attendance cycle must be set for the school via Setup>Schools>Modify School>Attendance Cycle
• If you created CALENDER EVENT CONFERENCES make sure options in the “Can schedule for Event” area are checked off. 
  • Also, make sure you have selected the actual EVENT in the “Open event for conferences” area.
  • Also, make sure "Show Schedule/Grades" for the school on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Scheduling tab
  • Make sure the "Graded" box is checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course
  • Make sure display options checked off for the course via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Course 
  • A FY attendance cycle must be set for the school via Setup>Schools>Modify School>Attendance Cycle
• Please Note: When creating the conferences, you should only use staff in the school that you are running it for.

Where can staff members view their conference appointments?

• They can view this within Webdesk on the Webdesk>Calendar>View Appointment/Conference screen.
• 
• You can also set up a Genmessaging Eventto go out called "Scheduled Conferences for Today" if you'd like. 
  • This is an event that will send a message with a users conference schedule for the day. Only conferences for staff that are marked to represent the user will be used and only conferences with a status of Scheduled will be shown.
  • Info on our Genmessaging module can be found here.
• Staff Conference info can also be viewed from these administrative screens: 
  • Staff>Staff>Modify Staff>Conferences
  • Setup>Schools>Modify School>Conferences

Recent Updates

On Staff>Staff>Modify Staff>Conferences:

• When modifying a staff member, there is a new screen Conferences which will show you all conferences for the staff member.

On Setup>Schools>Modify School>Conferences:

• We added new screens for School Conferences. The first screen shows you all days with totals of conferences scheduled. 
• Another screen allows you to view the individual conferences and the teachers. 
• You can filter by date or teacher.

• You can use the "Update Tools" button on this screen to mass update: "conference date," "conference status," and/or "conference event type."
• We added the ability to mass move conferences from one staff member to another on the Setup>Schools>Modify School>Conferences screen when you click on the Update Tools button.

On the Setup>Schools>Modify School>Conferences>Details screen we:

• Added new tool to update the conference status of all conferences that are displayed on the screen.
• Added new tool to update the event attached to conferences that are displayed on the screen. If the new event is a different date, then the conferences date is changed. Conferences can only be moved to events that are for one day.

On the Webdesk>Calendar screen:

• From the List View, users can now copy their conferences from one date to another in mass.

• We updated the Calendar list screen to allow users to mass update the Event for conferences that were already created.

On the Webdesk>Setup>Staff to User screen:

• The Staff to User screen will no longer allow users to have more than 1 staff member as representing them. If a user needs to have access to a staff member's calendar, there is a new check box for Access to that staff member. The calendar screen will allow them to view, add and/or edit conferences for that staff member.

On the Student Data>Modify Student>Conferences>View Conferences screen:

• When adding a student to a conference that is configured to show in Parent Portal, a parent alert will be created.

On the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Conferences screen:

• We added "Ungraded Course" options. By default, ungraded courses are not displayed for parents to schedule conferences. By clicking on the link, you will be given options to display those courses based on the flags in the curriculum.
• We added a student list field which will restrict the scheduling of conferences for an event to only students in the specified list.

• We added an "Allow Virtual Option" checkbox - If checked, parent/student users will be able to select an in-person or virtual conference at the selected time

On Setup>Schools>Modify School>Conferences, there is an "Allow staff to be added to a conference even if they have a conflicting conference" option you can check off.  By default, staff cannot be added to a conference that conflicts with one of their own. A conflict is defined as a conference slot that has a status of Scheduled or Blocked that occurs within the same time span. If this option is checked, a user will be warned about a conflict but they will be allowed to add the staff to the conference.