Dear Jo-Anne and other writing-centre colleagues:
Have you read the lead article in the November 2004 Writing Lab Newsletter? It
collates despairing messages among writing directors about the commercial
TutorTrac program.
We're big enough at U of T to make our own mistakes and learn from them. Several
of the 17 or so writing centres here have developed booking programs, most of
them web-based so that students can make their own appointments online and also
cancel and re-book if necessary. They include controls on who can book and how
often.
You can get a glimpse of some of them by clicking on the "online" links for
specific writing centres from the page www.utoronto.ca/writing/centres.html.
Engineering was the first to produce its own system, created in large part by a
student as the project for her fourth-year thesis. The systems used at Health
Sciences and New College were commissioned from an outside consultant;
Woodsworth and Trinity systems were done in-house, but benefitted from the early
adopters. The system used by U of T at Scarborough was designed locally and
depends on a campus intranet.
These and our other systems have made scheduling and bookings (and cancellations
and re-bookings) much easier, but they haven't entirely solved our challenges
with record-keeping. For one thing, they don't keep waiting lists: they let
students check availability and re-book any cancellations, but they don't give
administrators a sense of how much unfilled demand exists. Some allow
instructors to keep records and notes on individual students; others don't.
If people want technical information or the names of our main designers, please
contact me offline and I'll put you in touch.
Regards,
Margaret Procter
University of Toronto Coordinator, Writing Support
[log in to unmask]; www.utoronto.ca/writing/
416 978-8109
Jo-Anne Andre wrote:
> i all,
>
> We at the U of C are eager to get an online appointment booking system
> in place for our Writing Centre. I have a few questions for fellow
> writing centre people across Canada--
>
> 1. Do any of you use an online appointment booking system for writing
> centre appointments?
> 2. If so, are you using an off-the-shelf program (like Duke's
> university shareable program or TutorTrack) or did you develop one?
> 3. If you developed one, is it available for others to share or purchase?
> 4. If you are currently using such a program, what features do you
> consider essential? desirable? annoying?
> 5. If you are not currently using an online appointment booking
> system, would you potentially be interested in sharing costs of
> developing such a program for use?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts and comments on this!
>
> Jo-Anne Andre
> Director, Effective Writing Program
>
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To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
For the list archives and information about the organization,
its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
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