Free Account Limitations
Your premium account lasts for the first 14 days, just long enough to get parents signed up for 10 or 15-minute time slots. The free Calendly account allows users to use one specific "Event Type" (or time block). This means one specific amount of time for the time blocks (example: 10 minutes or 15 minutes). The free account forces you to stick with that amount of time for all subsequent appointments. With this background information out of the way, here is how it works:
Event Types
First, you will set your availability preferences. Using your 14-day Premium account, you will have access to more than one Event Type length. After that point, you are downgraded to just one event type time, but you can still create as many dates as you want with that same duration.
You will start by clicking Event Types on the top menu bar. Then, as you can see from the picture below, you can either turn On or turn Off the different Durations (10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, etc.). For Parent-Teacher Conferences, you may find it easier to just click the "Add event type" button in the top right corner and create your own customized event type. You will get a choice of "One-on-One" (such as a conference) or "Group" (such as a webinar or an online class). I created a one-on-one event type called Parent-Teacher Conferences and I made the duration 10 minutes. You will choose an "Event Link" such as calendly.com/[username]/conferences
This is the link that parents can use to see your available time slots. Other choices include "Add/Edit Questions for Invitee" and you should add a custom question such as "Your son/daughter's name," since this question is not included by default. An E-mail address question is not necessary, since that field is automatically included when parents fill out your form.
As you scroll down the choices, you will come to the Availability section, with various days and times. You should turn Off each day and time that doesn't apply to the Parent-Teacher Conferences, leaving only the days and times when you are available.
So, how do you share this sign-up schedule with parents? You can share it through a Google Form, through your classroom website, your Google Classroom, or by emailing the parents. Just go up to your account menu in the top right corner (the little head icon) and click once. A pull-down menu appears and you can Email Calendly URL or Copy Calendly URL. The "Email Calendly URL" link opens your Gmail and lets you send the link directly to any parent emails or contact groups you set up in your Gmail Contacts. "Calendar connection," found directly below the email option lets you choose which of your Google Calendars you want to use to schedule your Calendly events. Any parent who picks one of your open time slots will automatically be added to your Google Calendar and that time slot will be used up, leaving only the remaining time slots from which parents can choose. Here are the options under your Account, found in the top right corner menu:
Parents will pick a time from the list of available slots, and the event is then added to your Google Calendar. Here is an example of a Parent-Teacher Conference event set up in 10-minute blocks.
The Dashboard is the Home screen that teachers will see when they first open up Calendly and click on their account. This shows all of the current appointments that the teacher has in one concise view. Here is an example:
To get additional help, check out the Calendly Knowledge Base which has an extensive Help section on a variety of topics. This excellent YouTube video playlist of Calendly tutorials shows every aspect of the program. Learn how to set up the sign-up form, add custom questions for parents to see (such as a "Your Child's Name" field), set intervals and more. Each video is less than a minute in length and will really help you to get started.
If you need one-on-one or group training, just contact one of our EdTech trainers to set up a session on how to use Calendly to meet your scheduling needs.