Hidden Benefits of MS Bookings using Learning Central

Marianna Majzonova is a Learning Technology Officer at our Learning and Teaching Academy. In this blog she introduces Microsoft Bookings and explains how it can be integrated with Learning Central to enhance the student experience.

Toward the end of 2023, Microsoft Bookings announced an update with the provision of a “Personal Bookings” page. It has been promoted by Microsoft as a simpler way to organise schedules and manage appointments. It is a fantastic tool for students to support their learning journey. Here, I look at how it can enhance the overall student digital learning experience and improve students’ focus, resulting in students never missing an appointment with their module leads.

What is Microsoft Bookings?

Microsoft Bookings is a scheduling tool that allows you to create and manage appointments with your students and colleagues. You can set up your availability and the service you offer and let your students book online using a web link. You can also synchronise your bookings with your Outlook calendar and send automatic customised confirmations and reminders via email.

You can directly access Bookings via this link or alternatively you can access it via university’s Microsoft 365 suite, searching within your 365 apps. This is what the administration page looks like:

Personal Booking Page and any Shared booking pages previously created and shared by you or with you by your colleagues are available in the dashboard. Building a new booking page is straightforward and can be completed in 10 minutes for most users.

Set up requires you to complete information such as title of meeting, what you are offering i.e. office hours, drop-in sessions, Q&A etc. By default, the Teams calls are enabled, but you can also select a location if held in person. Please note that if you want to give your students the option of online or face-to-face within one booking page, you will need to create a Shared Booking page instead of a Personal Booking Page.

Regular hours are based on your working schedule; you can customise these under ‘Use customised availability hours’. Selecting the start and end of the session is useful when meetings are held during a specific time. Under the ‘Advanced Option’ settings, you can specify buffer times before and after the meeting, and email reminders and email follow-ups are also available to personalise.

Using Learning Central in conjunction with MS Bookings can serve as a ‘one stop-shop’ for students booking their office hours with their module leads. The booking link can be directly added to the Learning Central, and it can be enhanced to include QR codes for direct access, and quick links. The image below is an example of how you could set up your office hours in Learning Central, using learning modules to display each and booking link withing this space. There are noticeable benefits in using MS bookings integrated in Learning Central modules. Some are listed below:

• Providing access to booking pages via Learning Central means that students find everything within their module, the bookings link is connected to both the MS 365 suite and Outlook calendar.
• Utilise the module calendar to add Office hours. Module leads can also go that extra mile and add the office hours details directly into modules’ calendars.

Why use MS Bookings in Learning Central?

• Give students control to book appointments via direct Learning Central links. This ensures consistency and flexibility.
• Students will receive automatically created appointments (links) to online or face to face meetings. Everyone stays connected and appointments are hardly ever missed.
• Your students will have an option to choose to meet you in person or online, which can be supported in Learning Central with, for example using a follow up discussion or forum placed in Learning Central.

By utilising these features, students are encouraged to enhance their productivity and make the most of their digital learning experience.

“Using Microsoft bookings in Learning Central is definitely a big improvement, and I think it is user friendly for the students.” – Academic, School of English, Communication, and Philosophy

Get Involved

Do you have any helpful tricks or tips when using Learning Central? Please do get in touch with the Learning and Teaching Academy: ltacademy@cardiff.ac.uk