Allowing students to self-serve their own timetable switches

Did you know that you can configure your Vasto courses and modules to allow students to switch between timetables? This can be helpful if your students need to change their learning/session dates themselves. You can even choose to associate a fee with this!

How to configure self-serve timetable switching

To allow your students to manage their own timetable switches, you'll first need to navigate to the course/unit you want to allow this for. Open up the "Enrol" tab in the right hand side panel and you will be able to see our recently updated "Self-serve facilities".  These were, until release 5.107, floating in the left hand side of the page, but have been been moved into the "Enrol" tab.

Locate the "Allow self-serve timetable switching" checkbox and turn it on if you'd like your students to be able to switch timetables themselves.

You can also optionally specify a couple of fees for students to pay when they self-serve their own timetable switches;

• "Fee to switch": this is the base-level fee associated with students utilising the self-serve timetable switching process. Students will be charged whatever is entered here if they want to change timetables.

• "Rush fee": This is a different fee that will be charged to the student if they want to switch timetables within a configured number of days of either the timetable they are moving into or the timetable they are moving out of. Note also that this fee is charged to the student instead of the base-level fee, this is not an addition.

• "Late fee": If someone's session start time has passed, you can optionally charge them a different amount.  If this amount is left as 0, they will just be charged the "rush fee"

The self-serve timetable switching process

From within their own Student Portal, if a student has opened up a course/unit that has self-serve timetable switching enabled, there will be a "switch class" button at the top of their course information

The process for a student to switch class is available in the Student Portal Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a way to configure this self-serve timetable switching functionality for all of my courses/units at once, in bulk?

No, this functionality is configured on a per-course/per-unit basis. You will need to activate it individually for all courses/units as required.

Can I assign different prices to different timetables?

No, the price for self-serve timetable switches is configured at a course/unit level. It is not currently possible to make, say, weekend timetables more expensive to enrol into.

Can students switch themselves into timetables associated with other courses/units?

No, students can only switch themselves into timetables associated with the exact course/units they're already enrolled in - and only if the timetable supports the Pathway they're placed in. If they need to be switched into a different course/unit/Pathway, this will have to managed by an Admin user.

Can my students use this functionality if I'm only using offline payment methods?

Technically yes, although it may be simpler to have your Admin users manage timetable switches themselves in this case.