Bug Report: Students Cannot See Appointment Groups

[dskeeter]

Problem: Students cannot see Appointment Groups in a Canvas shell that they are enrolled in.

Problem occurs:  Always (We believe.)

Work around:  Nothing to completely circumvent the problem

Problem first noted:  On approximately 2021-01-19

NOTE:  We used a different calendaring system prior to this semester.


Problem Details:
My group of 8 Teaching Assistants is using a Canvas shell as an appointment scheduling system.  We call this our Online Math Lab (OML).  Each of us is part of the OML and we are also "attached" to course sections owned by our faculty.  From the OML calendar we create appointment groups and "add" the appointment groups to the calendars of our attached sections.

Students enroll in the course sections and also "enroll" in the OML.  After a student has enrolled, the OML shows up in their Canvas Dashboard and list of courses.

The 8 TAs can see each others' appointment groups -- i.e. we can see the individual appointments from the appointment groups when we look at the OML calendar.

Students can see the individual appointments when they view the calendar only if they are enrolled in a sections that a TA is "attached to" (which is where we also placed the Appointment Groups).  If a student is enrolled in the OML but not in an "attached section", then the student cannot see the individual appointments.

We want the students to be able to see all appointments if they are enrolled in the OML, regardless of their enrollment in any "attached section".  

The workaround that isn't a workaround:  Create a set of Calendar Events rather than an Appointment Group.   Since Calendar Events can exist in only one calendar at a time, two separate Calendar Events are created, one for the OML and one for the "attached section".  This OML Calendar Event does show up in the OML calendar for students who are enrolled in the OML.  But this is not a viable solution because it doesn't function like an appointment.

[gnoack]

Hi @dskeeter 

I'm not sure what you mean by "and "add" the appointment groups to the calendars of our attached sections" Do you mean you click to add the appointment to more than one calendar?"

There is a note on the guide that states," Note: if you added an appointment group to more than one course, appointment slots only display in the calendar for the first course shown in the appointment group."  While is is a little vague, I think what it means is that if you are enrolled in two courses where the appointment is included on the calendar, it only shows for the first one. 

I wonder if you removed the appointments from the sections calendars if all students would be able to see all appointments from being enrolled in your OLM course.  

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-add-a-Scheduler-appointment-group-in-a-...

[dskeeter]

Hiya @gnoack , 

ITEM 1)

For the 'and "add"', we've created the appointment groups in several ways.  Sometimes created in the calendar for a section, then edited to add other sections, including the OML.  Sometimes created only in the OML and then edited to be in the calendars for sections.  Sometimes created in several calendars at once, including or not including the OML.  I haven't watched others do it, but the actual steps I'm using when I'm merely adding the appointment group to another calendar are:

- In the calendar view given by this URL: https://ccsf.instructure.com/calendar#view_name=month&view_start=2021-01-22 , enable only the OML calendar.

- Click the + button button that has "Make New Event" as hover text.

- A pop-up window titled "Edit Event" appears.  Click the "Appointment Group" link.  Fill out all available fields with appropriate info, including clicking the Calendar button and choosing the OML only.  Click the Publish button.

- The new appointments now appear in the calendar.  Click one appointment.

- A pop-up window appears.  Click the Group Details button.

- The web browser opens goes to an edit page for the appointment group.  The URL there is similar to https://ccsf.instructure.com/appointment_groups/nnnn/edit . Click the Calendars button.

- A pop-up window appears with a list of other calendars.  Enable some of the other calendars.  Click the Done button in the pop-up.

- Click the red Save button in the upper-right of the Edit page.

----
ITEM 2)

Thank you for pointing out that note.  I do see that behavior and I'm glad that people know about it.  As an example of that behavior:

If my appointments are published in Class 1 and Class 2 and I enable both calendars on the right side of the calendar window, the appointments are visible to me.  If I then disable the calendar for Class 1, the appointments disappear.  FWIW, a workaround here is to simply refresh the web page.  The appointments then become visible when only Class 2 was selected.

This issue is different from the one I'm describing.  Students cannot see the appointments when they're only enrolled in the OML.  (This is one of two situations where the problem occurs.)  The students may or may not be toggling which calendars to view, but I expect they are not.

----

Currently, I'm running a test of having an appointment group that was created only in the OML.  We'll see if the problem continues to occur.  Thanks tons for giving me the idea to test that.

I'm additionally trying to set up a student account so I can see first-hand what students are seeing.  We've been using the calendar like this for nearly a week and learned of this problem nearly by accident!

[RobDitto]

Make sure you submit this to your institution's Canvas Admins via Report a Problem (or alternate path). The information here would be perfect for a Canvas Support case!