Creating and Managing Learning Events in Elentra

1. Select the Learning Events tab.
   
   
    
2. Make sure you are switched to Administrator View or Director View. (This will depend on your role.)
   
   
    
3. Click Add New Event.
   
   
    
4. Select the course associated with the event from the drop down menu.
   
   
    
5. Select an Event Type and the amount of time that portion of the event will take place. An event can have multiple types, each with a set amount of time. (For example, a 60 minute class session that consists of 30 minutes of lecture and 30 minutes of lab could be one event with two types, each assigned 30 minutes.)
    
6. Title your event.
    
7. Select a Start Date and Time for your event. The curriculum period may automatically populate based on the event date.
    
8. The End Date and Time will automatically populate based on the Event Type time settings. Check the checkbox if you need to manually change these.
   
   
   
   To add several occurrences of the same event at once, select an Event Series. You can edit the details for the subsequent events on the same page. 
   
   
   
   Check the Events created in this series are considered child events box to create a Parent/Child event relationship. For information about Parent/Child relationships see Parent/Child Event Relationships.
   
   
    
9. Select a location for your event. If you select a building, you must also enter a room number; otherwise, the location will appear as “To Be Announced.” You can select “Other location” to manually enter the location information.
   
   
    
10. Add the associated faculty for the event, as well as the teaching minutes for each faculty added. Teaching Minutes cannot exceed the duration of the event.
    
    
    
    
    
    
     
11. Select the event audience. The system will default to all learners enrolled in the course. Select Custom Event Audience to only include individual learners or groups of learners. To assign events to a small group, select Course specific small groups, check the appropriate groups, and click Close. 

Audience types:
Cohorts/Course lists of learners: Entire cohort of students (e.g. Class of 2027 or PCAT Class of 2027).
Course specific small groups: Small groups associated with the selected course. This small group needs to already exist in the course configuration.
Individual learners: Any student, regardless of cohort or group (individual must have an existing Elentra record).
Individual faculty: Any faculty (individual must have an existing Elentra record).

12. Select the applicable event options. Generally, the most common selection is Allow learners to view who else is in this Learning Event and Learner attendance is required for this learning event. You do not need to select a color. The system is configured to use certain colors based on the selected event type.
     
13. Only select a Viewable Start and Viewable Finish if you want your event to only appear on the calendar for a specific date range.
     
14. Select where you wish to be redirected after saving. The system will direct you to the event content page by default. For information on adding content to your event, see Adding Content to Events.
     
15. Click Save.

To build out future event schedules, you can create a draft schedule of events that can be published at a later date. Events can either be manually added or uploaded in a .CSV file.

1. Select the Learning Events tab.
   
   
    
2. Make sure you are switched to Administrator View or Director View (this will depend on your role in the system).
   
   
    
3. Click Manage My Drafts.
   
   
    
4. Click Create New Draft.
   
   
    
5. Name your draft and enter a description (optional). 
    
6. Click Create Draft.
   
   
    
7. To manually add events, click Add New Event and follow the instructions for Manually Creating Learning Events.
   
   
   
   To upload events by CSV, click the Import & Export drop down menu and select Import CSV File. For information on adding events by import, please see Creating Draft Event Schedules From a .CSV File. 
   
   
    
8. To add resources to your draft events, click the Resources link in the row of each respective event.
   
    
   
   
   
   In the pop-up box, follow the steps to add your resource. For more details, please see Adding Content to Learning Events.
    
9. Make any necessary changes to individual events on the Draft page.
    
10. Click Publish Draft to publish your schedule.
    
    Your schedule will not be published right away. If you need to make a change, go to your Draft Event Schedules, check the box next to the schedule you wish to edit, and click Reopen Drafts. Note that once the schedule is published to the calendar (within approximately one hour), the events will need to be edited individually if they are not parent/child events.

Events can be imported into a draft schedule using a .CSV file. Our event import is mapped to a specific set of column headings, listed below. Please note: for many of these fields, the data needs to match exactly what appears in Elentra. For example, course codes need to be written exactly as they appear in the system (e.g., MED 5102 rather than MED5102). Otherwise, the import will fail.

Column Headings:

Draft Event: This is an arbitrary ID number that is higher than existing event IDs (e.g., 99990, 99991, 99992, etc.).
Original Event: If you are building out a new schedule, the Draft event and Original Event columns should match.
Parent ID: In the case of Parent/Child event relationships, this field should contain the number of the Parent event for every associated Child event. If the event is the Parent or a standalone event, this field should remain blank. For more details on this, see Uploading Parent/Child events using a .CSV file.
Recurring Event: For standalone events, this should be left blank. For Parent and Child events, enter the number of the Parent event.
Course Code: This must match the course code in Elentra.
Date: The date of the event in M/D/YYYY format (e.g., 8/1/2024).
Start Time: The time of the event. Must be in 24-hour format (e.g., 13:00 rather than 1:00 PM).
Event Type Durations: The allotted time for the event in minutes.
Event Types: These must match the Event Types in the Elentra settings. For example, large group sessions must say “Large Group Learning” since that is how they are labeled in the system.  
Event Title: The title of your event.
Event Description: Optional.
Location Room: This must match the location code in Elentra (e.g., SCAIFE-5785).
Audience (Groups): For courses that include groups, enter the group name into this column to set that group as the event audience. Leave this column blank if you wish to set the event audience as all learners enrolled in the course.
Attendance Required: If attendance will be taken for the event, enter a 1. If attendance will not be taken, enter a 0.
Teacher Numbers: Enter the employee ID or email address of any faculty who should be connected to the event. The ID or email address must match exactly what appears on that user’s Elentra record. If entering multiple individuals, separate with a semicolon (e.g., 999999;999991;999992 or faculty1@pitt.edu;faculty2@pitt.edu;faculty3@pitt.edu). If the audience is set to a course group, the tutor for that group will automatically be attached to the event unless a different instructor is entered into this field.
Teacher Teaching Minutes: Enter minutes taught by faulty, if applicable. Thismay not exceed the event type duration. If multiple faculty members have been added, separate the teaching minutes by a semicolon in the same order that the Teacher Numbers were added in the previous column (e.g., 60;30;60). 

Importing your .CSV:

1. Select the Learning Events tab.
   
   
   
    
2. Make sure you are switched to Administrator View or Director View.
   
   
    
3. Click Manage My Drafts.
   
   
    
4. Select the draft schedule you wish to use for the import or create a new one.
   
   
    
5. In the draft schedule, click Import & Export and select Import CSV File.
    
6. Choose the file and click Import.
   
   
    
7. Review the fields and ensure that both sides match. If any of the fields in the left side of the table appear blank, drag and drop the correct unmapped field to the appropriate cell.
    
8. When the fields are correctly mapped, click Import.
   
   
    
9. If the import is successful, you will see a screen that says “Successfully imported (#) event(s),” which will then redirect you to the draft event schedule page.
    
10. Make any necessary changes to individual events on the Draft page.
     
11. Click Publish Draft to publish your schedule.
    
    Your schedule will not be published right away. If you need to make a change, go to your Draft Event Schedules, check the box next to the schedule you wish to edit, and click Reopen Drafts. Note that once the schedule is published to the calendar (within approximately one hour), the events will need to be edited individually if they are not Parent/Child events.
     

Parent/Child event relationships are events that are linked together with one event as the primary, or “Parent” event, and multiple other occurrences as “Child” events. This is particularly helpful for small group events that cover the same content and activities but with different groups of students and faculty. Parent/Child events do not have to occur at the same time or on the same day, but they must be for the same course.

Parent/Child relationships can be set up by linking together existing events, linked together when manually creating an event, or through a .CSV file uploaded into a draft event schedule.

Linking existing events:

1. Select the Learning Events tab.
   
   
    
2. Make sure you are switched to Administrator View or Director View (this will depend on your role in the system).
   
   
    
3. Click the event you wish to designate at the Parent event and select Manage Learning Event.
   
   
    
4. Enter the event title or ID into the Child Events field and select the event from the dropdown menu.
   
   
   
   Because events often have similar names, it is helpful to use the Event ID rather than the title. You can find the Event ID by navigating to the Child event and copying the number from the event's URL. 
   
   
    
5. The Child event will appear on the Event Details page of the Parent event. Click Save.

Manually creating Parent/Child events:

1. Follow steps 1-8 in Manually Creating Learning Events. This will be your Parent event.
    
2. Select an option in the Event Series dropdown menu. To create several events on the same day, select Custom Event Series and enter the number of additional events that should be created. Click Set Frequency.
    
3. Check the Events created in this series are considered child events check box.
    
4. For the remaining event details, the information will need to be completed separately for each respective event. This is because Child events often include different locations, students, and faculty.
    
5. Complete the steps in in Manually Creating Learning Events for your Parent event and each Child event.
   
   If you need to remove a Child event, click Remove Event from Series.
    
6. When you are finished making changes, click Save.

Uploading Parent/Child events using a .CSV file:

The simplest way to create Parent/Child event relationships is to create a draft schedule using a .CSV file. 

When preparing your .CSV file, each event will have its own unique number for the Draft Event and Original Event columns.

In the above example, there are three types of events shown:

 A standalone event, highlighted in yellow, is unrelated to the Parent and Child events. It has a unique number in the Draft Event and Original Event fields, and because it is not a part of a Parent/Child relationship or a recurring series, columns C and D are empty.

The Parent event, highlighted in blue, has a unique Draft Event and Original Event number. Because it is the Parent, column C is empty. Column D contains the same number as columns A and B. This denotes that it is the first event in a recurring series.

The Child events, highlighted in green, have their own unique Draft Event and Original Event numbers. Both columns C and D contain the Draft Event number of the Parent event. This indicates that they are both Child events and subsequent events in a recurring series.

Once columns A, B, C, and D have been created, you may proceed with the steps in Creating Draft Event Schedules From a .CSV File to complete your .CSV file and upload your draft event schedule.

You can add a description, required preparation guidelines, links, and files directly to your Learning Event.

Adding Details to Events:

1. Select the Learning Events tab.
   
   
    
2. Make sure you are switched to Administrator View or Director View.
   
   
    
3. Click the event you wish to edit and select Manage Learning Event.
   
   
    
4. Click the Content tab on the event page.
    
5. Edit the Event Description, Session Links, and/or Required Preparation fields. These are all optional.

   Event Description: Add a description for your event (optional). Use the text editor to add text, links, images, and other media to your event page. The description will not appear on the event preview.

   Session Links: Here you can enter links that will appear on the event preview on the Learning Events Page.
   
   
   
   

   Click the link icon and enter the URL and display text for your link. Click OK.
   
   
   
   

   Separate each link with a comma to appear as a list in the event preview.

   Required Preparation: Add required preparation instructions for your event (optional). Use the text editor to add text, links, images, and other media to your event page.
   
   
   
   The text will appear on the event preview, but any images or media will only appear on the event page.
   
    

   
    
6. When you are finished editing these sections, click Save, located to the bottom right of the Required Preparation field.
    

Adding Resources to Events:

Resources related to your Learning Event can be added directly to the event page, making it easy for students to find the learning materials needed for that day.

If the resources for your course are also being saved in document folders, it is recommended that you link directly to the file’s location within that folder rather than uploading the file to the event. This is more relevant for documents that may need to be revised (e.g., a PowerPoint presentation for a lecture). By doing so, you will only need to update the resource in the document folder and not in the Learning Event.

Resources are sorted by the timeframe in which they should be accessed: Before Class, During Class, After Class, or No Timeframe.

1. Click the Content tab on the event page in Administrator view.



2. Scroll to the Event Resources section at the bottom of the page.

3. Add the resources to your event.

Resources can be added to your event by using the Quick Add feature or by going through the Add a Resource Wizard.

Quick Add:



You can Quick Add resources to your event by dragging and dropping the file(s) into the grey field or by clicking Browse and selecting the file(s) to upload.



Select the options in the Quick Add Resource(s) pop up window and click Save.


Add a Resource Wizard:




Click the Add a Resource button at the bottom of the screen.



Select the resource type and click Next Step.



Select whether the resource is optional or required, when the resource should be accessed, and how much time the student should spend on the resource (optional). Click Next Step.



Select timed release dates (optional), whether the resource should be hidden from students, and whether the resource should be published or saved as a draft.

The timed release dates will only show the resource within the selected timeframe. Hiding the resource from students will allow only faculty to see the resource. Saving a resource as a draft will hide that resource from the entire event audience until published.

Click Next Step.



Select whether the file should be downloaded or viewed in the web browser, provide a title for your file (if different from the file name, optional), and provide a description for the file. Click Next Step.



Review the Elentra ME Upload Copyright Statement. Click Next Step.



Drag and drop your file into the window or click Browse and select the file you wish to upload.



When your file has uploaded, the screen will say Successfully attached a [resource type] Resource to this event. To add more resources, click Attach another Resource. To finish, click Close.

4. All resources are saved to the event automatically once they have been attached. You can close the Learning Event.