Overview

Now that you have created users, added new resources, and time periods in Rapla, it's now time for you to create sessions or events. Creating events in Rapla can be relatively straightforward if you are already familiar with the interface and you have already experimented with the look and feel of the environment. This knowledge article will guide you with the basics of creating sessions or events in Rapla, the possible functionalities you can use which could be relevant to your business or institution (Exceptions, Appointments, Groups and Class – which will be discussed further in the Advanced section of this documentation), and how to deal with conflicts.

BE ADVISED

Paradigm vs Rapla Data Entry

SCHEDULED UNITS: It does not matter if you make the Rapla Paradigm Session Event first or the Scheduled Units in Paradigm. The only thing that matters is that the Scheduled Units have been created in Paradigm BEFORE you attempt to sync the data from Rapla to Paradigm (see 8. Synchronise Sessions to Paradigm on how to synchronise data to Paradigm).

TIME PERIODS: The naming conventions of academic periods in Rapla may be different to Paradigm as that information is not part of the data sync. However, having them the same would be significantly better for your end users to avoid confusion. Just note of the coding of your time periods in Rapla – the Start and End Dates of your coded sessions in Rapla should be THE SAME or WITHIN the Start and End Dates of the Time Period coded in Paradigm.

WARNING:

Doing a resync to your sessions can have implications on your previously imported data. Learn more about the level of impact your changes can do when you do a resync of your sessions to Paradigm on this article: Resync to Paradigm: Level of Impact on various changes to the Paradigm Session/Event details in Rapla.

We would highly recommend that you only import your sessions once everything is finalised.

Event Types

NOTE: The event types mentioned below are the default event types we’ve configured for your Rapla application. These are highly customisable. Please feel free to raise a ticket or contact our Support Team if you have any questions or clarifications on the event types mentioned below.

Event Type	Description

Event Type	Description
Student Booking	To be used for student booking. This event type will ask you for the Student name, Student Number, etc. information when you create the booking.
Generic Meeting	To be used when scheduling all types of meeting. This event type will ask you to enter the Meeting Name or Reservation Name.
Generic Event	Sessions or Events that doesn’t fall to any of the three types (Student Booking, Meeting, Paradigm Session) This Event Name and Key Staff Member are the possible fields, and will also allow you to select an Event Type
Paradigm Session	This is the event type which is being used to synchronise sessions to Paradigm. The fields and data of this event type is crucial for the sync to be successful (see table below).

Paradigm Session Required Fields

Field Name	Description

Field Name	Description
Unit Code	The unit code offers by your Institution. The same one that matches the Scheduled Units UNIT CODE record in Paradigm. MUST be the same Unit Code coded in Paradigm.
Unit Name	The name of the unit offers by your Institution. The same one that matches Scheduled Units UNIT NAME record in Paradigm. This field should not necessarily be the same as the unit name you’ve coded in Paradigm. You can customise the unit name in Rapla if need be to help in your data entry. e.g. ‘Entertainment Since 1945’ in Paradigm and ‘Entertainment Since 1945 Group 1’ in Rapla to emphasise grouping.
Session Type	(Subject to each institution) to define your session type (e.g. class, tutorial, lecture)
Campus	Your Business or Institution’s Name or a specific location of one of your branches if you have multiple campuses. (Subject to each institution) to define your campus (e.g. Melbourne, Sydney). Should match the Provider record in Paradigm where the scheduled unit/s to be imported are/is under.
Delivery Mode	On campus/Online/Weekends/Intensive/Others
Minimum Participants	The minimum number of participants for running the session (e.g. 5)
Maximum Participants	The maximum number of participants for running the session
Faculty/Department	(Subject to each institution) to define their faculty/department (e.g. Faculty of Art, etc.)
Refer to the Advanced section: Session Group and Session Class for more details on the two fields below:
Session Group ID (Group number)	A group of sessions from which a selection is made during the enrolment (it is an enrolment choice).
Session Seq ID (Class number)	A set of students who attend the same session together under one scheduled unit (Lecture).

Workflow

How to create a single event on Rapla

1 You will use the left mouse (drag and drop) to mark the time duration for the specific appointment you want to. The marked rows are highlighted in pale blue (as below).

2 Right-click on the highlighted rows (selected time), a new context menu appears, then select the suitable event type, (Paradigm Session is selected in the sample screenshot below).

In the below instance, it is an example of creating a new Event (Paradigm Session). Note that there are three sections involved to successfully create a Paradigm Session event type:

the upper section Event Type fields section: Fill out these fields which are critical for the integration between Rapla and Paradigm: Unit Codes (E.g. FIT9130), Unit Name, Campus (if applicable), Delivery mode, Department, see table above: Paradigm Session Required Fields for more details.

the middle section Appointments section shows the details of the appointment: You will need to fill out the start and end date, select whether it is a single event or a recurring one. For recurring events, you can exclude public holidays or semester breaks if applicable (Refer to the workflows below under the Scenario 2 section). You can also add two or more appointments with the same event details as necessary and required (Refer to the workflows below under the Scenario 3 section)

the lower section Allocations section shows the resources you want to allocate to, add the resources from the left-hand side to the right section by either double-clicking or clicking on the resource and clicking the Add button. Resources with a red x mark on them will create conflict if you will select them. (Refer to the workflows below under the Scenario 1 section).

3 Click the Save button after you’ve added all the required information in each section.

Scenario 1: Creating Events while Managing Resources Conflicts

While you follow the above steps of creating events/appointments when you reach the bottom section - Resource Allocations section. Rapla tells you the available resources by having green icons in front of them and the green texts under the Selectable on column that says “Every appointment”. The red cross icon means that that resource has been taken already in another event. So you should try to avoid allocating it again.

Example 1

Example 2

You can still override the conflict and successfully create the event, however, you will be prompted by an error message (as shown in the sample warning message below),

and the Conflicts Configuration Folder on the left side menus will remind you of the number of conflicts you’ve created.

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Scenario 2: Creating Repeating Events with Exceptions

1 Following the same steps as the Workflow above: How to create a single event on Rapla, you can find the Exceptions (0) button under the Appointments section on the middle right-hand side.

2 Click the Exceptions button and a new window will pop up.

3 Add or remove the dates (e.g. public holidays, trimester breaks, Saturdays and Sundays, etc.) by selecting a date you want to be an exception, and then click the Add button. Repeat the process if you want to add more dates.

4 Once you’re done adding all the dates, click the Close button. The Exceptions button now appears in red with a number (equivalent to the number of exception days you've added) in the bracket.

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Scenario 3: Creating Repeating Events Along with a One-Off Event

1 You should follow the instructions of Scenario 2: Creating Repeating Events with Exceptions, to create a recurring event first (i.e. Appointment 1).

2 By following the instructions on Scenario 2, you’ve added one recurring event with exception dates and will be considered as an Appointment 1 (as highlighted in the screenshot below).

3 To add another appointment as a one-off event, click the New button under the Appointments section to create a 'No repeating' event (i.e. Appointment 2).

After clicking the New button, a copy of the same event will be added below, coded with another color to avoid confusion. This will serve as your Appointment 2.

4 At the Resource Allocations section, you need to assign resources (e.g. staff, rooms) to each appointment individually. By default, all resources have been set to Every Appointment.

You can change it by clicking the 'Every appointment' button. It opens up more options for each appointment (as shown in the screenshot below). Select the appropriate Appointment number you want each of the Resources to be allocated to (the resources have been color-coded Appointment 1 as yellow and Appointment 2 as purple).

5 After allocating the resources, each resource selected will now display the appointment name and time it has been allocated to.

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_{Introduction to Rapla}_|_{1. Install Rapla}_|_{2. Get Familiar with the Rapla User Interface}_|_{3. Create Users}_|_{4. Add Resources: Facility, Equipment, Staff}_|_{5. Create Time Periods}_|_{6. Create Sessions or Events}_|_{7. Publish Rapla}_|_{8. Synchronise Sessions to Paradigm}