Accudemia: How do I set up a my Center Tutor's Virtual Appointments to use Microsoft Teams?

Accudemia: How do I set up a my Center Tutor's Virtual Appointments to use Microsoft Teams?

Introduction

This article will help you understand what happens in Accudemia when users create virtual appointments using any platform with our ConnectLink option (Zoom Integration excluded).  These are the steps we'll cover:

  1. Accudemia uses a stored  ConnectLink (Meeting URL) that is directly updated in the profile of the tutor.
  2. Accudemia creates a link in several places for the Student to connect:
    1. In the emailed Confirmation, Rescheduled, and Reminders that go out to students (Click here to learn more about updating these Email Templates).
      AND
    2. On the student's homepage in the "Upcoming Appointments" widget.
  3. At the start date and time of the scheduled appointment, the student will either:
    1. Click the link in their Confirmation, Rescheduled, or Reminder emails to log in to Accudemia (Click here to learn more about updating these Email Templates).
      OR
    2. Click the "Join Now" button in the Upcoming Appointments widget on their Accudemia homepage.
  4. And finally, Accudemia redirects the user to the ConnectLink (or meeting URL) listed on the Tutor's account.  Hopefully, the tutor is waiting in the meeting using their specific Connect-Link (Meeting URL) specified on their account.  If they also need help connecting, there is specialized code you can add to the tutor's confirmation, rescheduled, and reminder emails so they simply connect directly to their meeting link. The links provided above focus on setting up the unique code used for both Students' and Tutors' email templates.

In this example, we will be using Microsoft Teams, but this could be any meeting platform where you are given a direct link for each tutor. We will show 2 options; the first will be the normal method using your personal meeting link, and the second option will be if you are using a platform where each appointment/meeting scheduled or created has its own unique link. In the second example, so they can connect to it regularly, we need to create a recurring meeting on your Microsoft Teams Calendar.  This article explains all processes required to make Microsoft Teams work using a recurring meeting URL.

Step-by-Step

  1. On the Teams desktop app, open the Microsoft Teams desktop application from your desktop.
  2. Click the Calendar icon in the left-hand navigation bar.


  3. Click Meet Now at the top of the calendar view.


  4. In the pop-up window, click Get a link to share.


  5. A link will be generated, which you can then click to copy and share.
  1. Log in to Accudemia, and in your personal options, click the account option to update your profile (if you are the tutor) or the Tutor's profile (found under the main menu Administration > User Management > Users section), update the ConnectLink field:


  2. Click Save Changes at the top of the edit user screen to complete this process.

Option 2: Using a Recurring Scheduled Meeting

STEP 1: Creating the recurring meeting in Microsoft Teams.

  1. Open  Microsoft  Teams and schedule a new meeting.

     
  2. Set the appointment to be at least a few days ahead.
     
     
  3. Click Copy invite when the meeting is created.
     

  4. Paste the information into a Notepad document (or any other text editor), then highlight and copy the URL.


    Notes NOTE: Only copy the URL below "Join the meeting on your computer or mobile app." None of the other text should be copied.

  5. Open Accudemia, then navigate to Administration > User Management > Users and search for the tutor.

  6. Click the name of the tutor, and under the "General Tab" search for the " Connect Link " field.

  7. Copy the MS Teams URL from step 4 and paste it into the "Connect Link" text field.


  8. Click Save Changes at the top of the screen.

STEP 2: Starting the appointment

  1. Now, we have accomplished that all appointments created with such a tutor will carry the URL in Microsoft Teams, where the tutor will be waiting; the tutor just needs to go to Microsoft Teams and click the Join button.


  2. The session will be opened, so when the student clicks on the virtual appointment link, Accudemia will redirect the user to the session that the tutor is using.           

Conclusion

Now you should be able to start meeting with your students using Microsoft Teams or any other application when not using the Zoom Integration (which requires Zoom authentication for a seamless integration with Accudemia).  Test this ConnectLink setup out by creating a test student with your real tutors connected to their virtual meeting link.  If you still have issues, then please reach out to Accudemia support.