ANS - IT Lab Reservation

AMERICAN NICARAGUAN SCHOOL Innovation and Technology Department P.O. BOX 2670 – TELEPHONE: 2278-0029 ext. 35 FAX: 2278-2565 / 2267-3088 MANAGUA, NICARAGUA, C.A. http://technology.ans.edu.ni

IT Lab Bookings User Manual

Contents IT Lab Bookings User Manual ............................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Login ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 First-time login ONLY: ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Booking a Lab ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Section descriptions ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Editing a reservation ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Other options........................................................................................................................................................... 7 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................. 7

Introduction As the school continues to integrate technology into education, the need for IT resources continues to increase.

This is also true for the bookings and utilization of the IT Labs for student practices. In the past, lab reservations were made via e-mail. The problem with this was that reservations were made only when the IT staff was in school. Today, the Innovation and Technology Department introduces a new tool that will assist teachers and staff in the reservation of the computer labs 24/7, anywhere.

Login Step 1 (Steps 1-4, refer to Figure 1)

Point your browser to http://labs.ans.edu.ni Step 2 Type in your username. Your username is the same username you user to log on to your Windows account or email account.

Step 3 Type in your password.

Note: The first time you log in to the IT Lab Bookings system, your password will be the same as your username (i.e. If your username is jdoe, your password will also be jdoe).

Step 4 Click on the “Log in� button.

Figure 1

First‐time login ONLY: Since all users have default passwords, it is HIGHLY recommended that you change your password for security reasons.

1. Hover your mouse over the “My account” menu, from which a sub-menu will pop up.

2. Then click on “Change password”.

3. The following screen will show up. There you must type your current password (which happens to be the same as your username) and then type the new password. You will have to retype your new password to confirm and prevent any mistake by typos.

Booking a Lab (Steps 1-2, refer to Figure 2)

Step 1 Hover your mouse over the “Schedule” menu.

Step 2 Click on the “Bookings” list item.

Figure 2 Afterwards, you will be greeted with a table that corresponds to the active week. This table is structured as following: (Refer to Figure 3 for further explanation) - Downwards, you shall find the days of the week. (Monday through Friday, in increasing order.

Saturdays and Sundays are not shown for obvious reasons.) For each day, there are several rows that correspond to each lab (T-2, T-3, T-4, or the Video Conference Room).

- Rightwards, you will see the periods or blocks divided at the time intervals defined by the school bell.

Furthermore, reservations cannot be made at the following time intervals, since classes are not scheduled to be taught at these periods: 12:00 am – 7:05 am Before school starts 8:50 am – 9:05 am Break 11:45 am – 12:20 pm Lunch 2:05 pm – 11:59 pm After school ends Note: You may not reserve a lab more than two weeks ahead, so please plan accordingly. If a course or other type of event requires a reservation longer than this time period, then please send an e-mail to Mr. Michael Parrales (IT Director, mparrales@ans.edu.ni) with copy to the IT Department (technology@ans.edu.ni).

Figure 3

Section descriptions -

-

Section A: This section allows you to view an entire week of bookings. By default, it shows the current week. Use the green arrows to move between weeks. Right under Section A you find a legend describing the color codes for reservations.

Section B: These are the days of the week in ascending order (Monday-Friday). Saturdays and Sundays are not displayed on the screen.

Section C: For each day there is a small list that contains the labs available for reservation.

Section D: These are the time periods or intervals at which you can make a lab reservation. They correspond to High School blocks, since these labs follow the High School schedule.

Let us assume that Mr. John Doe wishes to book Lab T-4 on Wednesday, August 08, 2012 from 10:00 am to 11:45 am. He needs only click on the block that corresponds to the starting hour (10:00 am in this case). After this, the screen depicted on Figure 4 will show up.

Steps: 1. Choose a starting date and time.

2. Choose an ending date and time.

3. Write a descriptive title for the reservation.

4. Add a description for the reservation. (Optional) 5. If you wish to add participants or invitees, it is also supported with existing users of the IT Lab Bookings application. (Optional) 6. Click the “Create� button and the lab has been booked at the specified dates and times.

Figure 4

Editing a reservation If you wish to edit a previously made reservation, you only need to go back to the “Bookings” screen (See Figure 3) and click on your name. After this the “Edit Reservation” screen will show up, in which you can make any changes you require. The “Edit Reservation” screen is almost identical to the “Create Reservation” screen. So please refer to Figure 4 for information on this screen.

Other options The IT Lab Bookings application also allows you to have other points of view of your and other users’ reservations. Under the “Schedule” menu, you will find “My Calendar”, that shows you on a calendar how your bookings are distributed throughout the month. The “Resource Calendar” allows you to see for each lab, how it is booked by you and other users.

Conclusion The IT Department hopes this tool helps you well in coordinating and booking your lab reservations. If you have any comments or suggestions, e-mail us at technology@ans.edu.ni. We will be glad to help you.