In this coffee break tip, it was Eventbrite and Doodle‘s turn to be discussed over biscuits and coffee. We were joined by Janne Mantykoski; Rosey Stock and Bronach Hughes, all from School of Human and Social Sciences.
Eventbrite
So to set things off, we started by showing how Eventbrite is currently being used within the INSTIL team. As a free events management tool, Eventbrite enables easy scheduling of external events and was first used by the INSTIL department at the Teaching and Learning conference a few years ago. We created an online invitation for the conference, and by guests accessing through the generated link, attendees could register for the conference. From an organiser point of view, Eventbrite enabled us to see a list of all those registered, send either pre-dated or real time communication via email, generate reports and print name badges.
Once attendees had registered, the name badges were printed, and the conference was approaching: it was time to download the Eventbrite organiser app. The apps key feature is its capacity to check people in and out of the event, by either a quick search for the name, or by scanning a bar code on the ticket – which had been automatically sent to attendees prior to the conference. The app check-in feature was used by multiple student reps at the same time and streamlined the reporting of the all important: how many people attended the event.
Following it’s use at the Teaching and Learning conference, Eventbrite has increasingly been used for the departments activites and is now used as a platform to advertise all INSTIL workshops and trainings. All the members of INSTIL are registered users to the account, so that anyone of the team have the ability to update and edit the catalogue of events.
As a free tool which doesn’t require sign-up from those registering, we discussed other scenarios where Eventbrite may be useful. Rosey Stock from the School of Human and Social Sciences, noted it may be quite a nice platform to organise and advertise external events, such as those aimed towards external examiners.
Doodle
We then moved on to discuss Doodle, which is a tool that has two predominant ways of being used:
- Deciding the dates and times for a meeting
- Registering appointments for a time slot
Doodle polls are easy to build through the website. Organisers just have to list the time and date options and a link is generated. The link can then be shared, and without participants having to register, they can input their name and select their choice of time or date.
Help in deciding the dates and times for meetings
Using Doodle to set-up a meeting is a real help when dealing with large numbers of colleagues with busy schedules. A list of options can easily be circulated for people to “vote” on the most suitable option. Neither the person creating the poll nor the participants have to create an account with Doodle, however it may be easier for the organiser to do so, particularly for ease of reference when making multiple polls.
Register appointments for time slots.
Here we discussed using Doodle to book appointments. Bronach Hughes explained this use quite nicely by comparing this feature to a digital “paper-on-the door” booking system. To use Doodle in this way, a poll is set-up as previously explained, however instead of voting on preferable times, students register for individual or group appointments.
