Academic calendar is crucial for educational institutions to collaborate and communicate with all the students and parents in different courses and batches of the institution. The academic calendars also work as a communication tool for faculty and management of the institution to plan academic and administrative activities.

The proper implementation and usage of one academic calendar become important as the number of students studying the institution increases year on year. Even though an event creation & calendar management looks very simple, containing a list of events mapped to different dates, but the way an academic calendar is planned will have a huge impact on the outcome both in academic goals and the business goals of the educational institutions.

Academic Calendar System & Process

The concept of the academic calendar varies drastically for schools and higher education.

The academic calendar of higher education institutions is planned around semesters and schools for a complete academic year.

Various events like admissions, fee collections, examinations, holidays, and important events are added in the academic calendar well in advance so that the faculty can start preparing other scheduling tools in the form of various timetables. The academic calendar is the landmark scheduling system for the entire educational institution.

Any change in the academic calendar like a new examination date scheduled or sudden holiday announced can affect all other schedules planned in the timetables. To reduce the complexity associated with a single academic calendar for the entire institution, most of the higher education institutions prepare a different calendar for different courses under the supervision of the head of the department.

Automating Academic Calendars using Software Tools

There are various academic calendar automation tools available which can bring the benefits of digitization to the creators as well as to all the users of academic calendars. These can be simple tools to manage and communicate the landmark events like holidays, examinations, admissions, fee collections, etc.

These tools are commonly termed as ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) software for schools and colleges.

The ERP software solutions contain various modules to configure and operate the academic calendars and timetables of the institution.

There will be login access to different users of the institution. Parents and students can access their specific academic calendars from home or mobile phone and plan for the upcoming examinations and fee due dates. Most of these software tools provide mobile apps that can be used to view academic calendars and timetables. Any changes in the academic calendar can be received as a push notification or alert so that the users do not miss important schedule changes in the institution.

One ERP software that is used in thousands of schools and colleges across the globe to manage academic calendars and events is Fedena. How Fedena automates the academic calendar’s activities of your institution is explained in the next section.

How Academic Calendar works in Fedena?

The above screenshot is a Fedena user interface of the academic calendar showing various events of a month.

The academic activities like examinations and fee dues are automatically added to the calendar from the examination and finance modules. There is no need to add these events manually in the calendar.

The general events and holidays have to be created manually by the admin or any other user with proper privileges. You can create an event that is common to all students and teachers or specific to batches or faculties. Once the events are created or auto-populated in the calendar, other users like parents, students, and teachers can view it from their dashboards.

The following section explains how to view, create, edit, and delete events in the academic calendar of your institution:

Viewing events

From the dashboard, the students and parents can click on the menu and access the calendar under the academics section. Also, a short preview of events is available in the events dashlet of the dashboard. Parents and students can also access the events from their mobile using Fedena mobile app.

Creating a new event

You can create a new event using admin privileges. Click on the events menu in collaboration or directly access the calendar under academics. Then click on add event by hovering on the calendar. Then give details of the event like name, start date, end date, description, etc. All details entered here will be available to the users associated with the event. You can mark the event as a holiday or a normal event. In case the event is applicable to all, select the same. Or else on the next page, you can select the batches or departments the event is applicable for. In this way, you can create multiple events in the institution that are limited to the view of specific groups.

Editing an event

The holiday events can be edited from the calendar. Other events like examination and book/fee dues must be edited from the respective modules and the changes will be reflected in the academic calendar. Open the calendar and hover over the color-coded events to view the details on the right panel. Then click on the edit button to edit details of the event.

Deleting an event

Similar to the above, only general and holiday events can be deleted from the academic calendar. Other events must be deleted from the finance or examination modules. Hover over the event in the calendar view to open the details on the right panel. Then click on the button to delete the event. Deleted events will be automatically removed from the access of all users.

Creating and Editing an Event is explained in detailed in this video

Benefits of Automating Academic Calendar:

Fedena’s academic calendar management system helps the users by

Maintaining the daily, monthly and yearly schedule of the institution
Giving access to the calendar to teachers, faculty, parents, and students according to their privileges
Informing students and parents about upcoming examinations so that they can prepare well in advance for examination
Informing parents about fee due dates so that they can avoid paying fines
Informing parents and students about the institution’s holidays in advance
Keeping track of parent-teachers meetings planned
Get all details of the events with a single click
Access from anywhere, anytime. Laptop, mobile phone or mobile app
Combine with the timetable module to improve the productivity of the institution
Avoid confusion and waste of time by all users(Parents, teachers, and students) caused by the limited access to academic calendar schedules
Combine with the classroom allocation module to provide optimal usage of infrastructure resources in the institution
Balance the workload of teachers in the institution
Improve fee collections because parents are informed well in advance
Improve the academic performance of the students, because students and parents are informed about examinations in advance.
Save paper from printing and distributing academic calendar
Keep all stakeholders informed when an emergency event or holiday is planned

FAQs of Fedena Academic Calendar

Q. Can an institution revise the academic calendar multiple times in an academic year?

A. Yes. You can edit and revise unlimited times. But considering the hundreds of thousands of users accessing the academic calendar, it is advised to limit the edits and revisions as few as possible.

Q. Can parents and teachers get SMS notifications about the event?

A. Yes, if an SMS package is integrated with Fedena, the SMS notification regarding events can be sent instantaneously. Also if the mobile app is installed, all users connected with an event will get a push notification.

Q. Can I take a printout of the academic calendar?

A. You can not take a printout of the academic calendar. But you can take the printout of different schedules in the institution from the timetable module.

Q. How can I create an event for alumni and invite them from Fedena?

A. You need the alumni module in Fedena activated so that you can create events for the alumni and invite them directly from Fedena.

Conclusion

As you have seen in this article a good academic scheduling automation software can improve the overall planning and conduct of all academic activities in the educational institution. This includes both the academic calendar containing the events as well as the timetable containing schedules for different courses and batches. If you are looking for a robust ERP that contains both the academic calendar and timetable modules, contact the Fedena sales team today.

How to Automate Academic Calendar of Your Institution?