For an index of Engage articles, return to the Engage Table of Contents. This article discusses the following topics related to Guides:
Guides Overview
Advise your students at any time of day using guides! Fully customizable and mobile-friendly, guides help students find programs that fit with their needs, whether at 2 AM or as part of in-office advising.
Set up guides targeted to specific audiences, such as:
- Students who haven't studied abroad before v. returnees - Add more information for new students about how courses and financial aid works, while offering a more streamlined guidance for returnees
- First-year students v. other undergraduates - Include information about using courses abroad to fulfill general education courses, or highlight capstone opportunities such as international internships and research projects
- Undergraduates v. graduate students - If your institution offers graduate study abroad programs, include information about how these programs might fit with their course planning
- Major-specific - Create guides that target specific majors to highlight opportunities and explain guidelines for their major, such as accreditation requirements. To offer targeted recommendations, a program parameter such as "Programs Recommended for" to designate programs specifically recommended for specific majors.
Access
Guides are a feature available for study abroad sites. The permissions needed to access guide builder are Engage > Guide Builder: View and Write. Being able to see and use images requires the appropriate System settings: image library settings as well. (See Engage: Access & Permissions for more information.)
Guide Management
To create or manage guides, visit Guides > Guide Management. Any existing guides will show on this page.
- Search by Name - Search the list by name
- Status - By default, this page shows all guides. Filter the list of guides to show only Active, Archived, or In Use guides.
- Active - Mark a guide as active or inactive. An active guide is available to select and be used as a button in Guides > Guide Settings > Guide Welcome Screen; an inactive guide is not available to select on that screen. Note: Making a guide inactive prevents it from being available to select, but, if it is currently in use, does not remove it from being available to site visitors. (See Making Guides Available below for more information.)
- In Use - Guides that have been made available publicly will be marked with a checkmark here. (See Making Guides Available below for more information on this process.)
- Actions - Click on the pencil icon to make changes to this guide
Creating Guides
To create a guide, visit Guides > Guide Management and click on the "+ Create Guide" button in the upper right side.
To add a question, drag and drop options from the menu on the right side. The question options include:
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Dates - Users are able to select how long and/or when they would like to take part in a program.
- Terms - Users will be presented with a dropdown that allows them to pick from terms that are set on your site. This is useful for finding programs that align with academic terms and breaks.
- Date Range - Users will see a calendar date picker that allows them to pick a start and end date for a range of time they are available. This is useful for finding programs that fit within outside limitations, such as finding a summer program that starts after June 1 and ends before July 25.
- Program Length - Users will see a range slider that lets them select the number maximum and minimum number of weeks that they would like to spend on their program. The Min/Max setting fields determine the smallest and largest number of weeks that can be selected. For example, if Min is set to 4 and Max is set to 12, then users will be able to select program lengths between 4 weeks and 12 weeks. The Min Default and Max Default fields are what the slider defaults to before any user edits. For example, the full slider might allow for programs of 1 week to 36 weeks, but the default selections could be between 2 weeks and 16 weeks in length. This is useful for finding programs of a desired length, regardless of time of term or exact dates.
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Fun Fact - This informational tile allows for the inclusion of an image, a heading, and information text. Users are not asked to make any selections on these pages.
- A fun fact can be added to any other type of question as well. Select from the options to the right of a question to set a fun fact as none, left, or right. When left or right options are selected, then the fields for the heading, subtext, and image appear below the other question settings.
- A fun fact can be added to any other type of question as well. Select from the options to the right of a question to set a fun fact as none, left, or right. When left or right options are selected, then the fields for the heading, subtext, and image appear below the other question settings.
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Location - Users will be able to identify areas of the world where they are interested in studying. For either location type, select whether users will be able to select one or multiple options by selecting either Single-Select or Multiple-Select.
- Region - Users will be able to select options from the regions of the world where programs are located.
- Country - Users will be able to select options from the countries where programs are located.
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Program Parameters - Users will be able to select from a program parameter. For either any program parameter, select whether users will be able to select one or multiple options by selecting either Single-Select, Multiple-Select, or Checkboxes.
- Map Applicant Parameter - (Optionally) Select an applicant parameter to be used for users who have logged into the site. If an applicant parameter on their profile is an exact match for a program parameter, then this option will be automatically pre-selected for them. For example, if Drew has an applicant parameter for his major that is "History" and is asked to select from the program parameter for Areas of Study that also contains "History", then it will be selected when the page loads. He can then change the selection if he prefers to look for programs with options for his "Biology" major instead.
To save any changes made on this page, click "Save Guide".
Previewing Guides
To preview the guide, click the "Preview Guide" button, which will open up a popover version.
Enter responses to guide questions, and click next to see how many programs will be offered as results. click on the button labeled "View [number] Results" to see a list of programs as a popover.
Click anywhere within the popup modal outside of the list to close the popover list of programs.
Making Guides Available
To make a guide available to site visitors, go to Guides > Guide Settings > Guide Welcome Screen and look for the "Button Settings" section.
- To activate a guide: Click "Add Another" and a line will appear. Enter the text that should show on the button in the "Button Text" field, and then select which guide this button should link to from the "Guide" dropdown. Once this page is saved using the "Save Settings" button, any guides that have been selected will show as having an "in use" status on Guide > Guide Management (i.e. the circle icon will show a checkmark).
- To deactivate a guide: Click the red trashcan icon on the right side of the line you wish to remove. This does not delete the guide itself; it only makes the guide unavailable to select from the Guide Welcome Screen. Once this page is saved using the "Save Settings" button, any guides that no longer are selected from one of the "Guide" dropdowns will not show as having an "in use" status on Guide > Guide Management (i.e. the circle icon will not show a checkmark).
For more on options available for customizing user interactions with guides, see Engage: Guide Settings.
Once at least one guide is has been made available, the program guide and program explorer block can be made public using the Site Builder. See Engage: Embedding Guides with Site Builder for a walkthrough of this process.
Editing Guides
To edit an existing guide, visit Guides > Guide Management and use the edit pencil to make changes. Once all changes are made, click "Save Guide" and the updated version will become available to users.