Time zones

What are time zones?

Syfadis Xperience has a feature that supports International mode. Depending on the settings enabled on your platform, this feature allows you to adapt the dates and times in the invitations to face-to-face events, sent to users according to the time zone of their country.

Manage time zones for in-person training

The in-person items on which the time zone is used are as follows:

• Place of training

• Training Session

• Face-to-face session

• Virtual Classroom

• E-learning session

Manage time zones for different training locations

Open Administration > Repository > Locations

On the training location form, you can enter a time zone.

Procedure

1. Click the New button.

2. Fill in the information on the form.

3. Click on the time zone field to display the drop-down menu and select the desired time zone.

4. Click the Save button.

   • A confirmation message appears on the screen.

Additional Information

By default, when a new location is initialised, the time zone is pre-populated by the time zone set to the current domain.

A place and a session that live separately in time (modification, deletion, etc.). As a result, when a time zone is changed at a location, there is no automatic change to the sessions attached to that location.

Manage time zones at session level

Open the Administration > Training > Sessions

A face-to-face session has one or more sessions that take place at a specific location. Entering the time zone on the session form allows you to pre-populate this information at the session level.

Procedure

1. From the Administration menu, select Training: Sessions then on the Session tab.

2. Click on the New Session button.

3. Fill in the information on the sheet for this session, first of all the training to which this session is attached.

4. Click on the Time Zone field to display the drop-down menu and select the desired time zone (configured function)

5. Click the Save button.

6. A confirmation message appears on the screen.

Additional Information

This entry of the time zone for a session can also be done on the side of the session schedule and from a course on the course side.

No rules are applied to the time zone after selecting a location on a session card, this is an informative information:

• For an e-learning session, no location is required.

• For a session with multiple sessions taking place in several countries, it is possible to have N locations on the session.

By default, when a new session is initialised, the time zone is pre-populated by the time zone set to the current domain.

Manage time zones for a face-to-face or virtual classroom sessions

Open Administration > Session planning

The objective is to manage a time zone on a session in order to be precise on the dates and times when sending a notification.

By default, the time zone of a session is pre-populated in this order:

• The time zone of the place: when selecting a place, the time zone field is pre-filled by the time zone field,

  • or that of the session,

  • or that of the current domain.

Please note that the time zone of a session can be changed manually.

Procedure

From the Administration menu, select Session Schedule from the submenu.

1. Select the desired search criteria on the search page, then click the Search button.

   • The graphical schedule of the training sessions is displayed on the screen.

2. To change the time zone of a session, click on the session schedule to select it and then on the Edit schedule button: a new window will open allowing you to change the time zone of the session.

Additional Information

This entry of the time zone for a session can also be done at a training course level.

This time zone information is visible in the session sheet, in the schedule and in the tooltip on the session from the schedule.

In the case of a time-bound e-learning resource, it is possible to enter a time zone. It's the same as for a face-to-face session, without the rule at the place of training.

Since a location and a session live separately in time (modification, deletion, etc.), when a time zone is modified on a location from the repository, there is no automatic modification on the sessions attached to that location.

Understand the impact of time zones on notifications

Following the addition of the time zone on the elements (session, session, virtual class, etc.), adjustments are to be expected on certain notifications concerning these elements.

Notifications impacted in their content

Here is a non-exhaustive list of notifications that can lead to content transformations:

• Invitation to a training session for a learner

• Convening the trainer

• Modifying a convocation for a learner

• Changing the Trainer Invitation

• Invitation to a face-to-face session

• Invitation to a virtual classroom

• Reminder to a virtual classroom

• Reminder of a face-to-face session

• Reminder to facilitate a face-to-face session

• Reminder to facilitate a virtual classroom

In the standard, the content of a notification does not take into account the time zone of an item. To make information about an item's dates, times, and time zone readable, it is mandatory to modify the content of the notification.

Merge fields are available to make this information visible:

Merge fields for a session – same principle for a virtual session/classroom

The 2 merge fields that are up for grabs are the last 2 in the list. In the content of a notification, these merge fields should be placed in place of the others proposed by default in order to make the information readable for the learner.

Notifications impacted by send conditions

Notifications with send conditions (with the date change condition checked) are automatically impacted by a change in time zone (session or session).

The notifications impacted and having this sending condition are:

• Changing the Trainer Invitation

• Modifying a convocation

Example: with a context and the processing of the platform sending the emails:

• Training session taking place in New York from 9am to 5pm with a session scheduled on the same dates/times (time zone = UTC -6 – New York).

• A learner located in Paris (time zone = UTC +1 – Brussels, Paris).