Understanding the Student Support Directory 

Overview

The Student Support Directory is where students find and connect with the campus staff and service areas who support them — advisors, tutors, career counselors, and other support staff — organized by department and group.

This article explains what students and staff each see in the directory, how department and group filtering works, and what a locked group and its lobby status mean.

At a Glance

• Who sees it: All users. Students access it from Support Network in the side navigation within their Student Support Center; staff see Student Support Directory as a navigation item and it serves as their landing page upon login.

• What it shows: Campus departments and groups, each with ConexED cards displayed for assigned staff members. Groups can configure Directory settings. Individuals can configure card settings.

How It Works

Department and Group Organization

The directory displays staff cards under their assigned Group, and each Group is shown under its parent Department. For example, the "Education & Human Services Advising" Group will display under the "Pathways Advising" department heading. The search field allows for searching by name, title, or email. The Programs filter allows for narrowing the view to specific departments and groups.

Group Lobby Lock Status

Each group has an icon next to the group name that displays the status of the Group’s virtual lobby - red for locked and green for unlocked. Each Group configures its virtual lobby settings and and the message that displays to a student when they join the virtual lobby during open hours. Group managers configure the lobby experience from the group's Lobby settings, including two rich-text messages: a Welcome Message shown to students during open hours, and a Locked Message shown when the group is closed. Additional Group settings control what students see from the directory itself, including whether a Schedule Appointment link, the group's cards, and a lobby link on the student dashboard are shown while the group is locked.

Group-Level Descriptions

A description for each group displays under the title. Group managers configure this using a rich-text editor, which allows for customization. Options include bold, underline, italic, color and highlighting for text; varied text alignment; table configuration; added links; image upload; and source code. In practice this ranges from a short line of hours of operation with a one-sentence explanation of what the group offers, to a fully designed layout with banners, headings, bulleted lists, and logos. A group's virtual lobby link, when one exists, is typically included as part of this description.

Staff Contact Cards

ConexED Cards are displayed on the Student Support Directory. Students can see staff photos, status indicators, names, optional pronouns, optional additional info, phone, email, location and custom fields generally used for hours of availability. Card information can be configured by the user and, for most fields, the Group Manager, Department Director and ConexED Administrator.

Below the contact details, a card shows action buttons that can include Send Offline Message, Schedule Meeting, Event Registration, and Knock on Door — but not every card shows the same set. The button configuration is based on group services and individual preferences. The ConexED cards offer a cohesive look and feel to the directory, while ensuring each Group flexibility to meet its needs.

Offline Messages

An Offline Message isn't the same as sending a regular email. Offline Message forms are configured at the group level. When a student selects this option, they're filling out a contact form — their own email client never has to open. What happens after a student sends an offline message depends on your institution's setup. At institutions with the Conversations feature enabled, the message creates a conversation thread in ConexED, and the staff member replies there. At other institutions, the message arrives in the staff member's email — but since it comes from a no-reply address, the staff member can't simply hit Reply. They'll use the student's contact info included in the message to follow up.

Things to Know

Staff members manage their own card's appearance and behavior — including their photo, biography, contact visibility, button labels, and whether students can schedule with them — from Settings & Documents > Profile Settings > Customize Card. This is covered in a separate how-to article.

A staff member's colored status indicator on their card likely reflects their current online/away/offline status, which can be tied to an automatic "away" setting during an online meeting. This connects to the same account status shown in the Account Menu in the side navigation.

Use Cases

Scenario: A student looking for a specific service.  A student wants writing help and doesn't know who to contact. From the Support Network navigation, they open the full directory, use the Programs filter to jump to the Academic Resource Center department, and find the Writing Center group — including its hours, a link to the group's virtual lobby, and cards for each tutor with same-day availability.

Scenario: A locked group with an active virtual lobby.  A department shows a "Locked" badge next to a group's name, meaning no staff are currently signed in to take live lobby visits. Students can still see the group's contact cards and description, and can send an Offline Message, or schedule a meeting.

Next Steps

• How to Customize Your ConexED Card
• How to Send an Offline Message from a ConexED Card
• Understanding Departments & Groups