User Preferences

This article will be most useful for System Admins.

Overview

Concourse allows users to control three settings related to how syllabi display in Concourse: Date Format, Time Format, and Time Zone. Users can update these settings for their individual accounts so that syllabus dates and times created with Concourse tools display in the format or time zone that the user has selected. 

Change Preferences

If your institution opts to display the Concourse footer to users, the user’s time zone displays in the Concourse footer. If the time zone that displays is not accurate, the user can change their preferences. The available options for user preferences are (see image below):

1. Date Format: can be set to mm/dd/yyyy (e.g., 12/31/2026) or dd/mm/yyyy (31/12/2025). 
2. Time Format: can be set to am/pm (e.g., 3:45 pm) or 24 hour (e.g., 15:45).
3. Time Zone: can be set to any global time zone.
   

To adjust date and time preferences on your user account:

1. Select Account. On the Account drop down that appears, choose Preferences.
2. In the Change Preferences block, use the appropriate drop down for Date Format, Time Format, and/or Time Zone to match your location.
3. Save when done.

It may be necessary to refresh any courses you have previously visited in order to display the time and date in the format or time zone you selected.

User Preferences and Course Settings

Course time zones can be set on the individual course level. Course time zones can be set via feed by System Administrators or manually by Domain Administrators (see image below). 

It is possible that a user’s time zone preference might not align with the time zone set for courses in Concourse. When the course and user time zones are not in alignment, date and time content created with Concourse’s native tools (e.g., Meeting Times and Office Hours subitems and course dates in syllabus header) displays according to the user’s preferences. For example, if a course’s time zone is America/New_York with the default date format of mm/dd/yyyy but a user’s account preferences are set to Date Format dd/mm/yyyy and Time Zone Australia/Sydney, the date and time will display according to the user’s preference instead of how the data was entered. Date and time content added to rich text fields, however, does not display according to the user’s preferences. Content added to rich text fields always displays as it was entered. In the image below, we identify:

1. Content created with native Concourse tools; this content displays according to user preferences.
2. Content added to rich text fields; this content does not display according to user preferences.
   

If users suspect a misalignment of date/time content is leading to issues, they are encouraged to review their preferences and make adjustments as needed.

Best Practices and Recommendations

1. Keep in mind that date and time content in your Concourse database matches the default date format (mm/dd/yyyy) and course time zone. Updates to user preferences only change the way that dates and times display to individual users.
   
2. If two users with different preferences download the same item report for Meeting Times and Office Hours, the data in these reports will reflect their respective preferences, which would seem to be discrepant data.
   
3. Users are encouraged to match their time zone preferences to their courses’ time zones. Date preferences can be adjusted without creating as many opportunities for confusion.
   

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