Ordering periods

An Ordering Period defines the period of time in which orders may be placed for an academic term.

Users may order content for their Courses and Course sections during valid Ordering periods. Program Administrators are exceptions to this condition. These users' actions in Order Tool are not bound by valid Ordering periods.

During an Ordering period, Instructors and Coordinators may order content to be delivered for an upcoming term. Typically, Ordering periods are scheduled to run 4-6 months before the start of an academic term in which the content ordered is used. Ordering periods are scheduled this far ahead of the start of a term to allow for registration, billing, and other business processes to unfold in preparation for the academic term.

Ordering periods are determined by your Institution. Outside of an Ordering period, Instructors and Coordinators will not be able to order content. The Unizin Order Tool will communicate to users when they are outside of a valid ordering period. During an Ordering period, users will simply see the set of Courses for which they may place an order (Coordinators will see the same, but based on the instructors for whom they can order content).

If Coordinators or Instructors access the Order Tool outside of any open Ordering period, they see the following:

An institution's Sponsor Team is required to provide ongoing support to Unizin’s Services team to keep your Order Tool up to date. Unizin Services must configure the Order Tool with your institution's Ordering periods in advance, so that faculty are able to place orders during the allotted Ordering period. The Sponsor Team will provide a file which includes your institution's Ordering periods (CSV, Excel, Google sheet, etc.) for the full academic year to the Services team. This file should be provided during an initial Order Tool implementation and on an ongoing basis.

The following dates must be included in the file:

• Ordering period start date - The start date is the date for which the Order Tool is opened to allow instructors and coordinators to place their orders for an upcoming term.

• Ordering period soft close date - Once the soft close date is passed, the Order Tool disallows instructors and coordinators to order content. The soft close date is implemented at midnight UTC on the date that is provided.

• Ordering period hard close date - The hard close date is the date after which orders are no longer accepted.