Scheduling and records for writing centers that want to keep their own data.

Sympraxi is scheduling and records software for college writing centers. It books appointments and workshops, records what happens in each session, gives writers a summary and next steps, and gives directors the numbers they report on.

It is free, open-source software that your college runs on its own server.

A calendar answers "who is coming when." A writing center also needs to know what happened: what the writer worked on, what they should do next, which resources helped, and how that adds up across a term. Sympraxi keeps session records, topics, writing projects, goals, surveys, training and staff hours alongside the schedule, with one set of permission rules over all of it.

There is no license fee, no price per appointment and no price per tutor. You pay for a server and for someone's time to install and look after it. A demo like this one runs on a small cloud server for about $24 a month.

It is complete enough to run a center, and it is new. It has not yet run at a college. Its connections to single sign-on, learning systems and text messaging have been tested against stand-ins, not live services, and an accessibility review with assistive technology is still ahead. A pilot center would be the next step.

No. The people, sessions, notes and numbers are made up. No email or text message is ever sent from it, and it resets every night, so feel free to click anything. Please don't type real information.

Choose a schedule, a day and a time, answer a few questions about what you are working on, and book. You get an email with the details and a calendar file.

The steps:

1. Sam is a student. This is his page for the center: what is coming up, and what he worked on last.
2. He wants a tutor this week, so he chooses Book an appointment.
3. Each schedule is a kind of help. Drop-in tutoring takes half hours and hours with peer tutors.
4. He picks a day.
5. Open times list every tutor's free slots. He can also narrow by length, tutor, or in person versus online.
6. He takes a time with Tomás, who helped him before.
7. The center's intake form asks what he needs, so his tutor can prepare.
8. One click books it.
9. He gets an email with the details and a calendar file, and a reminder before the visit. He can move or cancel from this page.

Watch: Book an appointment (0:59)

Yes, from your appointments page. Each schedule sets how late is too late; canceling inside that window is a late cancellation, and the center may limit how many a student can have before booking is paused.

Join the waiting list. You say which day, which hours and how long a visit you need. If someone cancels a time that fits, you are emailed and the time is held for you for a few minutes.

The steps:

1. Sam looked at the open times and none of them suit his schedule.
2. Instead of checking back all week, he asks for a time.
3. He says which day he could come.
4. And the window that works for him.
5. He says how long a visit he needs.
6. If anyone cancels a time that fits, he is emailed and the time is held for him for a few minutes.
7. He can leave the list at any time, and the center can see who is waiting.

Watch: Join the waiting list (0:37)

Your tutor writes a summary of what you worked on and your next steps, and may attach resources. They appear on your My writing page, grouped by writing project, with a timeline across terms. Each center chooses whether you also see the tutor's notes for staff.

The steps:

1. After each visit, Sam's tutor writes him a short summary. This card shows the latest.
2. My writing keeps every summary, grouped by project, newest first.
3. Sessions are grouped by writing project, so he can see one paper's whole story.
4. The timeline shows his writing across terms.
5. Sam can also set writing goals, and see who outside the center has looked at his records.

Watch: Read your session summaries and next steps (0:25)

Yes. Workshops are short group sessions with a limited number of seats. Register on the Workshops page and cancel there if you can't come.

The steps:

1. The center runs short group workshops, on thesis statements, citations and more.
2. Sam opens one to see when and where it meets, who leads it, and how many seats are left.
3. One click registers him.
4. He gets a confirmation email. If he cannot come, he can cancel and free the seat.

Watch: Register for a workshop (0:20)

By email, at times each schedule sets, for example a day and an hour before. Text message reminders are available if your center turns them on and you opt in. You agree to specific wording, confirm your number with a code, and can reply STOP at any time.

If your center allows it, you can send an instructor a link that confirms the date and that you visited, and nothing else: no tutor notes, topics or summaries. You can turn the link off.

Open the appointment. You see what the writer told the center when they booked, the goals they set, their open writing projects, and your center's last sessions with them.

The steps:

1. Tomás is a peer tutor. This is his schedule: every appointment, by day.
2. He opens his next appointment.
3. Before the student arrives, he can see everything they told the center.
4. What course the work is for, and what they want to focus on.
5. The goals the student set with the center.
6. And what happened in their last sessions, so he does not start from zero.
7. All of it is limited to what a tutor may see, and each look is written to the audit log.

Watch: Prepare for a session (0:31)

After the visit, open its record from your list of records to write. You tag topics, write a summary and next steps for the writer, attach resources, and answer your center's report questions. When you finalize it, the writer is emailed a link.

The steps:

1. After a visit, the tutor writes it up. This list shows sessions still waiting for a record.
2. Tomás opens the record for Sam's last visit.
3. The summary is written to the student, who reads it on their My writing page.
4. Next steps tell the student what to do before the next visit.
5. Topics describe what the writing needed, where the writer was in the work, and what happened. They feed the center's reports.
6. The center's own report questions come last. The director can change them any time.
7. Finalizing shows the summary to the student and emails them a link. Later changes are kept as dated amendments.
8. The record is final. The statistics, the topic report and the student's timeline all update.

Watch: Write up a session (1:07)

A way to tell the center you are worried about a student: attendance, engagement, well-being. A reason is required. The director and anyone the center chose can see it, they acknowledge it and close it with a note about what was done, and every step is logged.

The steps:

1. A tutor has a concern about a student's attendance.
2. Tomás opens a recent visit with the student.
3. From the student's page...
4. ...he can raise an early alert.
5. He says what it is about.
6. A reason is required. It is what the director reads, and what the student can ask to see.
7. He records whether the student knows.
8. Only the director and the people the center chose see the alert, and every step is written to the audit log.

Watch: Raise an early alert (0:38)

Watch: Handle an early alert (0:29)

In the same place as the work. A director publishes modules of pages, readings and quizzes, and tracks who has finished them. New tutors can be placed in a cohort with a mentor, a sign-off checklist and observations.

The steps:

1. Training sits beside the work. Tomás sees every module his center has published.
2. He opens a module on supporting a struggling writer.
3. Each module is a few short items: pages, readings and quizzes.
4. He reads the page, then moves to the quiz.
5. Quiz results and completions are tracked for the director, who can sign off a new tutor's module.

Watch: Take a training module (0:24)

What a person can see depends on their role and on the appointment, and one set of rules decides it everywhere. Students can ask to see everything written about them, including notes for staff, so write as if the student will read it. Each time staff open a record, it is written to the audit log.

The steps:

1. Tomás is a peer tutor. This is his schedule: every appointment, by day.
2. He opens his next appointment.
3. Before the student arrives, he can see everything they told the center.
4. What course the work is for, and what they want to focus on.
5. The goals the student set with the center.
6. And what happened in their last sessions, so he does not start from zero.
7. All of it is limited to what a tutor may see, and each look is written to the audit log.

Watch: Prepare for a session (0:31)

Watch: See who opened what, and take your data with you (0:17)

Nothing counts as a no-show until someone confirms it. When nobody marks attendance, the session appears on Attendance to check, and the front desk says whether the student came. A confirmed no-show tells the student and counts toward the center's limit, after which online booking can be paused. Staff can waive one with a reason.

The steps:

1. Felix runs the front desk. Sessions where nobody marked attendance show up here.
2. Each one has three choices: they came, they did not, or the flag was wrong.
3. He marks the student as having come.
4. A confirmed no-show counts toward the center's booking limit, and the student is told. Staff can also waive one with a reason.
5. Below is the last 30 days, where a no-show can be waived.

Watch: Check possible no-shows (0:26)

Yes. Check them in at the waiting room by student ID, or let them use the check-in kiosk. The tutor sees who is waiting, and walk-in counts feed the center's reports.

The steps:

1. The waiting room shows who has checked in, and who is next.
2. A student gives their ID, or checks in at the kiosk themselves.
3. Optionally, what they want help with.
4. One click checks them in.
5. The tutor sees them waiting, and walk-in counts feed the center's reports.

Watch: Check a student in at the front desk (0:22)

Statistics for any term or date range, hours offered and booked by tutor and week, topics by course and class standing, resources tutors attach, a printable day sheet, student lists and survey results. Each downloads as CSV, Excel or JSON.

The steps:

1. Dana directs the center. Her page opens with the numbers, and the things that need her.
2. She opens the hours report.
3. Hours are offered by schedule, tutor and week. She picks the term.
4. By tutor: hours offered, hours booked, and how full each tutor's time was.
5. And by week, so she can see where demand peaks.
6. Every report downloads as CSV, Excel or JSON.
7. The same numbers feed budget requests and the end-of-year report.

Watch: Run an hours report (0:31)

Watch: Read the statistics and break them down by course (0:21)

Yes. Tutors and the front desk clock in and out, or a director adds hours. Directors approve a pay period, which locks it, and later changes need a reason and are logged. Payroll IDs and pay codes export for HR.

The steps:

1. Tutors and the front desk clock in and out in the app. The director approves their hours here.
2. Each person's hours for the period are one line.
3. Approving locks the period, so nobody changes hours afterward by accident.
4. Changes to approved hours need a director's reason, and every change is in the audit log. Payroll IDs and pay codes export for HR.

Watch: Approve timesheets (0:24)

Yes. Registration, intake, session-report and survey forms are all built in the app, with versions, so older answers keep the questions they were given. You choose which questions the by-course report reads.

Yes. A student gets a one-time link after a session, and the answer is stored without their name, appointment or record. Results are counted by term.

A director can make a de-identified research export, but only inside the dates of the IRB approval recorded for the center, and each export is logged.

Take everything with you. A full export of the center's data is one page away, and nothing is held by a vendor.

The steps:

1. Every sign-in, booking, record opened, and export is written to the audit log.
2. It cannot be edited or deleted by the center. The database itself refuses.
3. A full export of the center's data is one page away.
4. If you ever leave Sympraxi, you take everything with you.

Watch: See who opened what, and take your data with you (0:17)

One script on a small Linux server running Docker. Plan on an afternoon, plus time to register your single sign-on. Backups and a tested restore are included, and an update is one command.

Yes: Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, any OpenID Connect provider, SAML 2.0 and CAS. Staff are required to use two-factor login, and a college can hide password sign-in once single sign-on works.

It supports an LTI 1.3 launch, so a student can open it from a course already signed in. It signs people in; it does not yet pass grades or course rosters back.

It is built on the U.S. Web Design System, and every page is checked against WCAG 2.2 AA with automated tests in a real browser on each change, including phone size, forced colors and reduced motion. A review with screen readers and other assistive technology has not been done yet, and a conformance report is drafted but not finished.

Permissions come from one central rule set tested against every page and role. Every read of a student record is logged in an audit log that the database itself refuses to alter. Phone numbers are encrypted, surveys are anonymous, and text messages need recorded consent.

Partly. Sign-in, errors, booking, appointments and account pages are translated, and a person can switch language in the footer. The rest is in English for now, and the Spanish has not yet been reviewed by a fluent speaker.

Yes, from a spreadsheet: a CSV importer reads one past appointment per row, with a preview. A converter for exports from other scheduling systems is not included yet.

Yes. A read and write API with scoped tokens, and signed webhooks that carry ids and never names.