Groups can be used for collaboration among users as they offer the possibilities to:

• discuss topics in forums
• create and edit pages and collections together
• share files
• share pages
• submit pages for assessment / feedback

You can create different groups depending on your role.

All users

• Open membership: Any user of the site can become a member simply by visiting your group page and clicking the Join button.
• Request membership: Any user can request to join your group. However, as owner you can choose to accept or decline this request. The requesting member will be notified of your decision automatically.

In addition, staff and administrators can create groups with controlled membership:

• You can add users directly to your group.
• The members cannot leave this group.
• You can assign tutors to the group. They can give feedback on submitted pages, but not administer group members.
• Group members can submit portfolio pages or collections for feedback / assessment. These pages are locked until released by a group administrator or tutor.

If you are allowed to create a group, you see the Create group button on the My groups overview page.

Create a group as a user

1. Group name: Provide a name for your group. This field is mandatory.

   The group name that you choose does not have to be unique. Other groups can have the same name. In order to distinguish them more easily, you can add a group description.

2. Group description: Briefly describe what your group is about.

3. Group homepage URL: You can choose what human-readable URL your group should have. You see this field only once you have created your group.

4. Open: Check this box if you want to create an open membership group. This allows users to join the group without approval from group administrators.

5. Request: Check this box if you wish to create a request membership group. Users will have to send a membership request that requires group administrator approval. Open and request membership groups are mutually exclusive.

6. Friend invitations: Check this box if you want to allow group members to invite friends to join the group. Regardless of this setting, group administrators can always send invitations to anyone. If the friends accept, they will be added automatically to the group.

7. Recommendations: Check this box if you want to allow members to send a recommendation for joining this group to their friends from a button on the group homepage. If a request membership group has been recommended and the friends are interested in it, they would still need the approval of the group administrator to join. Friend invitations and recommendations are mutually exclusive options.

8. Create and edit pages: Decide who shall be able to create and edit pages in the group:

   • All group members
   • Everyone except ordinary members, i.e. group administrators and tutors depending on the group type
   • Group administrators only

9. Publicly viewable group: Choose this option if anybody shall have access to this group. You only see this setting if the site administrator allowed you to have it. Anybody online can see the group homepage and the discussion forum(s). Depending on the membership visibility, they may also see group members. Only members of the groups can see the group’s pages, unless they have been made public, and the files area.

10. Participation report: Tick this checkbox if you as group administrator want to view a report displaying all group pages and those that have been shared with the group and see who commented on them.

11. Start date: As group administrator you can decide when regular group members shall be able to create and edit content, forum discussions, pages and collections in the group. Tick the checkbox Set date to enter a date and time from when editing is allowed. Group administrators can always edit content in a group.

12. End date: You can allow the editing of group content for regular members up to a certain time. After that they will only be able to view forum discussions, pages, collections and files, but not edit them. Tick the checkbox Set date to enter a date and time until when editing is allowed. Group administrators can always edit content in a group.

13. Group category: Choose a category if you want to associate your group to one, allowing you to filter groups on the My groups and Find groups page more easily.

14. Shared page notification: Select from the drop-down menu who shall be notified when new group pages are created and when group members share their pages with the group. The options in the drop-down menu are:

    • All group members

      You may not want to use this option in very large groups where lots of pages are shared but members do not have to be notified.

    • Everyone except ordinary members, i.e. group administrators and tutors depending on the group type

    • Group administrators only

    The page owner who shares their page with the group does not receive a notification.

15.  Feedback notifications: Select from the drop-down menu who shall be notified when feedback is placed on a page or artefacts.

    • All group members
    • Everyone except ordinary members, i.e. group administrators and tutors depending on the group type
    • Group administrators only

16. Click the Save group button to finish creating your group, or click the Cancel button to abort the group creation process.

In addition to the group settings that a regular user has, institution staff and administrators have a few more options.

Additional options for staff and institution administrators

1. Controlled: Create a controlled group if you wish to add users who cannot leave the group. This is a useful setting for course groups where you do not want members to leave.

2. Roles: Choose whether you have only members and administrators or also tutors. The latter can provide feedback and release pages when page submissions are allowed, but they cannot change group settings.

3. Allow submissions: Use this option to allow group members to submit pages or collections for feedback / assessment. These pages and collections as well as a number of content items in them are locked until released by a group administrator or tutor.

4.  Allow archiving of submissions: Use this option when you want to archive pages or collections that have been submitted to this group. The archive will be made on the server.

   This is an experimental feature.

5. Hide group: Use this option to not list this group on the Find groups page.

6. Hide membership: Use this option to hide the group’s membership listing from non-members.

7. Hide membership from members: Use this option to hide the group’s membership listing from members as well. Only group administrators can see the members listed. Administrators are still shown on the group homepage.