Note
It depends on your role in the group whether you can access / change certain functionalities that you see in the screenshots and described in the text.
The group homepage is the central space for a group. There you can get a quick overview of the group and reach all the places that you wish to take a look at in a group. You see a few things per default on the group homepage.
Group homepage for an “Invite only” group
If you are a group administrator, you can put other blocks on the group homepage. Check the blocks in pages context for a list of them.
On the group members page, a group admin can
invite multiple users to the group at once or add multiple users in bulk if it is a invite or controlled membership group.
search for group members
view basic information about group members like
- their name
- their role
- their profile introduction
- their group joining date
change the role of a user
remove a user from the group
Group members page as seen by a group administrator
If you are not a group admin, you are not able to invite or add people from the members page and you cannot change the role or remove a user from a group.
The forums are visible to all group members. If you created a public group, anybody online would be able to see the forum discussions. However, they would need to log in to participate. Forums in public groups receive an RSS feed so that users can subscribe to them, e.g. the mahara.org community forums.
Group forum overview page
A group administrator can set up forums in a group.
Basic set up of a forum
Besides these basic settings, there are additional ones that the administrator can decide on.
Choose further settings in the forum
When you have the right to add a forum topic, you see the New topic button when you click on a forum.
Add a new topic to a forum.
Note
An administrator also always has the buttons Edit forum and Delete forum available to make changes to the forum set up.
Note
When you write your forum topic, i.e. your first post, and any other subsequent post, you have formatting options at your hands in the visual editor (when it is enabled). It also allows you to insert images into your post. However, you should not copy the URL of one of your images from your Files area. This image is only displayed to you unless it is also included in page that you made available to this group, logged-in users or the public. Permissions on artefacts are governed by the permissions set on the page(s) in which they are included.
In some groups you may be able to upload files into the group thus allowing every group member to see the file. You could link it then in your forum post but must be aware that any group member could delete the image.
Once you have finished writing your forum topic, it is displayed in the list of forum topics. Others can see it immediately. The administrator and moderator of the forum can edit or delete a topic. Regular members cannot do so.
First post in a forum topic
Everybody can reply to a forum topic or other posts therein unless the moderator or administrator had closed the topic. The replies are intended to make it easier to see to which comment you replies except in forum topics that do not use indentation.
Reply to a forum post
Note
Once you have saved your post, you may have time to edit it before it is sent to the forum subscribers. That depends on the site settings for the forum post delay. If you can edit your post, you see the Edit button. In the edit window, you also see how much time you have left until your post is sent.
When you, but also a moderator or an administrator, edit your forum post after this time, it is stated when and by whom the editing was done under “Edits to this post”.
A moderator or administrator can always edit or delete a single forum post, a topic or an entire forum.
Warning
Once a forum post, topic or forum is deleted, this action cannot be reversed and the content is gone forever.
Group administrators and forum moderators can perform bulk actions on forums in a group.
Forum bulk actions
Members of a group have access to shared pages. These can be:
The latter are pages that a user makes accessible to the group from his personal pages by sharing them with the group. Members of the group cannot edit these pages.
Depending on the group type, either only administrators or also regular group members can create and edit group pages.
Warning
Everybody who can edit a group page can add or delete blocks on that page. There is no version tracking that shows who has edited what. Users should trust each other when collaborating on pages together. Otherwise, it may be better if they only shared pages with a group.
The group homepage can only be edited by the group administrator. It contains a number of default blocks. You can add more blocks to it to customize the page for the group. Please refer to the overview of blocks for a list of all the blocks that you can use in the group homepage.
Creating, editing and sharing a group page is very similar to creating, editing and sharing a portfolio page. Not all blocks are available when editing a group page in the page editor though due to the different context. Please refer to the overview of blocks for a list of all the blocks that you can use in a group page.
See also
For submitting a page to a group to receive instructor feedback, please refer to the feedback section.
The files area in a group holds all files that are uploaded by group members who have the permission to do so. The uploading process works as the one in the personal files.
In contrast to the files in your personal files area, there is an additional permissions setting:
Setting permissions on a group file
When you have the permission to upload a file, you can also determine additional permissions of who can view the file and edit its metadata. An administrator has all rights, but you can restrict them to regular group members or tutors in a course group.