5.4. Inside a group

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.

5.4.1. Group homepage

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

1. Group name
2. If you are a member in the group, you see your status and whether you can leave the group or not. If you are an admin of the group, you see the Edit and Delete buttons.
3. Group navigation
4. Basic information about this group:
   • Group administrators so that you can contact them easily
   • Group type
   • Creation date of the group
   • statistics on the number of group members, pages, files and folders
5. Latest forum posts and a link to the forums
6. Group members and a link to the full list

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.

5.4.2. Members

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.

5.4.3. Forums

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

1. If you have appropriate rights, you can create a new forum by clicking on the New forum button.
2. Name and brief description of the forum
3. Forum administrators and moderators (if appointed)
4. Number of forum topics
5. Unsubscribe / Subscribe button if the forum admin allowed for this option
6. Edit button for making changes to the forum settings for group admins and moderators Delete button for making changes to the forum settings for group admins and moderators

5.4.3.1. Set up a new forum

A group administrator can set up forums in a group.

Basic set up of a forum

1. Click on the New forum button to set up a new forum.
2. Title: Give your new forum a title.
3. Description: Write a brief description of your forum. This will appear when the forum is listed under the Forum tab making it easier for users to decide whether they want to look at it or not.
4. Forum indent mode: Specify how the topics in this forum should be indented.
   • Fully expand: Indentation is used to indicate the replies to individual posts. There is no limit to the level of indentation.
   • Expand to max: Indentation to indicate the replies to individual post specifying the maximum level of indentation (pops up once this option is chosen). All replies beyond the chosen level are not indented further.
   • No indents: There is no indentation of replies to individual posts, but the forum structure is flat.
5. Click the Save button to make these changes or continue on to the Settings.

Besides these basic settings, there are additional ones that the administrator can decide on.

Choose further settings in the forum

1. Automatically subscribe users? Choose whether group users will be subscribed to this forum automatically. When subscribed, users will receive notifications when new posts and replies are made in the forum. Users will have the option to unsubscribe if they do not want to be notified.
2. Order: A default position for your forum is chosen upon its creation - after the last existing forum. Here you may position it elsewhere in the list of forums. Click the radio button above or below a certain forum to position it before or after it.
3. Moderators: Choose one or more moderators for your forum. They can edit and delete topics and posts as well as open, close, set and unset topics as sticky. Thus, they can perform some administrative functions without having to receive full administrator rights.
   1. Select one or more users from the list of Potential moderators on the left or search for a person.
   2. Click the right-arrow button to add the user(s) to the Current moderators.
   3. To remove a moderator, select the user in the Current Moderators list on the right and click the left-arrow button to remove this user.
4. Who can create topics: Decide who in your group is allowed to create topics within a forum. If set to “All group members”, any group member can create new topics and reply to existing topics. If set to “Moderators and group admins”, only moderators and group administrators can start new topics, but once topics exist, all users can post replies to them.
5. Close new topics: If checked, all new topics in this forum will be closed by default. Only moderators and group administrators can reply to closed topics. This is a setting that may be useful for a forum that is solely used for announcements.
6. Click the Save button to save the settings for the forum or use click the Cancel button to retain the previous settings.

5.4.3.2. Add a forum topic

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.

1. Subject: Type the concise description of what you wish to discuss in this forum thread.
2. Body: Elaborate on the topic.
3. Sticky: admin-only setting to keep the topic at the top of the forum threads.
4. Closed: admin-only setting to prevent others from responding to this post. Moderators and administrators can still post replies.
5. Click the Post button to send off your discussion topic, or click Cancel to abort your action.

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

1. The title of the forum
2. The title of the forum topic
3. The profile picture and name of the person who wrote the post. The name is linked to the profile page
4. The number of posts of this person in all groups
5. The date and time of the forum post
6. The post itself
7. The Reply button to comment on the post

5.4.3.3. Reply to a topic or subsequent post

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

1. Click the Reply button below the forum post to which you wish to reply. The forum post that you are replying to is displayed beneath your reply window making it easier for you to refer to it if necessary.
2. Set a different subject if you want to by clicking on Click to set a subject. This is most often not necessary and usually only used if the topic evolves into a different discussion. However, in such cases, a new forum topic should be opened.
3. Write your comment.
4. Click the Post button to save your response or the Cancel button to abort your 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”.

5.4.3.4. Delete a post, topic or forum

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.

5.4.3.5. Forum bulk actions

Group administrators and forum moderators can perform bulk actions on forums in a group.

Forum bulk actions

1. Select the topics for which you want to perform the same action.
2. Choose the action that you wish to perform from the drop-down menu. You can set all selected topics to
   • sticky: They will sit on top of all other forum topics.
   • unsticky: They will be placed into the correct chronological order.
   • close: Only the group administrator and forum moderator can add posts to these topics.
   • open: Everyone can post to these topics again.
3. Click the Update all selected topics button to save your changes.

5.4.4. Pages

Members of a group have access to shared pages. These can be:

• pages that are created in the group
• pages that are shared with the group

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.

5.4.4.1. Group homepage

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.

5.4.4.2. Regular group pages

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.

5.4.5. Files

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.

• View: You can see the file in the group files area and add it to a page.
• Edit: You can edit the file name, description, tags and permissions.
• Publish: You can include a group file in your personal portfolio pages.