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. The items displayed on the group homepage do not only depend on the default settings but also the options chosen when the group was created.
Sample group homepage
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.
Group members page as seen by a group administrator
On the group members page, a group admin can
If you are a regular group member, you are not able to invite or add people from the members page, and you cannot change the role or remove a user from the group.
A group administrator can always invite any user to a group from the Members tab. If the group administrator allowed users to invite friends, they can do so via the Invite friends button on the group homepage.
Invite other users to a group
If the group administrator allowed membership recommendations when creating or editing a group, group members can recommend the group to their friends by clicking on the Recommend to friends button on the group homepage.
Recommend a group to friends
The forums are visible to all group members. If you create a public group, anybody online will be able to see the forum discussions. However, they would need to log in to participate. Forums in public groups receive an RSS feed to enable users to subscribe to the discussion forum, 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.
Add a new forum topic
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 at any time. Regular members can edit their topics up to a certain number of minutes after writing the post. The site administrator defines that time in the forum post delay.
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 reply 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 settings, 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 on 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.
When you leave a comment on a group page, only group administrators (and tutors if it is a controlled group) can delete feedback on pages.
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 like the one in the personal files.
The site administrator can set a group file quota to restrict unlimited uploading of files. The group quota is displayed in the sidebar when you are in the Files area.
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, tutors or administrators.
Note
The owner of / group member uploading a file retains access to the file even if other group members are not able to use the file.