Cougarnet groups

The Groups application gives students, faculty, or employees at CSU the ability to create and manage group homepages for clubs or other affiliations and interests. To solicit membership, each group will have two homepages: a guest view and a member view. The guest view provides general information about the group and an option for non-members to join. The member view provides the ability to:

• Read articles that have been posted by the group and submit articles for posting
• Access links to other Internet resources that the group deems appropriate and submit potential links
• View photos posted by the group and submit photos for posting
• View information about and e-mail other group members
• Access a group chat room, message board, and an online calendar
• Post you own personal homepage link for group members to access The Groups application is accessed by clicking the Groups icon located in the tool bar. When you access the Groups application you see three tabs: My Groups, Group Index, and Request Groups.

The My Groups tab provides access to group links to which the user subscribes, to overall policies about forming and belonging to groups at your institution, and to a form that will allow you to request creation of a new group.

The Group Index tab provides a listing of all categories of groups at your institution and access to the individual group homepages within each category so that you can read about and request to join the group.

The Request Group tab provides the form necessary to request the creation of a new group. If you request the creation of a new group, you become the group leader and have initial responsibility for creating and managing the group homepage and guest view. Groups fall into two categories: public and restricted. Public groups are open for anyone to join. Restricted groups are subject to certain conditions. For example, to access a group homepage for an academic or social fraternity, you must first be accepted as a member of that group.

Group member types

Administrators: Responsible for approving groups and assigning group privileges, creating the policies that support the Groups software, creating and managing the categories that organize groups within the application, and for backing up the database that houses the groups data.

Group leaders: Responsible for creating and maintaining the content of the group homepages and guest views and for managing member profiles to delegate responsibilities or inactivate and delete members.

Group members: Join groups in which they are interested, participating in message boards and chat rooms, and submitting content that they want to see posted on the group homepage.

Guests: System users who have not joined a group but wish to access a guest view for information or to join a group.

Group tools

Acceptance to a public group is immediate. Acceptance to restricted groups depends on other criteria and may take time for validation. Once you have access to the member view, you may have some or all of the following tools at your disposal:

Calendar allows you to access a calendar dedicated to your group

Chat Room allows you to enter the group's dedicated chat room where you can participate in real time online discussions with other members

Message Board allows you to enter the group's dedicated message board where you can read and post messages and replies for topics of interest

Photo Album allows you to view all of the photos that have been posted by the group and to submit photos for potential posting

Links allows you to view all of the links that have been posted by the group and to submit links for potential posting

News allows you to read all articles that have been written by other members and posted by the group, and to submit articles for potential posting

Member List allows you to view a list of other group members and information about each, including any homepages that the member might have. You also have the ability to post your own homepage link

E-mail allows you to send e-mail messages to group members In some instances, you may be asked by the group leader to manage certain components of the member or guest view. If so, the group leader will delegate permissions and you may have access to one or more of the Group Leader Tools.

Group leader tools

If you request creation of a group and it is approved, you will become the group leader. As the group leader (or group member with group leader permissions delegated to you), you have the following responsibilities:

• Creating and maintaining the featured content on the group's homepage
• Activating and deactivating group members
• Assigning group page and member management to other group members
• Maintaining the news articles that appear on your group's homepage
• Maintaining the Internet links that appear on your group's homepage
• Maintaining the photo album that is accessible through your group's homepage
• Maintaining the topics, messages, and replies that will be added to the message board by group members
• Maintaining the group online calendar
• Maintaining the group's guest view page, which provides information about the group and a chance for non-members to join
• Maintaining content for the groups homepage and profiles for group members (If your group is a restricted group you will also need to manage the queue of individuals that have requested to join and activate or reject their membership as appropriate)

Group Leaders Note: You need the check the “Manage Members” link often to approve group membership.

Quick reference guide (PDF)