My Ramapo Quick Reference User Guide
The Group Studio application give students, faculty, and employees the ability to create and manage group homepages. Group Studio provides homepages for clubs or other affiliations (e.g. committees, organizations). Most of the functionality contained in groups is the same as the course homepage tools, making them easier to learn.
Group Features
Group Studio supports the following types of groups for clubs, committees, etc.:
- Public groups. Public groups are open for anyone to join.
- Restricted groups. Membership in restricted groups is subject to certain criteria. For example, to access a group home page for an academic or social fraternity, an individual must first be accepted as a member of that organization.
- Hidden groups. Hidden groups are not displayed in the group category index and do not have a guest view page. Hidden groups are typically used to publish and discuss sensitive information that should not be available even in a restricted group.
My Groups. This tab provides access to a page that allows you to manage a groups index (those to which you belong), to access overall policies about forming and belonging to groups at Ramapo, and a form that allows you to request creation of groups.
Group Index. This tab provides access to a page that lists all of the categories of groups and allows you to access the group guest homepages within each category so that you can read about and request to join a group.
Request Group. This tab provides a form that you can fill out 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.
All groups have a group leader. Typically, a group leader is the individual who initially requested the group creation. Group leaders use Group Studio to complete the following tasks:
- Create and manage the group homepage, including the links, news articles, files, and photos posted to the homepage.
- Create and manage the group guest view page, including the group description and information, and any links or photos that would be appropriate to be viewed by non-group members.
- Create and manage sub-groups to meet the needs of smaller populations that exist within your group membership.
- Set up the group message board with topics and an overall description, and deleting topics, messages, or replies as necessary.
- Create and manage the group calendar.
- Activate and deactivate group members as necessary, including approving or disapproving membership requests for restricted groups.
- Send targeted announcements to group members that appear on the group homepage and in the member’s personal announcements channel.
- Assign privileges to group members so responsibility for any of the above tasks can be delegated.
Group Studio provides a set of tools that appear in a menu on the left-hand column of any page for which you are the group leader. The menu includes options that let you manage the content on the homepage and guest view page, and options that let you manage the configuration of the group. If responsibility for any group homepage management has been delegated to other group members, they will also see the tools menu, but it will only contain options for any permission they have been assigned.
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Group Homepage Tools
Depending on your role (member or leader), the homepage will provide access to a number of tools:
Group tools. These tools are provided to all group members.
– Homepage. Allows you to return to the group homepage from any subpage.
– Send Announcements. Allows to compose and post announcements to the homepage.
– News. Allows you to read all articles that have been written by other members and to submit articles for potential posting.
– Photos. Allows you to view all of the photos that have been posted and to submit photos for potential posting. See “File Limits” on p.3 *
– Links. Allows you to view all of the links that have been posted and to submit links for potential posting.
– Files. Allows you to view all of the files that have been posted and to submit files for potential posting. See “File Limits” on p.3 *
– Message Board. Allows you to enter a dedicated message board where you can read and post messages and replies.
– Calendar. Allows you to access a group calendar.
– E-mail. Allows you to send e-mail to group members.
– Chat. Allows you to enter a dedicated chat room where you can participate in real time discussions with other members.
– Members. Allows you to view a list of other group members and information about each, including any homepages that the member might have. You can also post your own homepage link.
Note: This is a comprehensive list of all tools and applications that are potentially available to groups and courses. Depending on the rights and permissions granted to you by your system administrator, you may only see a limited set of these tools.
Content tools. These tools are only provided to group leaders, and to group members who have had responsibility for managing a homepage feature delegated to them.
– Manage Homepage. Allows you edit to the content that members see on the homepage, including featured photo, featured links, and top five links.
– Manage Guest View. Allows you edit the content that non members see on the group’s guest page, including the group description, a group photo, general group links, and other group information. Since courses do not have guest members.
– Manage News. Allows you to edit articles that have been submitted for posting, and to post articles to, and delete articles from the homepage.
– Manage Photos. Allows you to post photos to and delete photos from the homepage.*
– Manage Links. Allows you to post links to and delete links from the homepage.
– Manage Files. Allows you to post files to and delete files from the homepage.*
– Manage Message Boards. Allows you to create descriptions for the group’s message board forum and to delete message board topics and replies
– Manage Calendar. Allows you to add events and other important items to a group calendar.
– Manage Announcements. Allows to you to post new announcements to the homepage and delete existing announcements from the homepage.
Configuration tools. These tools are only provided to group leaders.
– General settings. Allows you to change basic group attributes, such as name, description, and group type.
– Applications. Allows you to specify which of the possible system applications (like Chat or Files) are available to group members.
– Sub Groups. Allows you to create, activate, and inactivate subgroups.
– Members. Allows you to activate or inactivate group members. For restricted groups, you need the check the “Members” link in Configuration Tools often to approve group membership. (Restricted Groups only)
– Permissions. Allows you to review the list of group members who have been given permission to manage a homepage feature.
Personal Tools.
These tools are provided to all group members and leaders:
– Groups Policy. Allows you to review Ramapo’s policy for establishing online groups. (Groups only)
– My Profile. Allows you to review your group membership information and to cancel your membership.
Note: As with the overall tools and applications that are potentially available to a group, this list will vary depending on the rights and permissions granted to a group or by the school’s system administrator.
As the group leader, you will work extensively with these tools to create and manage the pages, resources, and content members see, and to deactivate and reset the permissions associated with member profiles.
*Files Limits: The maximum file size for upload to file sharing in course and group homepages is 10 MB. File sharing supports all file types. The maximum file size that can be uploaded for photos is 2 MB. Supported files for photos are .jpg, .jpeg and .gif. There is a total of 100 MB of disk space available per group or course for storing photos and shared files.
