Creating a group on KNIT is a great way to facilitate communication for distributed, campus-based groups such as research groups, courses, committees, or special interest groups. KNIT groups have the following features:
- Online group forum where members can post and reply to topics
- Email notifications of group activity; user can choose how often to receive notifications
- “Reply By Email” functionality for easy communication with the group
- Groups can be public, private, or hidden
- Groups can be associated with a KNIT website (so as to notify group members of new website content or to allow group members to post to the website)
Please see this blog post on the Help blog: How groups can use the Commons. You can also check out the “Uses” and “Tools” tabs on Help & Support for more suggestions abut how to use the Commons.
(Links point to posts written for The CUNY Academic Commons but are applicable to KNIT.)
After you’ve logged in, click on the “Groups” tab then select the “Create a Group” button next to the Group Directory (Create a Group Screenshot). Or, you can hover over your avatart in the upper right hand corner of the screen, click on “My Groups” and then click on “Create a Group.”
To get a better understanding of how to create and maintain your group, please check out this blog post from the Help & Support.
(Links point to posts written for The CUNY Academic Commons but are applicable to KNIT.)
Administrators can do the following things that moderators cannot do:
1) Change group settings, eg turn group blog on or off, turn group forums on or off, change group status from public to private, etc
2) Post Annoucements
3) Change group avatar
4) Manage group members: ie kick/ban members, promote/demote members
5) Delete the group
Group moderators can do the following things that normal members cannot do:
1) Edit the Group Details, including the name of the group and group description
2) Edit, close, and delete forum topics/posts
3) Edit/delete group documents
4) Post Announcements
All content in public groups (member listing, forum posts, activity stream posts) is available to be viewed by anyone, even viewers who aren’t logged into the site. Public groups are listed in the public directory of groups, and any member of the community can join the group without seeking approval from the group owners.
All content in private groups is hidden from the public and is viewable only by members of that group. Private groups are listed in the public directory of groups, but members of the community must request membership to the group and have that request approved before being able to view group content.
All content in hidden groups is hidden from the public and is viewable only by members of that group. Hidden groups are not listed in the public directory of groups. New members must be invited to join by existing group members.
No. When users create or become members of hidden groups, they will see them in the group listing on the homepage, but it will be visible only to members of the group, not to the general public or to members of the Commons who aren’t in the group.
Hidden groups aren’t listed in the groups directory, however, those with access to the group URL can view the group name and description. Group content and member information can only be accessed by members of a hidden group.
Check out this post to learn how groups can upload and share files. With the Commons 1.2 release, we’ve added a new feature called “Docs” which allows members to work on documents collaboratively. In order to eliminate confusion with “Docs”, we’ve changed the old “Documents” tab to “Files”.
(Link points to post written for The CUNY Academic Commons but is applicable to KNIT.)
We’ve enabled a pretty neat group blog function that makes it easy for group admins to attach a WordPress site to a group. Go to your group and click the “Admin” tab on the left-hand menu. Click ”enable group blog.” If you want to use an existing site, select ”Use one of my blogs.” Then select your web site. This will add all members of your group to your chosen site. You can also change the default permission level according to your needs.
To connect an existing site to a group, go to your group home page, and click “Admin” (yes, you need to be an administrator of the group to do this) > Click on Group Blog link > Check the box next to “enable group blog”. Type blog URL to connect the site to your group. That will add all members of your group to your chosen site.Currently, only one site can be attached to a group.
First, please check your notification settings to make sure that you have set your preferences correctly. Second, please check your account’s spam filter or spam folder, as we have received several reports of group activity stream posts being caught by spam filters.
Check out this great post on The CUNY Academic Commons about using digital commons sites (such as KNIT) to teach.
To unsubscribe from a group, go to the group’s page and click ”Leave Group.” The link is right under the group icon image. Click here for a screenshot showing the the process.
(Links are to posts written for The CUNY Academic Commons but applicable to KNIT).
When you join a group, you automatically receive email notifications for all group activity. If you’d like to change your notification settings for your groups, please go to the home page of any group and look for the link titled “Email Options” in the left navigation panel. Click here for a screenshot. On the next page, select the option you would prefer and select “Save Settings”:
- No Email
- Weekly Summary Email
- Daily Digest Email
- All Email
For a comprehensive look at how to configure email notifications for all activity on KNIT, see this page.
(Links are to posts written for The CUNY Academic Commons but applicable to KNIT).
There are two ways to reply to email notifications. You can click on the link supplied in the notification, log into the Commons, and reply; OR you can Reply By Email, from the comfort of your inbox. For more information about Reply by Email, follow this link. You can use Reply by Email to reply to discussion threads on group forums, to personal messages and @mentions, and to group announcements.
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This FAQ was adopted from the FAQ on The CUNY Academic Commons, made possible by their generous Creative Commons licensing.