Help: Creating groups, inviting, archiving and other information for managers

What type of groupspaces are there?

A LearningStone Workspace can be seen as a building and the groupspaces as the rooms. These rooms can be used for training, communities, one-on-one coaching or group coaching and individual eLearning.
Workspace and groupspace are words used behind the scenes. The participant will just see the title such as: Train&Co Academy (the workspace) and “Business writing December” (the groupspace). Within the groupspace, the participant see a course timeline containing material, e.g. “"Writing for success - v2".

Each groupspace has members and functions but the type of groupspace determines if the members see each other or not and which functionalities can be turned on.

1. The managers groupspace contain the workspace administrator and the workspace managers who both can create and managers groupspaces without being a member of one.

2. Collaborative groupspaces are great for group training, learning communities, workshops, and any other use where members should see each other and use the collaborative features like dialogues, a wall, commenting on documents and messaging. Collaborative groupspaces also offer one-on-one communication with a coach like the Personals Folder in the Docs or the Personal Dialogues.

3. Solo groupspaces are collections of individual members called “Solo members”. Though they are in a groupspace together, they are there to learn on their own or have personal dialogues or share personal documents with a coach or trainer. In short: solo-groupspaces are great for self-paced eLearning and one-on-one e-coaching. The Solo-members cannot collaborate with- or see other members.

Which scenarios are supported by Collaborative or Solo Groupspaces?

How do I upgrade, downgrade or change my credit card number or other details?

If you are a workspace administrator, you can up or downgrade anytime. Simply go to Settings > Workspace Settings > Edit Account and plan. If you need to change a credit card number, simply go through the order and in the last step (review subscription), you can click on “Change Credit Card”.

What roles are there?

There are several type of roles. This explanation can also be found on the "Organise Members" page.

Use the PowerAdmin to manage members and groupspaces (advanced)

Collaborative members (in collaborative groupspaces only) are usually trainees or members of a learning community. They cannot invite new people or edit the course timeline.

Solo Members (in Solo Groups only) are members who do not see other members except the coach or manager. Solo-groups are used for one-to-one coaching or self-paced elearning.

Coaches (or trainers) can invite new people, copy and edit the course timelines and group settings. There is no separate trainers role.

Managers can do the same as coaches and also receive messages about new members.

Mentors are similar to normal members and can be used as guest members that need to observe or communicate with individual members. The coach can share the progress report with mentors. Mentors cannot invite members and cannot edit course timelines and even though they can enter data in a course timeline, their results will never be shared with normal members.

Access ended (archived members) will not be able to enter the groupspace anymore but you will not lose their data.

Removed members will be removed from the groupspace but the account may still be used in another groupspace.

Notifications: After each move, the system will send a notification to the member. You can turn this off by setting it to silent mode.

Sending email reminders: You can send email reminders to members who are tagged with "Invited". They are reminded that you added them to the group and asked them to sign up and become an active member. The system also sends automatic reminders.

Waiting room for new members: If a member has followed a "Request access" link or followed a link after being invited by “Invitation link”, the groupspace manager will receive an email notification. You can accept the new member (who will appear in the waiting room), by moving him or her to the appropriate area. Decline the member by moving him or her to the Removed members area.

Who manages the workspace?

Workspace managers: The members of the managers groupspace that are managers are called workspace managers, they can create and copy groupspaces, look at- and manage any groupspace in the workspace without having to be a member. They can also share files, add calendar events and start discussions for the whole workspace.

Workspace administrators: the managers groupspace has its own manager called the workspace administrator.

The workspace administrator can:

· do anything a workspace manager can do;

· add or remove workspace managers in the managers groupspace;

· add another workspace administrator;

· upgrade the workspace (see Workspace Settings > Edit account details).

How do I become a manager?

The person who starts a groupspace is automatically a “groupspace manager”. If the groupspace already exists, then you can ask the existing manager to give you the role of manager too.

The person who creates a workspace automatically becomes the workspace “administrator” and can add “workspace managers” or another administrator.

There must always be at least one groupspace manager in a groupspace and at least one administrator in a workspace. There doesn’t have to be a workspace manager.

How do I turn someone into a groupspace manager?

Once someone is a member (any role), a groupspace manager can move that person into the manager-area. The person will stay a member but will then also be a groupspace manager.

If you want someone to become a workspace manager or administrator, you can do this on the “Organize members” page in the managers groupspace.

Use the PowerAdmin to manage members and groupspaces (advanced)

How do I find out who the managers are?

Manager: go to the groupspace and click on “Organize members”. The managers are shown on the right. Or go to the “People” tab.

Workspace managers and administrators: if you are allowed to, you can look under “Organize members” in the managers groupspace.

How do I create a new groupspace or copy an existing one?

If you are a workspace manager, you can create a new groupspace or copy an existing one.

Create new groupspace

1. Choose “Catalog” and scroll down to the bottom and choose “Create a groupspace in ...” and follow the steps.

2. Open “Settings” in the new groupspace and then “ Title, banner and visibility of groupspace” to edit the title and then “Layout and functions” to configure the groupspace.

3. In the new groupspace, choose Library > Copy or create a new course timeline. Make sure you publish the course timeline and set the default in the list. Choose “More” or the 3 dots icons to edit the course timeline.

Copy existing groupspace

Choose “Catalog” and then choose “Copy” from the menu next to an existing groupspace.

The following will be copied:

● The layout and function settings

● All published course timelines

● Forms that are connected to a course timeline

● Folders in Docs that are connected to a course timeline

● Coaches and managers

Other members and all dialogs, comments and progress data will not be copied. Coaches and managers will receive a notification that they have become a coach or manager of the new groupspace.

What’s steps do I take to invite participants?

First, you need to create a groupspace. You do this with the buttons at the bottom of the groupspace list in the catalog.

Once you’ve got that done, you need to get the groupspace going by inviting people. Take the following steps:

Tell people what you are going to do. If possible, just tell people personally and ask them to respond quickly or otherwise send them an email.
Pick one of the methods below for adding or inviting members.
Check if everybody has responded. If not – take the effort to remind them. There will always be a few latecomers that need some extra attention.

This might be the email that you send for a collaborative groupspace.

Dear…

You have signup for….

We are going to use LearningStone for communication. LearningStone is an online tool that is especially suitable for safe and easy communication and learning.

You will receive an invitation from LearningStone asking you to sign up (or login if you’re already use LearningStone).

Please accept the invitation as soon as possible – it only takes a minute - and after that we can post messages, send mail via LearningStone, store documents, upload pictures, share the calendar etc.

See you on LearningStone!

How do I add members to a groupspace?

A groupspace manager can add members directly and automatically email an invitation or invite them by sending an email containing a link. Click on “Invite” in the menu on the left side of the screen for more information.

Choose “Invite one named member” or “Invite many named members” if you know his or her name and email address as you will be able to send messages to the groupspace immediately after adding them, even if they have not accepted the invitation yet.

Every time you send a message, the footer of the mail will include a reminder to accept the invitation.

How do I remove members or end access automatically?

It’s always possible to archive a whole groupspace (the training, coaching track etc). The LearningStone archive is free, so you never need to worry about archiving a groupspace. Members can still enter the groupspace in the archive but not edit or post anything.
You might also want to end the access of specific members or all members after a certain amount of time without archiving the groupspace. This can be done manually in “Organize members” by deleting the member (everything is lost) or ending the access (the member cannot enter anymore but data is kept) which means you archive the member in an ongoing groupspace.
It's also possible to let the system calculate the end date based on the number of days you set in the groupspace settings. E.g End the access 30 days after the member was added.

If this default doesn’t work for you, you can also set the end date manually for a member. Just click on the profile picture in “Organize members” and then “Edit”. The member will then be moved to “Access ended (archived members)” at the specified date.

In all cases the end date (if there is one) will be visible for the member in “My Catalog” and they will get a notification that their access has ended.

NOTE: if you set an end date to a date in the past, after a while the member will be moved to “Access ended” in “Organize members”. If you move the member back, you will need to remove the end date or change it, to avoid the access to be ended again. The system checks dates and moves members every few hours.

Which method should I use to add people to a groupspace?

If you (the manager) have names, e-mail addresses and you know who is who, then it’s best to go straight to Invite and choose “Invite many named members”. By doing this, you can start mailing the members straight away and members can sign up when they get around to it.

If you only have email addresses, you can send out a special signup link. In this case, the members cannot receive mail from the groupspace until they have accepted the invitation in and until the groupspace manager get an email and has accepted them by moving them to the correct role (member, etc.) in the “Organize members” screen.

If you don’t have the email addresses either, you can click on the Invite link and then print an invitation containing an invite code and simply hand it out. In this case you will get an email when the user is ready to be accepted.

How do I name and rename a groupspace?

When you start a new groupspace, you decide on a name. Try and use a name that fits in with the rest of the groupspaces. Add a label like “New!”, or “for testing only” or something that will make it easier to understand which groupspace it is.

When you need to change the name, go to Settings > General.

How do I remove a groupspace? (Archiving or deleting)

Under groupspace settings, you will find a section called “Archiving or delete” or choose then menu next to the groupspace title in the catalog .

Archiving (preferred!)

If you archive a groupspace, you will add it to a list “Archive” – available for all users. You’ll see it appear under the list of groupspaces.

An archived groupspace is a frozen groupspace: nothing is thrown away but all functions are switched to read only except for “Messages” making it possible to find and send message to old groupspace members.

Deleting

Only Workspace-managers can permanently delete a groupspace. To do this, first go to the archive, choose the menu next to the groupspace and select "Delete."

How do I move members from one groupspace to another?

If you set up a new groupspace, it’s easy to copy or move members of an old groupspace into it.

Go to the “Organize members” page of the old groupspace and click on “Move members”.

Now select the members you want to move, choose the destination and click on “Move” or “Copy”. Done!

When are notifications sent out?

A notification is an email that is sent out when something changes, is added or occurs in the groups, so that you don’t have to keep checking online. Any member can change the frequency of notifications (per groupspace) in his or her preferences.

Notifications are sent out when:

● something is posted to the wall, a discussion, news

● a comment is posted to the wall or discussion.

● a member is invited, removed or the role is changed

● a form is filled in (turn this on in the form settings)

● the week is about to start (Saturday). An overview of calendar items is sent out.

● an event will start the next day.

There are NO automatic notifications if:

● a groupspace is added, deleted or archived.

● a course timeline or a block is added or published.

● a calendar item is added (this can be turned on by members).

● files are added to Docs or Albums (this can be turned on by members).

● files are added to Workspace Docs.

● someone signs up for a signup list in the calendar.

I don’t want to be the groupspace manager anymore.

Ask another manager to go to “Organize members” and click on “Delete manager role”. You will still be a member unless you were the only manager.