Creating a Community

Any user can create a community and communities are not organisation specific. For that reason, a community built in one organisation will be visible to users in other organisation.

• Click 'Communities' in the main tab menu.

• Click 'Create a Community'.

• Step 1: Choose a category for your community by clicking on the appropriate title (e.g., Administration, Courses, Careers in Health Care). The list of community categories cannot be changed through the user interface but can be adjusted by a developer if desired by your organisation. Categories may be later reviewed to see how users are using communities but there are no filter settings or reports that rely on these categories.

• Step 2: Provide the required details, noting the following:

Community Details

• Name: Pick a descriptive but concise name.

• Keywords: These will not be visible to users but will be applied when someone searches for an existing community.

• Description: This will be displayed to any user who searches for or tries to access the community.

• Shortname: This will be part of the community url. It must be lower-case, less than 20 characters, and include only letters, numbers, underscore or period. After this is set there is no user interface to change the url so pick carefully!

• Type: Select the appropriate type from the dropdown menu. More detail about community types is available in the Communities>Types help section.

• If you are creating a course website, indicate which course should be connected to the community. Note that you can connect multiple courses to one course website and they will share their student-facing website. More information about this is in the Courses>Websites help section.

• Template: A selection of templates are available but only those applicable to the community type you select will display. Click on the magnifying glass icon in the corner of each template to see a sample of its appearance. The templates are titled with their suggested uses.

Community Pages

• Different types of communities have different pages available. In generic communities the only page included by default is Home. Tick off the additional pages required. In course websites, a series of default pages are required. You will be able to add additional pages but there is not ability to delete or hide the included pages (unless you get a developer to change this in your installations database). In learning modules, you must check off any pages you wish to include.

Community Permissions

• Here you can control how users access and use the community. Details about each option are included inline on the screen.

• Many organisations set the permissions for their courses as Protected Community and Open Community but of course it is up to each organisation to decide this.

• Click 'Create'.

• You will be redirected to the community and as the creator of the community can manage all pages. You'll notice an Edit button on each page. Click on it to add or edit content on any page. Additional information about managing a community is in the Communities>Manage help section.

Additional information about creating a course website can be accessed in the Courses>Website help section.