Feature Overview and Requirements

User Groups provide a flexible way to group individuals across Position, Role, and Organization structures. There are no requirements or restrictions limiting which users can belong to a User Group. Any LMS user can belong to one, multiple, or none of the User Groups you have created, and such assignments can be edited at any time.

Key Drivers and Functionality
Reasons you may want to consider assigning users to a User Group:

• User Search: All User Pickers and User Search pages allow you to filter results by User Group. Because these search tools appear in many features throughout the LMS, having pre-defined groups can help simplify the user selection process. For example, you can use them to create a custom distribution list for ad-hoc Announcement messaging or to batch enroll users who must complete specified courses to meet shared training standards.
• User Import: All new users created from the User Import process belong to a unique User Group that is auto-generated with date/time stamp information to ensure easy reference against the import. Because User Groups are integrated into user search/filter options across many areas of the LMS, this design should allow easy targeting of this specific user population for a general “Welcome!” announcement, batch enrollment in new employee orientation, etc.
• Course Prerequisites: Prerequisite Rules allow you to define enrollment eligibility based on User Group assignment.
• Employee Oversight: User Groups provide an excellent option for a manager to view his or her employees’ status in a Certification or Curriculum program, using filtered views from the manager’s My Team page.
• Reports: In some of our standard LMS activity reports, you can include User Group as a selection criterion and/or include it in the report output. Because many reports have a user selection, user group becomes an option for selecting users for reporting purposes.

Step by Step Procedure and Field Description

Add a New User Group

To create a new User Group:

1. From the Administration menu, select User Groups > Add User Group.
2. Enter Language, Group Name and Notes as necessary. Note: “Status” defaults to Active, but User Groups can be deactivated and reactivated at any time. Administrators can provide this information in other languages, but must first save the data in English and then edit the record with translated content.
3. Click Submit to save changes.

A message at the top of the page will confirm when your edit is successful. When the page refreshes, you will note the addition of several tabs for managing the group: Details (display only), General Information, Employees, and Import.

Edit a User Group

1. From the Administration menu, select User Groups > Search User Groups.
2. Conduct your search and click the View/Edit link for the group you want to update.
3. Open the General Information tab to update the name and description or to activate/inactivate the group. Membership maintenance is managed on the Employees and/or Import tabs.

Managing Members of a User Group

There are several ways to manage members of a User Group. You can add or delete multiple users at a time by editing the User Group itself. You can also update individual User Profiles with grouping information. Membership assignments flow both ways using these methods. You can also use the Import tab to do a mass upload of members, either overwriting the current membership or just adding to it. 

Add a new member manually:

1. Click Add Users at the bottom of the page to launch a User Picker and conduct your search.
2. When the list of users is displayed, click Add for each user you want added to the group, or Add All at the top right corner.
3. You can review and edit the list of users in the “User Basket” on the left side of the picker before clicking Check Out to update the group. The list of users to be added will appear at the bottom of the “Edit Users in Group” page.
4. Click Submit to save changes. This also updates their primary profiles under the user’s account record.

Remove a member:

1. Users can be similarly removed from a User Group. Under the Employees tab, identify the users you would like removed.
2. Check the Remove box listed to the right of the appropriate username.
3. Click Submit to save changes. This also end dates the User Group assignment in the user’s profile, making it inactive. 

Import a User Group 

1. Open the User Group for which you want to append or overwrite members.
2. Select the Import tab. If you need to fill out your template, you can download one by opening online help from this page. The file is a CSV format with one column named username. This column must remain as such. Enter the Usernames of those people you want to place in the group. Save the file as CSV format and do not use spaces or special characters in the filename.
3. With your completed file, on the Import tab, click Choose File to select the file for upload.
4. Select your Action:  a) Overwrite: replaces the current membership with the uploaded membership or b) Update: appends the current membership with the imported users.
5. Click Process User Group Import.
6. You should see an Edit Successful message and expect a confirmation email when the upload is processed. 

Manage Individual Membership from the User Profile

You can review and edit a particular user’s group membership from the “Edit User Profile” page.

1. From the Administration menu, select Users > Search Users.
2. Conduct your search and next to the user account you want to edit, click Edit User Profile.
3. On the Profiles tab, find the Organization profile (if more than one is available) at which you want to add or remove group membership, then click Edit Profile.
4. Expand the Add a User Group section.
5. To add the user to a user group, click Select a User Group and use the picker to find the desired group.
6. Review the Effective dates and when ready click Add Group.
7. To remove someone from an assigned user group, enter an End Date by the group in list or check Terminate.
8. Click Submit to save any changes made.