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What are Groups?
Groups set out to create a space in the app where different groups can have a calendar of events and discussions between group members, and to allow the student body to discover events hosted by different groups on campus.
This is one of the key places of student engagement in the app. You can create a group for any collection of people and events that you’d like to have a centralized place in the app. Each group has its own calendar, discussion wall, membership roster, and description. Groups can be visible to all users, or only visible to a specific subset of users, using the cohort feature.
What’s the difference between a calendar, group, and a guide?
- Calendars are a way to display important dates or reminders to users - like an Academic Calendar or Athletics calendar. Calendar events should have broad appeal and be relevant to the majority of your campus population.
- Groups utilize the event functionality of Calendars but focus more on membership. Groups are useful for smaller interest groups where members can communicate and engage with each other through events, discussions and surveys.
- Guides are more for schedule sets of events that occur over short and specific periods of time - like Orientation or Welcome Week.
What's the difference between a group and a cohort?
- The biggest difference is that groups are meant to be student facing and cohorts are entirely administrative
- Groups are places in the app that users with similar interests or activities can find events, chat with their other group members, and generally interact with the app.
- Cohorts are an entirely administrative function. You will segment your users into various cohorts using different sets of parameters (student attributes, answers to app signup questions, etc) and will use those segments to create various in-app experiences.
What are some common groups to create?
Student organizations, learning communities, residence halls, interest groups, and athletic teams make great groups!
Frequently Asked Questions
A guide is place to hold a list of child events for an overarching event such as RockVIU or WorldVIU Days. A group is a subset of users have something in common, for instance a PSL section, Student Leadership Circle, Fun@VIU, or even a VIU Residence Building / Floor Number.