User groups

Create and manage user groups for filtering, bulk enrollment, communication, and audience targeting across User Management and OrgHub.

User groups bundle people together so you can target, enroll, or communicate with them as a unit instead of selecting individuals one by one. A group is an institution-wide label — like “Teaching staff 2026” or “First-year advisors” — whose membership you manage independently of roles and academic cohorts.

Groups are a lightweight organizational tool. They do not replace study program cohorts (which drive curriculum and study plans) or roles (which control access). Instead, groups help staff work with arbitrary subsets of users for day-to-day operations: filtering the Users table, enrolling a class into a course, sending a bulk email, or targeting an Info Hub announcement.

Why it matters

University administration constantly works with subsets of the population — a department, a intake wave, a project team, a mailing list for an event. Without groups, every operation becomes a manual multi-select exercise that does not scale past a few dozen people and is hard to repeat consistently.

Groups give you a reusable audience. Create the group once, add members as accounts are provisioned, and reuse the same group for filtering, enrollment, and communication. Because membership is explicit (not inferred from role or cohort), you stay in control of exactly who is included — which matters for GDPR-conscious communication and for avoiding accidental over-messaging.

How it fits

Groups sit between user accounts and the workflows that consume them:

Users are created in User Management and assigned roles.
Cohorts organize students academically under a study program version — see Study programs & cohorts. A cohort drives curriculum assignment; a user group does not.
Groups are flexible tags for operational tasks. A student can belong to both a cohort (academic) and multiple groups (operational).

Typical workflow: create users → assign roles → add to relevant groups → use groups for enrollment or communication → adjust membership as people join or leave projects.

Key concepts

Term	Meaning
Group	A named collection of user accounts within the institution.
Member	A user who belongs to a group. Users can belong to multiple groups simultaneously.
Group color	Optional visual identifier in the Groups list.
Tags	Optional labels for organizing many groups (for example, by department or year).
Snapshot enrollment	When you enroll a group into a course, only members at the time of enrollment are added. Future members are not added automatically.

Open the Groups page

Go to OrgHub → Management → Groups, or open OrgHub → Management → Users and select the Groups tab at the top of the page.

You need Read user groups to view the list.

Create a group

On the Groups page, select Add (or the create action in the toolbar).

Enter a Group name that makes the group easy to identify (for example, “Teaching staff 2026” or “First-year cohort”).

Optionally choose a Group color and add Tags for organization.

Save to create the group.

Add members

You can add members from the group detail page or from the Users table.

From a group

Select the group’s name to open its detail page.

Select Add members (or Add users).

Search for users by name or email and select each person to add.

Confirm to add them to the group.

From the Users table (bulk)

On OrgHub → Management → Users, select the users you want to add.

Open ⋯ → Groups → Add to group and pick the target group.

A user can belong to multiple groups at the same time.

For large intakes, you may add users to groups immediately after creating them or use Bulk actions to move many accounts at once.

Remove members

From a group detail page — remove individual members from the member list.
From the Users table — filter by group, select users, then choose Remove from selected group in the bulk Groups menu.

Removing someone from a group does not delete their user account.

Delete a group

Open the group’s actions and select Delete. Deleting a group removes the group itself but does not delete the users who were members.

Use groups for filtering and targeting

Groups help you work with subsets of your institution:

Use case	How groups help
Users table filter	Use the Group filter on the Users tab to show only members of a selected group.
Course enrollment	Enroll an entire group into a course from course management. Members at the time of enrollment are added; future members are not added automatically.
Bulk email and chat	Select group members in the Users table and use Send email or Group chat from bulk actions.
Info Hub and announcements	Target audiences by group where audience targeting is supported — see Target your audience.

Group communication

When users are selected in the Users table, bulk actions under Communication include:

Send email — email selected members.
Group chat — create a chat channel with the selected users (requires Create group chat).

You can also email or manage users from the Groups page when multiple groups are selected, using the bulk options on that table.

For the full list of bulk communication options, see Bulk actions.

Permissions

Action	Permission
View groups	Read user groups
Create a group	Create user group or Create user groups
Edit group details / membership	Update user group or Update user groups
Delete a group	Delete user group or Delete user groups

These permissions are configured per role in Roles & permissions. The OrgHub Users sidebar item itself requires Read users and Read user groups — see Permissions, features & visibility.

Best practices

Keep groups purpose-driven. Create a group when you have a recurring need to target the same people — not as a substitute for role-based access control.
Document snapshot enrollment. When enrolling a group into a course, remind course administrators that new group members afterward must be enrolled separately (or re-run enrollment for new additions).
Combine groups with table filters. Filter by group, then by status or role, to narrow bulk actions precisely before inviting or deactivating users.
Retire obsolete groups. At the end of an academic year, delete or archive naming conventions that reference past intakes to avoid accidental targeting.
Do not confuse groups with cohorts. For curriculum-driven student organization, use Add users to cohort instead.

Common pitfalls

Pitfall	What happens	How to avoid
Expecting auto-enrollment	New group members are not added to courses enrolled via the group earlier	Re-enroll new members individually or run a fresh group enrollment
Overlapping group and cohort membership	Same students appear in multiple lists with different meanings	Use cohorts for academics, groups for operations; name them distinctly
Bulk messaging the wrong group	Email goes to everyone in the filtered group	Always preview your table filter before running Send email
Missing permission	Groups page or tab is hidden	Ensure the role has Read user groups

FAQ

Can one user belong to multiple groups?

Yes. Group membership is many-to-many. A user can be in “Teaching staff 2026” and “Faculty senate” simultaneously without conflict.

Does deleting a group delete the users?

No. Deleting a group removes only the group record. User accounts remain in User Management.

Will new group members automatically join courses the group was enrolled in?

No. Course enrollment via a group is a snapshot — only members at enrollment time are added. Add new members to the course separately.

How are groups different from study program cohorts?

Cohorts are academic structures tied to a program version and curriculum. Groups are flexible operational collections with no study plan implications. See Study programs & cohorts.

Bulk actions

Add or remove users from groups in bulk from the Users table.

Create a user

Add new people before assigning them to groups.

Roles and permissions

Control who can view, create, and manage groups.

Study programs and cohorts

Academic student grouping — separate from operational user groups.

Target your audience

Use groups when publishing Info Hub announcements.

Bulk enroll

Enroll groups into courses from course management.