Groups are an additional level of user organization available within institutions. While users do not need to be in a group to access courses, instructor users must be part of the same group as student users in order to view those users’ analytics in the Boost Dashboard, assign them curriculums, or send them messages via the Boost Dashboard’s message center. Think of groups as classrooms or different departments within a company.

 

If you are not using the Boost Dashboard, or don’t have instructor users, creating groups is optional. Institution supervisor users can view data in the Boost Dashboard for all users without being a member of a group. 

 

Creating Groups

You can create groups one-by-one with our group creation wizard, or create groups in bulk with a CSV upload. If you are creating five or fewer groups, we recommend using the group creation wizard.

 

Creating Groups Manually 

 

1. Open the Institution Admin dashboard and use the left-hand navigation menu to go to the Groups section. 

2. Select the New Group button and then select New Group from the drop-down menu. 

 

3. On the first page of the group creation wizard, give the group a name. Then, select the Next button to continue. 

 

Adding a group name is the only mandatory step of the group creation wizard. After adding the name, you can advance through the rest of the steps to create a “placeholder” group if desired.

 

This page also includes the optional Preset Study Plan Completion Date field. If you set this date, this will be the default Study Plan end date for all users in this group. This can be useful if all the users in this group have the same deadline to complete their course by. Note that users can change their Study Plan end date at any time, even if you set a default for them. 

 

 

4. Add Instructors to the group on the second page of the group creation wizard. When you’re ready to move to the next step, select the “Next” button to continue. 

1. To add existing instructors to the group, check the box next to their name and select the Add to Group button. If you have many instructors, you can use the filters on this page to find specific users quickly. 
2. To remove instructors from the group, select the Instructors in Group tab, check the box next to their name, and select the Remove from Group button. 
3. You can also create new instructors and immediately add them to this group via the New Instructors button on this page. This button offers the same user creation options seen in the Instructors section, but will automatically return you to the group creation wizard when you finish creating the new users. An Add to group checkbox will also appear on these pages, allowing you to automatically assign the new users to the group you’re creating. 

5. Add students to the group on the third page of the group creation wizard. 

1. To add existing students to the group, check the box next to their name and select the “Add to Group” button. If you have many students, you can use the filters on this page to find specific users quickly. 
2. To remove students from the group, select the “Students in Group” tab, check the box next to their name, and select the “Remove from Group” button. 
3. You can also create new students and immediately add them to this group via the “New Students” button on this page. This button offers the same user creation options seen in the Students section, but will automatically return you to the group creation wizard when you finish creating the new users. An “Add to group” checkbox will also appear on these pages, allowing you to automatically assign the new users to the group you’re creating. 

 

6. Select the Finish button to create the group. 

1. Don’t forget this step! The Institution Admin dashboard will not save “drafts” of groups.

 

Creating Groups via CSV Upload

1. Open the Institution Admin dashboard and use the left-hand navigation menu to go to the Groups section. 

2. Select the New Group button and then select Upload Multiple from the drop-down menu. 

 

3. Open a spreadsheet-editing tool (Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets work well for this) and follow the instructions listed on the upload page exactly. 

1. To create a new group, put the desired name for the new group in the “group_name” column. Unless this name matches the name of an existing group in this institution, this will create a new group. 
2. You can use this CSV to create new users and immediately add them to the new group. To do so, enter the new group’s name in the “group_name” column, and add the new user’s information to the “name,” “email,” and “password” columns (note that the “password” column is optional). Then, enter “student” or “instructor” in the “user_type” field to designate which role this user will have. If they have an external unique id number, add it to the "sis_id" column.
3. You can also add existing users to the new group here. Enter the new group’s name in the “group_name” column, then add the existing user’s name, email address, and user type. Make sure the name, email address, and user type exactly match the user’s existing data.  

 

 

4. Save your spreadsheet as a .csv file. 

5. Select the contract the users listed in the CSV file should be part of using the drop-down menu. If this institution only has one contract, that contract is selected by default. 

1. This field is mandatory, but only relevant if you use this upload to create new users. If your CSV only includes existing users, select the contract that these users are already part of. 
2. If your CSV includes new users, select the contract these users should be assigned to. 

6. Check the box next to all of the courses on this contract that these users should have access to. 

1. This field is mandatory, but only relevant if you use this upload to create new users. If your CSV only includes existing users, select the courses these users already have access to. 
2. If your CSV includes new users, select the courses these users should have access to. 

7. Select the Browse… button and locate your CSV file. 

8. Select the Upload button to begin the upload. 

 

Immediately after the upload begins, you will receive either a green “success” pop-up or a red “failure” pop-up at the top of your screen. If you receive a red pop-up, it’s likely that your CSV has a formatting error that prevents the database from processing it correctly. Please refer to the “How to Create a CSV for Upload” article for troubleshooting instructions. 

If you receive a green pop-up, the upload began successfully. When the upload is complete, you’ll receive an email confirming the upload is done and telling you how many rows of data were processed. If an error prevented the database from processing a specific row of data, the email will also note this. 

 

Editing Groups

 

In addition to creating groups, you can also edit groups in the Institution Admin dashboard manually or via a CSV upload. 

 

Editing Groups Manually 

 

1. Open the Institution Admin dashboard and use the left-hand navigation menu to go to the Groups section. 

2. Select the group that you want to edit. If you don’t see the group you want to work with, you can either use the Filters to search for it by name or sort the group listing by one of the columns using the arrow icons next to the applicable column names.

 

 

On the group’s details page, you can change the group’s name, add and remove students, or add and remove instructors. It is not possible to change the default Study Plan End Date for the group after the group creation process. 

3. To change the group’s name, select the Edit button, enter the new group name on the next page, and then select the Save button. 

 

 

4. To add or remove instructors, select the Manage button. This will take you to a page similar to the group creation wizard. 

1. To add existing instructors to the group, check the box next to their name and select the Add to Group button. If you have many instructors, you can use the filters on this page to find specific users quickly. 
2. To remove instructors from the group, select the Instructors in Group tab, check the box next to their name, and select the Remove from Group button. 
3. Select the Save Group button when finished. 

 

 

 

 

5. To add or remove students, toggle from the list of instructors in this group to the list of students in this group. Then, select the Manage button. 

1. To add existing students to the group, check the box next to their name and select the Add to Group button. If you have many students, you can use the filters on this page to find specific users quickly. 
2. To remove students from the group, select the Students in Group tab, check the box next to their name, and select the Remove from Group button. 
3. Select the Save Group button when finished. 

 

 

 

Editing Groups via CSV Upload

1. Open the Institution Admin dashboard and use the left-hand navigation menu to go to the Groups section. 
2. Select the New Group button and then select Upload Multiple from the drop-down menu. Note that the CSV upload process will only allow you to add users to this group - to change the group’s name, or to remove users from the group, please follow the instructions under Editing Groups Manually. 
   
3. Open a spreadsheet-editing tool (Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets work well for this) and follow the instructions listed exactly.
   1. To edit an existing group’s users, put this group’s name in the “group_name” column. Make sure the name is an exact match - any typos will result in the creation of a new group. 
   2. To add existing users to this group, enter the existing user’s name, email address, and user type. Make sure the name, email address, and user type exactly match the user’s existing data.  
   3. To add new users to this group, enter the new user’s information in the “name,” “email,” and “password” columns (note that the “password” column is optional). Then, enter “student” or “instructor” in the “user_type” field to designate which role this user will have. If they have an external unique id number, add it to the "sis_id" column. Save your spreadsheet as a .csv file. 
4. Save your spreadsheet as a .csv file. 
5. Select the contract the users listed in the CSV file should be part of using the drop-down menu. If this institution only has one contract, that contract is selected by default.
   1. This field is mandatory, but only relevant if you use this upload to create new users. If your CSV only includes existing users, select the contract that these users are already part of. 
   2. If your CSV includes new users, select the contract these users should be assigned to.
       
6. Check the box next to all of the courses on this contract that these users should have access to.
   1. This field is mandatory, but only relevant if you use this upload to create new users. If your CSV only includes existing users, select the courses these users already have access to. 
   2. If your CSV includes new users, select the courses these users should have access to. 

7. Select the Browse… button and locate your CSV file. 

8. Select the Upload button to begin the upload.