One of the great features of the Uncanny LearnDash Groups plugin is how it makes group management easier for both your customers and your administrators! This article introduces you to the Create Group wizard, and it walks through some of what’s different about creating groups with this interface versus directly in LearnDash. Even if groups are actively being created and managed by your users on the front end, this article will explain how administrators can create and manage groups on the back end.
Creating Groups with the Create Group Wizard
The Create Group page (under Uncanny Groups > Create Group) is for administrators to create groups and set a group leader, group name, group seats, and associate courses to the group – all in one step.
Fig. 1. The Create Group page.
The fields required for group creation are:
- Group name
- Total number of seats available
- Courses available to the group
- Group leader first name
- Group leader last name
- Group leader email address
Please note that the Group Leader information is optional in Uncanny Groups 4.0 or later, but in earlier versions of Uncanny Groups a Group Leader must be assigned at the time of group creation.
Once you click on the Process Group button, the group is automatically created, and you will be redirected to the Group Edit page in LearnDash (more about that below).
Once created, the new group will be available to the Group Leader to manage via their Group Management page. If the Group Leader assigned is a new user, an email will be sent to them containing their username and password. Existing users that have been assigned as a Group Leader will also be sent an email and will automatically be able to see and manage the group the next time they log into the site.
Managing Seats
When using Uncanny LearnDash Groups, administrators still have the ability to create and edit groups in LearnDash. Regardless of what group management is happening on the front end by Group Leaders, an admin can create new groups, and they can edit and override settings of existing groups such as adding and removing users, changing Group Leaders and, adding and removing group courses.
Also, when using the Groups plugin, fields are added to the Edit Group page allowing admins to add or subtract the number of seats assigned to the group.
When users or seats are added by an administrator via LearnDash, the number of seats will be automatically updated for that Group and remaining seats adjusted accordingly. If an admin adds more users than seats to a Group, the overall seats will be increased and the remaining seats will be set to zero. If for some reason the seat count is incorrect for a group, you can click the Reconcile seat count button on the Edit Group page to restore the proper seat count based on the number of members in the group.
Managing Users that have been Sent and Enrollment Key (But Not Yet Registered)
You can also view the users that have been sent an enrollment key by the Group Leader but have not yet created an account. These users have a seat in the group “reserved” for their registration. They can be deleted from the front-end group management page to restore the seat’s availability. Note that even if they have been “deleted”, this doesn’t prevent them from using the key to register if there are still seats available in the group.
Downgrading Groups created via WooCommerce
Groups created via WooCommerce purchases may allow Group Leaders to add seats, add courses and manage users within available seat limits. If the WooCommerce products or orders associated with these groups are trashed or deleted, group functions such as adding users, courses or seats to the group may not work as expected. In this situation, the group can be downgraded in the section Uncanny Group Management – WooCommerce Orders on the Edit Group page (see screenshot above) so that it functions as a Basic LearnDash group with access to reporting tools only.
Depending on the level of complexity of your groups, the number of enrolled students, and how many Group Leaders are actively managing groups, decisions to edit groups via LearnDash must be made cautiously. For example, if administrators want to manage seats for a Group Leader, we recommend they log in as Group Leader and do it through the Group Management Page. Once groups are set up using the plugin, only methods that are supported by the plugin should be used to add users to groups.
Uncanny Groups changes to the LearnDash group list
Uncanny Groups 4.0 and later adds several options to the list of groups at LearnDash LMS > Groups.
If you hover over a group name on the left side of the page, an option to Download Keys will be available. This gives administrators the option of downloading enrollment keys as a CSV file from the group list rather than having to navigate to the Group Management page for a group.
Uncanny Groups also adds a Seats column to the table. This shows used vs. available seats for all groups that have an assigned number of seats.
