Google Groups can be many things: forums, chat rooms, announcement boards, you name it. But when you are creating a new Group, you need to make sure you are creating the correct type or risk it to be completely dysfunctional.
If you are creating a group that will be used to announce upcoming school assemblies, you probably don’t want to allow all of your students to reply to every announcement email. Likewise, it would not be helpful to create a Q+A forum and not allow any students to ask questions in it. This overview goes through each of the main styles of Google Groups and how you can best utilize them.
Keep in mind that every group has very granular settings and there may not be a one-size-fits-all solution, so don’t be afraid to go into the group settings and tweak them to your liking.
An Email List is a mailing list that will allow you to email a group of individuals under one email address. This group type includes the following:
A Web Forum is designed to specifically have users post on the Web UI. However, users can receive updates via email such as important announcements. This group type includes the following:
A Q&A forum is a group type designed specifically for users to post questions. Instead of open discussions, this group type focuses on topic resolution for each of the questions posted. By using the three features unique to Q & A forums (Me Too! button, best answer option, questions template), users are sure to streamline the questioning process.
We have all grown fond of the collaborative abilities of Google Documents. Now, with the Collaborative Inbox, users have collaborative abilities such as assigning topics, and volunteering to take topics for resolution. A collaborative inbox allows members of a group to manage the workflow state of topics within the group.
Want to learn more about Google Groups? Reach out to Apps Admin today for more information!