Support #17310
openConnected group site - site does not appear in site list
0%
Description
Hi all,
I have noticed that when faculty make a connected group site, the entity only appears in the "my groups" list and they are confused about why their home page does not also indicate that they have a connected site. I think this is intended behavoir but I also find it really confusing and makes it more difficult for users to find the site.
Moreover, this has presented ongoing issues for me this semester when I have been teaching with the Commons. My students are members of the group/site but only use the site for the class and the group is reserved as an admin space where i use the forum to email students and store readings. Sutdents have been very confused as to why they have to click through the group to get to the site.
Can we revisit this set up where only the group of a connected group-site shows in the logged in home page?
Thanks,
Laurie
Related issues
Updated by Raymond Hoh about 2 years ago
- Related to Design/UX #13998: Homepage Redesign added
Updated by Raymond Hoh about 2 years ago
- Category name set to Home Page
Hi Laurie,
I'm just looking at the code that renders the "My Sites" block on the homepage and it looks like there is a clause to omit group-connected sites from that block: https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/blob/903c38ac8e7c45734ec19d1f01f024e4776c4aec/wp-content/themes/bp-nelo/parts/home/my-banner.php#L40.
I'm guessing we omitted group-connected sites to avoid duplication and maybe because the group should be the entrypoint? Boone or Sara, do you remember why this decision was made?
Updated by Boone Gorges about 2 years ago
Thanks, Ray. Yes, the exclusion was intentional, and IIRC it was for exactly the reasons you mentioned, especially the one about duplication. More explicitly: If the user's three most recently active groups have attached sites, then the My Sites and My Groups list on the home page might list exactly the same items. I can't find any written documentation of this idea, but I'm pretty sure it was discussed at some point.
The team should weigh whether the downsides of Laurie's suggestion (potential confusion due to items being listed twice, less-than-optimal use of space due to a single item taking up multiple slots) is worth the benefits. It's technically easy to remove the exclusion, so it's just a matter of what people think is best.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 1 year ago
- Assignee set to Sara Cannon
- Target version set to Future release
When Sara's back in pocket, perhaps she could spend a few minutes thinking about this issue.
Updated by Sara Cannon about 1 year ago
I have explored a few options here:
1. I looked at adding a third section titled "connected groups and sites" and linked to both in that section. The problem is that there isn't a single page where you can "view all" like Groups and Sites.
2. We could add the ability for a group admin to select either the group or site to display on the homepage in the group settings. This could potentially eliminate confusion
3. We could stop the filtering and add either to the columns based on the last update. This could potentially show duplicates if both the group and the site have been updated recently. But, if the site is updated and the group is updated, there might be relevant content to look at in both. The edge case is if (like in Laurie's case) the group is not used for students anyway.
Conclusion: I would recommend a two-pronged approach. Put both on the home page based on last updated (calculate both site and group separately for this) and also add in the ability for an admin to hide either the group or the site from the student's home page. The option to hide is more of a power-user move and I imagine would be used sparingly but could help ease some confusion.
thoughts?
Updated by Matt Gold about 1 year ago
This is an important issue to discuss -- it strikes me that it would be a good topic to take up at our next full team meeting. I will add it to our agenda