Define the details for your group or Page

Any group of people who need to share information can be grouped together in Aspen, such as the following:

  • The entire school community
  • All of the faculty at your school
  • Just the Math Department faculty
  • A particular class section, such as English 101
  • All of the parents of students at your school
  • A sports team, such as JV Football

Many of these groups would benefit from having their own Page as a way to post announcements, game times, photos, and more.

See Examples of Pages for ideas.

In order to create a Page, you have to create a group first. Then you decide whether to fully enable, partially enable, or disable your group’s page status.

Users with the appropriate security role privileges can create groups in Aspen. By default, this includes system administrators, school administrators, and teachers.

If you create a group without a Page, such as Chorus, and decide in the future that you would like this group to have a Page, all you have to do is go into the group’s details and enable its page status.

Besides creating an individual group with a Page, it is possible to do the following:

To create a group with or without a Page:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Log on to the District view. Click the District tab, then the Groups side-tab.
    • Log on to the School view. Click the School tab, then the Groups side-tab.
    • Log on to the Staff view. Click the My Info tab, then the Groups side-tab.
      • The view that you are in while creating your group/Page affects who will have access to it. In order to create a Page that is accessible by all users in the district, you must create it from the District view.
      • If you do not need a Page to have district-wide access, it is easier to create it from the School or Staff view. This narrows down the list of members you have to choose from.
      • Teachers can create a group directly from a section roster.
  1. On the Options menu, click Add.

  2. The New Group page appears.

  1. Use the table to fill in the fields:
  2. Field Description

    Title

    Type the title of the Page, such as Junior Varsity Lacrosse.

    Note: This title is for informational purposes only and doesn’t appear anywhere on the page. It has a 60-character maximum. See Page Label field below.

    Category

    Click this drop-down to select the type of Page you are creating, such as Athletic.

    Note: The category selected determines where the Page will appear on the Quick access menu.

    Page Icon

    Click this drop-down to select an icon name. As soon as you do, an image of the icon appears next to the field.

    Note: To view images of all available icons, see Page Icons in online help.

    Adult Responsible

    Click Search icon. to select the name of the staff member who is responsible for this Page.

    Notes:

    • This field is important for Pages that are administered by students.
    • The Adult Responsible is automatically the page administrator, unless you assign otherwise.
    • The Adult Responsible does not have to be a member of the group.

    Start Date/End Date

    Type or click Select Date icon. to select a Start Date and End Date for the group.

    Note: Many groups only last for one academic year. Once a group’s end date passes, its Page no longer appears on the Pages tab.

    Page Status

    Click this drop-down to select one of the following:

    • Disabled: This group is not associated with a Page.
    • Page enabled for admins only: This group has its own Page, but the only people who can view it are the page administrator and Adult Responsible (could be the same person).
    • Page enabled for all members: As soon as you add members to this group, they will be able to view its Page.

    Note: Do not select this option until setup of the Page and its widgets is complete.

    Public for all Aspen users

    Select this checkbox to make it possible for all Aspen users to see this Page. The Page will appear under Public Pages in the Page Directory.

    Note: You can browse public Pages and add them to your Quick Access menu, but this does not mean that you are a member of the group. For example, if you make your school Page public, users would be able to read a blog that is posted but not create their own entries.

    Page Label

    Type a label for the Page, such as JV Lacrosse. This appears on the Pages tab under the icon you select. There is a 25-character maximum.

    Note: This field is optional.

    Custom Group Resources per tab? Select this checkbox to make it possible for each tab on the Page to have its own Group Resources. The default value is deselected.

    Enable Logging?

    Select this checkbox to make it possible for Aspen system administrators and page administrators to monitor Page activity (access date and time, user login, and user name).

    Note: The access log is available on the Groups side-tab in the District, School, and Staff views.

    Owner

    Click Search icon. to select the owner of the group. A pick list appears with the option of selecting a District, School, or User.

    Example: Setting the owner to School will narrow the list of possible members to only those at the school(s) the creator of the Page is affiliated with.

    Filter by

    		 Click Search icon. to select the member type of the group. A pick list appears with the option of selecting from Organizations, Classes or Schools.

Now you need to add members to your group. If you created a group with a Page, adding members is how you give users Page access.