Groups+-+Land+and+Courses

Groups can have a very significant importance for builds, estates, and objects to just being a method of banding together a bunch of friends for a common interest. The Second Life knowledge base has many articles on creating, managing, and using groups in various ways in an easy question/answer format. The articles can be found by logging into the Second Life web site and browsing the knowledge base for groups.

But when we want to use groups to manage the classroom experience, there are several things to keep in mind. First of all, creating groups does cost you some Lindens ($L 100) at the time of creation. And for a group to remain in existence there must always be at least two users that are members of the group at all times. There is the fact that group notices and group chat generally involves all members of the group regardless of the role that anyone has within the group. You can turn these on or off for particular roles, but you cannot direct a message to any one specific role within a group. So it may not work out so well with one large group, with one instructor, which houses many students, for many courses. One owner cannot eject another owner so it is important to choose owners wisely if you want to have multiple owners in the group. Lastly, any one avatar cannot be a member of more than 25 groups at any one time. So you can see there are some reasons why some planning and coordination is needed to keep groups organized.

If you are setting up groups for the first time, and you own an island, estate, or are renting a parcel, it is helpful to create a group that will only contain the builders. This would essentially be a permanently established group for the individuals that will be managing the land and any aspects of the land. Within this group you can establish certain roles for specific functions of land and parcel management if you like. For example, maybe you’ll create a specific role for the few that can terraform and manage the land with a separate role the few that may build on the existing land. When the land or parcel are then deeded to that group, those roles become active for that group with the permissions based upon the roles that you have set up. Pay careful attention to the parcel and object sections of the role permissions to be sure you are giving people the abilities your want them to have.
 * Land**

For faculty, groups will become important to managing their courses and rosters. As with any group, the groups created will be $L 100 each and must contain at least two users so that doesn’t change. So a way to help with the creation and ongoing management of the groups is to create them then immediately add a second owner for the group. For example, you might create the group, pay the fee, and then add the faculty member as the group owner. This will allow the instructor to eject all the students at the end of the term, then to invite the new students in at the start of the next term. And because there are two owners, you never have to fear for the group being deleted after the 48 hour waiting period when the students are all ejected. This also saves money since the group can be reused ad infinitum for each successive term. Of course, this implies that both owners can work together.
 * Courses**

What some institutions do is to have the land owner (who is likely to also have the Lindens to purchase the groups) create the groups for faculty then add the faculty in as owners to the specific groups that they will then maintain. This is done for each course that is taught by the faculty. The land owner will take a hands-off approach from that point forward, except to possibly assist with maintenance issues. The instructor then manages their group without intrusion from the land owner as they see fit. Two owners, once paid, no personality conflicts. This suggestion works well when the land is more centrally funded and managed by an institution.