Space Groups

Pro feature

Watch the walkthrough, or read the steps below. More video tutorials →

🔶 Pro feature. Available in Learnomy Pro.

A group is a sub-segment inside a space. It is an additive overlay: members still belong to the space itself, and a group sits on top of that. A member can be in no group, one group, or several groups at once. A space with no groups behaves exactly like a flat space, so groups never get in your way until you create the first one.

This page is a companion to the main Spaces doc. Read that first to understand spaces, members, managers, and space-wide course assignment. This page covers only what groups add on top.

When to use groups

Use groups when one space needs internal structure. Two common cases:

A school running multiple subjects. The space is the school. Each subject (Math, Science, English) is a group. A teacher is put in charge of just their subject, and a course is assigned to just that subject's students.
A company with departments. The space is the company. Each department (Sales, Support) is a group. A team lead manages just their department and assigns courses to it.

The vocabulary stays general everywhere: Group, Manager, Member. A "subject", a "class", or a "department" is just a group, and a "teacher" or a "team lead" is just a manager.

If your space is small and everyone takes the same courses, you do not need groups. Assign courses space-wide and skip this page.

How a group relates to a space

A group always belongs to one space. Group names and slugs are unique within that space.
Members are added to the space first, then to a group. A direct member who is in no group is a fully valid state and still receives all space-wide courses.
A member's effective courses are the union of the space-wide courses (which everyone gets) plus the courses of every group they belong to. A member in Math and Science sees both groups' courses plus any space-wide courses, all on one dashboard.

Creating a group

You can manage groups from the frontend manage page (for space owners and managers) or from the wp-admin space detail page (for the site super-admin). Both surfaces share the same actions.

From the frontend manage page

Open your space's manage page and go to the Groups panel.
In the Add group field, type a name (for example, "Math") and submit. The group appears in the list with a member count and a course count.

The create form is shown only to the space owner and space-wide managers. A group-scoped manager sees only the groups they manage and cannot create new ones.

From wp-admin

Go to Learnomy > Pro Tools > Spaces, open a space, and click the Groups tab. The space detail page has three tabs: Members, Courses, and Groups, each with a live count.
Use the Add group form at the top of the tab to create a group.

When a space has no groups yet, the panel shows an empty state: "No groups yet. Create your first group above, then add members and assign courses to it."

Renaming a group

Expand the group in the list.
In the Group name field, edit the name and click Rename. The slug is regenerated from the new name and stays unique within the space.

A group-scoped manager can rename their own group. Creating and deleting groups is reserved for the owner and space-wide managers.

Adding members to a group

A group's members are shown as removable chips. New members are added through a search box rather than a long list, so the control works the same on a small group and on a space with thousands of members.

Expand the group and find the Members section.
Type a name into Search members to add and pick a member from the results. They are added to the group and auto-enrolled in the group's courses.
To remove a member, click the x on their chip. They are removed from the group and, if they no longer receive a course through any other path, unenrolled from that course (see How course access combines).

Members must already belong to the space before they can be added to a group. Add people to the space first (see the Spaces doc), then place them into groups. All additions are still bounded by the space seat limit.

Adding managers to a group

A group manager is a member you put in charge of just that group. The manager controls is shown only to the space owner and space-wide managers, because assigning a manager is a space-level decision.

Expand the group and find the Group managers section.
Type a name into Search members to make manager and pick a member. They become a manager scoped to this group.
To remove a manager, click the x on their chip.

A member can be made manager of more than one group. Promoting a member to a group manager does not give them control of the rest of the space.

Assigning courses to a group

Expand the group and find the Courses section.
Choose a course from the Choose a course dropdown and click Assign. The dropdown lists only the space's courses that are not already assigned to this group. Every current member of the group is enrolled in the course.

Enrolling the group's members runs in the background in batches, so assigning a course to a large group does not block the page.
To remove a course from the group, click the x on its chip. Members are unenrolled from that course unless they still receive it through another group or a space-wide assignment.

A group-scoped manager can assign and remove courses for their own group. The owner can do this for any group.

Exclusive group-course access

By default, a course added to a space is granted to everyone in the space. To make a course available to only certain groups, change its access scope.

On the space's Courses widget, find the course and open its access scope control.
Choose between:
- Everyone in the space (the default): every member gets the course, the same as a normal space-wide assignment.
- Specific groups only: the course is no longer space-wide. It is reached only through the groups it is assigned to.

This is what makes the school case work. Set "Algebra I" to Specific groups only and assign it to the Math group, and only Math members can take it. Members of other groups, and direct space members in no group, do not see it.

Notes:

The access scope control is shown only to the owner and space-wide managers. A group-scoped manager does not see it, because it is a space-level decision.
Existing course assignments keep the Everyone in the space scope after you upgrade, so nothing changes until you opt a course in.
When you switch a course from Specific groups only back to Everyone in the space, every member gains it. When you switch a space-wide course to Specific groups only, members who do not receive it through any group are unenrolled, while members in a group that has the course keep it.

Scoped managers

There are two manager flavours, and the owner picks per person:

Space-wide manager: a deputy admin who manages the whole space, like the owner but without owning it.
Group-scoped manager: a manager who manages only the members and courses of their assigned group or groups.

A group-scoped manager, when they open the manage page, sees only the groups they manage. Within those groups they can add and remove members, assign and remove courses, and view their group's reports. They cannot:

create or delete groups,
assign other managers,
see or touch members and courses of groups they do not manage,
change a course's access scope.

This isolation is enforced on every group action, on both the frontend and the REST API, so a scoped manager cannot reach another group's data by any route.

How course access combines

A member's access to a course is the union of two paths:

Space-wide courses: any course set to Everyone in the space. Every member gets these, group or not.
Group courses: the courses of every group the member belongs to.

A member sees the combined set on their dashboard. There is no separate student screen for groups; the existing enrolled-courses list already renders the union.

Access always tracks what the member currently qualifies for. When a grant is removed (a course removed from a space or a group, or a member removed from a group or the whole space), the member is unenrolled from a course only if they no longer receive it through any remaining path. A member in Math and Science who is removed from Math loses Math-only courses but keeps Science courses and space-wide courses. A member removed from the space loses everything the space granted.

Deleting a group

Expand the group and click Delete group.
Confirm in the dialog.

Deleting a group removes its member, manager, and course assignments. Members stay in the space. They are unenrolled only from courses they received solely through this group; courses they still get space-wide or through another group are kept.

Managing groups at scale

The Groups panel is built to stay usable on large spaces:

A group's own members and managers are a bounded set and render as chips with resolved names.
The full space roster is never listed inside the panel. New members and managers are added through a search box that queries the roster on demand.
Courses are a bounded per-space set, so they render as chips plus an assign dropdown.
Member counts and course counts come from dedicated count queries, not from loading every row.
Enrolling a group's members when you assign a course runs in batches in the background.