Welcome to week four of the Humanities Commons Group Month! We’re dedicating this time with you to explore groups features, network, and build online community. Each week features a quick challenge (only 5-10 minutes required of your time) to help you familiarize yourself with groups and develop your online presence. As you complete each challenge, share your progress with the larger HC community by tweeting your work to us at @humcommons and using our hashtag, #HCGroups. That way, we can answer questions, direct folks to your work, and keep the conversation going.
If you’ve already missed the first three weeks, never fear! All of our challenges are explained in this blog, so just look back to earlier blog posts to see what you missed.
Week 4 Challenge
Make a new CORE deposit that gets shared to your group(s). Let folks know in the group discussion or via social media!
This challenge lasts from Friday, March 22nd, until Thursday, March 28th. To complete our fourth challenge, first navigate to the Humanities Commons CORE Repository by clicking the Core Repository tab. Once there, click the free button marked Upload Your Work. This will take you to the New CORE Deposit application page. Complete the application by providing all needed information. Near the middle of the form, you will be offered the opportunity to select up to five groups of which you are a member. Your upload will be deposited into the CORE section of the groups you select and members of the groups you list will be notified of your upload.
Once you’ve uploaded the deposit, share your upload with the group by starting a new discussion post in one of your groups (see Challenge 3 for tips on group discussion posts) or sharing it on social media. If you go to your upload’s page, you should see an option to share it on your Facebook or Twitter account. Don’t forget to also share your upload with us via Twitter using our hashtag so we can let our followers know all about your wonderful work!
Week 4 Group Admin Challenge
Advertise your group! Share it via e-mail, social media, in-person conversations, etc.
Take a few minutes this week to spread the word about your group. Maybe create some challenges of your own for members to complete or post a new discussion question and invite your social media followers or colleagues to join in the group activity. Don’t forget to also share your group with us via Twitter using our hashtag so we can help you to spread the word!
Week 3 Solutions
Get stuck last week? Or missed the challenges announcement? Not to worry, you can still complete them this week! Here they are (you can also find them on the blog post dedicated to Week 3), with instructions.
Week 3 Challenge
Post a new discussion post. Let at least three people know about it.
This challenge will last from March 15th to the 21st. To complete our third challenge, first navigate to the Groups area of Humanities Commons by clicking the Groups tab. Find a group you’re already a part of or join a new one and click onto that group’s page. Once there, click on the Discussion tab of the group’s navigation bar (just below the group’s header image). After you’ve reached the Discussion page, click on the green button labeled Create New Topic and type your new post into the text box. There are many options you can choose to customize this discussion post. For example, you can select to be notified of any follow-up replies by email, or you can choose to post the same comment to multiple groups by using the checklist at the bottom of the page.
Once you’re done typing in your message and selecting from the many options, click the green button labeled Submit. Congrats! Your discussion post should now be live! Share the post with three people by copying and pasting your post’s link to social media. Please also share your new post with us on Twitter so we can share it with our followers!
Week 3 Group Admin Challenge
Show or hide a menu item for members. For example, if your group doesn’t use one of the group features, you can remove it from the menu to decrease clutter!
To complete this challenge, first go to your group’s page. Select Manage from the group’s navigation bar; then, click on the Settings button. Scroll down to see the option to hide or show menu items. Don’t forget to click Save Changes after you’re happy with your selection, or else it won’t be saved.
If you ever change your mind about whether you’d like the menu item to be visible or hidden, you can always return to this page and change it back. Read more about these new options for groups in our recent blog post.