Once you have created your Community, you can start posting and commenting! In this article, you will learn how to effectively manage your Community to keep your students engaged.
If you haven't created a Community yet or want to learn more about Thinkific Communities, check out Create a Community!
In this article:
Email and Web-App Notifications
Getting Started
Best Practices
Once you have created a new Community, the first step we recommend taking is to write a welcome post to introduce yourself, and start engaging with your students! It's also a great idea to pin your welcome post (more on this later in the article), as this will ensure it is always displayed at the top of your Community's latest posts.
On Site Builder theme version 1.12.12 or higher, Communities available to students will automatically appear in their Student Dashboard. If you want to prepare your welcome post before your students see your Community, temporarily set your Publish Setting to Draft, and update it once you have written your initial post!
Member Count
When you first set up your community and students begin to join in, you'll see the member count on the main page (on the bottom left of the community banner):
This member count will be visible to both you and your students, and will reflect the total number of members within that community.
Create Posts
Every Community can have multiple spaces - spaces are areas within the Community where specific topics or courses can be discussed. As a Site Owner or Site Admin, you can choose whether to add a post to an existing space, or you can create your own new space and post within it!
Each post will be displayed on the main Community page, and can be selected to view or add comments.
Only Site Owners and Site Admins will be able to create, edit, or delete spaces within their Community.
How to Create a Post From the Home Page
- Go to Manage Learning Products
- Select Communities
- Locate the Community you want to start posting in
- Click the ellipses (3 dot icon) and select Go to Community
- Once in your Community, you will see the option to create a post directly on the home page by clicking the text box with your profile picture that says 'What's on your mind?'
- Once you have clicked on the text box, a pop up will appear containing the settings you can use for your post. From here, you can:
- Select the space you want to post to
- Add the title of your post
- Add the text of your post
- (Optional) Include an emoji in your post (click the smiley face located in the bottom left hand corner of the post text box)
- (Optional) Upload an image, video, or file to your post (max 5MB)
- Once you have added your desired content to your post, click Create Post
How to Create a Post From Within a Space
- Go to Manage Learning Products
- Select Communities
- Locate the Community you want to start posting in
- Click the ellipses (3 dot icon) and select Go to Community
- Once in your Community, use the left hand navigation menu to either:
- Select an existing space from the list; or
- Create a new space by clicking the plus sign to the right of the word spaces to write a comment in.
- In your space, you will see a text box at the top of the page with your profile picture. Click this to create a post:
- Once you have clicked on the text box, a pop up will appear containing the settings you want to use for your post. From here, you can:
- Select the Space you want to post to
- Add the title of your post
- Add the text of your post
- (Optional) Include an emoji in your post (click the smiley face located in the bottom left hand corner of the post text box)
- (Optional) Upload an image, video, or file to your post (max 5MB)
- Once you have added your desired content to your post, click Create Post
How to Edit a Post
Want to make a change to your post? No problem! Once a post has been created, you can select the ellipses (3 dot icon) to Edit your existing post:
Add Comments
Once you have created a post, you and your students can start commenting!
How to Comment on a Post
- Locate your desired post
- Click on Comments, located at the bottom of the post
- In the comment field, input your desired text
- (Optional) Include an emoji, image, video link or file attachment (Max 5MB)
- Select Post comment
How to Customize Your Comment
You also have the option to use one of the 4 icons on the bottom left of the comment box to add emojis, upload an image, include a video link or upload a file (max 5 MB).
When you click on one of these options, you'll see a prompt for next actions.
Once you select a file, you'll see it added to your post. Optionally, add some alternative text to describe your image to people with visual impairments, and post your comment!
How to Edit a Comment
If you need to make any updates to an existing comment, you can select the ellipses (3 dot icon) to Edit your comment:
Like Posts and Comments
If you'd like to show appreciation for a community contribution, you also have the option to add a like to a post or comment:
Click once to like a post, and click again to unlike it.
Pin Posts
Once you have created a post, it can be pinned if you would like it to always display at the top of your Community! Pinning is popular for Welcome posts introducing your Community. It is also possible to pin multiple posts. The most recently pinned post will always appear at the top of your Community.
Only the Site Owner or Site Admin can pin posts in a Community.
How to Pin a Post
- Locate your desired post
- Click on the ellipses (3 dot icon) on the top right
- Select Pin
- Once pinned, your post will appear at the top of your Community with a Pin icon
Sort Posts
If your Community has a lot of posts, you and your members have the option to sort posts! You can sort by:
- Most Recent
- Most Comments
- New Comments
Posts will be sorted by Most recent by default.
Follow Posts
How to Follow a Post
- Locate your desired post
- Click on the ellipses (3 dot icon) on the top right
- Select Follow
How to Unfollow a Post
- Locate your desired post
- Click on the ellipses (3 dot icon) on the top right
- Select Unfollow
Delete Posts and Comments
Posts and comments can be deleted if you no longer want them displayed in your Community. You can delete entire posts or individual comments within a post.
Once a post or comment has been deleted, there is no record of that post or comment history. Make sure to take a screenshot before deleting if you want to keep a personal record.
Permissions
- The Site Owner and Site Admins can delete posts and comments
- Course Admins and Students can delete their own comments, but cannot delete posts
How to Delete a Post
- Locate your desired post
- Click on the ellipses (3 dot icon) on the top right
- Select Delete post
How to Delete a Comment
- Locate your desired post
- Click on the post to view the comments
- Locate your desired comment
- Click on the ellipses (3 dot icon) on the top right
- Select Delete comment
Email and Web-App Notifications
You and your students can follow posts to receive email notifications for comment activity on posts! You can always unfollow a post if you no longer want to receive email notifications for that post or turn off all Community notifications entirely.
When a new post is created, the Site Owner, Site Admins, and the creator of the post will automatically be added as followers. If you prefer that the Site Owner and Site Admins do not automatically follow new posts, this can be customized in your site settings.
Alongside email notifications, you will also receive Web-App notifications within your Thinkific site. Web-App Notifications allow learners to quickly see when others have responded to their posts and comments with threaded replies, or when they’ve been invited to join another conversation through @ mentions of their profile.
Web-App notifications will only be available to creators who have already created one or more communities. If you have not yet created a community, you will not see the bell icon or notification panel.
Summary of Permissions
- Communities can be created by the Site Owner or a Site Admin.
- Course Admins cannot create Communities.
- Posts and comments can be created by any user (Site Owner, Site Admins, Course Admins, and Students).
- Posts and comments can be edited by the creator. The Site Owner and Site Admins also have the ability to edit any user's posts or comments.
- Any user can follow a post to receive email notifications for activity on that post.
- The Site Owner, Site Admins and the creator of the post will automatically be added as followers. You have the option to disable this in your site notification settings.
- Any user can unfollow a post to no longer want to receive email notifications for that post or Community notifications can be turned off entirely.
- The Site Owner or a Site Admin can pin a post.
Are you interested in learning more about what Communities has to offer? Thinkific is currently working on some updates to this feature, as part of our ongoing effort to make Communities a more integrative and immersive experience for you and your audience! To learn more about what we have in the works, check out our Communities Updates article!