Channels: Overview

Owned by Jamal Naveed
Last updated: May 20, 2024 by Adi A
4 min read

Channels allow you to create multiple dialogue spaces in your 'Community' and are a great way to create an engaging environment for your students. Here are some best practices for getting your Community up and running with channels.

In the campus community, teamwork and communication happen through channels. A channel is a single place where people can share messages and images. You can create channels that are public or private. Read on to learn about how to create, join and use channels in the Campus Cloud Community.

 

Figure 1. Create community channels that are private (as shown here) or public.

 

This article focuses on:

Create a channel

Creating channels (public or private) is controlled by roles and permissions. For information, see "Roles and Permissions" below.

You can create a channel about any topic, and your institution can have as many as needed.

To create a public or private channel, here are the steps:

  • Log in to Campus Cloud and click Community

  • Click “+” next to Public Channels or Private Channels 

  • Type a name and description for your channel

  • [OPTIONAL] Provide an image for your channel, or use an emoji 

  • [For Private Channel only] Set Discoverable on or off

  • Choose Post Settings for the new channel

  • Click Save

Campus Cloud creates a new channel, designates you as the owner, and shows you the empty channel. 

If your channel is a public channel, it is immediately available in Find a Channel. Users can find your channel using Campus Cloud or the campus mobile app. They can join your channel, and make posts and comments in accordance with the channel's post settings. 

If your channel is a private channel, you can make it available for others to find with the Discoverable setting:

  • If discoverable is on, others will be able to find your channel using Find a Channel, and they can request to join.

  • If discoverable is off, your channel will not appear in Find a Channel. You will have to invite others to join it.

Public Channels: Anyone can join

When you create a public channel, you can set it as default or non-default. Default means that every person in your school with an account will be automatically added to the channel. New users will be added to default channels when creating an app account. 


Figure 2: You can designate a public channel as default or non-default, which controls whether students are automatically added to the channel. 

 

Things to keep in mind

  • When you create a default channel, app users in your school are added to the new channel

  • If you update a channel (by changing it to default), current users who opted to leave the channel will not be re-added into the channel. 

  • If your school has multiple campuses, users will be added to default channels if they change from one campus to another (unless they have already left those channels in the past).

Private Channels: Need to be Invited

When you create a private channel, you can set it as discoverable or non-discoverable. Discoverable means people can search for a channel, find it, and request to join. Non-discoverable means people will not find your channel if you search for it. For people to join, they need to be invited.

 

Figure 3: You can designate a private channel as discoverable or non-discoverable, which affects whether users can search for your channel with Find a Channel.

Channels List Ordering

The order of Channels is determined by the API, and should respect the following ordering rules, by decreasing the order of priority:

  • Public Default Channels First

  • Public Non-Default Channels First

  • Private Channels First

  • Older Channels First

Post Settings: Four kinds of conversations

Within a channel, the Post Settings determine who can say what in the channel. Post settings control who can post messages in the channel, and who can respond.

There are four settings: Open, Read-only, Q&A, and Announcements. 

  • Open. In an open channel, anyone can post messages and anyone can post responses, with no restrictions on who can post what.

  • Read Only. When you set a channel to read-only, only community managers* can post messages or comments. People can use the campus app to view messages, but they cannot post their own messages or respond. 

  • Q&A. Channels set to Q&A are for students to ask questions, and community managers to provide answers. When a channel is set to Q&A, anyone can post a message to ask a question, but only community managers can post a response. 

  • Announcements. When a channel is set to Announcements, community managers can post messages, and anyone can post a comment in reply. 

(*) Community managers are Campus Cloud users who have the "Community Manager" permission in Team Settings.

Change post settings

Changing post settings is controlled by roles and permissions. For information, see "Roles and Permissions" below.

To change the post settings for a channel:

  • Find your channel in the sidebar, and click its name

  • Click the gear icon that appears next to its name

  • Make a change to the post settings, and save

Roles and Permissions

For you to change a channel's post settings, roles and permissions need to be configured as follows:

  • You need the Community Manager's permission, or

  • You need to be a channel owner