Learn - Create a Group Rule

Group Rules can be used to automatically add Users to a Group when a predefined condition(s) is met. Users will then receive any assignments that belong to the Group, including Courses, Accreditations, Catalogues and CPD periods.

• Rules are applied overnight to all groups in Learn
• Rules can be associated with any Group (except the ‘All users’ group)
• Rules can comprise one or more conditions (‘And’ and ‘Or’ conditions)
• All conditions in a rule must be met for a user to be added to the group

Create a Group Rule 

This step-by-step uses the example of a rule to add Users to an induction Group based on their start date.

Step One: Select a Group

Navigate to ‘Group’. Browse the list of Groups and select the Group to which new members are to be added (use the Group Category drop-down to reduce the list of Groups and simplify selection). Click the Group name to view it’s properties:

Step Two: Add properties for the new rule

Select ‘Rules’ from the Group administration menu, and then ‘New’ to add a new rule. Enter a unique code and a Title for the rule. If the rule is to be active immediately, select the checkbox ‘Rule is enabled’.

If the rule, and therefore membership of the Group, is to be refreshed every night then select the checkbox ‘Remove all members….’. This ensures that Users are removed from the group if they no longer match the group rule:

Step Three: Add a new rule definition 

Construct a rule using the fields available in the ‘Data field’, ‘Operator’, and ‘Value’ menus. Options available in the ‘Operator’ and ‘Value’ menu will vary depending on the data field selected (more information on the available fields follows this step-by-step guide).

In this example, the Rule is configured to add Users to the Group if their start date is on or after 01/07/2020:

Note: the rule will already contain a definition (User Availability matches true). This rule specifies that the rule will apply to enabled Users only. If not required, this rule can be deleted.

You can add group rules based on lesson scores. You can read more about this here.

Step Four: Save the changes

Click ‘Add’ to add the rule to the Group. Then click ‘Submit’ to save all changes to the rule. Note: the condition is saved only when ‘Submit’ is clicked. This step can be easily missed so take care to ensure this step is followed.

Step Five: test the rules

The ‘Test rules’ button on the Group Rules list page confirms how many members will be added to the group when the rule is processed. If this is not the expected number of people, the rule can be corrected before the rule is processed by the overnight batch processor (UK time).

This is an important step, as it ensures the new rule is functioning as required.

Note: This does not calculate a new member total for the Group. To see the effect of a single rule, disable any other rules in the group before selecting 'Test rules'.

Tips for constructing a condition

Each condition consists of a Data field, an Operator, and a Value. For example, “LMS Role matches Student”, or “Start Date on or after 01/07/2020”. Use the fields to define the rule as follows:

Data field

Select a field from the list. Frequently used user information fields are available along with any custom user information fields defined in Learn (see the System configuration/User Information administration page for details). Frequently used job profile and group fields are also available along with any associated custom fields.

Operator

depending on the data field selected, some or all, of the following comparisons will be available:

• matches
• does not match
• contains (for text fields)
• is less than (for numeric fields)
• is greater than (for numeric fields)
• is on or before (for date fields)
• is on or after (for date fields)

Value: the method of entering a value to compare depends on the type of data field selected. Type a value in the box, or select the value from a list, calendar, or pop-up selection window.

To add users with a start date during January 2020, add 2 conditions to a rule:

• Start date is on or after 01/101/2020
• Start date is on or before 31/01/2020

Learn more in The Academy

Group Rules are one way to automate group membership, however, it's not the only way - the automated People data feed can also manage Group membership. Take a look at 'Automate learning assignment' to find out more.