Article Intended For
Penn State faculty, staff, students, and other affiliates who want to learn what User Managed Groups (UMGs) are and how they may be used.
Introduction
This article answers the following questions:
- What are User Managed Groups and what are they used for?
- Who can create a Penn State UMG, and who can be a member of a group?
- What is the role of an owner, administrator, or user?
Article Body
What are User Managed Groups and what are they used for?
What are they?
A User Managed Group (UMG) is a list of people created and managed by one or more students, faculty or staff members to facilitate one or more of the following:
- Communication and collaboration with the individuals in the group,
- Granting or restricting access to files, folders, websites, or other resources, and/or
- Granting or restricting permissions related to those resources.
Once a Penn State UMG is created, it is synced with (uploaded to and kept up-to-date on) Office 365, the Penn State Directory, and/or the Enterprise Active Directory. As a result, any website or application that connects to one of those services knows about the group, and can allow the group's owner or administrator to do things like grant or restrict access or privileges to members of the group.
What are they used for?
UMGs are most often used to grant or restrict access to content in Penn State Access Account Storage Space (PASS). Examples include personal or departmental web space, Webapps, and Course Online Account (COLA) space. UMGs may also be used to define groups for use in Outlook and other Office 365 applications.
Who can create a Penn State UMG, and who can be a member of a group?
Creators: Anyone with a Standard Penn State Access Account can create and manage a UMG. This includes currently active students, faculty, employees, and some other affiliates. Individuals with Limited Access Accounts may not create a UMG.
Members: Anyone with a Standard Penn State Access Account - including currently active students, faculty, employees, and some other affiliates. Individual members of a UMG are identified by their Penn State Access Account.
What are the roles of group owners, administrators, and members?
Owners. Owner(s) of a group generally create the UMG, manage it's settings and assign administrators for the group. An owner may:
- Delete the group
- View the list of current members
- Add and remove Admins from the group
- Add and remove Members from the group
- Transfer ownership to another individual
- Change whether the group includes or excludes owners and admins from membership
- Update or modify the services to which the group is syncing
Administrators. Admin(s) for a group are typically responsible for adding and removing members and for assigning or requesting the group's ability to access the relevant resources. An admin may:
- View the list of current members
- Add and remove Members from the group
Members. Members may:
- Access content the group has been granted permission to
- Receive emails sent to the group (if the group has been synced to Office 365)
- Receive MS Calendar invites sent to the group (if the group has been synced to Office 365)
Where to find additional information
Creating and managing a UMG
- UMGs are created and managed via the User Managed Groups page on the Account Management website. To learn how, see knowledge article Create a User Managed Group.
Granting permissions and sending emails to UMGs
- Although Penn State's Identity and Access Management group provides and supports the process for creating and managing UMGs, the process for using a UMG is specific to the resource in which the UMG is being referenced.
- To learn how use UMGs to do things like send an Outlook email, grant permission to view a web space or folder in PASS, or grant access to a Sharepoint site, search the Penn State knowledge base or the internet for instructions specific to that application.