How do I use and manage Groups?

Groups are independent of individual courses and can be used to host webinars, share resources, or build a learning community. You can link groups to courses, invite members, add notes, share events, and publish updates.

To create a Group, the user must:

Have Admin status enabled
Have their user Status set to "Approved Admin"

If Admin status is not enabled at the account level:

The "Create a group" button will not appear in the drop-down navigation
The Groups submenu option may not be visible

You'll now see the Group setup screen where you can enter basic details.

Create a Group in Coursebox (Step by Step)

Select Groups from the left hand menu, then click the Create button in the top right.

On the Group setup screen:

Enter the Title of your Group

(Optional) Add a Code for internal reference
Leave Membership fee at 0.00 if the Group is free

If you want to create a paid Group:

Enter a Membership fee (monthly amount)
Select the currency (e.g. USD, AUD, EUR)
Add Additional Tax if required (e.g. GST/VAT)

Important: You must connect Stripe before charging members.

Explain the purpose of the Group
Describe who it's for and what members will receive
Use the rich text editor to format text or add links

Example:

The Aspiring Author Group is a supportive and inspiring community for writers at every stage of their journey.

Click Save to create the group.

Your group is now created but not yet published.

Publish a group

Coursebox gives you flexible options for publishing your groups, depending on how you want to manage visibility, access, and monetisation. Whether you're building an open community, running a private cohort, or offering exclusive paid content, there's a publishing method to suit your goals.

You can publish a group in three ways:

Public Group — open to everyone and easy to discover
Private Group — accessible only by invite or admin approval
Paid Membership Group — requires a monthly subscription for access

Publish a private group

Only people added to the group will be able to see it.

Go to your group and select Publish from the arrow down.
From the dropdown, choose Private.

Publish a public group

Anyone can find and join the group without approval.

Go to your group and select Publish from the arrow down.
From the dropdown, choose Public.

Publish a group with paid membership

You can charge users for access to your bundle (or group) content on a recurring monthly basis.

Step 1: Edit your bundle or group settings

Go to your Dashboard.

Navigate to the Groups tab and select the bundle (e.g. 4S Endorsement Plus) you want to monetise and click Manage.

Click the gear icon (⚙️) next to the title.
Select Edit from the dropdown menu.

Important: Before setting a membership fee, you must first connect your Stripe account.

In the Membership Fee field, enter your monthly price (e.g. 29.00).
Select your currency from the dropdown (e.g. USD or AUD).
In the Additional Tax field, add any VAT/GST percentage (e.g. 10.00 for 10% GST).

Use the Description box to explain what members get for their subscription. You can format the text using the toolbar above the box.

Example: Access to all premium training content, monthly webinars, downloadable templates, and discussion boards.

Groups: Tick Anyone can post if you want members to contribute to discussions.
Broadcasts: Set how often email broadcasts are sent. For example, if set to 1, members will receive an email for every post.
Default Notifications: Choose if All users or only Admins will receive updates by default.
Force Acceptance of Terms: Tick this box if you want members to agree to your terms before joining.

Click Save to apply your changes.
You can now Publish the bundle and share it with your audience for paid monthly access.

If a group is published in Private mode and is not connected to a paid course or recurring membership product, users will see a Request Access button.

To display a Subscribe or payment option instead, the group must be attached to:

A recurring membership product, or
A paid course/subscription product

If no payment product is linked, the system will default to Request Access.

Mobile app note: The mobile app mirrors the LMS configuration. If the group is not connected to a subscription product, users will not be redirected to a paywall.

Invite members to groups

Once a group is created, you can view and manage it directly from the Groups panel:

Filter Groups: Use the search bar to quickly locate a group by name.
View Members: Each group lists the number of members. Click the group name to view a full member list.
Manage Actions: Under the Action column, you'll see options such as editing the group details, adding or removing members, or deleting the group.

Groups panel with filter, members, and actions

On the Group page, click the gear icon to open a dropdown menu.

Click Members to view existing members and add new members.

Enter the name of the member and click Add. (The member should already be registered with your training portal.)

Bulk import members to a group

Navigate to Groups in the left-hand menu. Click on the group name (for example, Aspiring Authors).

Locate the gear (⚙️) icon next to the group status.
Select Members. This opens the Members management area for the group.
Choose Bulk Import Members.

The Bulk Import Members modal window will appear, with a drag-and-drop upload area and a Download sample CSV file link.

Enrol by group

You can enrol learners into a course by group directly from the course's enrolments panel.

From the course overview page, click the Enrolments icon (the people icon) in the top toolbar.

In the panel that opens, click the Groups tab.

Use the Filter by name search bar to find an existing group.

Click Add group to enrol a new group.

In the Add group modal, search for the group name and click Add to confirm.

For more information on groups, see Group Management.

To learn about selling recurring monthly memberships via groups, see How can I sell monthly recurring memberships?

Using Groups as a community or sub-community

Groups are how you build a community in Coursebox. You can run one main community for all learners and a separate sub-community (discussion space) for each course, using Discussions inside the group for conversations, questions, and updates.

Common questions this article answers

How do I create a community or discussion space for my learners?
Can I have one main community plus a sub-community for each course?
How do members join, post, and discuss inside a group?