Introduction to Community
Community gives your learners a social space to connect, share, and discuss, either as a chat or a scrolling feed. This article explains what it is, the kinds of communities, and what you need before using it.
Where community lives
Community sits under Engage → Community in the left-hand menu.
<img src="https://cdn.lucidhq.app/workspaces/c8c8b621-d28a-43e2-a70b-a7ad21f3ab75/media/b88e3678-3565-4d8c-a259-d2dad892a73c.webp" alt="The "+ New Community" button is highlighted in the Communities section." />
What a community is
A community is a shared space where members send messages or post updates. As an admin or instructor, you take part directly: you can post, reply, react, and moderate.
Each community uses one of two layouts:
- Message Layout: a chat-style back-and-forth, like a group chat.
- Feed Layout: a scrolling feed of posts, better for announcements and browsing.
Types of community
- Standalone (custom): a community you create yourself for any audience.
- Batch-linked: a community tied to a batch. Enabling it on a batch automatically adds all that batch's learners.
- Global: a single community for all learners, past and present.
Batch-linked communities must use the Message layout. The Feed layout is only available to standalone and global communities.
Before you can use community
Two gates are worth knowing up front:
[!Important] The Community module has an organization-level on/off switch. It must be active for learners to see any community on web and app.
The number of custom communities is limited by your plan. When you reach the limit, creating another prompts you to contact support to add more. Batch-linked communities are separate from this custom limit.
Community vs Discussions
Under Engage you will also see Discussions. That is a separate, older feature for learner queries on specific course materials. This collection covers Community, the social chat and feed spaces.
Permissions
Community actions are permission-gated:
- View and participate: community read access (instructors can read and message).
- Create and configure: community manage-write access.
- Manage members: community user-management access.
- Moderate (reported messages, ban): moderation and message access, admin-only for banning.
- Archive: community manage-delete access.
Admins have full access; instructors can read and message but not manage members or ban.
What's next
Start with Enabling & Creating a Community.