Google Groups
Mailing lists
Mailing lists help to streamline communication both in the academy and across Outwood. When you send a mailing list group a message, everyone in the group will receive your message.
Approving & rejecting messages
Some groups require a moderator to approve messages before they are sent to the group members.
If you manage a moderated group, you can choose which messages to allow in a couple of ways.
Respond to the "Message Pending" notification
When you receive an email notification, you can reply to it with either the word "approve" or "reject" to take the corresponding action. Or follow one of the links to the "Pending messages" list.
Visit the "Pending messages" list
Visit the group in groups.google.com
Navigate to the "Pending messages" page.
Choose which message to approve or deny
Old messages
If no one chooses to approve or reject a message, it will automatically be deleted after 14 days.
Collaborative Inboxes
Collaborative inboxes allow more than one person to manage an email inbox. They are used for all external academy inboxes, such as the main academy enquiries inbox.
Collaborative inboxes work a little differently than your own Gmail inbox and have some additional functionality to help coordinate with other colleagues using the inbox.
Accessing the mailbox
Visit groups.google.com and navigate to "My groups" to see a list of groups & mailboxes that you have direct access to.
You can bookmark a mailbox for quick access or "star" it in the list to add it to your favourite groups.
Responding to emails
Once you have opened a message in the inbox, there will typically be three options to respond:
Reply to all. This will send your response and keep a record of it in the inbox so that colleagues can refer to the conversation.
Reply to the author. This will send your response, but no copy of it is kept in the inbox. (Also known as "reply privately".)
Forward. This will send a copy of the message to someone.
In most cases, choose "Reply to all". When forwarding or replying privately, be sure to mark the conversation as "complete" or "no action required" so that colleagues know that it is resolved.
NB in collaborative inboxes, "CC" is used in place of "To". This is intentional.
Choosing where your reply comes from
When you use "Reply to all", you can choose between sending the reply from the group email address or your own email address.
"Reply to the author" and "Forward" always come from your own email address.
If you do not see an option to change the reply address and would like to do this, contact the Outwood Helpdesk.
Assigning messages
Assigning conversations can help to coordinate with colleagues.
You can assign a conversation to yourself to let colleagues know you will be dealing with it or assign it to another mailbox member when they would be best placed to deal with it. Assigning to someone triggers a notification to inform them of the assignment.
Assignment options are in the toolbar to the top right. It can be found by either selecting a conversation in the inbox or by first opening the conversation.
Options for assignment, from left to right:
Assign to me
Assign to someone
Remove assignment (when one is already present)
Once a conversation is assigned, it will be tagged with the assignee's name.
Organising the inbox
Resolution status
Conversations can be marked as resolved to help keep track of progress and coordinate with colleagues.
Options to mark as resolved are in the toolbar to the top right. It can be found by either selecting a conversation in the inbox or by first opening the conversation.
Options for resolving a conversation, from left to right:
Mark as complete
Mark as duplicate (also locks the conversation)
No action required
Once a conversation has been marked as resolved, it will be tagged with the resolution status. All colleagues with access to the mailbox can see the conversation status.
Hover over a tag to see who resolved the conversation.
Labels
Labels (left sidebar) can help to categorise conversations further. A conversation can be given multiple labels.
New labels can be added using the "three dots" menu. NB the same set of labels is shared by all mailbox users.
Locking a conversation
Locking a conversation (toolbar to top-right) prevents any new messages from being added to it. Any further replies will instead begin a new conversation.
Filtering the inbox
Search filters can help to show only certain conversations or to locate a particular message.
To use filters, click on the arrow next to the search bar (top centre).
Many filtering options may be familiar, including search by sender, subject, date, label etc.
There are also options to filter by "Resolved status" and "Assigned to".
"Resolved status" relates to whether a conversation has been marked as complete/duplicate/no action required. "Resolved" conversations have been marked with one of those statuses, while "Unresolved" conversations have not. "Is completed" is the similar to "Is resolved".
Useful combinations
"Is unresolved" + "Assigned to me" for a personal to-do list
"Is unresolved" + "Not assigned" to see new conversations no one is currently dealing with
When using inbox filters, remember to check for new messages periodically!
Sending a new message from the mailbox
To send a new message from the mailbox's email address, click the "New conversation" button (top-left).
Add the recipient as a "CC". In collaborative inboxes, "CC" is used in place of "To".
Notifications
Mailbox members may choose to receive email notifications from the Collaborative Inbox. You can do this from the "My groups" page.
We strongly recommend against the "Each email" setting for collaborative inboxes. Individual message notifications are easy to mix up with your own emails. Replying to these skips the Collaborative Inbox, leading to duplicate replies and confusion over what has or has not been actioned.
Suitable options are:
"No email", which sends no notifications—visit the inbox to check new messages
"Abridged" sends a combined summary of up to 150 messages daily
"Digest" sends batches of up to 25 messages daily
