Often we're asked whether there's a benefit to creating several small groups inside the platform. While there's nothing stopping you from taking this approach, we believe the experience will actually be better if you optimize for a fewer number of groups.
Sharing only to coaches is an option
Making practice public is a benefit to teachers and their peers for developing strong mindsets around continually increasing effectiveness within the context of a peer community. However, sometimes it is important to share videos with only a designated set of coaches.
With Edthena you don't need a small group with only one teacher and her coaches to make this possible. Instead, every video conversation has adjustable visibility permissions which are controlled by the person who uploaded the video. The teacher can determine whether the video is open to everyone or visible to coaches only.
This means that teachers can be part of a group filled with peers while still limiting the access to only a few trusted individuals for any particular video.
Collaboration tools built for scale
Groups with more people, more videos, and more comments are a perfect fit for Edthena.
A larger group benefits teachers who can collaborate with more of their peers. Video conversations which are open to the group can now involve more viewpoints.
More people and more videos are easy to manage with fast searching within the group. Any video conversation is easily surfaced with just a few keystrokes.
And Explorations, designed to manage the observation and feedback cycle between teachers and coaches, work great in larger groups. The tools can help manage the coaching cycle with 10 teachers or 100 with the same ease.
Monitoring fewer groups is more efficient
Monitoring activity in a few groups is much less work than monitoring activity in many groups. While the Home view summarizes activity, it's easier for everyone if there are fewer places to visit.
An additional benefit also comes with a reduced number of emails. Some email notifications are specific to each group, so being a member of fewer groups can reduce the number of emails about activity each day.