UW-Madison Google Workspace - Getting Started with Google Groups

This document provides a high-level introduction to UW-Madison Google Groups.

Topics

Introducing Google Groups

Google Groups is a free communication and collaboration service that gives you the ability to create the following:

  • Email list
  • Web forum (discussion board)
  • Q&A forum
  • Shared inbox
  • Manage group access to shared Google files (ex: Docs, Sheets, Shared Drive)

When you create a Google Group, the group’s email address will have the following name format: groupname@g-groups.wisc.edu .

Note: Google Groups is not a HIPAA approved mail-list service. Please contact the UW Health Security Team  or UW-Madison HIPAA Security Coordinators if you have any questions. Learn more.

Return to the top

Eligibility

  • Faculty/staff
  • Students
  • Alumni

View terms of service.

Return to the top

Types of Google Groups

UW-Madison Google Groups offers four types of groups:

Type Data-driven Data type Manually create Manually update 

1. Standard Group

No

-

Yes

Create a Standard Group

Yes

2. Custom Group

Yes

HR/SIS/Manifest

No

Request a Custom Group

No*

3. Class Group

Yes

Course enrollment

No

Automatically assigned to instructors, TAs, and students.

No**

4. Advisor Group

Yes

Registrar

No

Automatically assigned to advisors and advisees.

No***

*Custom Groups - The data-driven population cannot be manually changed, but guests can be added using the Google Group Administration site for Custom Groups. 

**Class Groups - The data-driven population (students) cannot be manually changed, but guests (additional TAs) can be added using the Google Groups Administration site for Class Groups.

***Advisor Groups - The data-driven population cannot be manually changed, but guests can be added using the Google Group Administration site for Advisor Groups. 

Return to the top

Benefits

  • Not owned by a single UW-Madison Google Workspace account.
  • Not affected by account deactivation.
  • Can be used to create permissions to manage group access to Google App files (ex: Docs, Shared Drive, etc).
  • Allows group moderation.
  • Allows membership to include both UW-Madison (internal) and non-UW-Madison (external) email addresses.

Return to the top

Limitations

  • The maximum number of members you can add to a Google Group is 50,000.
  • The maximum number of external members you can add to a Google Group is 20,000. These limits are in place to prevent mail delivery issues caused by reaching per-group and per-organization sending limits.
  • Those wishing to distribute email to groups larger than allowed in Google Groups should use an email marketing tool, such as Eloqua.
  • Service accounts will not work in the Google Groups Service Page.
  • View additional information about Google Group's policies and limits here.

Return to the top

Quick start

  1. Log in to Google Groups or create a Google Group.

  2. Add members.

  3. Manage your Google Group.

Reminder: Make sure you are logged into your UW-Madison Google Workspace account, not your personal Gmail account, when accessing or managing your UW-Madison Google Group.

Return to the top

Email delivery

You can email your Google Group at groupname@g-groups.wisc.edu to start collaborating with your colleagues. When you email your Google Group, that message will be delivered to the following inboxes:

Message delivery

  1. Google Group Archive inbox

    • Note: The archive feature may not be enabled by default. Learn how to view your Google Group’s archive feature status.
    • Archiving must be enabled to receive a copy of all messages sent to the Google Group.
    • Enabling archiving is beneficial when troubleshooting message delivery issues.
    • Note: The number of views and unread/read status for archived messages only reflects activity done on the Google Groups archive page. It does not reflect activity done by a recipient's email client. Google Groups does not offer email tracking.

  2. Mailbox associated with the email address used to add member to the Google Group

    • Message delivery will depend on the member’s Google Group email subscription setting (ex: daily notifications, email digest)
    • Message delivery can be affected by the member's email settings such as rules, filters, spam/junk, etc.

Suppressing "out of office" messages

  • Internal email address - out of office messages sent from an @wisc.edu address (ex: bucky@wisc.edu) will be suppressed.
  • External email address - out of office messages sent from a non @wisc.edu email addresses (ex: daniel@tech.com) will not be suppressed and will be sent to the Google Group.

Return to the top

Learn more

UW-Madison Google Workspace account - Basics

Google Groups - Basics

Google Groups - Additional settings

Distribution lists

Return to the top