Groups and End Users

End users can play with your project through the interface you create, but do not have project authoring privileges.

End users are associated with your team and must belong to at least one group. Groups are associated with particular projects within your team. For each project, you create one or more groups to organize your end users. For example:

If your project is a simulation used in a corporate training program, you might create a group of end users for each set of employees going through the training program.
If your project is a forecasting model, you might make one group of end users for everyone in your department who will be accessing the analysis.

Only team projects with an Access of "Authenticated" have groups and end users. (See more about team administration.)

For each group they are part of, end users can either be a facilitator or not. Facilitators have access to project data from all end users in their group. For example, the user interface code in your project can check whether each user is a facilitator, and show aggregate or administrative screens for facilitators while showing the "normal" simulation for standard users.

To create a new group:

From the Dashboard, select your team project by clicking its name. (If you don't see your project, select your [Team Name]. Then, select your project by name.)
From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select Groups from the left.
Select Add Group and enter the requested information.
- Entering an Organization Name and Event Name helps you identify this group.
- You can control the access that end users in this group have to this project based on the Start Date, Expiration, and Run Limit fields.
Select Create Group.
From this page, you can immediately Add End Users (start at step 3, below).

To edit a group:

From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select Groups from the left.
Check the checkbox next to the group you want to edit, then click Edit from the Actions column.
Update the desired fields, then select Save Changes. You can return to the list of groups by selecting Groups from the left.

To delete a group:

From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select Groups from the left.
Check the checkbox next to the group you want to delete, then click Remove from the top of the page.

Note that end users who were members of this group are NOT deleted; they are still available to add to other groups (either as part of this project, or as part of other projects) within this team.

To create end users and add them to a group:

From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select Groups from the left.
Select the name of your group to see its current end users.
Select Add End Users. From here, you have three choices:
- If you only have a few end users to add, you can enter them one by one. You can create both standard and facilitator end users with this method.
- If you have many end users to add, you can upload them from a spreadsheet. You can only create standard (non-facilitator) end users with this method.
- If you want to have end users complete their own registration, you can send them a link to do so. You can only create standard (non-facilitator) end users with this method.

If you only have a few end users to add:

Under Add / Invite an End User, enter either:
- the email address of an existing Epicenter user (does not have to be a team member, but can be), or
- the username for a new or existing end user (does not have to be an email address, but can be).
Then select Continue.
Enter the requested information.
- If this is a new end user, enter the Name and Password. (If this person is already an end user for your team, Name is fixed, and the Password cannot be set or updated here.)
- Set the Expiration, Run Limit, and Facilitator values for this end user for their membership in this group.
Select Create User.
- If the Username entered is an email address, the end users receive an email notification that they are now end users for this group and project. They'll need to click the link in the email notification to enter a password before they are redirected to the project.

If you have many end users to add:

Next to Add Multiple End Users, select Upload Users.
- The upload requires a list of Names, Usernames, and Passwords in .xlsx format. You can download a template if desired (linked from the page).
Epicenter reads your uploaded file of end users. Then, the end users are split into two categories:
- New end users are automatically Saved. They are added to this project and to this group. If the Username entered is an email address, the end users receive an email notification that they are now end users for this group and project. They'll need to click the link in the email notification to enter a password before they are redirected to the project.
- Existing end users must be confirmed. These are end users from your uploaded file that already exist within Epicenter, either in this group and project or another group or project in your team.
  - You can Overwrite and Add to Group to replace the existing end user information (caution: including password!) with the information in your .xlsx file.
  - Or, you can Keep and Add to Group to use the existing end user information (ignoring what's in your .xlsx file) and add this end user to your group.

If you want to have end users complete their own registration:

Next to Allow End Users to Self-Register, select Edit Settings.
Under Self-Registration is Enabled, select Yes.
- This means that potential end users can register to become members of this group, using the Registration URL at the bottom of the page.
Under Require Users to be Pre-Approved, select either option.
- Selecting Yes, use list of users below means that only users whose email addresses are listed can register using the Registration URL at the bottom of the page. Enter these email addresses in the List of Email Addresses box, separating them by commas or newlines.
- Selecting No, any user can sign up with the provided URL means that anyone with the Registration URL can register.
When finished, select Save Settings.

After this setup is complete, you can allow end users to register in one of two ways:

You can email the Registration URL to end users yourself. Epicenter automatically sends an invitation to end users who register at this URL. (Remember that if you have selected Require Users to be Pre-Approved, only select email addresses are able to successfully register and receive an invite.)
Alternatively, on the Add End Users page, you can select Email Invitations. Epicenter automatically sends an invitation to end users in the List of Email Addresses box.

After end users have registered and received an invitation to this group, they can click the link in the invitation to enter their name and choose a password. At this point, their registration is complete and they are directed to the home page for the project.

Self registration is slightly more involved than the alternatives of manually adding end users or uploading a template of end users. However, the advantage of self registration is that end users can enter their own personal information (name, password) rather than having you enter this information on their behalf.

To view or edit end users:

From your team home page (Dashboard > [Team Name]), select End Users from the left.
View information about each end user, including the project(s) and group(s) to which this end user belongs.
Edit information about each end user by selecting from the options available in the Edit menu in the Actions column.
- If the end user's Username is not an email address, you can select to Edit Name or Change Password.
- If the end user's Username is an email address, the name cannot be changed. However, you can select to Send Password Reset Link or Change Password.

To impersonate end users within a project

Impersonation allows you to log in to a project as if you were an end user of that project. For example, it is useful for answering support questions from end users.

From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select Groups from the left.
Select the name of your group to see its current end users.
Impersonate an end user by selecting Click under Impersonate in table of end users.

To assign end users to worlds in multiplayer projects:

Enable multiplayer worlds for this project, under the Project Settings. For Multiplayer, select Enabled.

By default, only facilitators can create worlds and assign end users to worlds.

You can change this so that end users can also create and assign themselves to worlds. In the Project Settings, for Allow Users to Self-Assign, select Enabled.
From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select Groups from the left.
Select the name of the group whose end users you want to assign into worlds. (Only end users that are not facilitators are assigned to worlds.)
Select the Multiplayer Assignments tab.

The table lists each active, non-facilitators end user in the group, along with their world and role. (Inactive users are listed separately on the Inactive Users tab, see more details below. Facilitators are not listed because facilitators are not assigned to worlds.)

Alerts at the top of the table help you see at a glance which end users are not yet assigned to worlds, and which worlds are not yet complete (do not have all roles filled).
- To automatically assign all end users to worlds, including automatically creating new worlds as needed, select Assign. This assignment is randomized, so repeatedly assigning end users to worlds in this way results in different configurations each time.
- To manually assign particular end users to particular worlds or roles, check the checkbox next to the end user, then select Edit from the far right column. Use the drop-down menus for World and Role to assign the end user as desired.
- To unassign an end user from a world, check the checkbox next to the end user, then select Unassign from above the table.
- To exclude an end user from being assigned to a world, check the checkbox next to the end user, then select Make Inactive from above the table. For example, if your group is a class of students and two of them are home sick, you can select those students and mark them as "inactive." Inactive end users are not assigned to worlds.
  - You can see the complete list of inactive users in the Inactive Users tab. From here, you can also select to make the user active again.

To remove end users from a group:

From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select Groups from the left.
Select the name of your group to see its current end users.
Check the checkbox next to each end user to remove. (Optionally, search or filter the list to find end users.)
Select Remove.

The selected end users are removed from this group. However, they are still available to be added to other groups - either for this project or for other projects in your team. You can see them by navigating to Dashboard > [Team Name] and selecting End Users from the menu on the left. Remember that end users are associated with your team; groups are associated with particular projects within your team.

To delete end users from your team:

From your team project home page (Dashboard > [Team Name] > [Project Name]), select End Users from the left.
Check the checkbox next to each end user to delete. (Optionally, search or filter the list to find end users.)
Select Delete.

The selected end users are deleted from this team and from any groups of which they were members. They can no longer log in to any of your team's projects.