This article offers a concrete illustration of the relationship between Networks, Subnetworks, and universities. For more detailed descriptions of Networks and Subnetworks, see the rest of the Orientation guide.
Imagine that Academia University, a brand new client of Yellowdig, has three constituent schools: the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), the College of Business (CB), and the School of Law (SL). Let's further imagine that only CAS and CB are running Yellowdig courses; SL has not yet adopted Yellowdig. Finally, let us assume, for the sake of simplicity, that CAS and CB have two departments each and that Academia University has disabled the Student Communities Network (For more on the Student Communities Network, see Introduction to Networks and Subnetworks.) CAS has Philosophy and Physics departments, while CB has Finance and Marketing departments. When Yellowdig, in collaboration with Academia University, initially sets up Networks for Academia, the Network structure will look like this:
Tier 1 (the first row) contains one (and only one) Network, and this Network covers the entire university. Tier 2 (the second row) contains a Network for each school. In general, Tier 2 Administrators are expected to take the lead on creating department-level Networks. For very large universities, creating a Network for every department in the institution would be time-consuming; and—for universities where only one or two departments are contracted to use Yellowdig—such work would be needless. During the onboarding process, we prepare Tier 1 and 2 Administrators to create Networks for departments as the need arises. Network creation is easy and intuitive, and building out your organization's Network structure through Tier 2 ensures that every departmental Network will eventually have a home in Tier 3.
Let us now assume that Tier 2 Administrators have created Networks for the Philosophy and Physics departments and the Finance and Marketing departments, respectively. The Network structure for Academia University should now look like this:
In the next article, we'll see how this Network structure impacts Network roles, permissions, and visibility.