[POC] feat: add support for divided discussions with user groups

[BryanttV]

Description

This is a Proof of Concept (POC) for the following Architectural Decision Records (ADR's):

• docs: add arch decision record for the migration path for legacy user grouping mechanisms openedx-user-groups#4
• docs: add arch decision record for the replication-based migration of legacy user grouping mechanisms openedx-user-groups#5

This implementation adds support for the divided discussions functionality currently available with Cohorts.

Warning

I use Cursor with Claude Sonnet 4 for code suggestions.

Related PRs

• [POC] feat: add support for divided discussions with user groups edx-platform#36934
• [POC] feat: add support for divided discussions with user groups forum#200
• [POC] feat: add support for divided discussions with user groups openedx-user-groups#10

Supporting information

User Groups Confluence Page

Testing instructions

1. Use the changes in the related PRs.
2. After creating your course, you'll need to turn on a course-level flag that enables user groups. Go to /admin/waffle_utils/waffleflagcourseoverridemodel. Add a new flag using your new course ID and this Waffle flag: user_groups.enable_user_groups
3. Create user groups and add users to each one.
4. As course staff from Studio > [Your Course] > Content > Pages & Resources > Discussion ⚙️ > Divide discussions by user groups
5. As student from LMS > [Your Course] > Discussion > Add a post. Repeat the process with different users belonging to different user groups.
6. You should only see posts from users who also belong to your user groups.

user-groups-divided-discussions-poc.mp4

Deadline

None

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