Groups
The Groups tool is utilized for you to be able to group students together to work in teams for assignments or discussions. You can create specific areas in your course for students to work with only their group members.
Create and Delete a Group
Create a Group
Groups have a maximum enrollment of 200 users. If there are more than 200 users in a course, you can create new group categories; there is no limit on the number of group categories in a course.
On the navbar, click Groups.
On the Manage Groups page, from the View Categories drop-down list, select the category you want to add a group to.
From the context menu of the category, click Add Group.
If you do not want to use the default name provided, enter a group name.
If you do not want to use the default group code provided, enter a group code.
Enter a description for the group.
Click Save.
Delete a User from a Group
When you delete a user from a group, all of their files remain in the system, including discussion posts, Assignments submissions, and Locker files.
On the Manage Groups page, from the View Categories drop-down list, select the category containing the groups with users you want to delete.
From the context menu of the category, click Enroll Users.
On the Enroll Users page, beside the user's name, clear the check box for each group you want to remove the user from.
Click Save.
Group Enrollements
Best Practices for Setting up Groups
Groups have a maximum enrollment of 200 users. If there are more than 200 users in a course, you can create new group categories; there is no limit on the number of group categories in a course.
If you want users to see all users and content for a course but be a part of a group for a specific project or activity, use the Groups tool. However, if you want users to only see learning materials and users from their own section, use the Sections tool.
To organize users' work on projects and assignments or to create special work areas for users with different learning needs, use the Groups tool.
Users can belong to multiple groups within the same course, but cannot self-enroll in more than one group. Instructors can add users to other groups at any time.
For each group, create separate discussion forums, assignments, and Locker areas to work in.
Grade members of groups individually or as a team.
Before setting up groups, know how you want to organize them. The following factors can affect how users enroll in groups:
Setting groups up before or after you've enrolled users.
Enabling auto-enrollment in groups.
Enabling randomization of users in groups.
Enabling self-enrollment in groups.
The Enrollment Type you choose.
Set up groups after the majority of users enrolled in your course. This gives you a better idea of how many users you are organizing and how many groups you need. Setting up groups after enrollment can also ensure better distribution of users between groups.
For users to enroll in groups automatically, the Can be auto-enrolled into groups permission must be enabled. Contact your site administrator if you experience difficulties.
FAQs
When should I use Groups?
Groups can be a great way to help you release content for only specific learners, and it also gives you the ability to have private Discussions.
Please note that you can make certain activities and grade items release for a specific group, however, if you use "treat ungraded items as zero" they will receive a zero for the items that they do not have access to.
How do I set up a Private Discussion so I can communicate with my learners?
In your course, go to Course Admin
Select Groups
Click the New Category button
Add a name and optional description
Under Enrollment Type, select "Single user, member-specific groups"
Click on the checkbox next to Set up Discussion areas
Select or Create a Forum
Leave Create a Topic selected
Click Save when done
From there, it should automatically create groups for each learner in your course and create a Discussion Topic in the Forum you chose/created. You can then have a private discussion with each student that can only be accessed by you, the student, and Brightspace Support.