Brightspace: Groups

The Brightspace Groups tool allows instructors to put students into groups for assignments, discussions, and to create a centralized place for students to share/engage with one another.

Create New Groups

Go to Other Course Tools in the Course Navigation and select Groups
Group sets are called Categories in Brightspace. Click the New Category button
Give your Category a name, this is the name for your groupset and you can add an optional description
Under Enrollment Type, you get seven options. They are:
1. # of Groups - No Auto Enrollment: creates the requested number of groups and allows you to add students to it
2. # of Groups: set the number of requested groups and then choose to randomize users in groups or assign users based on their order in the classlist
3. Groups of #: set the number of users for each group and choose to randomize users in groups or assign users based on their order in the classlist
4. Groups of # - Self Enrollment: set the number of users per group and users can self enroll into the group. You can also set the self enrollment start and end date and choose what to do with students who don't enroll into a group.
5. # of Groups - Self Enrollment: set the number of groups and users can self enrollk into the group. You can also set the self enrollment start and end date and choose what to do with students who don't enroll into a group.
6. # of Groups, Capacity of # - Self Enrollment: set the number of users per group and the number of groups. This will allow you to control how many students self enroll into each group. You can also set the self enrollment start and end date and choose what to do with students who don't enroll into a group.
7. Single user, member-specific groups: sets up individual groups for each student.
If you have existing groups, you can create new sub groups based on them by using the Restrict Enrollments To option.
Put in a name for your groups using the Group Prefix. The system will name each group based on this and then append the end to add the number for the group.
Under Advanced Properties, you can choose whether to make the category (group set) and description visible to users.
1. For Groups of # and # of Groups, you'll also see the options for Auto-enroll new users and Randomize users in groups.
Click Save. Brightspace will alert you when your groups are ready. Depending on how complicated they are, they may be ready instantly.
If you choose the # of Groups - No Auto Enrollment group option, you can add users to your groups by going to the group category, then click on the carrot icon (see image), and choose Enroll Users. Add your users to the appropriate groups and click save.

Screenshot the Enrollment Type options for Brightspace groups. There is bolded text to the left that says Enrollment Type. Below that is a gray rectangle with text in it. Each piece of text is on its own line. The options are Number of Groups (dash) No Auto Enrollments, Groups of Numbers, Numbers of Groups, Groups of Number (dash) Self Enrollment, Number of Groups (dash) Self Enrollment, Number of Groups Capacity of Numbers (dash) Self Enrollment, and Single user member (dash) specific groups.

Screenshot of the Brightspace Groups page. There is text to the left that says Categories. Below that is a thin dropdown box with text inside that says Test Three. Below that is blue text that says Test Three. In parenthesis to the right of this is the number three. To the right of that, there is a gray box with an arrow icon pointing down. There is a pink box around this. There is a white dialog box opened. There is a pink box around the option in the dialog box that says Enroll Users.

Creating Group Discussions

Creating group discussions requires two steps: creating your groups and then setting up the discussion. Follow the steps above to create your discussion then follow the instructions below to set up your discussion.

Go to Other Course Tools and click on Discussions
Click New and select New Forum
Give your Forum a name (i.e. Group Discussion)
Click Save and Close
Scroll down to the forum and click the carrot/arrow icon to the right of it
Click Add Topic
Enter in your Topic Title
If needed, click on Ungraded to convert the discussion to a graded discussion
Add in a description (usually your prompt to students)
On the right-hand side, click on Availability Dates & Conditions
Scroll down to Group and Section Restrictions and click on Manage Restrictions
Choose between:
1. Restrict topic: creates a topic for a single group. Would require the set up of individual topics for each group. If you are grading topics, don't use this option as each new topic will create a new grade book item.
2. Restrict topic and separate the threads: creates one topic for all groups, but threads (student responses) are only visible to the students in each group.
Choose your group (for restrict topic) or group category (for restrict topic and separate threads)
Click Add
Review the other discussion settings
Click Save and Close
To link the discussion you just created:
1. Go to Content
2. Click on the module you want
3. Click on Existing Activities
4. Click on Discussions
5. Click the Discussion/s you just created