Groups, Groupings and Group Choice activity (Staff)

1. In the ‘Course Management’ window, click on “Groups”.
2. Click on Create Group. Type in the name of the first group (students may be able to see this name, so choose something sensible). Provide a description of the group. You can even add a picture for the group. Save your changes.
3. Add as many groups as you need.

Add users manually to control who goes into which group

1. To add users to a group, select the group in the Groups column. Click the Add/remove users button.
2. You will now see two columns on the page. On the right, you have a list of potential members and on the left, a group of actual members. Select a name or names on the right.
   1. You can use the search box to find specific names.
   2. You can select more than one name on the right by using the “Ctrl” or “Shift” keys on your keyboard. Hold in “Ctrl” and click on single names. Hold in “Shift” and select the first and last name of a continuous list of names.
3. Click the Add button, and the name will move from the right to the left hand column.

Auto-create groups to save yourself time – good for large scale groups

Auto-create will allow you to create groups and add users in just a few steps.

1. Go to Course Management > Users > Groups > click auto-create groups.
2. For Naming scheme, enter the group name you would like to use for your groups. Moodle will automatically generate names based on what you enter. An “@” sign will generate a letter (e.g., “Group @” will generate Group A, Group B, Group C)A “#” sign will generate a number (e.g., “Group #” will generate Group 1, Group 2, Group 3) If you want the name of the groups to be the name of the teachers, go for one of the above naming options and then you can rename them later in step 9.
3. From the Auto create drop-down menu, choose how you want to divide your students:
   1. Number of groups will form groups based on the total number of groups you select (If you are creating groups for marking purpose, select this option and state the number of markers in the next step.
   2. Members per group will form groups based on the number of members you want in a group. Please note: If you select Members per group, under the Group members settings, check Prevent last small group. If a remaining group is less than the size you set, Moodle will place these members into other groups (preventing a group of 1 student).
4. For Group/member count (required), enter the number of groups/members you would like in each group.
5. Under the Group members settings, from the Select members with role drop-down menu, choose ‘Student’.
6. From the Allocate members drop-down menu, select how you want group members to be assigned to groups. The default setting is Randomly. You can also sort alphabetically by First name, Last name, or Student ID#.
7. Under the Grouping settings, use the Grouping of auto-created groups drop-down menu and select ‘No grouping’.
8. Click Preview to see a preview of the groups. If you are satisfied, click Submit.
9. (Optional): If you wish to rename the group names, select the group you wish to rename and then click on ‘Edit group settings’, type the new group name in place of the old group name and then scroll-down and click on ‘Save changes’.

If you want users to add themselves to groups, you can use the Group Choice activity. It allows students to enrol themselves in a group. You must set up the empty groups first! You can then select which groups students can choose from and the maximum number of students allowed in each group. Choices can be made visible to others and students can be given the option to move groups.

1. Turn editing on (button in the top right of the page)
   
2. Go to the section where you wish to add a forum, click the “Add an activity or resource” link and choose Group Choice.
3. Give the activity a name e.g. Choose your discussion group and make clear what the groups are for and how they will be used in the module
4. You may prefer to stop students signing up to more that one group
5. Decide on how students choices will be published, if at all, on the module.
6. Choose whether students names are shown in the results or just the numbers in each group
7. Allow choice to be updated if you want students to be able to move groups. This can be changed at a later point if required
8. Show a list of students who have not yet chosen a group
9. Limit the number of responses allowed – to enable a maximum number of participants is for a group. Select yes, add the max number of group members and click Apply to all groups.
10. Select the groups you would like students to sign up to by clicking and highlighting the groups and selecting Add.
11. You may also set a date and time restriction for when students can sign up to groups
12. When you are finished click Save and display

1. Set up all your groups first.
2. Click the groupings tab.
3. Click Create grouping. Give your grouping a name and an optional description, then save.
4. To add groups into your grouping, click the Show groups in grouping icon. On this screen, you can add groups into the grouping in the same way that you add users into groups.

Create Groups and assign to assignment inboxes for multiple markers

Using the method means you can set up one activity and simply apply groups to create separate groupwork spaces e.g. set up one forum and use groups to create multiple forums accessed via one link. Be aware that you may have to use groupings if students are assigned to more than one group on the module – see more info above on when to use groupings.

1. Edit the activity or resource, under Common module settings find the groups setting and select either;
   1. Visible – students can view the work of the other groups but can only participate in their own group
   2. Separate – students can only view and participate in their own groups
2. Click Save.
3. When you access the activity as a teacher you can either view all to view all activity and in the case of a forum send a message that appears in all the group forums or you can select a specific group to view the activity within that group e.g. send a message to individual group forums.

1. Go into edit any activity or resource, and you will find a section called Restrict access.
2. Click Add restriction and select Group or Grouping.
3. A restriction appears, where you can choose the group.
4. By default, students can see group activities, even if their group is not allowed to access it. When they click the link, they will be told they do not have access. To hide it completely from students outside the group, click the eye icon so it has a cross through it.