Overview of the Groups Tool

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Instructor

Groups are a means of organizing learners within a course offering into a smaller unit.  Groups are more than an organizational element of the Learning Environment. They also have cross-functionality with multiple tools within the system. Groups interact with the Discussions, Assignments and Locker tools.

To access the groups tool, open a course, select Course Tools > Groups

The Learning Hub group tool enables you to separate your entire class into groups. You can use the groups for content release, quizzes, discussions, and even assignments. You can decide if a group is:

  • Self-Enrollment
  • Pre-Enrollment
  • Automatic Enrollment decided by Learning Hub (Random placement)

Why use the Groups Tool?

  • Any group assignment or activity that requires users to interact, submit or share materials within the Learning Hub
  • Collaborative Activities
  • Peer evaluation or assessment of presentations, group projects etc.
  • Creating smaller groups within a course

Step by step guides for setting up Groups in your course

For step by step instructions on how to create a group for your course please see our How to Configure and Setup Groups job aid

Group Enrollment Types

# of Groups - No Auto Enrollments

  • This option creates a specified number of groups which you can add any number of users too using the ‘Enroll Users’ page.
  • This enrollment type is good to use when you know the number of groups you want to create and which users you want in each group.

Groups of #

  • This option creates the minimum number of groups needed to place users in groups of a specified maximum size. The number of groups is determined by the number of people in the class list. The groups will be automatically created based on how many people you want in each group to how many people you have in the class list.
  • This enrollment type is good when you know how many users you want in each group.

# of Groups

  • This option creates a specified number of groups.
  • This enrollment type is good when you know the number of groups but you want Learning Hub to place the users in the groups for you.
  • If the “Can be auto enrolled into groups” option is enabled, users are added using a brick laying algorithm, regardless of whether they enrolled before or after the groups where created.
  • If the “Can be auto enrolled into groups” option is not enabled, then the specified number of groups are created but no users will be enrolled into the groups. You will have to enroll them using the “Enroll Users” page.

Groups of # - Self Enrollment

  • This option creates groups based on how many users self enroll into a group. Users choose the group they want to enroll into from the groups page. In the members column of the Groups grid list, capacity markers display the number of users there are vs how many are allowed : x/y
    • x= how many are enrolled
    • y= max number allowed
  • This enrollment type is good when you know how many users you want in each group but you want to allow users to decide what group they would like to be a part of
    • If no users are enrolled in your course at the time of creation, then only one group is automatically added (as users are added to the class list the groups will grow).

 

# of Groups - Self Enrollment

  • This option creates a specified number of groups. Users will self enroll from the Groups page.
  • This enrollment type is good when you want to make a specific number of groups available for users to join.
    • Can be good for when you want to organize groups based on specific topics

 

# of Groups, Capacity of # - Self Enrollment

  • This option creates a specified number of groups with a specified number of enrollments per group.
    • You can increase or decrease the amount of enrollment for a group after they have been created
      • decreasing a group size (enrollment number) after it has been created will not re-allocate users to another group, you must assign those users to another group(s) manually
  • This enrollment type is good when you know how many users you want in each group and you want to allow users to pick their own groups

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