Groups: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:49, 5 October 2012

A teacher can organise users into groups within the course or within particular activities.

Why use groups?

You are a teacher in a course where you have several classes and you want to filter your activities and gradebook so you only see one class at a time.
You are a teacher sharing a course with other teachers and you want to filter your activities and gradebook so you don’t see the students from your colleagues’ classes.
You want to allocate a particular activity or resource to just one class or set of users and you don’t want others to see it. See Groupings.

Group levels

A group or grouping can be used on two levels:

Course level - The group mode defined at the course level is the default mode for all activities defined within that course. To use groups you need first to set a group mode in Settings>Course administration>Edit settings.

Activity level - Each activity that supports groups can also have its own group mode defined. If the course setting "Force group mode" is set to "Yes" then the option to define the group mode for individual activities is not available. If it is set to "No", then the teacher may change the group mode:

Group modes

There are three group modes

No groups - There are no sub groups, everyone is part of one big community
Separate groups - Each group can only see their own group, others are invisible.
Visible groups - Each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups. (The other groups' work is read-only.)

For example, enabling either separate or visible groups on an assignment drop-box enables staff to filter the student submissions to see only those from a particular tutor group. With visible groups, students can see which other groups are doing the same activities as they are; with separate groups, they do not know which other groups are doing the same activities.

Using groups with discussion forums allow teachers to restrict interaction between students. Separate groups mean only students in the same group can see and participate in discussions within a particular forum. Visible groups allow students to see other group's discussions, but only participate in their own group's discussions.

To create a group

Click the 'Create group' button in Settings > Course administration > Users > Groups
Add a group name and optional description (displayed above the list of group members on the participants page), enrolment key and picture (displayed on the participants page and next to forum posts)
Click the 'Save changes' button
Select the group to which you want to add participants, then click the 'Add/remove users button
In the "Potential members" list, select the users you want to add to the group. Multiple users may be selected using the Crtl key.
Click the Add button to add the users to the group

Auto-create groups

Groups may be created automatically via the 'Auto-create groups' button in Settings > Course administration > Users > Groups. To see all the settings, click the Show Advanced button.

Select members from ... allows you to choose from roles or available cohorts. Specify and Group/Member count work together.

You can specify if you would like to create

x number of Groups or
each group contain x number of students

When selecting Members per group the Prevent last small group will allocate additional members to an existing group rather then create a new group with fewer members than x.

A naming scheme can be created automatically. # is replaced by sequential numbers, and @ by letters. For example:

Group @ will create group with a naming scheme Group A, Group B, Group C . . .
Group # will create group with a naming scheme Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 . . .

Create in grouping and Grouping name allows you to create a new grouping and allocate the new autocreated groups to be created to it.

Prior to creating the groups, you can view the groups.

Groups overview

A overview of groups and groupings is available via the Overview tab in Settings > Course administration > Users > Groups.

The table may be filtered to display particular groupings or groups.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Course admin}}
+{{Grouping users}}
-The '''Groups''' feature allows a teacher to assign teachers and students to one or more  groups within a course.  This will allow the teacher to create <!-- ?? sight or interaction --> separation of students in the course or in one or more specific activities.
+A teacher can organise users into groups within the course or within particular activities.
-==Groups in Moodle 1.9==
+==Why use groups?==
-{{Moodle 1.9}}
+*You are a teacher in a course where you have several classes and you want to filter your activities and gradebook so you only see one class at a time.
-Groups must be enabled in the course settings.  After it is enabled a group icon will appear in the [[Course administration block]]. The [[Image:Group.gif]] icon links to the "Features Groups" page.
+*You are a teacher sharing a course with other teachers and you want to filter your activities and gradebook so you don’t see the students from your colleagues’ classes.
+*You want to  allocate a particular activity or resource to just one class or set of users and you don’t want others to see it. See [[Groupings]].
-To create a group, click on the "Create group" button below the left column. Type the group name in the text box, a description. If you define a group [[enrolment key]] then, not only will entering that key let the user into the course, but it will also automatically make them a member of this group (For this to work you will need to define a separate course enrolment key in your 'course settings').  You can also define an icon for the group by uploading an image - this icon will appear on the participants listing, forum posts by those group members and other places.  The "Save" button will take you back to the Features Groups page.
+==Group levels==
+A group or grouping can be used on two levels:
-To [[Assign users to group|add a member]](s) to a group you need to select the group name in the left column, then select the participants (use shift or ctrl for multiple selections), from the right column. Click the "Add" button to move them to the selected group..
+*Course level - The group mode defined at the course level is the default mode for all activities defined within that course.  To use groups you need first to set a group mode in ''Settings>Course administration>Edit settings.''
-To remove participants from a group, select the appropriate group to view members, select the participants to remove and click the "Remove selected members" button.
+*Activity level - Each activity that supports groups can also have its own group mode defined. If the course  setting "Force group mode" is set to "Yes" then the option to define the group mode for individual activities is not available. If it is set to "No", then the teacher may change the group mode:
-In Moodle 1.9 onwards, groups include the following additional features:
+[[File:groupmodecourse.png]]
-*[[Groupings]] tab, an option of creating [[Groups_FAQ#What_is_the_difference_between_a_Group_and_a_Grouping.3F|groups of groups]]
-*[[Groups overview|Overview]] tab
-*[[Auto-create groups]] button
-==Group modes==
+===Group modes===
-The group mode can be defined at two levels:
+There are three group modes
-* Course level - the group mode defined at the course level is the default mode for all activities defined within that course. This is determined in the course [[Course_settings|settings]]
+*No groups - There are no sub groups, everyone is part of one big community
+*Separate groups - Each group can only see their own group, others are invisible.
+*Visible groups - Each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups. (The other groups' work is read-only.)
-* Activity level - each activity that supports groups can also have its own group mode defined. If the course  setting "Force group mode" is set to "Yes" then the option to define the group mode for individual activities is not available.
+For example, enabling either separate or visible groups on an assignment drop-box enables staff to filter the student submissions to see only those from a particular tutor group. With visible groups, students can see which other groups are doing the same activities as they are; with separate groups, they do not know which other groups are doing the same activities.
-There are three group modes:
-===No groups===
+Using groups with discussion forums allow teachers to restrict interaction between students. Separate groups mean only students in the same group can see and participate in discussions within a particular forum. Visible groups allow students to see other group's discussions, but only participate in their own group's discussions.
-:There are no sub groups, everyone is part of one big community.
-===Separate groups===
+===To create a group===
-:Each group can only see their own group, others are invisible.
+#Click the 'Create group' button in ''Settings > Course administration > Users > Groups''
+#Add a group name and optional description (displayed above the list of group members on the participants page), enrolment key and picture (displayed on the participants page and next to forum posts)
+#Click the 'Save changes' button
+#Select the group to which you want to add participants, then click the 'Add/remove users button
+# In the "Potential members" list, select the users you want to add to the group. Multiple users may be selected using the Crtl key.
+# Click the Add button to add the users to the group
+[[File:groups.png]]
-===Visible groups===
+==Auto-create groups==
-:Each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups. (The other groups' work is read-only.)
+Groups may be created automatically via the 'Auto-create groups' button in ''Settings > Course administration > Users > Groups''. To see all the settings, click the Show Advanced button.
+[[File:autocreategroupsmoodle2.png]]
-==Groups in older Moodle versions==
+''Select members from ...'' allows you to choose from roles or available cohorts.
-===Groups in 1.8===
+'''Specify''' and '''Group/Member count''' work together.
-[[Image:Groups 1.8.png|thumb|center|Edit groups screen in Moodle 1.8]]
-Please note, in Moodle 1.8 onwards, [[Create group|groups are created]] and [[Assign users to group|users are assigned]] on separate pages.
+You can specify if you would like to  create
+*x number of Groups or
+*each group contain x number of students
-===Groups pre -1.8===
+:When selecting '''Members per group''' the '''Prevent last small group''' will allocate additional members to an existing group rather then create a new group with fewer members than x.
-[[Image:000.jpg|left|thumb|Groups in Moodle 1.7]]In Moodle 1.6 and 1.7, the Groups edit page has three columns:
-* ''People in the course'' - both assigned and unassigned participants.
+A '''naming scheme''' can be created automatically.  # is replaced by sequential numbers, and @ by letters.  For example:
+*''Group @'' will create group with a naming scheme Group A, Group B, Group C . . .
+*''Group #'' will create group with a naming scheme Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 . . .
-* ''Groups'' - A list of groups available for this course.
+'''Create in grouping''' and '''Grouping name''' allows you to create a new grouping and allocate the new autocreated groups to be created to it.
-* ''Members of selected group'' - When you select a group this column will display the members of that group
+Prior to creating the groups, you can view the groups.
-Underneath each column are the options for that column.
+==Groups overview==
+A overview of groups and groupings is available via the Overview tab in ''Settings > Course administration > Users > Groups''.
+The table may be filtered to display particular [[Groupings|groupings]] or groups.
+==Groups capabilities==
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/course:managegroups|Manage groups]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/site:accessallgroups|Access all groups]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/calendar:managegroupentries|Manage group calendar entries]]
 ==See also==
-*[[Create group]] in Moodle 1.8 onwards, including information on setting group enrolment keys
-*[[Assign users to group]] in Moodle 1.8 onwards
-*[[Groups FAQ]]
-*[[What is the difference between groups and groupings?]]
 *[[Upload users]] - for importing users into groups
-*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=1490 Groups forum]
-[[Category:Groups]]
 [[de:Gruppen]]
 [[fr:Groupes]]
 [[ja:グループ]]
-[[pl:Grupy]]

Documentation