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Group self-selection module

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The Group selection activity module allows students to select a group in the course that they want to be members of. Groupless students can create new groups (optional feature). Non-editing teachers may be randomly assigned to groups. Group data is exportable as a CSV-file.

Background

The first versions of such functionality appeared already for Moodle 1.4. Versions up to 2.1 have been written by Petr Škoda and Helen Foster with the help of other developers. The most recent 3.0 version is developed by Pirkka Pyykkönen.

Settings

There are two global settings:

  • Require activity description (default Yes) - if disabled users do not need to enter a description for each activity
  • Max members per group (default 0) - if enabled this sets a numeric limit for group sizes, 0 being unlimited

Global Settings

The activity has a number of options available when adding to a course

  • Select groups from grouping (default all groups) - Restrict the groups that are shown to students to a certain grouping, also specifies the grouping of student created groups
  • Min members per group (default 0) - Minimum number of members per group, adds notifications for members of groups which are under this limit
  • Max members per group (default 0) - Maximum number of members per group, 0 for unlimited
  • Open from (default disabled) - Selections can only be made after this time
  • Open until (default disabled) - Selections can only be made before this time
  • Students can create groups (default enabled) - Students without a group (in the selected grouping) can create groups
  • Students can set and edit group description (default enabled) - Student can set a group description when creating a group and group members can edit the description
  • Assign non-editing teachers to groups (default disabled) - Enables a button which assigns non-editing teachers to groups (if course has non-editing teachers)
  • Show assigned teachers (default disabled) - Show assigned non-editing teachers in group member listings (so students know who their assigned teacher is)
  • Hide full groups from the main view (default disabled) - Hide all groups, which have reached max member count, from the main list view
  • Delete group when last student leaves (default enabled) - Automatically delete a group if last student leaves from it
  • Group mode - No groups, Visible groups means that group members are visible to everyone on the course, Separate groups means that students only see their own groups members (recommended)


Activity Settings

Usage as a student

  • As default, student may have access to four actions in the main view: (s)he may create a group, become a member of a group, leave a group, or edit groups description


Groupless students view

  • Selecting and leaving of a group is done by pressing the corresponding button in Action column for the desired group
  • Creating/selecting is only possible if the student is not a member of a group (in the selected grouping). When creating a group, student can set a password for the group to prevent unwanted members from joining. Password protected groups have a lock icon displayed in the main view


Group creation

  • Clicking own groups description text sets it editable (if Students can set and edit group description is enabled), OK saves changes and clicking elsewhere discards changes


Editing description

  • If the activity has Min members per group setting enabled, red warning icons are displayed for every group not satisfying this limit, also the members of such a group have a text notification displayed at notifications area


Main view

Usage as a teacher

  • Teacher has a couple of possible actions: CSV-export and non-editing teacher assigning
  • Exporting group data as a CSV-file is done by clicking corresponging button on the main view. This creates a download link, which can then be clicked to initiate download. A row represents one group in the CSV-file and the values are comma separated. Latest Excel and Libreoffice software should manage to open the file directly, if not, try different separator and character set options
  • Assigning non-editing teachers to groups is possible if corresponding setting is enabled and the course has non-editing teacher users. Pressing the assignment button divides the groups randomly and evenly to non-editing teachers. Assignment is irreversible but can be redone. If students should know their assigned teacher, it is recommended to enable setting Show assigned teachers, otherwise the assignments show up only in the export file


Teachers view with assigned teachers visible

Installation

Download and unpack the activity folder. Place the folder (eg "groupselect") in the "mod" subdirectory. Visit http://yoursite.com/admin to complete the installation Turn editing on in any home or course page. Add the activity to the page

See also