Groups FAQ

General

What is the 'groups mode' setting?

There are three different groups mode – No groups, Separate Groups, Visible Groups. In ‘Separate groups’ mode, each group can only see their own group – other groups are invisible. In ‘Visible groups’ mode, each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups.

What is the 'force' setting?

If force is set to yes, then all activities are group activities. This overrides any settings for individual activities. If force is set to no, then activities are only group activities if they have been set to group mode. In this case, each activity requires to be set to group mode individually.

How do I assign a teacher to a group? Can a teacher be in more than one group?

You can assign a teacher to a group in exactly the same way that you assign a student to a group. In 1.5, a teacher cannot be in more than one group. This will change in 1.6.

How do I restrict a teacher to view only information about the groups that they are in?

For Separate Groups mode, if a teacher has edit rights set to yes, then they can see all groups. If a teacher has edit rights set to no, then they can see only the groups of which they are a member.

What determines whether students can see a teacher's profile?

A student can see the profile of all teachers that are members of their group or that have edit rights.

I have two groups that meet on different days. Can I set up activities for different times for the two groups?

Not currently. You can create a separate course for each class using backup and restore, though you do then have to update both courses.

Can I use the same groups for more than one course?

Not currently. There are two possible workarounds for this. The first is to give the students group enrolment keys, so they enrol themselves into the right group for each course. The other alternative is to create a master course with all the students enrolled and in the correct groups, and then to make each of the courses a metacourse (link) based on that master course (although the metacourse documentation claims that metacourses do not preserve groups, this seems to have been used by some people). See the documentation on Metacourses.

Can a student be a member of more than one group? Is it possible to have students not in any group?

In 1.5, a student cannot be a member of more than one group. This will change in 1.6. A student does not need to be in a group.

If I have several groups, can I make a specific activity visible to just one of those groups?

Not currently. You can however make a forum post visible to just one group.

Can I have one set of groups for Activity A and another set of groups for Activity B?

Not currently.

Is it possible to view all the groups in a course as a list to print out?

Not currently.

When I try to add a student, they are always added to the first group, whichever group I select?

Make sure that the students name does not include any punctuation. There is also a workaround – give each group a temporary name at the start of the alphabet, put your students in the group and then rename the group.

Activity modules and groups

Different activity modules vary as to how they treat groups – some have better support for groups than others! In general if you have questions about how an activity supports groups, you’re advised to post in the forum for the activity module, and not the groups forum.

What happens if I switch an activity from being in non-groups mode to being in groups mode?

This depends on the activity module in question.

For forums, posts made before the forum is put into groups mode are visible to all students after you have put the forum into group mode. However students cannot reply to these posts if they have no group (i.e. blank).

What happens if I change the groups for an activity in groups mode e.g. if I move a student from one group to another?

Again this depends on the activity module. You may find that grades or activity logs are lost, so check for the specific activity module first.

How do I post a message in a forum that only one group can see?

Before you click 'Add a new topic', you need to choose the group from the Separate groups drop-down menu at the top left.

As a teacher I want to put the same post in each group's forum with students able to reply to that post. How can I do this?

You need to post the same message into the forum for each group. There is currently no way to do this in one go if you want students to be able to reply to your post. If you don't mind students not being able to reply, then you can of course just post the message to all participants.