Create and manage groups in myCourses

The Groups tool allows you to create groups in your course within one or more Group categories. For example, you may have a Group category for a group assignment and another for choosing presentation topics.

In this article:

Group categories

Each Group category can have one of three main enrolment types:

• Manual enrolment: The instructor manually enrols students in groups.

• Auto-enrolment: The system automatically assigns students to groups.

• Self-enrolment: Students enrol themselves into the group of their choice. See Enrol yourself in a group in myCourses (for students) to see how students enroll themselves in groups.

Group categories can also include private Workspaces for each group, such as group-restricted discussion topics, group submission assignment folders, and group lockers. Students only see the group workspaces for the group(s) they are enrolled in. Instructors and teaching assistants see all group workspaces.

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Types of group enrolment

The Groups tool allows you to create groups in your course within one or more Group categories. For example, you may have a Group category for a group assignment and another for choosing presentation topics.

Enrolment type options include:

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Create groups and categories

To access the Groups tool, click Course admin and Groups. If you plan to allow students to self-enrol in groups, you must edit the navigation bar to add the Groups link.

Create a group category

To create groups, you must create at least one Group category. A Group Category contains one or more groups. For example, your Group Category may be called "Presentation Topics" and the groups inside that category would be the various topics. You can create multiple Group Categories in your course.

1. Click Course admin > Groups or click the Groups tool on your Navigation Bar.

2. On the main Groups page, click New category.

3. Enter a Category name.

4. (Optional) Enter a Description of the category. Students will not be able to view this description.

5. Select the Enrolment type you would like to use.

6. Enter the Number of users per group and/or the Number of groups to create.

7. (Optional) Enter a Group prefix to automatically name your groups in a specific way. For example, if you enter “Presentation Topic” in this field, your groups will be named Presentation Topic 1, Presentation Topic 2, etc.

8. If you chose a Self-enrolment type, the following Advanced properties will appear:

   • Set self enrolment expiry date: Set a date when students will no longer be able to enrol in groups in this category.

   • Allocate unenrolled users after self enrolment expiry date: If students do not enrol in a group by the expiry date, they will be automatically enrolled in a remaining group.

9. If you chose an Auto-enrolment type, the following Advanced properties will appear:

   • Auto-enrol new users: If new students join the course after you create the category, they will be automatically enrolled in existing groups.

   • Randomize users in groups: Randomly assigns students to groups. 

10. Under Additional options, select the checkbox beside each group workspace you would like to set up for your groups.

    • Set up discussion areas: Creates private discussion areas for each group in this category.

    • Set up lockers: Creates group lockers for your groups to share files.

    • Set up assignment submission folders: Creates an assignment for group submissions.

11. Click Save. Your Group category will be created unless you selected to Set up any group workspaces in the previous step.

12. If you selected Set up discussion areas, see the next section on Creating group-restricted discussion topics.

13. If you selected Set up assignment submission folders, see the section on Creating group submission assignments.

14. On the Workspace summary page, click Done.

15. If you selected Self-enrolment, you must change your Navigation Bar and add the Groups link to allow students to self-enrol.

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Create group-restricted discussion topics

If you selected Set up discussion areas for your Group category, you are taken to the Create restricted Discussion areas page. From this page, you can create or select a forum in Discussions where restricted topics will be created for each group in the category. Although you will be able to see all of these topics listed in Discussions, your students will only see the restricted topics for group(s) they are enrolled in.

1. Follow the steps in the previous section to create a group category and select Set up discussion areas.

2. Select an existing forum in Discussions from the Forums drop-down menu where the group-restricted topics will be created OR click New forum to create a new forum for the group-restricted topics.

3. Click Create and next to create the topics. 

For more information about Discussions, see Create discussions in myCourses.

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Create group submission assignments

If you selected Set up assignment submission folder for your Group Category, you are automatically taken to the Create assignments page. From this page, you can create a Group submission assignment in the Assignments tool. One member of a group can submit an assignment on behalf of the entire group. Your scores and feedback for this group submission will appear to all members of the group.

Open

1. Follow the steps above to create a group category and select Set up assignment submission folders.

2. Enter a Name for the assignment.

3. (Optional) See Create assignments for an explanation of the optional features available for assignments.

4. Click Create to create the assignment. 

You can edit these options later from the Assignments tool. For more information, see our documentation on Assignments.

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Create group lockers

If you select Set up lockers for your Group Category, group Lockers are automatically created and accessible from the Locker tool. This is useful for sharing group files and allowing group members to edit a single file, such as a group wiki. For more information, see Use the Locker tool in myCourses.

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Add and remove students from groups

You can manually add or remove students from groups at any time if they want to switch groups. If you selected Manual enrolment - Number of groups, you must add students to groups manually.

1. On the main Groups page, select a Group category from the View categories drop-down list if it does not already appear on the page.

2. Click the arrow beside the category name and select Enrol users.

3. Select the checkbox beside a student's name to enrol them in a group.

4. Click Save to enrol students in the selected groups.

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Add a group to an existing group category

You can add additional groups to an existing Group category at any time.

1. On the main Groups page, select a Group category from the View categories drop-down list if it does not already appear on the page.

2. Click the arrow beside the group category name and select Add group.

3. In the Add group pop-up window that appears, enter a Group name for the new group.

4. (Optional) Enter a Description. Students will only be able to view this description when they are self-enrolling in groups.

5. Click Save.

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Edit groups and categories

You can edit a Group category or Group at any time to add new group workspaces to a category or rename existing groups.

1. On the main Groups page, select a Group category from the View categories drop-down list if it does not already appear on the page.

2. Click the name of the Group category or Group you wish to edit.

3. Make your changes.

4. Click Save.

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Delete groups and categories

You can delete a Group category or Group at any time. However, this is not recommended while a course is in progress.

What happens when you delete a group category?

• ALL students' file submissions to Assignments associated with the deleted Group category are permanently deleted along with the group submission assignment folders.

• ALL files uploaded to Group lockers are permanently deleted along with the group lockers.

• Group-restricted Discussions are NOT deleted, however, the group members will no longer have access to them. You can delete these topics from the main Discussions page.

• Users are no longer enrolled in groups because the groups do not exist.

What happens when you delete an individual group?

• Any file submissions to Assignments uploaded on behalf of the deleted group are permanently deleted.

• Any files uploaded to the deleted group's Group locker are permanently deleted along with the group locker for the deleted group.

• Group-restricted Discussions for the deleted group are NOT deleted. However, the group members will no longer have access to them. You can delete these topics from the main Discussions page.

• Users are no longer enrolled in the deleted group because it does not exist.

• If the Auto-enrol new users option is selected for the Group category, students in the deleted group are automatically distributed to the remaining groups.

• If the Auto-enrol new users option is NOT selected for the Group category, the instructor must manually enrol students in the remaining groups.

• If the Enrolment type for the Group category includes Self-enrolment, students from the deleted group will be able to enrol themselves into a remaining group.

Delete a group or category

1. On the main Groups page, select a Group category from the View categories drop-down list if it does not already appear on the page.

2. Select the checkbox beside each group or category you want to delete.

3. Click Delete.

4. In the pop-up window that appears, click Delete groups/categories.

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