Create group work areas for users with the Groups tool. You can use groups to organize users’ work on projects and assignments, or you can create special work areas for users with different learning needs.
Users can belong to multiple groups within the same course. For example, each user can simultaneously belong to a group for class projects, a group for special interest discussions, and a group for advanced users. Each group can have its own discussion forums, assignments, and locker area to work in. You can grade members of groups individually or as a team.
Creating Groups
From the course navigation bar, click Course Tools and select Groups from the drop-down.
Click New Category. This category will house the individual groups.
Enter a name for the group category (i.e. Project 1 Groups). Multiple group categories can be created in a Brightspace course.
Click the Enrollment Type drop-down and select the desired enrollment option.
- If you would like to manually assign students to groups, choose # of Groups – No Auto Enrollments.
- If you would like Brightspace to automatically assign students to the groups, we recommend choosing either the Groups of # or # of Groups.
Enter the desired number of groups or users. This option will depend on your previous selection.
- If you chose the Single user, member-specific groups enrollment type, you will not see this option.
- If you previously chose either the Groups of # or # of Groups option, we highly recommend checking the Auto-Enroll new users option under Advanced Properties. With this option checked, anyone who adds your course after these groups are created will be automatically distributed into a group without any work on your part.
- If you previously chose the # of Groups – No Auto Enrollments option, click the drop-down to the right of the category you just created and select Enroll Users from the drop-down. From here, you can assign students to particular groups.
Click Save when finished.
Common Question - What happens if I move a student to a new group?
- Discussion posts remain in the old group and do not count towards a student's grade if the forum or topic is associated with a grade item. The student must satisfy the discussion post requirements in the new section. You can override a grade using the Grades tool.
- Assignments folder submissions submitted for the old group remain with the old group. The student receives the grade achieved by the new group on any group Assignments folders. You can change the student's grade back to the original group’s grade in the Grades tool