Best practices for setting up groups


  • If you want users to see all users and content for a course but be a part of a group for a specific project or activity, use the Groups tool. However if you want users to only see learning materials and users from their own section, use the Sections tool.
  • To organize users' work on projects and assignments or to create special work areas for users with different learning needs, use the Groups tool.
  • Users can belong to multiple groups within the same course.
  • For each group, create separate discussion forums, Assignment submission folders, and Locker areas to work in.
  • Grade members of groups individually or as a team.
  • Before setting up groups, know how you want to organize them. The following factors can affect how users enroll in groups:
    • Setting groups up before or after you've enrolled users.
    • Enabling auto-enrollment in groups.
    • Enabling randomization of users in groups.
    • Enabling self-enrollment in groups.
    • The Enrollment Type you choose.
  • Set up groups after the majority of users enroll in your course. This gives you a better idea of how many users you are organizing and how many groups you need. Setting up groups after enrollment can also ensure better distribution of users between groups.
  • For users to enroll in groups automatically, the Can be auto enrolled into groups permission must be enabled. Contact your site administrator if you experience difficulties.