Groups

The Groups tools can be used for:

• Any group assignment or activity that requires users to interact, submit or share materials within TCU Online.
• Collaborative activities.
• Peer editing and assessment.
• Creating smaller or differentiated learning cohorts within a course.

• Assignments
• Discussions
• Locker
• Release Conditions – this will allow you to limit content, chats, quizzes, etc. to specific groups.

Sections and groups exist at the same organizational level, but do not share the same functionality. Sections are purely an organizational org unit that allows for multiple students in the same course to be organized by lecture date, tutorial time and size. Groups have cross–functionality with some tools that sections do not (Assignments, Discussions, and Locker). Students should belong to only one section within a course offering but can belong to multiple groups. At TCU, students are associated to the section in which they registered officially with the Registrar.

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.

• Best practices for setting up groups
• Best practices for group enrollment

Watch a webinar about the Groups Tool

Creating Groups

• Create Groups
  • Group Enrollment Types
  • About Self-enrollment Groups
• Create Group Workspaces

Managing Groups

• Add a Group to an Existing Group Category
• Enroll Course Leaders in Groups
• Deleting users or moving users
  • Remove a Student from a Group
  • Student Group Discussions Remain after Course Drop
  • What Happens when you Move Users to a New Group?

• View Classlist by Groups
• Email a Group from the Classlist

• View Grades by Group in a Course
• About Evaluating Individual and Group Assignment Submissions

Using Groups with Assignments

Assignments automatically created in groups’ setup are configured for group submissions. This means that any member of the group can submit the assignment on behalf of the group. Any assessments within the dropbox folder will be given to each group member.

Groups must be in place before a group assignment can be created. Individual dropboxes can be assigned to specific groups using release conditions as described above; however, once an assignment folder is created it cannot be changed from individual to group submission or vice-versa.

• Create an Individual or Group Assignment
• About Evaluating Individual and Group Assignment Submissions

Using Groups with Chat

• Group Chats

Using Groups with Discussions

Discussion forums and topics can be restricted to specific groups. Discussions can be created during the group creation process or after. All forum/ topic setup, availability, and restriction options will still be valid and available (see the Discussions page for further info).

• Create a Group Discussion Topic
• Restrict an Existing Forum or Topic to Specific Groups or Sections.
• Journal Solutions
• Post to a Group Discussion Topic
• View and Post to Group Discussion Topics

Groups and Lockers

Lockers are simply a place for users to store files. Group lockers provide a space restricted to members of a group for users to upload and download files relevant to their group work. Each user has a personal locker as soon as they are created, and this is managed at the org level. Group lockers are created at the course level because of groups’ place in the org structure. They can only be created during the group category setup process. No management is required after setup because of their basic nature.

• Self-Enroll in a Group