What Are Groups?

Groups in Moodle allow you to divide students into smaller units within a course. This can be useful for activities such as:

• Group discussions in forums
• Collaborative assignments
• Restricting access to specific resources

What Are Groupings?

A Grouping is a collection of groups. Groupings allow instructors to assign activities or resources to specific sets of groups. This is useful when you want to:

• Organize students into multiple overlapping groups
• Assign different activities to different sets of groups
• Restrict resources or assignments to certain groupings

Setting Up Groups

Step 1: Create a Group

1. Navigate to your Moodle course.
2. Click on Users in the Course Administration menu.
3. Click on Groups.

4. Click Create Group.

5. Enter a group name and optionally, set a group picture, enrollment key, or group description.
6. Click Save changes.

Step 2: Add Users to a Group

1. Select the group you created and click Add/remove users.

2. Select the students you want to add and click Add.

3. Click Back to groups when done.

Setting Up Groupings

Step 1: Create a Grouping

1. From the Groups page, click on the Groupings tab.

2. Click Create Grouping.
3. Enter a name and description for the grouping.
4. Click Save changes.

Step 2: Add Groups to a Grouping

1. In the Groupings tab, find your newly created grouping.
2. Click Show groups in grouping (a person icon).

3. Select the groups you want to add and click Add.

4. Click Back to groupings when done.

Assigning Activities to Groups or Groupings

To assign an activity (e.g., an assignment, forum, or quiz) to a specific group or grouping:

1. Go to the activity you want to edit.
2. Click Edit settings.
3. If you updating an Assignments settings, set the Group Mode to Yes.
4. Scroll to the Common module settings section.
5. Choose a Group mode (Separate or Visible groups).

• No groups – Everyone in the course participates together.
• Separate groups – Each group can only see and interact with their own group members.
• Visible groups – Groups work separately, but they can see the work of other groups.

5. If using groupings, select a Grouping.

6. Click Save and return to course.

Best Practices

• Use groups for collaboration: Group-based forums and assignments help foster teamwork.
• Use groupings to manage multiple sets of groups: This is especially useful in large courses with lab sections or project teams.
• Clearly communicate group assignments: Ensure students understand which group they belong to and what activities they need to complete.
• Group submission settings: When setting up group assignments, enable the Require group to make submission setting to prevent students who are not assigned to a group from making a submission. Additionally, enable Require all group members submit if you want only one submission per group but all members to click submit for the submission to be considered as submitted. If disabled, the group submission will be considered as submitted as soon as any member clicks the submit button.
• The Group self-selection activity: This allows students to choose their own groups within predefined options. This is particularly useful for self-organized projects or study groups. Instructors can set limits on group sizes and deadlines for selection to ensure a balanced distribution of students.