1.4.2 Using Groups

1. Introduction

The Groups feature allows teachers to divide up the students into groups. Then students can undertake activities within their groups. Groups also allow students to work together more closely, and encourage more participation from each student than they might get in a whole-class exercise. This is especially good practice when there are many students in the course.

You can define the Groups mode used in your courses at two different levels:

• Course level: The group mode defined at the course level is the default mode for all activities defined within that course (this is set in the course settings).
• Activity level: Each activity that supports groups can also have its own group mode defined.

When you are using Groups, you do not need to create one activity for each group. The group mode defined at course level is the default mode for all activities within the course. If the group mode is "forced" at a course level, then this particular group mode will be applied to every activity in that course. Individual group settings in each activity are then ignored. This is useful when, for example, you want to set up a course for a number of completely separate clients or classes. Please note that the Glossary, Lesson, and SCORM activities do not work with groups. Some activities do not behave how you might expect when groups have been applied. Always test an activity after groups have been applied!

There are three modes for Groups:

• No groups: There are no sub groups; everyone is part of one big community. Use this if Groups are not required.
• Separate groups: Each group can only see their own group, others are invisible. Use this if you want complete separation between Groups - so a different Teacher can deal with their own Group, for example.
• Visible groups: Each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups. Use this if you want to have activities undertaken in groups that don't interact directly, but still want to be able to view each other's activity.