Groups
Quick Start Guide

Having students work within smaller groups for specific projects or activities can increase engagement. The Brightspace Groups tool facilitates the setup and organization of group activities. Groups is often used in conjunction with Discussions and Assignments.

Creating Groups

Go to My Tools > Groups.

To begin to create groups, click New Category.

Add basic information:

1. Category Name (mandatory)
2. Description (optional)
   

Select Enrollment Type

Advanced Properties

The advanced property setting options that are available will depend on the Enrolment Type.

With Groups of #/# of Groups, “Randomize users in groups” is selected by default and is usually the preferred setting. Deselecting this box means students will be assigned to groups in order of the classlist.

With all types of Self Enrolment groups you can set a period for enrolment; after the enrolment date, you can choose to have any unenrolled users automatically assigned to a group.

Select Additional Options

When creating groups, you can select any or all of the following options:

1. Discussion areas: this will set up a discussion item that only group members (and the instructor) can use
   1. create a new Discussion Forum (blue link) or link to an existing Forum from the drop-down
   2. create a new Discussion Topic or connect to an existing topic
2. Lockers: this is a place where members of a group can share files
3. Assignment submission folder: this will create an assignment for either individual or group submission; keep it at File submission for a file upload (e.g. Word document or PowerPoint slides) but change it to Text submission if you will be having the students link to media (e.g. a video that they upload to My Media via Insert Stuff)
4. Save

Once you hit save, the groups will be created in the background. You don’t need to wait for this to be completed. Click OK to continue to next steps.

Discussions – Create Restricted Topics

If you opted to create Discussions, you will be able to complete the setup on the next page.

• *In most cases, you should keep the setting as the default “Create one topic with threads separated by group”.
• Optional: add a description/instructions for the discussion.
• Select Create and Next if only one topic is needed; select Add Another if more than one discussion topic is needed for each group.

*Keeping the selection on the second option, “one topic with threads separated by group”, will allow you to link all scores to the grade book. If you choose the first option, “one topic per group”, you will only be able to sync the first group’s score to the grade book and all of the other groups’ scores will need to be manually entered.

Note: additional discussions can be created later and connected to these groups.

Assignments – Create Submission Folders

Below are the required settings for setting up group assignment folders:

1. Required: Provide a Name
2. Required: Specify whether this assignment is for each individual group member to complete or if the group will collectively submit one assignment (default is a group submission)
3. Required: Specify the submission type (if an upload such as a Word doc or PPT slides will be required use “file”; if students will be linking to media via Insert Stuff, select the “text” option)
4. Required: Specify the number of files allowed per submission folder (default is unlimited)
5. Required: Specify submission retention (all kept, only latest, only one allowed)
6. Required: Select “Create” if there is only one assignment; if more than one assignment folder is needed for each group, select “Add Another”. Note: additional assignments can be created later and linked to these groups.

The next screen will confirm what you’ve created. Click Done; on the next page click Save.

Manage Groups

On the Manage Groups page you will see a summary table of the category, including how many groups there are, how many are enrolled in each group, and whether you’ve created an assignment, discussion, or locker.

By accessing the drop-down menu beside the group name, you can:

• use the Edit Category function to change the category name, or add/edit the description
• use Add Group to create an additional group
• use Enrol Users to manage manual enrolment, including moving students who were already assigned to a group (note: if students are able to self-enrol this is not applicable)
• select Delete to remove this group setup from your course
• select Email to send a message to all members of a group

Manual Enrolment

From the dropdown select Enrol Users.

In the classlist/groups summary table, click the checkboxes to assign (or reassign) students to a group. Once all students are enrolled, click Save.

Editing Discussion or Assignment Settings

To add restrictions, manage special access, or make any other changes to the discussions and or assignments that were created using Groups, go to the relevant area of the course:

• Group Discussion: Communication > Discussions >  arrow beside name in topic list > “Edit Topic”
• Group Assignment: Assessments > Assignments > arrow beside name in assignment list > “Edit Folder”

For more information, see the Quick Guides on Discussions and Assignments.

The Groups settings are extensive. If you would like help setting up or managing Groups and related activities, contact EdTech.

Contact edtech@langara.ca for more information.