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6.22. Groups
Groups Tool
Use Groups to design special work areas where learners can discuss, share, and submit work as a group. The groups tool allows you to create and edit groups and categories. Categories house collections of related groups. Groups subdivide learners.
Why Use the Groups Tool?
The Groups tools can be used for:
- Any group assignment or activity that requires users to interact, submit or share materials within the Learning Environment
- Collaborative activities
- Peer editing and assessment
- Creating smaller or differentiated learning cohorts within a course offering.
Getting Started
Groups can be created before all users have been added to a course, but it is considered a best practice to wait until all users are enrolled. This prevents manual user additions to groups later on. Groups is not on the NavBar, choose More/Course Admin and Groups.
In the Groups tool, create a New Category for this set of groups. As an effective practice, the category is generally the assignment/activity the groups relate to. Choose the Enrolment Type based on the following criteria:
- Will the group enrollment be based on the number of people per group, the number of groups in the class, or both?
- Will you allow students to self-enroll in a group?
- Will you manually assign students to groups?
Depending on the enrollment type, you will be asked for the number of students per group or the number of groups you wish for the class. You will also be asked for a Group Prefix, which will be given to each group in this category and will allow for easier searching.
Additional Resources