Best Practices

Before setting up groups, know how you want to organize them.

For example, let’s say you wanted to create groups for discussion and a research project.

• Discussion groups: 3 groups
• Research groups: Groups of 6 students each

You would set up one category for Discussions using the “# of Groups” enrollment type.

You would set up one category for Research using the “Groups of #” enrollment type.

Before setting up work areas, know how you have to organize them.

For example, let’s say you have lab groups in your 42 person class. Your classroom has 6 lab stations that can only accommodate up to 8 students at a time.

In this case, since your stations accommodate a finite number of students, you would use the “Groups of #” enrollment type.

Before setting up work areas, know how you want to grade group work.

For example, do you want to grade each group discussion topic, or do you give one discussion grade for all topics combined? Do you want the group members to see their peer evaluations or not? These all affect how to set up your workspaces in groups.

Set up groups after the majority of the students are visible in your Classlist.

• Better idea of how many students and groups you need to organize
• Better distribution between groups

Use the Auto-enroll new users setting- students who add the class are automatically added to groups.

If you are allowing students to self-enroll, set a self-enrollment expiry date in Advanced Properties > Group Options. (This way, all students will be enrolled in groups.)