Moodle has several activities suitable for learners to work together as a whole class or in groups of various sizes. This tutorial brings together a variety of ways to use features in Moodle to promote student collaboration.
Possible benefits: These collaboration tools allow you to set up group working exercises in the same way as you might in a classroom or other situation outside Moodle.
This tutorial looks at:
Moodle allows creation of groups and groupings (which are sets of groups, or "supergroups").
Groups allows you to split up your class into groups and assign activities and resources to those groups.
Groups can be Separate (people in that group can only see their relevant materials, activities e.g. discussions in forums etc.) or Visible (people in that group can see the materials and activities for all groups but cannot interact with or contribute to other groups e.g. forums, only to their own).
Please note, that if 'Visible' groups is selected then students will be able to view all other groups within the module and who is a member of that group. If 'Separate' groups is selected then students will only be able to view their group and members of that group.
1. Navigate to the module you want to work on within Moodle
2. Click on the 'Settings' link within the sub navigation bar
3. Scroll down to the 'Groups' section and expand
4. Under the Groups heading change "Group mode" to 'Separate groups' or 'Visible groups'
Note: Change "Force group mode" to 'Yes' if you want to ensure that groups are then enabled for each activity/resource you then add to the module. This becomes the default for your whole module, but can be adjusted on an activity by activity basis.
With Groupings you can create "supergroups" out of your existing groups, allowing you to bunch different groups together into a larger one. For example, a collection of lab Groups taught on a different day to another collection of lab Groups could be clumped into Groupings labelled as that teaching day in order to differentiate them. Groupings is more to aid teaching staff on a module, particularly when it comes to marking; students do not see the grouping title, they only see their Group title.
1. From the front page of your module site, click the 'Participants' link within the sub navigation bar.
2. From the dropdown menu to the left of the 'Enrol Users' button, select 'Groups'.
3. On the next page which loads, click on the 'Create group' button located below the list of groups.
4. Give the new group a "Group name" (mandatory). "Group description" can be useful (e.g. noting who the marker(s) will be). The rest of the fields are optional.
5. Set the visibility of the group, here you have a few options:
Users with the view hidden groups capability can always view group membership.
Note you can't change this setting if the group has members.
Depending on which option you have chosen, you can choose to show groups on your activities within the main Moodle module to alert students to group activities taking place.
6. Click on the 'Save changes' button and the new group will appear in the left-hand column.
6. Select the new group in the left-hand column entitled 'Groups:'.
7. Click on the 'Add' / 'Remove' users button under the right-hand column entitled "Members of:". A new screen will appear where you can add the students enrolled on your course to your new group. These are found in the right-hand column labelled "Potential members".
Although you can create groups by uploading a csv, you can't enrol students.
Contact us at selfservice.nottingham.ac.uk for an example spreadsheet that we can run in to create groups for you.
1. From the front page of your module site, click the 'Participants' link within the sub navigation bar.
2. From the dropdown menu to the left of the 'Enrol Users' button, select 'Groupings'.
3. Click on the Create grouping button, give it a "Grouping name" and click Save Changes.
3. Your grouping will appear on the Groupings tab. Click the blue 'Person button' underneath edit to add groups to your grouping.
4. In the next page you can use the 'Add' & 'Remove' buttons to add your groups.
5. Click 'Back to groupings' when you're done.
You have the ability to make activities, files or other content on your Moodle site visible to certain groups without having to go into the settings for each piece of content.
Now, if you hover over any item in your Moodle module, you will see that there is a group availability option.
Clicking the icon gives you options for group availability, which can be set here without leaving the page.
You can choose from several options:
The Moodle sign-up sheet can be used for many purposes - some examples include signing up for events such as careers fairs, indicating project choices and creating project groups for collaborative work.
Note: The groups formed by this system are not the same as Moodle's own groups and cannot be used in Moodle activities, therefore Signup Sheets are best used to form groups that are active outside Moodle.
See also
How to export a sign-up list from the Signup Sheet tool
There are a number of activities in Moodle which allow groups of students to work together either privately (separate groups) or with sight of, but not access to, other groups (visible groups).
Using Discussion forums, wikis or Chat Rooms with Moodle groups enables students to work together in groups, on a collaborative task or project.
Students can also submit group assignments - either (1) one student submits for all in the group and it's automatically applied against the others in the group as soon as submitted, or (2) each student has to approve the submission of their own group's piece.
You may want to run a Peer Assessment activity in Moodle, which allows students to peer assess their peers as part of a group activity. This can be formative or summative in nature.
The following other resources are also relevant to this topic:
Possible benefits:
These collaboration tools allow you to set up group working exercises in a way similar to the classroom.
Please contact your local elearning support team.
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If you have any comments on how you think this help can be improved then please email Learning-Technologies@nottingham.ac.uk
