Moodle: Managing Groups

Introduction

Groups are used for various reasons within a course on Moodle. They could be used to put students into project groups to allow them access to various resources, extenuating circumstances and various other reasons.

There are 2 ways in which you can create bespoke groups for Moodle:

1. Using the group function in Moodle
2. Using the Admin Tool

What is the difference?

The only difference between the two is that if you create within Moodle it will take up to 2 hrs for it to appear in the Admin Tool. If, on the other hand, you create using the Admin Tool it will appear in Moodle instantly.

The preferred way is via the Admin Tool as this will update Moodle instantly.

Managing Groups in Moodle

Create a Group in Moodle

1. Open the Course menu
2. Select participants
3. Select Groups from the dropdown
4. Click on Create group
5. Enter a Group name
6. Leave the Group ID number blank
7. Enter a Group description
8. Leave the Enrolment key blank
9. Group messaging – If enabled, group members can send messages to the others in their group via the messaging drawer.
10. New picture – Select an image in JPG or PNG format. The image will be cropped to a square and resized to 100×100 pixels.
11. Click Save changes

Assign users to a group

1. Select the group
2. Click Add/Remove users
3. Select a user from the potential users or search for the user
4. Click Add
5. Click Back to groups

Editing a group

1. Click Edit group settings
2. Update settings
3. Click Save changes

Deleting a group

1. Select the group
2. Click Delete selected groups
3. Select Yes

Managing Groups Using the Admin Tool

Create a Group using the Admin Tool

1. Open the Admin Tool
2. Click on Groups > Manage groups
3. Search for the course
4. Select Create groups under the action
5. Type the group name
6. Press Return on the keyboard

Assign users to the group

1. Select Users under the action
2. Select Add staff/student to the group
3. Select the users
4. Click Add

Editing a group

1. Select edit under the action
2. Update the group name
3. Click Submit

Deleting a group

1. Select delete under the action
2. Click OK