Moodle: Creating groups

The groups feature in Moodle facilitates collaborative learning by enabling participants to be assigned to one or more groups within a course.

Types of Groups

Setting the types of groups can be done by selecting Edit Settings found in the Groups section.

No groups

  • Everyone can see all materials.

Separate groups

  • Only members of the group can see their own group.

Visible groups

  • Members can see other groups, but can only work in the group they are assigned to.

Force group mode

  • Setting this to yes means the groups will be applied to every activity in the course.

To setup groups

  1. Click Users → Groups in the Administration block.
  2. To automatically create groups, click Auto-create groups.
    1. For General, complete Naming scheme using a @ for lettered groups or # character for numbered groups.
    2. Type the desired number in the Group/member count field to designate how many students are in each group.
    3. For Group members, select Student in the Select members with role drop-down menu.
    4. For Grouping, enter the group name in the Grouping name section.
    5. Click Submit.
  3. To manually create groups, click Create group.
    1. Complete the on-screen prompts.
    2. Click Save changes and repeat for all your groups.
    3. On the Groups page, add users to a group.
      1. Select the appropriate group and click Add/remove users.
      2. Select a participant from the Potential members column.
      3. Click Add and repeat for all group members.
      4. After adding participants, click Back to groups, which is located in the lower left side of the screen.

Applying groups to a new activity

  1. At the main page of your course, click Turn editing on, which is located in the upper right side of the screen.
  2. In the desired week/topic, click the Add an activity or resource.
  3. Select the appropriate activity.
  4. Complete the on-screen prompts. (Note: Make sure to select the type of group you want in the Group mode setting that is found in the Common module settings section. For Grouping, if a grouping is selected, students assigned to groups within the grouping will be able to work together.)

Applying groups to an existing activity

  1. On the main page of your course, click Turn editing on.
  2. Click on the activity’s editing icon for groups until it is set to the desired type of group.

Updated: 3/5/2021