Moodle: Groups and Groupings

Overview

Groups in Moodle are used to sort students enrolled in a course into, well, groups, to manage access to certain course activities and resources. Groupings, on the other hand, are collections of groups. In this article, learn how to create, delete, and manage membership of groups/groupings.

Groups

Navigating to the Group Menu

1. Click the Participants tab at the top of the course page
2. Click the Enrolled users dropdown menu in the top left and select Groups

Creating Groups Manually

1. Select Create group
2. Enter the name and description of the new group
3. Click Save changes

Creating Groups Automatically

1. Select Auto-create groups
2. Enter the Naming scheme that will be applied to each group
   • Using @ will assign a letter to each group ("Group @" = Group A, Group B...)
   • Using # will assign a number to each group ("Group #" = Group 1, Group 2...)
3. Choose Auto create based on: 
   • Number of groups: Students are evenly distributed into the amount of groups written in Group/Member count
   • Members per group: Groups are created each with the amount of students written in Group/Member count
4. Under Group members, select which Role you would like to assign to groups (note: this should normally be set to students).
   • If you selected Members per group, you can choose Prevent last small group below to evenly distribute students that would be in a small group to different groups (this might force a different group size)
5. Under Grouping, select an option for Grouping of auto-created groups.
   • You can choose no grouping, an existing grouping, or a new grouping
   • If new grouping is selected, then you will need to name the new grouping
6. Click Preview to check how the groups will be created
7. Click Submit

Deleting Groups

This will not remove students from your class.

1. Click the Participants tab at the top of the course page
2. Click the Enrolled users dropdown in the top left and select Groups
3. In the Groups box, click the group you want to delete
4. Click Delete selected group
5. Click Yes

Adding and Deleting Members 

1. In the Groups box to the left, click the group you want to manage, and click Add/Remove under the right box
2. To add a member to the group: select a user in the Potential members box and click the Add button
3. To remove a member from the groups, select a user in the Group members box and click the Remove button
4. Click the Back to groups button in the bottom left corner to return to the previous page

You do not need to click any Save buttons, as the changes are automatically saved

Adding New Students to Groups

This requires pre-existing groups.
If you enable automatic enrollment into groups, students who join afterwards will automatically be entered into the groups you selected on the Auto-enrol in Groups screen.

1. Click the Participants tab at the top of the course page
2. Click the Enrolled users dropdown in the top left and select Auto-enrol in groups
3. Click Enable automatic enrolment in groups for this course.
   • If you would like to only enroll users in certain groups, select Enrol users in selected groups only, and select the groups.
4. Click Save Changes.

Groupings

Creating Groupings

1. Click the Participants tab at the top of the course page
2. Click the Enrolled users dropdown menu in the top left and select Groupings
3. At the bottom of the page, select Create grouping.
4. Enter a name and description
5. Click Save Changes

Adding and Removing Groups to/from Groupings

1. Click the Participants tab at the top of the course page
2. Click the Enrolled users dropdown menu in the top left and select Groupings
3. On the right of the Grouping you would like to change, select the circular person icon (the 👤 icon)
4. Click on a group from the Potential Members box(or hold shift and click on multiple groups at once), and select Add
5. Or, select one or more groups on the Existing Members box and click Remove to remove them from the Grouping
6. Click Back to groupings

Removing Groupings

1. Click the Participants tab at the top of the course page
2. Click the Enrolled users dropdown menu in the top left and select Groupings
3. On the right of the grouping you would like to delete, select the trash can icon (the 🗑️ icon)
4. Click Yes

Questions?

If you need further assistance or have specific questions that aren't covered in this article, please don't hesitate to reach out for personalized support by submitting a Moodle Support ticket. 

Acknowledgement 

Created by Sam Johnson-Lacoss, 10/6/21. Updated by Charlie Roslansky ‘24, 11/22/23