The Groups Tool

If you are looking for a way to create sign-up sheets for student presentations, project proposals, or office hours we have a solution for you.

This article describes the steps you need to take in order to allow the students to sign up for one of the projects they need to work on, using self-enrolment groups.

Zoom Classroom

You can find the link to this video conferencing tool in each of your Brightspace courses, under the Tools menu in the navbar. When you use Zoom in Brightspace the first time, a Pro account will be automatically created for you, but you can also set up your Zoom account outside of Brightspace. Click here for more information on the Zoom Classroom, available to you in the Brightspace Essentials for Faculty course.

Using Groups in Brightspace

There are times when you would like your students to collaborate on activities and assignments, and this is when the Groups tool in Brightspace is very helpful.

• How do I set up groups? Click here to view step by step instructions on how to create a group category and groups (Activities/Groups/New Category)
• How many group enrollment options do I have? You have the options to allow the students to self enroll in groups, or you can add them manually into each group. Watch an overview of group enrollment options.
• How do I manually enroll my students into groups? Once your groups are created, click on each group and then on Enroll Users.
• How do my students submit their project when they work in groups? You set up an assignment from Activities/Assignments and make it available for a group category. Click here to learn how to create an assignment.
• Some of my students can not access a group assignment. On the Manage Group page, from the contextual menu for the group category, choose Enroll Users. The next screen will display all your students on one page, and the group they belong to. This view will help you quickly identify students who are not part of any group.
• I need my students to colaborate on their activity in one private area. You have the option to create group restricted discussion areas.
• I have two different projects in my course and students are collaborating with different classmates for each project. How do I deal with this? You will just need to create a different group category for each project.
• I have all my groups created, but I need to add an extra group to a group category. On the Manage Groups page, click on the chevron beside the category’s name and then on Add Group.

Academic Continuity