TABLE OF CONTENTS

• About Groups
• Creating Groups
• Editing and Managing Groups
• Group Tools
  • Group Blog
  • Group Discussion Board
  • Group Email
  • Group File Exchange
  • Group Journal
  • Group Tasks
  • Group Wiki
• Group Assignments
• Add a Group Link to the Course Menu

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About Groups

Course Groups provide a private space for students to work together. Group work can be very beneficial for students, teaching them skills such as time management, sharing diverse perspectives, developing approaches to resolving differences, and more. More information on the benefits of group work may be found here: The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning: Group Work.

Creating Groups

You can create groups of students to collaborate on course work. Groups can be created one at a time or in sets. You can manually select group members or allow students to self-enroll. Each group has its own space, or homepage, with links to tools to help students collaborate. Only you and group members can access the group tools. 

To create a group, go to your course's Control Panel. Select Users and Groups and select Groups.

This will bring you into the Groups area. At the top of the page click Create. You will have the option to create a single group or a group set.

You will have the option to enroll the students in the groups yourself (manual enroll) or allow the students to choose their groups (self-enroll). For more information on group membership see Best Practice: Group Membership.

You will be prompted to give your group a name and (optional) description. Select the option to make the group visible to students.

Next, select the tools you wish to have available in the groups. For more information, see Group Tools.

Next, select whether to allow students to personalize their group page and whether or not you wish to create a smart view for the group. If you are enrolling students yourself, click Add Users to enroll them. For more information, see Enroll Students in a Group. Once you have finished, click Submit at the bottom of the page.

For more information see Create Groups.

Editing and Managing Groups

On the Groups listing page, you can create groups, as well as edit, manage, and delete them. See Manage Groups for more information.

Group Tools

There are several tools available for groups, including communication tools such as group email and group discussions and collaboration tools such as group assignments, group blogs, and group wikis. You can decide which tools are available in the groups. See Group Tools for more information.

Group Blog

Group members can add blog entries and comment on each other's entries. All course members can read and comment on a group blog, but they can't make posts unless they are members of the group.

Group Discussion Board

Group Discussion Boards are separate from the regular course discussion board and only accessible by group members. Members of a group can create and manage their own forums for discussion and collaboration. For more information on using Discussion Boards, see Setting up and Managing the myLesley Discussion Board.

Group Email

The group email tool allows group members to email each other. The recipient list is automatically populated with group members, so you can quickly select all or only some of them. 

Group File Exchange

Group members can use the File Exchange to quickly and easily share files with each other.

Group Journal

Group members can share their thoughts with each other and the instructor.

Group Tasks

Group members can create tasks to define and separate the workload.

Group Wiki

Group members can create and edit wiki content.

Group Assignments

You may create Assignments and assign them to one or more groups within your course. Each group will submit one collaborative assignment and all students will receive the same grade. For more information see Create Group Assignments. For more information on Assignments in myLesley, see Creating and Managing Assignments in myLesley.