CloudDeakin guides

Groups

Teamwork is one of Deakin’s graduate outcomes. CloudDeakin can help you set up groups and group work in your unit to facilitate this outcome.

The Groups tool is used to create group work areas for students and tutors. Groups can be used to organise students’ work on projects or assignments, or to create special work areas for users with different learning needs.

Students can belong to any number of groups in the same unit. For example: a student could belong to a group for each class project, a special interest discussion group, and a group for advanced students all at the same time. Each group can have its own discussion, assignments folders, and locker area to work in. Members of groups can be graded as a team or individually

Create groups

You have options to create groups and let the system to automatically assign students to groups or you can let your students to self-enrol into groups. Self-enrolment allows users to enrol in groups on their own. Unit Chairs/Teaching Staff may use this option when they want users to have the freedom to choose their own group members or to be a part of a group on a topic that interests them. Unit Chairs need to ensure that the Groups link is available on the Navbar for students to self-enrol.

1. Click on Tools and then click on Groups.
2. Click on New Category.
3. Enter a Category Name. This is the name for the group or the title for the group. e.g. Assignment 1, Group Discussions.
4. Enter a Description if you wish.
5. Select one of the following Enrolment Type:
   • # of Groups: No Auto Enrolments: You need to manually enrol students in groups
   • Groups of #: Each group will have a maximum of # number of students
   • # of Groups: # number of groups
   • Groups of #: Self-enrolment
   • # of Groups: Self-enrolment
   • # of Groups of #: Self-enrolment
   • Single user, member-specific groups. Using this option creates a group with a single student where the first name and last name of the student is the name of the group. Go to Step 10.
6. Enter the Number of Groups. If you’ve selected # of Groups of #, enter Number of Users.
7. Under Restrict Enrollments To, select the relevant group or section.
8. Enter the Group Prefix if you wish.
9. If you’ve selected # of Groups or Groups of #, you’ll have the options to Auto-Enrol New users and Randomise users in Groups.
   Note: Add users who enrolled late to a group manually if Auto Enrol New Users is not selected.
10. If you’ve selected self-enrolment options, you can set the self-enrolment expiry date. You can also allocate unenrolled users after Self-Enrolment Expiry Date.
11. Create Workspace can help create a discussion area/set up a locker/set up an Assignment for each group separately.
12. Click Save.
13. You’ll be prompted that groups are being created in the background and will be notified once the groups are created. Click OK.

Modify or add users to groups

You can manually change which group a user is enrolled in or search for users who have not been assigned to a group.

1. From the Manage Groups page, use the Categories dropdown list to navigate to the categories you wish to add users.
2. Click Enrol Users from the context menu of the category name.
3. Select whether you want to display All Groups or a specific group.
4. Enter information in the Search For field to search for a specific user or use the Not Enrolled option to find users that still need to be added to a group.
5. Click Search.
6. Enrol users or adjust enrolment using the check boxes in the Enrol Users grid.
   Note: It is necessary to untick the group the student is currently enrolled in (appears next to the student name in the list) to avoid student from being in two groups.
7. Click Save when you are finished.

Note: Manually enrolling users allows you to exceed the enrolment limit for a group.

Edit groups and categories

Note: Changing the Group Prefix will only impact on newly created groups – existing groups will retain as the previous name.

1. From the Manage Groups page, use the Categories dropdown list to navigate to the categories or groups you wish to edit.
2. Click on the name of the group or category you want to edit.
3. Update the appropriate fields.
4. Click Save.

Delete groups and categories

1. From the Manage Groups page, use the Categories dropdown list to navigate to the categories or groups you wish to delete.
2. Select the check box beside the group or category you want to delete.
3. Click the Delete button.

What happens when you delete a group?

• If Auto-Enrol New Users is selected, users are automatically distributed in the remaining groups.
• If groups are set up for manual enrolment, users must be added to the remaining groups using the Enrol Users page.
• Group discussion forums remain available for reference. They can be deleted using the Discussions tool.
• Group locker areas and the files they contain are deleted.
• Group assignment folders and the files they contain are deleted.

What happens when you delete a category?

• Users are no longer enrolled in groups because they do not exist.
• Group discussion forums remain available for reference. They can be deleted using the Discussions tool.
• Group locker areas and the files they contain are deleted.
• Group assignment folders and the files they contain are deleted.