• Creating groups in Brightspace
• Group Categories
• Restrict Enrollments To
• Manage your groups via Manage Groups
• Video on how to create Groups

Follow the following steps to create groups in Brightspace:

• Go to Course Tools > Groups in the navigation bar of your course. This will open the Manage Groups page.
• Click on New Category.

1. Type in the Category Name (for example Study Group).
2. Add a category description if needed.
3. Determine how the groups will be created with the help of the dropdown menu below Enrollment Type. You can choose to allocate students to groups yourself, allocate them automatically or give them the option to choose their own group (Self Enrollment). You can subsequently determine the total amount of groups (# of Groups) and/or the total amount of students per group (Groups of #). The amount of enrollments per group cannot exceed 200 students. You can find descriptions of the seven possible group structures below. Depending on your preferences, you can now indicate the amount of groups and/or the total amount of students per group. 

You can create seven different types of group categories in Brightspace:

1. (#) Number of Groups - No Auto Enrollment:
   This option allows you to determine the total amount of groups you want to create. You can fill the amount of groups in the box below "Enrollment Type".
2. Groups of #: Groups of a maximum amount of students. This option allows you to indicate the maximum amount of students per group (with a limit of 200 students). You can fill in this number in the box below "Enrollment Type".
3. (#) Number of Groups: Which will appear as third option. This option allows you to manually allocate students to groups.
4. Groups of # - Self Enrollment: This option allows you to limit the maximum amount of students per group (with a max. of 200 students). You can fill the amount of students per group in the box 'Number of Users' which will appear below. Students are subsequently allowed to (un)enroll themselves to the group of their choice, up to the maximum number of students that you indicated.
5. # of Groups - Self Enrollment:
   This option allows you to determine the total amount of groups you want to create. You can fill in this number in the box 'Number of Groups' which will appear below. Students are subsequently allowed to (un)enroll themselves into the group of their choice, with a maximum amount of 200 students per group.
6. # of Groups, Capacity of # - Self Enrollment:
   This option allows you to determine the total amount of groups you want to create and the maximum amount of students per group (with a limit of 200 students). You can fill in the number of groups in the box 'Number of Groups' and the total amount of students per group in the box 'Number of Users' both of which will appear below. Students are subsequently allowed to (un)enroll themselves into the group of their choice, up to the maximum number of students that you indicated.
7. Single user, member-specific groups:
   This option creates a single group per student. You can use this option if you want to work with blogs/journals. Students can subsequently write a blog on a personal and private discussion topic.

Options 2 and 3 allow you to change the following, using Advanced Properties:

• Auto-Enroll New Users: Brightspace automatically enrolls all students that are participating in your course after the groups have been created.
  Note: Students will always be allocated to the group with the fewest amount of participants; this option ensures that there are no groups without any participants.
• Randomize users in Groups: students are randomly allocated to a group.
  Note: If this option is not selected, students are allocated to groups in alphabetical order.

Options 4, 5, and 6 allow you to change the following using Advanced Properties:

• Set a start date (Start Date) and/or end date (Expiry Date) for the self-enrollment period which means that students are not able to join and/or leave groups after the indicated dates. Fill in a date or select Now to start or stop self-enrollment immediately.
• Allocate unenrolled users who did not enroll themselves in any group. This will happen automatically after the enrollment deadline has passed and will allocate students to a random group.
  Note: Group capacity might be ignored.

The example above uses the fifth enrollment option: four groups that allow students to manually enroll themselves (# of Groups - Self Enrollment, Number of Groups: 4). This option enables you to add an enrollment deadline and to make sure students are automatically enrolled after the deadline has passed (options can be found below Advanced Properties).

1. Optional: Fill in a Group Prefix (e.g. Workc-). All group names will start with the prefix and are followed by a number (Workc-1, Workc-2, Workc-3 & Workc-4). 
2. Optional: Set the start and end date and time for Self Enrollment.
   • Check the box Allocate unenrolled users after Self Enrollment Expiry Date in case you want students to be automatically enrolled after the deadline has passed
3. You can check one or more of the boxes below Additional Options to add the following:
   • A Discussions forum and topic.
   • A Locker (group-specific digital storage that allows a group to digitally share their files without interference from other students).
   • An Assignment submission folder.
4. Click on Save. You will now return to the Manage Groups page.
   Note: If you have selected one of the additional options, you will be redirected to the tool that enables you to create these. 

In addition, you can choose from which groups or sections you want to restrict enrollments from when you are creating new groups, you can do this via Restrict Enrollments To. This means that students can only be enrolled for a group if they are enrolled within the selected group or section.

In Manage Groups, you can:

• View your group categories and groups.
• Create new categories.
• Edit categories and groups.
• Check which students are enrolled in what group.
• Delete categories and groups.
• Send an email to all the students in a specific group. 

1. Click on the arrow besides View Categories to go to a specific category and see the groups it contains.
2. The number behind the name of the category (Werkgroepen serie 1 (6)) indicates the number of groups that are currently in that category. The arrow behind the name of the category allows you to:
   • Edit the category (Edit Category). You can use this function to add a discussion topic or locker when you have already created the category and did not add them initially.
   • Add a group (Add Group).
   • Add students to groups (Enroll Users). This option will open a screen that enables you to enroll the students from the class list in the groups in this specific category.
3. If you want to create another Group Category (for instance for a lecture or practical session), you can click on New Category and repeat the steps that are explained above.
4. Click on the number in the Members column to see which students are enrolled in a group.
5. If you want to delete a group or send every member of a group an e-mail, you simply check the box for a specific group and select either Delete or Email. 
   Note:  When you send an email, all of the recipients’ email addresses will be in the BCC field to ensure the privacy of the students.
6. You can change and/or add a description of a group by clicking on the name of that group.

• Click here for a video on how to create Groups.
• If you want to know more about creating groups, you can watch this video from the Brightspace supplier D2L. Some screens might have a different look and feel to the THUAS Brightspace environment.