e-gnosis > Teacher Manual |  |
CHAPTER 19 |  | COURSE TOOL: GROUPS |  |
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|  | Introduction This tool allows you to create and manage workgroups. You can create groups of students. A group is a collection of students sharing the same forum and/or the same documents upload area. Create groups Select "New Groups creation". Enter the number of groups to create. Click "OK".
A new screen appears (See the picture below). You have to follow the steps mentioned below: Type the name of the group in the field of the group name. Select the group name from the group category pull down menu. Select the tutor from the tutor pull down menu. Type the number of seats in the seats field (this one is optional - a group may have an unlimited number of participants). Click on the "Create" button.
Modify group settings You can determine Group settings globally (for all groups). Users are allowed to self-register in groups You can create empty groups and users can self-register. If you have defined a maximum number, full groups do not accept new members. This method is good for teachers who do not know the users list when creating groups. Number of groups a user can be member of By default, only tutors and teachers are allowed to be a member of more than one group. Group tools Every group possesses either a forum (private or public) or a Documents area (a shared file manager) or (in most cases) both. Fill groups At creation (Create groups), groups are empty. There are many ways to fill them: automatically (From the Modify column, click on the button "Add users" ). manually (From the Modify column, click on the button "Edit" ). self-registration by users (From the Modify column, click on the button "Edit" and then click the checkbox "Users are allowed to self-register in groups"). These three ways can be combined. You can, for instance, ask users to self-register first. Then discover that some of them didn't register and decide to fill groups automatically (random) in order to complete them. You can also edit each group to compose membership one by one after or before self-registration and/or automatic registration. Group registration, whether automated or manual, works only if there are already users registered in the area. Users list is visible in Users tool. Edit and delete groups Once groups are created (Create groups), you can see a list of groups with a series of information and functions at the bottom of the page. "Edit". You can modify Group name, description, tutor, members list. "Delete" deletes a group.
If needed and if your users list is not empty, you can fill groups automatically by random selection or edit every group individually by entering users one by one. This manual editing can also be done after automatic registration or self registration to fine tune group composition, check who is where and so on, move one specific student, etc.
To edit a group manually Click on the pencil icon beside the group name (groups must be created beforehand). Modify Name. Write a description (a task, a list of activities, a problem, anything...). Attach a teacher (teachers must be allowed tutor rights first through the user list). Define max seats (existing members will not be removed if there are more users than new max value you enter). Specify whether your users are allowed to self-register/unregister themselves from groups. Specify whether the group's forum, documents or Wiki will available or not. Move students from right to left and/or left to right to modify group composition. Validate. Group area In the group area you can determine the specific areas for the group (a forum or document area restricted to this group). Click on group name to go to the group area. As a teacher, you are allowed to enter every forum and group document area. Teachers can enter any group, but the forum list defines which groups they supervise.
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