Let Students Pick their Moodle Groups

This is new for us as of Moodle 3.6 (2019/SU term) and is part of a greater article on Moodle Groups and may be particularly effective as a requirement before students can participate in a group activity.

Enter the course that you’ll be using groups in.

Ensure you’ve already…

  1. enabled groups,
  2. created those groups (and often groupings) in your course.

Turn editing on.

Turn Editing On button is found in the top-right corner of a Moodle page you have permission to modify content for.

Navigate to the Week or Topic in which you want to establish groups.

Click the Add an activity or resource link.

Select the Group choice Activity.

Under the General section, set the Group choice name and description.

Under the Miscellaneous section:

  1. Set Publish results to reflect if and when you want students to see which groups have room and optionally who has joined those groups.
    SUGGESTED SETTING: Always show results to students
  2. Set Privacy of results to reflect if you want students to see the names of who has signed up for which group.
    SUGGESTED SETTING: Publish full results, including name and their choices
  3. Set Allow choice to be updated to
    • Yes: Allow students to change their mind later
    • No: Prevent students from moving between groups.
  4. Set Show column for unanswered to Yes (this setting is not one students see and if for teachers only)
  5. Set Filter out response data for users with expired or suspended enrolments to No.
  6. Set Limit the number of responses allowed the largest number of people for any single group (if applicable).
  7. Click the Apply to all groups button.

Under the Groups section:

  • Select a Grouping (will appear bold and expandable if you’re using them) and click the Add grouping button.
    OR
  • Select a group you’d like to offer as an option. Click the Add group button. Repeat for each group.
    OR
  • Use the Shift key on your keyboard to select multiple groups and click the Add Groups button

Under the Restrict Answering to this time period section set the open and close times for this group choice to occur.

OPTIONAL: Once that deadline is passed, you can manually assign any stranglers to groups if needed.

Under Common Module Settings:

  1. Set your desired Availability.
  2. NOTE: You do NOT need to set a Group mode OR Grouping.

Click the Save and display button at the bottom of the page to save your changes and you’re done!