Create a group discussion
When you create a discussion, you can assign groups to help students feel more comfortable because fewer people are involved. You can also assign a specific topic to each group. For more information about groups, visit the Create and Manage Groups page.
You assign groups to a discussion in a discussion's settings.
You can align goals with a group discussion. When you want to use both post first and groups, select Post first before you assign groups. If you select Grade discussion, more settings appear.
You can't move individual students out of groups after they start their discussions. However, you can move unassigned students into groups after discussions have started.
View groups
After you create a group discussion, you can access groups from the Course Content or Discussions page. Select the groups link to open the Groups page.
View a group discussion
Select a group discussion title on the Course Content or Discussions page. To access each group's discussion, select a group name from the menu.
Grade a group discussion
Graded group discussions can guide a student's ability to tactfully and clearly express personal views among a select group of peers. A grade can also hold the student accountable to further the group's conversation and development of discussion ideas.
To enable grading on a group discussion, select Graded discussion in the discussion's settings. Choose your grade settings and a participation deadline.
You have the option to enable or disable grading at any time, even after groups have started the discussion. If you remove the grading option in the discussion after you assign grades, all discussion content remains but the grades are lost.
Select Assign to groups and assign students groups for the discussion.
Grade from a discussion
You assign grades for each group member individually in a group discussion. You can't assign a grade to a discussion group as a whole. Any feedback you include with a grade is accessible to only that student.
From a group discussion, select Grades & Participation to review who's participated.
On the Grades & Participation page, students are listed with their groups. To go to other groups, select a group name from the menu.
Select students' names in the list to access their posts. Assign a grade and include optional feedback. When you're finished, select Post to release grades and feedback to students.
View group discussion statistics
You can also access discussion statistics for groups. Open a group discussion's menu and select Student Activity. You can choose to review overall statistics or statistics sorted by group.
