Enhancements to course groups – 3900.110

Impact: Instructors, Administrators
Updated Topic: Create and Manage Groups

Instructors

To simplify group management and enhance usability for instructors, we made several improvements to course groups: 

  • Activity-level groups are now course-level: All new groups are now course-level. Instructors can create course-level groups directly from a content item, eliminating the need to manage groups at the activity level. 
  • More warnings and restrictions: To prevent the creation of empty group sets during group assignments, we added restrictions and additional warning messages. This helps instructors make informed decisions and avoid disruptions in group management. 

Image 1. The new warning for when an instructor creates a group assignment with an empty group.

A popup warning message saying "No Groups Found: This group set has no groups. Add groups to assign content."
  • Simplified group creation: The option to reuse activity-level groups was removed. This change encourages instructors to focus on course-level groups and reduces confusion. 

Existing activity-level groups in a course will remain activity-level. 

Administrators 

When copying course materials to a new course from the Administrator Panel: 

  • Group assignments with activity-level groups associated with a copied content item will not be duplicated. 
  • Copied content will indicate that it previously had groups with a “No groups” label, helping instructors understand the history of the content and encouraging the use of the new group management system. 

For more details, visit Methods to Copy a Course. 

Availability: Available for all Ultra courses. 

Activation: None needed. 

Configuration: None needed.

Return to February 2025 – 3900.110.0 Release description