VIU Campus

Manage Groups

Course participants access the Groups tool under Communication in the course navigation bar.

On the Manage Groups page, learners can do the following:

  • Click the Choose Group link beside an enrollment message to enrol in a new group.
  • Click on the number in the Members column to view the Member List for a group.
  • Click on an Assignment Submission folder to view its contents.
  • Click on a Discussion Topic to view its postings.
  • Click Email Group to email all members of a group.

Faculty members can: 

  • Edit Group settings.
  • View and edit Group Enrollment. 
  • Create or delete Groups or Group Categories. 
  • Set up Group-restricted work spaces.

The Enrol Users Page

Users are enrolled in groups based on the enrolment option selected on the New Category page. Use the Enrol Users page to:

  • Manually enrol users in groups.
  • Manually change which group a user is enrolled in.
  • Add users who enrolled late to a group if Auto-Enrol New Users is not selected.
  • Search for users who have not been assigned to a group.
  1. Click Communication and then Groups from the course navigation bar.

  2. If you have more than one set of groups, choose the Group Category you want to edit underneath the View Categories heading.

  3. Click the arrow to the right of the Category to open its context menu and choose Enrol Users.

  4. Select the group you want from the Display drop-down list or select "All Groups" to see all groups.

  5. Enter information in the Search For field to find a specific user, or click the Search icon to find all users.

  6. You will see a small icon next to the name of each user who is enrolled in at least one group. Select the check boxes beside each user's name to add them to groups. Uncheck the check boxes beside each user's name to remove them from the group. 

  7. Click Save.

Tip: Select the Not Enrolled search option to find users that do not belong to a group.

While you can move learners from one group into another, this will cause them to lose access to any material they submitted to a Discussion or Assignment Submission folder associated with their original group.

Assignments submitted with the old group remain with the old group. The user receives the grade achieved by the new group on any group Assignment Submission folders. You can change the user’s grade back to the original group’s mark in the Grades tool.

Discussion posts remain in the old group and will no longer be visible to the student. Any assessment you have already completed will be retained, but students will no longer be able to see the discussion they were graded on. 

For these reasons, If you need to reorganize your groups partway through a term, consider creating a new Group Category rather than altering the enrolment of your groups. This will allow all users to maintain access to their past work while allowing you to reorganize group members going forward.

Edit Group Settings

Once you have set up Groups in VIULearn, you can adjust all settings you chose when creating your category except for the enrolment type selected. If you selected the wrong enrolment type, you will need to delete your category and start over.

  1. Click Communication and then Groups from the course navigation bar.

  2. Choose the Group Category you want to edit by clicking the input field underneath the View Categories heading. 

  3. Click on the name of the Category you want to edit.

  4. From this screen you can:

    • Add a Group.

    • Edit the Category Name or Description.

    • Change how new users are enrolled. 

    • Set up group Discussion Forums or Assignments Submission folders.

  5. Once you have finished making your changes, click Save.
  1. Click Communication and then Groups from the course navigation bar.

  2. If you have more than one set of groups, choose the Group Category you want to edit from the drop-down menu underneath the View Categories heading. 

  3. Click the arrow next to the blue name of the category in the table and choose Add Group from the menu.  

  4. Give the group a name and add a description if you wish. 

  5.  Click Save.
  1. Click Communication and then Groups from the course navigation bar.

  2. If you have more than one set of groups, choose the Group Category you want to edit from the drop-down menu underneath the View Categories heading.

  3. Select the check box beside each group you want to delete from the Category, or select the check box beside the Category to delete the Category and all of it's Groups.

  4. Click Delete.

  5. Click the Delete Groups/Categories button. 

  • If you've selected Auto-Enrol New Users, users are automatically distributed in the remaining groups.

  • If groups are set up for manual enrollment, you must add users to the remaining groups using the Enrol Users page.

  • Group Discussion Forums remain available for reference. You can delete them in Discussions.

  • Group Assignment Submission folders and the files they contain are deleted.

  • Users are no longer enrolled in groups because they do not exist.

  • Group Discussion Forums remain available for reference. You can delete them in Discussions.

  • Group Assignment Submission folders and the files they contain are deleted.