The use of Small Groups allows you to break out your Main Student Group into smaller groups for activities such as TBL or PBL (Team-based Learning or Problem-based Learning) exercises, lab work, review sessions, etc.
NOTE: Small Group Sets are also necessary for the creation of Linked Events.
When a Student is a member of a Small Group, they will see only their own small group Events on the calendar. This helps Students stay organized and focus only on the Events and activities that relate directly to them.
Path: Home > Courses > [Course Screen] > People > Groups > Small Group Sets
When creating a new Small Group, do NOT add the Main Student Group as a Small Group to GRAT Events. This will impact how team leaders are chosen and as a result scoring.
- Under Options, click New to create a new Small Group Set.
- To edit an existing set, click the name of the set in the Small Group Name column.
The following fields are required:
- Small Group Name: The name of your new Small Group set.
- Min Group Size: The minimum number of Users for each small group within this particular set.
- Max Group Size: The maximum number of Users for each small group within this particular set. (The default max size is 100).
- Now you can move on to Manage Groups
NOTE: To delete/remove this Small Group Set from the list, set the Deleted field to Yes. Deleted sets can always be un-deleted at any time.
These menu links allow you to create small groups based on an existing group, such as the Main Student Group or any other group in this course.
- Parent Group(s): Select the existing group that you want to make the sub-groups from.
- Manage groups: Create empty groups, auto-assign groups, or manually create group shells.
- Add Groups: Use this option to select existing small groups that you want to link to this set.
- Add Groups By Year: Use this option to select existing small groups by year that you want to link to this set.
- Resequence: use this option to reorder the sequence numbers of the subgroups if they are in the format of [GroupName]-#. Any subgroups not matching this pattern will be sequenced in the order that they were found at the end of any groups matching that pattern.
In the Manage Groups screen, you can choose to have the System:
1. Create Empty Groups
- The option creates empty group shells without assigning Students.
2. Auto-Assign All
- The number of groups the System will create depends on the Min Group Size and Max Group Size numbers you set in the Small Group Record.
- The System will keep creating more groups until the minimum group size has been met for each group.
3. Manually Assign Groups (+ sign)
- Click the + sign as many times as you need a group.
Create Empty Groups
- Specify the number of groups you want.
- Or Auto generate empty groups based on max group size.
NOTE: Students will not be assigned to a group, the groups will be created empty.
Auto-Assign All
Manually Assign Groups
- Click the + sign to create additional groups.
To populate these groups either:
- Drop and drag Students into the groups.
- Or use the Auto-Assign All feature to randomly place Students.
NOTE: The System automatically names the individual small groups based on the name of the Small Group Set.
- For example, we named this small group set Exam.
- The System automatically named the first group Exam-1 and the next Exam-2 and Exam-3 as the groups were added.
NOTE: If you are not satisfied with the placement of the Users in each group, you can remove Users from a group by dragging and dropping the name into the Unassigned Users column on the left.
- To remove all Users from a group, click the return icon located at the top-right corner of the small group box (to the left of the trash icon).
- You will be asked if you are sure you would like to remove all Users from that group, click Yes to confirm.
- To delete a small group box, click the trash icon located at the top-right corner of the small group box.
- You will be prompted to confirm your choice.
If you attempt to delete a small group set containing small groups that are utilized in another small group set (course), you will receive a warning. You will need to remove the groups using the "add group" or "add group by year" options on the Small Group Set dialog screen to retain all of the students in those subgroups, or you can use the trash icon to remove them from the set as indicated above.
Removing them using the trash can icon from the manage groups screen will remove the group from this course only. The group will remain in other courses/small group sets where it is used. However, using the trash can icon will also remove all students from the group. So if the group is used in any other courses (small group sets) it would be an empty group at that point.
- To edit the name of an individual small group, click the name of the small group within the small group box.
- Rename the group in the next window and click Save Record.
Edit (Rename) Small Group
The following fields are required (*):
- Name: Use this field to rename your small group.
- Sort order: Determines the small group number (the number that is attached at the end of the small group name), as well as the order in which this small group is presented in relation to the other small groups within this set.
The Description field is optional.
Be sure to click Save Record to save your changes.