RWTHmoodle offers a section "Groups" via the dropdown menu on the participants' page, which allows you to create groups and assign members:

• Create individual Groups Manually
• Create multiple groups automatically according to definable parameters
• Import groups (without group members)
• Import group members
• Distribute students manually or automatically to groups according to definable parameters
• Create groupings manually or automatically

Table of Contents

1. Enter the Group area
2. Create a Group manually
3. Assign Group members manually
4. Create Groups automatically

1. Enter the Group area

To enter the group area, proceed as follows:

1. As a manager, open the course room in which you want to create groups.
2. Click on "Participants" in the center menu to open the list of participants.
3. Click on the drop-down menu here and select "Overview" under "Groups".
4. You will then see the list of groups and group members. 

2. Create a Group manually

1. Go to the participants administration and choose "Groups" in the dropdown menu on the left side.
2. In the section "Manage" click the "Create Group" button.
3. Enter a "Group name" in the corresponding field.
4. If required, enter a group description and a group picture. This will be displayed in the list of participants and in forum posts of the group (currently deactivated in RWTHmoodle).
5. The field "Group ID" is not used in RWTHmoodle and can therefore remain empty.
6. If you have activated self-enrollment and want to enable students to enroll directly in groups via self-enrollment, set a group enrolment key here. The password to be assigned must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 digit as well as 1 capital letter and 1 special character. Please also read the instructions for using the self-enrollment.
7. If you want to set up a group chat for a group, select the "Yes" option under Group Messaging. A group chat will then automatically be created in Messenger for the group you are creating, allowing students in the group to contact each other. The messages in a group chat are visible to all participants in the group and each participant has the option to write their own messages in the group chat. After saving, the corresponding group then appears in the messenger in the category "Group".
8. Click on the button "Save changes".

The new group now appears in the group area in the "Groups" tab.

3. Assign Group members manually

You can assign new group members or delete them at any time.

1. Click on a group in the overview under "Groups".
2. If the group already contains members, their names are displayed on the right in "Members of" together with their roles.
3. Then click on the "Add/remove users" button.
4. In the "Potential members" column on the right, click on the users you wish to add to the group. You can select multiple users at once by pressing and holding the CTRL-key. Then click on the "Add" button. The selected users will then be moved to the left in the "Group members" column. If the "Potential members" column contains too many names, you will need to enter a name in the search field below the column to narrow down the list of results.
5. To remove group members from a group, click on them in the "Group members" column and then select "Remove". Users will then be moved to the "Potential members" column on the right.

4. Create Groups automatically

You can automatically create groups in a course and distribute the students randomly or alphabetically sorted by first or last name to the groups. To do so click on "Auto-create groups" in the group area.

4.1. General entries

• Naming scheme - Specify which naming pattern the groups should have. "Group @" creates Group A, Group B..., "Group #" creates Group 1, Group 2, ... etc.
• Auto-create based on - Specify the principle by which the groups should be created - "Number of groups" or "Members per group".
• Number of groups or Members per group - Enter the desired number here. It refers to the option "Auto-create based on" selected above.
• If you want to set up a group chat for a group, select the "Yes" option under Group Messaging.

A group chat will then automatically be created in Messenger for the groups you are creating, allowing students in a group to contact each other. The messages in a group chat are visible to all participants in the group and each participant has the option to write their own messages in the group chat. After saving, the corresponding group then appears in the messenger in the category "Group".

4.2. Group members

• Select members with roles - Select which roles or users should be assigned to groups. Usually, this is the role of "student". To also distribute the role "Extra user" to groups, you will need to repeat the steps.
• Select members from grouping - Choose, if the number of users to be distributed should be reduced to those being members in a group in an already existing grouping.
• Select members from a group - This drop-down menu lists all groups in which students are already members. If you select a group here, only the members of that group will be distributed to new, additional groups.
• Allocate members - Students can be allocated to groups randomly or alphabetically by first name/last name, last name/first name, or ID number (= matriculation number). Selecting "No allocation" will create empty groups without members. Such groups can be used, for example, in the activity "Group Tool", where the students themselves register for the groups provided.
• Prevent last small group - If you check this box, surplus students will be placed in the last group, so that this group may have more members than all other groups. If unchecked, the surplus students will be placed in a final group which will have fewer members than any other group.
• Ignore users in groups - If this checkbox is selected then only those students who are not already in a group will be placed in the automatically created groups.

4.3. Grouping

• Grouping of auto-created groups - If you choose the option "New Grouping", the automatically created groups are allocated to a new grouping.
• Name of the grouping - Specify the name of the new grouping to which the automatically created groups should belong.

By clicking on "Preview" you can check the selected settings again. Clicking on "Save" will create the groups and, if you have enabled automatic allocation of members, will allocate the selected students to the groups.

For more information: 

• General info on how to create groups
• Group Tool
• Fair Allocation
• Messages and notifications
• Self-enrollment