• Creating Groups in Brightspace
• Group Categories
• Use the Group Management Widget

Follow these steps to create groups in Brightspace:

• Go to Users > Groups in the navbar of your course. This will open the Manage Groups page.
• Click on New Category.

1. Type the name of the category (for example, Project Assignment X - Groups).
2. If necessary, add a description of the category. This description will be shown to students in the case of self-enrollment groups.
3. Determine how the groups will be created using the dropdown menu under Enrolment Type. You can choose to manually assign students to groups, add them automatically, or allow them to choose a group themselves (Self Enrollment). Then, you can select the total number of groups (# of Groups) and/or the total number of students per group, with a maximum of 200 (Groups of #). A description of the seven possible group structures can be found below. Depending on your preferences, you can now set the number of groups and/or the number of students per group.

Your groups will now be created. You can then edit them, for example, to adjust the naming. To do this, click on the title, edit it, and click Save.

You can create seven different categories in Brightspace:

1. # of Groups - no Auto Enrollment: This allows you to set the total number of groups you want to create. You can enter this number under "Number of Groups." With this option, you can manually assign students to groups.
2. Groups of #: groups with a maximum of n students. This option allows you to set the maximum number of students per group (with a limit of 200 students). You specify this number under "Number of users." Brightspace will automatically add students to groups.
3. # of Groups: n groups. With this option, you determine the number of groups you want to create. You can enter this number under "Number of Groups." Brightspace will automatically add students to groups.
4. Groups of # - Self Enrollment: groups with a maximum of n students. This option allows you to specify the maximum number of students per group (with a limit of 200 students). You set this number under "Number of users." Students can then choose which group they want to join.
5. # of Groups - Self Enrollment: n groups. With this option, you determine the total number of groups you want to create. You can enter this number under "Number of Groups." Students can then choose which group they want to join.
6. # of Groups, Capacity of # - Self Enrollment: n groups with a maximum of n students. This option allows you to set the total number of groups you want to create and the maximum number of students per group (with a limit of 200 students per group). You enter the number of groups under "Number of Groups" and the number of students per group under "Number of Users." Students can then choose which group they want to join.
7. Single user, member-specific groups: personal group per student. This option creates a separate group for each student. You can choose this option if you want to work with blogs or progress reports. Students can then write blogs in a personal and private discussion forum.

For options 2 and 3, you can change the following via Advanced Properties:

• Auto-Enroll New Users: Brightspace automatically adds all students who join the course after the groups are created. (Students are always added to the group with the least number of students; this option ensures there are no groups without participants.)
• Randomise users in Groups: Students are randomly assigned to a group. If this option is not checked, students are added in alphabetical order.

For options 4, 5, and 6, you can change the following via Advanced Properties:

• Set a start date (Start Date) and/or an end date (Expiry Date) for the period during which students can self-enroll in a group. After the end date, students can no longer join or leave a group. Enter a date or choose Now to start or stop self-enrollment immediately.
• Add students who did not enroll in a group to a group via Allocate unenrolled users. This happens automatically once the end date has passed. Students are randomly added to a group. The group capacity might be ignored, depending on the number of groups and students.

You can check one or more of the following options under Additional Options:

• A discussion forum and topic.
• A Locker (a group-specific digital storage space where a group can share files digitally without interference from other students).
• An Assignment submission folder.

Using the Group Management Widget, found on the right side of the Course Homepage, you can create and populate groups in bulk.

1. When you click on Instructions, you will be directed to the Brightspace Help page, where clear instructions are provided on how to use the Group Management Widget.
2. Through the Download Classlist button, you can download a CSV file containing all the students enrolled in the course. This file can be used to create the import file. The file contains the following fields: Username, FirstName, LastName, Role, Email, GroupName, GroupCode, GroupCategoryName, and Action. The Action field is empty and can be filled in to Enroll/Unenroll students.
3. The import file can be uploaded at this location. The file must meet several conditions:

• The users to be enrolled in groups must already be enrolled in the course.
• The group categories must already exist in the course.
• The widget can only process two types of actions: "Enroll" and "Unenroll".
• Rows with an empty Action field will be ignored.
• Rows with errors/typos in the Action field will result in an error.
• Actions are case-insensitive, so "enroll", "Enroll", and "ENROLL" will all work.
• The files can be partial uploads: if the Action field (Enroll/Unenroll) is left empty, the widget will ignore that row, resulting in no action and no error.
• Rows with only GroupName, GroupCode, and GroupCategoryName but with an empty Username will result in no action and no error, unless an action (Enroll/Unenroll) is specified in the Action field; in such cases, this will result in an error.
• Rows with only GroupCategoryName will result in no action and no error, unless an action (Enroll/Unenroll) is specified in the Action field; in such cases, this will result in an error.
• With the .csv file, you can create new groups; if the widget cannot find an existing group with the specified name within the specified category, it will first create a new group and then enroll the user.
• Group names that Admin Users (administrators) try to create must be unique within the course.
• When creating groups, the GroupCode field can be left empty because the widget will generate a unique group code.
• Rows that create groups must not have an empty Username.
• Rows that create groups must have the action "Enroll" in the Action field.
• The import file must be a .csv file.
• The name of the import file must begin with "classlist_".
• Only one file can be uploaded at a time.
• The file size must not exceed 500 KB.
• The maximum number of users to be enrolled/unenrolled must not exceed 1000, i.e., the maximum number of rows is 1001.
• The file header must include the following fields: Username, FirstName, LastName, Role, Email, GroupName, GroupCode, GroupCategoryName, Action.
• The fields that must be valid for the import to work are Username, GroupName, GroupCategoryName, and Action (these cannot be empty); other fields are optional.