In Moodle, almost all activities (except Glossary, Lesson, SCORM package) and every resource allow you to divide your course participants into groups. Especially with large numbers of participants and different groups (labs, practical courses, etc.), group mode is useful for working more specifically or in a more differentiated way within smaller groups. Results and reports can be displayed filtered by individual groups when completed in group mode.

You can assign groups

1. manually,
2. automatically (random or alphabetical assignment possible),
3. or leave the choice to students via the activity Group choice.

Manual group assignment
You can find the group settings at the top of the course in the central menu bar under Participants.
On the page that opens, select the option Groups from the dropdown menu.

There, select the function Create group.

First, assign a unique Group name. If students should already be assigned to their group during course enrollment, set a group Enrollment key. However, group enrollment must first be activated under Enrollment methods.

Clicking Save changes creates the group and redirects you to the group overview page.

There, select the desired group. To manually add users, click Add/remove users. Under Potential members, select the desired person from the course participants and click Add.

Create groups automatically
You can find the group settings at the top of the course in the central menu bar under Participants.
On the page that opens, select the option Groups from the dropdown menu.

There, click Auto-create groups.

Under General, first define the Naming scheme. The @ symbol acts as a placeholder for letters (Group A, Group B, …), the # symbol generates group names with numbers (Group 1, Group 2, …).

Under Auto-create based on, decide whether the criterion is the Number of groups or Members per group.

Under Group members, the option Allocate members defines the allocation criterion (Randomly or Alphabetically).

Group modes:
You can set the group mode for the entire course or only for individual learning activities.
Generally, three different modes are available.

• No groups: There is no group division in the course; all participants belong to one group. This mode is the default.
• Separate groups: Each group sees only the members and contributions of its own group. Other groups (and their assigned activities) are invisible.
• Visible groups: Each group works independently but can see the members and activities of other groups with read-only access.
  
  

Group mode for the entire course

You can find the group mode settings at the course level in the central menu bar under Settings. Under Groups, define the group mode for the course. This setting predefines group work for all activities.

Group mode for individual activities
It is also possible not to set the group mode course-wide. This requires that Force group mode is set to No in the course settings. To set the group mode for individual activities, navigate to Settings > Common module settings within the activity and select one of the three group modes No groups – Separate groups – Visible groups.

Group mode for individual files
If you work with groups in your course, it may be necessary to make materials available to different groups at different times or to provide differentiated content. You can configure this via the resource settings.

To do so, click Edit ( ) → Edit settings behind the corresponding file.

Under Restrict access → Add restriction → Group or Grouping, select the desired group or grouping.

Click Save and display to apply the settings.

Below the file, the selected group will then appear in the course space. Only participants of the group/grouping can access the material assigned to them. If you set the option to Hidden, only participants of the group/grouping will see the file. For all other participants, the material will not be visible.

A grouping allows you to combine several groups within a course. In addition, using Groupings and the restriction Allow access only to group members, you can make individual files or materials available to different groups or groupings, for example at different times.

Create grouping
You can create a Grouping if you have already created at least one Group beforehand. In the course, go to Participants via the central menu bar and select Groupings from the dropdown menu. Then click Create grouping.

Enter a unique name for the desired grouping. Then assign the desired group to the grouping by clicking the icon Show groups in grouping on the right.

Under Potential members, select the desired group and click Add. Use Back to groupings to return to the overview page.

In the Overview tab, you will find a list of all groupings with the names of the respective group members.

The Activity completion functionality allows course leaders to define criteria or conditions for when an activity or resource is considered completed by students. Once the conditions are met, a checkmark appears next to the activity on the course page ().

Such conditions or criteria may include: the activity was viewed, a certain score was achieved, a specific date was reached, or the participant marked the activity as completed manually.

When is this functionality useful?

• Tracking learning progress
• In connection with the Course completion functionality
• In connection with Restrictions
• Linking multiple activities and resources (conditions, learning paths…)

At course level

At course level, you can find this functionality in the central menu bar under Settings > Completion tracking. Select Enable completion tracking → Yes and save your changes.

Note: For courses requested from SS20 onwards, completion tracking is already enabled by default and settings can be configured directly at activity/resource level.

At activity/resource level

You can now configure various activity completion settings at activity level, which vary depending on the activity or resource type. For example, a text page or PDF can be completed when viewed; a forum can be completed when someone has started at least one new discussion topic or replied to at least three posts; a glossary can be completed when two glossary entries have been created, etc.

Enable edit mode.

Click Edit ( ) next to the activity or resource you created → Edit settings → Completion conditions.

Alternatively, within the activity, you can click Settings in the central menu bar → Completion conditions.

You can display or hide completion tracking in different ways. If you want to define specific conditions, select Add requirements. This activates additional settings.

You can configure the following completion conditions for all activities and resources:

• View the activity:
  • As soon as participants view the resource or activity, it is considered completed.
• Receive a grade (graded activities only):
  • You must have configured grading in the activity settings under GRADE. The activity is considered completed once participants receive a grade.
• Achieve passing grade (graded activities only):
  • You can differentiate between completed and passed, or completed but failed. Once the passing grade is reached, the activity is successfully completed. Alternatively, you can define completion when „all available attempts are completed,“ even if the passing grade is not reached.
• Set reminder in timeline:
  • This option allows you to set a reminder for participants to work on this activity. The reminder appears in the timeline block on the dashboard, e.g. „Quiz requires action.“

For different activity and resource types, additional specific completion conditions are available. These are explained using the FORUM example:

• Start discussions:
  • The activity is considered completed once participants have started a specified number of new discussion topics.
• Post replies:
  • Once participants have written a specified number of reply posts, the forum is marked as completed.
• Start discussions or post replies:
  • The activity is considered completed once participants have either started a specified number of new discussion topics or written a specified number of reply posts.

Finally, save your changes.

Restrict Acess allows instructors in a Moodle course to tie access to an activity, resource, or entire section to conditions. These conditions or restrictions are set at activity level (or when editing a section) and may include:

• A specific date or defined time period
• A grade that must be achieved previously in the course or in another activity
• Completion of a previous activity

First, enable editing mode.

Next to the activity you want to restrict, click Edit (three dots on the right side of the activity) → Edit settings → Restrict access → Add restriction.

A window opens where you can select different types of restrictions to limit availability. The following restrictions may be relevant for you:

• Activity completion
• Date
• Grade
• Groups and groupings
• User profile
• Restriction set

Activity completion

This defines that the resource or activity is only available/visible if a specific completion condition has been met for another selected resource or activity in the course:

• Must be marked complete
• Must not be marked complete
• Must be complete with pass grade
• Must be complete with fail grade

Note: This option only appears if activity completion is enabled in the course and at least one resource or activity has a defined completion criterion.

Date

This criterion defines that the resource or activity is available from and/or until a specific point in time (date/time).

Grade

This criterion defines a condition based on a specific grade in the course. You can specify a minimum or maximum score (given in percent), both, or neither.

Groups and groupings

You can restrict the visibility of the resource or activity to a specific group or grouping.

 Note: This button only appears if there are groups or groupings in the course.