This article will show you how to set up a Group self-selection activity to allow students to join a group in the course. This article is suitable for course administrators of classes, where there is a group component and demonstrates a digital alternative to the paper-based process of signing up to a group or tutorial slot.

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A self-selection refers to the process of students enrolling themselves in a group, which can be used for tutorial activities, lab work, studio work or any other type of group work that is carried out in the course. Course administrators must specify which groups are available for the activity, and can place a limit on the number of members in each group.

To see an end-to-end

Before you start...

Create the groups for students to select from

Before students can sign up to join a group, you must first create the groups that they will be able to choose from.

You can create groups manually (see Manually Creating a Group and Adding it to a Grouping article), however depending on the number of groups you have, auto-creating groups might be a more suitable alternative.

In yellow on the image on the right is shown how to navigate to the screen shown.

After you have (1) turned editing on in your MyPlace class, (2) access the Groups menu from the Administration panel on the left, under Users (shown in. There you can (3) click on Auto-Create Groups, which will take you to a screen similar to the one shown on the right.

In green are shown the General settings.

Here, you should (4) provide a naming scheme. It is recommended that you use a naming convention that suits the type of activity that students will perform as part of the groups for easy reference. For example, if you are creating the groups so that students can choose a tutorial/ lab/ studio slot. you can name the groups 'Tutorial Group 1', 'Tutorial Group 2'. To achieve this you can insert the naming scheme and # (where you'd like consecutive numbers to appear) or an @ symbol if you'd like the groups to be named with letters from the alphabet.

You can (5) specify the number of groups created in the Group/Member count box.

If you plan on restricting the number of students who will be allowed in each group, be sure to create enough groups for the class.

In blue are shown the Group members settings.

These settings are useful, if you are using groups for other functions and are reviewed in greater detail in the Auto-creating Groups and a Grouping article. As this article focuses on enabling students to self-enrol in groups, you must ensure that members are not allocated to any groups. From the Allocate members drop-down menu, (6) select No Allocation.

Please ensure that you do not allocate any members to the created groups.

In purple are shown the Grouping settings.

The groups to use in the Group self-selection activity can be added to a Grouping. For example, imagine you are creating tutorial groups for students to self-enrol in, but you also have a group presentations as part of the assessment for the same class, which uses a different grouping mechanism. In this case, you might create two Groupings, called 'Tutorial Groups' and 'Group Presentations', which contain the relevant groups. (7) Create a new Grouping and give it a name.

This is recommended, but not mandatory. It is considered that this will help you organise and keep tracks of groups that you have created on your site and the activities that they are used for.

For more information on using Groups and Grouppings, please read the Using Groups and Groupings with Assignments article.

Once you are ready with setting-up the groups, (8) click on Submit and continue with the instructions for adding and setting-up the group self-selection activity.

Add and Set Up the Group Self-Selection Activity

Step 1 - Turn Editing On

Step 2 - Add an Activity or Resource

Step 3 - Select Group self-selection

Step 4 - Click Add and Open the Adding a Group self-selection page

Step 5 - Enter a title (Required)

Step 6 - Enter a description (Optional)

Step 7 - Select the Grouping or Groups

Step 8 - Configure the additional settings (Optional)

Step 9 - Save the activity

Step 10 - Preview the Group Self-Selection activity

Changing Group Membership

Once students join a group, they cannot change group membership themselves. The class administrator/lecturer must remove the student from the group he or she joined.

Only once the student is no longer a member of any group involved in the Group self-selection activity, can they return to the Group self-selection activity and join a different group.

Alternately, the course administrator can move students in and out of groups at any time.

End-to-End Application Scenarios

Group self-selection