“Available for group members only” - Now Available!

The Moodle feature “Available for group members only” was just activated last week on our Moodle server, and it could save us all lots of time maintaining Moodle courses.  With this addition any resource or activity can be visible only to a group of students enrolled in a Moodle course rather than all students. 

 

Often I find myself teaching two sections of a course, and often there are small changes in the lessons for each section because of the composition of classes or external factors like assemblies and fire drills.  In the past I’ve maintained two parallel and virtually identical Moodle courses to be able to make those minor modifications when needed.  With “Available for group members only” I can now use a single Moodle course for the students in both sections and show specific resources (or activities) to only one section of students when needed.

Here’s how it works... 

First, students are added to Groups in the Users > Groups section of the Administration block.  Groups then are added to Groupings on the Groupings tab of the same screen.  For my situation where I divide the students into two based on class my “Period 1” grouping only includes the group that has my period 1 students the two level group/grouping structure is overkill, but it does add flexibility should I ever decide to form smaller groups within each class.

Next, any activity or resource can be made visible to a single grouping by expanding the “Common Module Settings” section when editing.  Just click “Available for group members only,” then choose the Grouping with which it should be shared.  That’s it!

One final tip... If students join you Moodle course by using “self enrolment,” consider using group enrolment keys to automatically assign students to groups.  To do this, turn on “Use group enrolment keys” in your self enrolment method and fill in the “enrolment key” box in the settings page of the group.  Any students who use this enrolment key to enter the Moodle course will both join the course and be added to that group.