Instructors may create groups in several different ways:
- Manually create and assign users to a group.
- Create joinable groups that site participants can elect to join.
- Automatically generate groups by user role, number of groups per site, or number of users per group.
- Import group information from a file.
Once groups are created, tools such as Assignments, Email, Resources, or Tests & Quizzes have options for restricting access by group.
Select Site Info.
In the target Sakai site, select Site Info from the Tool Menu.
Select Manage Groups.
Select Manage Groups from the Actions Menu.
Manually create a group.
Select Create New Group from the Actions Menu.
Enter group information.
- Enter a Group Title for the group.
- Enter a Description of the group. (Optional)
- Check the checkbox for "Allow members to see the other members of this group" to have students able to see the names of their group members.
- Use the Filter by group dropdown menu to filter the site member list by another group or section. For example, if two course sections are combined into one course site, and a instructor may want to set up groups for each section, and could filter the view by section to make navigating and assigning different sections easier. (Note: Existing groups/sections must exist for them to show up in this list.)
- In the Assigned Members section, click into the text field to open a dropdown menu. Select a user from the menu. Repeat this process until all members have been added to the group.
- Once all desired group members are selected, select the Add new group button to create the group.
Tip: More than one name at a time may be selected in the participant list by using CTRL+Click (PC) or Command+Click (Mac).
Create a joinable group.
Select Create New Joinable Set.
Specify the joinable set details.
- Enter a Set name for the set. Each joinable set will begin with the same name and end with a unique number. (Required)
- Indicate the Number of groups.
- Enter the Max members per groups.
- Check the checkboxes to modify visibility settings for the joinable set. (Optional)
- Select Add Set to create the joinable set.
Note: Students will need access to Site Info to see and join any joinable sets of groups.
Automatically generate groups.
Select Auto Groups from the Actions Menu.
Step 1: Select Role(s)
- Select one or more roles to auto-create groups.
- Then, select Continue.
Tip: Check the Select All/None roles at once checkbox; check the checkbox again to de-select.
Step 2: Select Roster(s)
Choose the rosters to be included in your groups. If the site has no rosters, then all site participants will be included.
Step 3: Define Group Structure
First, select whether groups will be created across roles and/or sections, or within roles and/or sections.
- Select Create groups containing a random mixture of users with the selected role(s) and/or selected section(s)/roster(s) to create groups randomly from all of the selected roles and sections.
- Or, select Create groups containing the members from the selected role(s) and/or selected section(s)/roster(s) to create groups that are restricted within roles or sections.
Next, choose how to break up site participants.
- Select the Split by number of groups needed radio button to indicate the total number of groups.
- Enter a Group Title. This title will serve as the basis for all of the group names. Unique numbers will be appended to the title.
- Enter the number of groups desired.
- Or, select the Split by number of users needed per group to divide up the participants by a given number of group members.
- Enter a Group Title. This title will serve as the basis for all of the group names. Unique numbers will be appended to the title.
- Enter the number of participants per group desired.
- Select Continue.
Step 4: Preview
Preview the groups to ensure they are correct. To make changes, select Back to return to an earlier step in the process. Select the Create button to create the groups.
Select Bulk Creation.
Select Bulk Creation from the Actions Menu.
Provide group information.
There are two methods to create or update multiple groups at once:
- Type or paste the group information into the text box provided.
- Select the Choose File button to browse for and select an import file.
- The import file must be in comma-separated values (.csv) format with two columns of data. The first column should contain the group title, and the second column should contain the username of the site participant. Do not include a column header row and do not include spaces.
- Select Continue to proceed with group creation.
Example: CSV File for Importing Groups
