Use Groups in a Discussion Forum

Groups can be used in a Discussion Forum to limit the number of posts an individual student interacts with. This can be especially helpful in courses with a large number of students.

Using Separate or Visible Groups

Instructions

1. First, you need to set up groups within the course. 
2. After groups have been set up, you need to set the discussion forum to use groups. This can be done either from the Discussion Settings or the course home page.

Method #1 - Discussion Settings

1. Either add a new discussion forum or turn editing on and choose Edit settings from the forum's edit menu to edit an existing forum. 
2. From the settings page, scroll down to Common module settings. Click the title to expand the menu if the options are not visible.
3. Next to Group mode, choose the group setting you want for the forum. 
4. If you have set groupings in your course, an option for choosing the grouping will appear.
5. After you have chosen the group settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click one of the Save buttons.

Method #2 - Course Home Page

1. Turn editing on within the course.
2. Next to each discussion forum, a small person icon should appear. Hovering the mouse over the icon will indicate which group mode the forum is currently set to.
3. Click the icon to cycle through the 3 group settings. See the image below for what each icon represents.

Removing Groups

If a student is unable to post to a discussion forum and gets an error about not being in a group, likely groups have inadvertently been set within the discussion forum. Follow these instructions to remove the group setting from the discussion forum. This can be done either from the Discussion Settings or the course home page.

Method #1 - Discussion Settings

1. Turn editing on in your course and choose Edit settings from the forum's edit menu. 
2. From the settings page, scroll down to Common module settings. Click the title to expand the menu if the options are not visible.
3. Next to Group mode, choose No groups. 
4. After you have chosen the group settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click one of the blue Save buttons.

Method #2 - Course Home Page

1. Turn editing on within the course.
2. Next to each discussion forum, a small person icon should appear. Hovering the mouse over the icon will indicate which group mode the forum is currently set to.
3. Click the icon to cycle through the 3 group settings. See the image below for what each icon represents.