Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

Online Learning

Creating groups with discussions/assignments at one time

Building groups with associated discussion forums, topics, and assignments can be done simultaneously. Although it may look complex, it will save you time in the long run.

  • Who is this for: Online Instructors
  • What is required: A D2L course and activities that benefit from group participation

Step 1: Creating Groups

  1. Click Course Admin from the navigation bar.
  2. Click on Groups.
  3. Click the New Category button.
  4. Enter your Category Name: e.g., “Group Projects.”
  5. Entering a Description is optional.
  6. Select one of the options from the Enrollment Type drop-down menu to set the type of enrollment to use. Refer to the Group enrollment types documentation for further information about each type.
  7. Under Additional Options, check the appropriate box If you want to create discussions and/or assignments at this time.
  8. Click the Save button.

Step 2: Create restricted discussion topics

First you will create a forum to contain your group discussion topics

  1. Click the New Forum link.
  2. Enter the Title of your forum (e.g., “Astronomy Group Project”).
  3. Entering a Description is optional.
  4. Click the Save button.

Step 3: Create Assignments

  1. Enter a Name for your Assignment (e.g., “Astronomy Group Project”).
  2. If you have established categories, select yours from the drop-down list.
  3. Under Grade Item, either select an existing item or create a New Grade Item.
  4. Enter the number of points Out Of.
  5. If you have files to attach, click the Add a File button.
  6. Select the Submission Options you prefer.
  7. Click the Create button.
  8. You will be presented with a Workspace Summary that will itemize what has been created.
  9. Click the Done button.

Step 4: Fine-tuning your group discussions and assignments

  1. Discussions – When working with groups and discussions, rather than duplicate your directions in each topic, enter your directions in the forum area.  The forum is listed first, and then your individual groups will be displayed below, allowing all groups to see the one set of directions you entered in the forum.
  2. Assignments –  Your assignment folders will have everything you entered during the creation process: directions, grade item, points out of, etc.  You can adjust any other restrictions the same way you would any individual assignment.