Groups | How to create a sub-group

It is also an option to create subgroups in Brightspace. A subgroup will appear as an independent group in the Manage Groups homepage overview as Group Category. That is the case because you create subgroups by adding a restriction to who may enroll in a certain group (Restrict Enrolment To). 

This article shows how to:

Whenever you put a restriction on a group, the restriction can be neither deleted nor adjusted anymore.

Example case:

A course has activity Tutorials for which the Lecturer created 5 groups called Study group 1 till 5. Each Study group requires to have students to work in pairs for the practical part of the Tutorials activity. The lecturer will, therefore, create a subgroup for the Study group  which will be called Practical 1 to divide the students into pairs.

Using sub-groups restricts users from the higher group to enroll in a specific group so they can work on a  specific task as designed.

Create a sub-group

To be able to create a sub-group with restricted enrolment you will first have to create the main group for enrolment.

Navigate to your course, in the green navigation bar

  1. Click on Communication, a drop-down menu will appear
  2. Click Groups
Click Communication, then click Groups

3. Click New Category

Click blue button New Category
  1. Give the sub-group a Category Name
  2. (Optional) Add a description
  3. Choose an Enrolment Type 
  4. Specify the Number of Groups (and/or: Number of Users, depending on which Enrolment Type is selected)
  5. Use the drop-down menu below Restrict Enrollments To to select the group in which the subgroups should fall. You cannot select a Group Category, it has to be a group of a Group Category.
  6. (Optional) Add a Group Prefix

Additionally, you can again choose which options of the Advanced Properties section and Additional Options section you want to turn on for this subgroup.

  1. Click the blue button Save to finish the setup

The created sub-groups will appear in the overview as independent Group Category. It is therefore important to choose prefixes that will show the relation between a certain group and its subgroups. 

Check which group is or has subgroups

Going back to the Manage Groups homepage, a question mark next to the group name in the table overview will indicate the restriction on enrolment into a sub-group or group.

Question mark next to the Group Category name

This indicates that this Group Category is a sub-group. If you hover over the question mark, it will say Sub-groups depend on Groups in this category. 

  • In this example Group Category Practical 1 is the subgroup of Study group 1.

Since the created sub-group is actually a new Group Category, you can edit it in the same way as the other Group Categories (so for example, the addition of students or discussions). 

Question mark next to the Group name

This indicates that this Group has a sub-group. If you hover over the question mark sign it will say Sub-groups depend on this Group.

  • In this example Group Study group 1 has sub-groups for Practical 1

You have created a subgroup for Practicals for the group Study group 1. If Study group 1 needs a group for another course activity, e.g. Reports, you can create another sub-group restricted to Study group 1 for that particular course activity.

 

Now you know how to create sub-groups in Brightspace!

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