A short, illustrated explanation of groups and groupings in Moodle 2.7 for me. Thought it might be of interest to some of you out there.

1. This is
Fred.
He belongs
to the blue
group.
The blue
group belongs
to the purple
GROUPING
Access and visibility of Moodle activities can be set to Groups and/or Groupings
Groups
None – everyone in the course sees the activity and each other
Separate groups – everyone in the course sees the activity, but can only see the
work of other people in their group and can only interact with other group members
Visible groups – everyone in the course sees the activity, can see other people’s work
but still can only interact with other group members
Groupings
If set, only people who belong to groups within the grouping can see the activity.
How they Interact with other groups within the grouping is determine by the Groups setting.
Course

2. Groups and groupings in action
Example: Course has content for face to face and online students in common, but online students interact with
each other online in forums whilst face to face people interact in tutorials. There are 12 online students, broken out
into 3 groups, each with its own tutor. How would you use Groups and Groupings to achieve this?
Divide online
students into 3
groups, add tutors.
Set up a
Grouping for
online students
Under Common Module settings for activity, set Group Mode to Separate Groups
AND
Set Grouping to the name of the Grouping you chose for online students.
Ensure available to Group members only is ticked.
Online
Course
Online

3. Has had Grouping applied so
invisible to those outside grouping
Has had separate groups applied
so people in other groups cannot
see the work of other groups
within the grouping and cannot
interact with them.
This resource has had no grouping applied, so
everyone in the course can see it.
Course
Online
Course content