Discussion Forum Visible Groups

Discussion Forum Visible Groups

by Sadhana Alangar -
Number of replies: 2

I am creating visible groups in a discussion forum. Not all students have been assigned to groups. The students are allowed to form teams. I create teams when they are formed. Every time I create a new team, automatically names of a few students from older teams are deleted. As a result, these students are not able to post their discussions until I add them back to their teams. I am using a standard discussion forum. Has anyone else had this problem?

Sadhana

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In reply to Sadhana Alangar

Re: Discussion Forum Visible Groups

by Teresa Gibbison -
Hi Sadhana
When using group mode on a discussion forum each discussion thread is 'assigned' to a group at the time of posting, for visible groups this is done when the use selects a group from the Visible Group dropdown, at the top left, then adds their discussion (in separate groups it's automatic as users are forced to use their groups - teachers must select the group first though because they can access all groups!).

When using Visible groups on a forum, if a student is not assigned to a group their post is available to 'All Participants' automatically - so everyone can reply and view if 'All Participants' in selected from the visible groups dropdown.

When the same student is assigned to a group their 'All participants' post will stay in the forum for everyone, but won't be assigned to their group (as it was initially posted to 'All Participants').

To ensure all student's posts are assigned to the relevant group the students need to be assigned to groups before they start posting.

If they start posting to form their groups, perhaps you could create one thread to All Participants and ask the students to reply to that one to form their groups. Once you have assigned someone to their relevant group advise them they can start new discussions for their group - I guess you could also have two forums (one for forming the groups and another for the actual group work).

I hope this makes sense - it's a bit wordy but hopefully it is helpful smile
Cheers
Teresa
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In reply to Teresa Gibbison

Re: Discussion Forum Visible Groups

by Sadhana Alangar -

Thanks Teresa for your reply.

Perhaps an actual example will help. The students in this class are allowed to self-select their groups and given one weeks time to decide. The first group of students formed their group on day 1. I created a group, team 1, and added these students to this group. Then after a couple of days, the second team was formed. When I created the second group (team 2), the name of a student from the Team 1 was deleted even though I did not delete this student. When the third team was formed, the names of three students from Team 1 was deleted. In fact, these three students names did not appear even on the participants list. Why does this happen? It is a "standard discussion forum" with visible groups.

Sadhus

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