Creating and Managing Groups

To create groups in Vista , you first need to be on the Teach tab in your section and select Group Manager under Instructor Tools.

Select Create Groups. There are three different options you have when creating groups.

Custom Groups

If you use Create custom group, you will create each group individually and add members to it. This is helpful if you want each group to have a different name. To do this, select the radio button next to Create custom group and click Continue. Enter a group name. You can also type in a group description, which is optional and can be added later. If you already know the group members you want to add, click Add Members and select your members. When you are ready, click Save, or, if you need to create another group, click Save and Create Another Group.

Once you create your group(s), you will see the group names under Group Manager. You can change any of the settings for each group at any time by selecting the group name and clicking Edit Group.

Multiple Groups

If you want Vista to create the groups for you, choose Create multiple groups. Enter the word or phrase you want to precede the number for each group. For example, if you use "Team" as the word or phrase, and you want three groups, Vista will create Team 1, Team 2, and Team 3. You can type in a default topic that will be associated with each group. You can wait until after you create the groups to include a description; therefore, the descriptions will be different.

At this point you can decide if you want to fill in the groups yourself with the members or if you want Vista to randomly distribute the members. If you want to create the empty groups and manually add members, then select the radio button next to Create empty groups, and add members later, type the number of groups you want in the box next to Number of groups and click Continue. You will edit each group, as shown in the previous figure, to add the members.

If you want Vista to randomly distribute members, select the radio button next to Create full groups, and randomly distribute Students. The rest of the options include:

1. Decide if you want to include Demo Student. This is always a good idea so you can test all of the group activities that you develop.
   
   
2. Decide how you want to set up the groups, either by number of groups or by number of students per group. For each area, enter the number you want.
   
   
3. Decide where you want extra members to go, either by distributing among groups, creating a new group for the extra members, or leaving them out and adding them manually.

Once you have decided on all the settings, click Continue. The groups will appear with the members’ names shown next to each group. You can enter descriptions for each group or add them later.

When Vista first creates the groups and adds the members, the members are listed in order by their User ID. If you do not want the default placement, you can click Shuffle Members, positioned under the groups, as many times as you need to get it where you want. When you are satisfied with the new placement, click Save.

To edit groups, select the group name and choose Edit Groups. In this area you can remove and add members if you need to move people around in the groups.

Sign-Up Sheets

You can also create groups with sign-up sheets for students to enroll themselves into a group. You have several settings that you must decide on before creating the sign-up sheets.

Group Settings:

1. Decide how many groups you want.
   
   
2. Decide on a word or phrase for the groups. This works the same way as naming multiple groups.
   
   
3. Include a default description, which will be shown for all groups. You can include descriptions later if you want each group to be different.
   
   
4. Decide how many people you want in each group. Your number of groups and the number of people per group should encompass the class size.
   
   
5. Determine if you want students to see who else has signed-up for the group(s). If so, click the checkbox next to Student View.

Sign-Up Sheet Settings:

1. Name your sign-up sheet. This is the link the students will see to take them to the sign-up sheets.
   
   
2. Include instructions for the students regarding the sign-up sheet. Include any specific directions you want the students to know. For example, you can tell them that once they sign up for a group they will not be able to change groups.
   
   
3. Decide where you want the sign-up sheet to go. It can be placed on the Home Page and/or any organizer page you have created. You can move it to a different location or decide the location later.

When you are satisfied with the settings, click Continue. You can add individual descriptions at this point and continue to finish the group creation. At this point, if you need to change any settings, select the group name and click Edit Group.

The sign-up sheet will be located where you specified in the settings. When the students select the sign-up sheet, they will see all the groups and an area to sign up.

Students can select Sign Up to enroll in a group of their choice. Once students sign up for a group, they can view their other group members' names.