Restricting Threaded Discussions to specific groups in eCollege
Watch the video below on how to restrict Threaded Discussions to groups in eCollege, or follow the step-by-step text instructions that appear below the video.
Instructional video
Text instructions
While logged into your course:
Step 1: Create student groups
- Click “course admin” from the top menu
- Click the “Group Management” button
- Click “Add Group”
- Type in the group name in the text box next to “Group Name”
- Select students you would like to add to the group from the “Select group members” box (Note: you can select multiple students by holding down the Ctrl/Cmnd button as you click)
- Click the –> (right arrow) button to move students into the “Group members” box
- Click “Save” or “Save and Add Another Group” if you would like to add more groups
- Note: Students can be members of more than one group. Adding a student to one group does not remove them from the list of students in the “Select group members.” It may be a good idea to keep track of the student members in each group outside of eCollege.
You should also note here that there are 2 names for each group in eCollege: the name you have given each group, and the name eCollege refers to the groups by (usually by letter- Group A, Group B, Group C, etc). In the “Group Management” area, you will see both the eCollege group name listed in addition to the group name you have assigned:
The eCollege group name will always appear before the group name you have assigned.
Step 2: Add Threaded Discussions & restrict them to specific groups
- Click on “Course Home” or the module in which you would like to add the discussion to.
- Click on “Course Items” (or “Unit Content Items” if you are in a module)
- Click the “Add Items” button
- Input the discussion name (note: you do not need to include the group name here; each group can have the same discussion title)
- Choose “Threaded Discussion” from the drop down menu next to “Item Type”
- Choose “Course Home” or the module(s) to where you would like to add the discussion in your course
- You should see an option to “Assign To” with a drop down menu. Choose the group you would like to have access to this threaded discussion. Note that here, the group names you have assigned will be used:
- Select/input Gradebook information if you would like to add it to the Gradebook
- Click “Save” or click “Save and Add More Items” if you would like to create a discussion for the remaining group(s)
- Your discussion(s) will appear in your lefthand menu. eCollege indicates which group has access to each discussion using the group name eCollege has assigned, which is a letter:
- Students will only be able to see the discussion they are assigned to. They will not see the other groups’ discussions in their course menu.