Copying Groups and Workspaces into a new Course

Copying Groups: Guidelines for Enrollment Types
Group Dropbox Folders
Group Lockers
Group Discussions
Manually Add Group Restrictions to Existing Forums & Topics
Verifying Group Restrictions on Discussion Topics

When you copy groups and workspaces (Assignments, Discussion Topics, etc.) into a new course in preparation for a new semester, there are some important considerations based on the type of groups and workspace areas you have set up.

It is recommended to wait until students have registered before copying content with groups and group workspaces from another course.

Copying Groups: Guidelines for Enrollment Types

For any of the “# of Groups”options (including Self Enrolment groups), the specified number of groups will be created in the new course when content is copied.

If you have selected # of Groups – No Auto Enrolments, you must enroll students manually in your groups when you are ready.
If you have selected # of Groups, students who are already registered in your course will be enrolled in groups. If you have also checked the option to Auto-Enroll New Users, found under Group Options, new students will be enrolled in groups as they register. Otherwise, you will have to manually enroll new students in groups.

For “Groups of #” the number of groups that will be created depends on two factors:

The number of students registered. A sufficient number of groups will be created to accommodate students who are registered in the course at the time that you copy content.
Whether you have selected “Auto-Enrol New Users”.

If you have selected “Auto-Enrol New Users”, students will be enrolled in groups as they register in your course and new groups will be created as required.

If you have not chosen to auto-enroll new users, then you will have to manually add new students to groups and create additional groups as required.

If no students were registered when the groups were copied, and “Auto-Enrol New Users” has not been selected, then the Category will be created, but will have no groups in it.

For “Groups of # – Self Enrolment”, the number of groups that are created is entirely dependent on the number of students registered in the course at the time the content is copied.

Enough groups will be created to accommodate the number of students registered in the course at the time groups are copied.
If no students are registered, then only one empty group is created.
If students continue to register after you have copied your content, you must create additional groups manually.

Turnitin recently introduced an AI tool designed to assist instructors in detecting AI-generated content in student submissions. This tool potentially analyzes writing styles and may detect anomalies that could possibly indicate the use of generative AI. However, while this technology represents a significant step forward, caution is advised in its application. It’s important to recognize that the tool is not infallible and may not catch every instance of AI-generated content. Instructors should not rely on the AI tool to detect AI generated content, but rather, use it as one of several strategies in a comprehensive approach to uphold academic standards and encourage genuine student learning and creativity.

Group Dropbox Folders

All Assignment folders that were created in the old course are copied to the new course. How they are linked to groups will depend on what groups were created in the copy process (see guidelines for Copying Groups above).

Any groups that were created during the copy process, will be listed in the Assignment Folder Submissions Users list.
If no groups were created in the copy process, the Assignment folder will exist, but you will see no Users listed in the Folder Submissions view.
As new groups are created in a Category they will be automatically assigned to the Assignment and appear in the Folder Submissions Users list.

Group Lockers

Group Lockers are created as required for each group that was created when the content was copied.

As students are enrolled in groups, they will have access to the locker for their group.
Whenever a new group is created in a Category which has Group Lockers, a new Group Locker will be created for the new group.

Group Discussions

When a course is copied, all discussion topics in the old course will be copied into the new course (unless you specify topics individually prior to the copy). Depending on group types, group restrictions may be applied automatically to discussion topics, or may need manual modification.

For groups created with any type of “# of Groups” option, the discussion topics will be copied and have group restrictions automatically set up.
For groups created with any type of “Groups of #” options, discussion topics are not linked to group restrictions.Forums and topics copied from the old course appear as “placeholders” but will not be fully created nor have group restrictions associated with them. Students will not be able to see or participate in these discussion “placeholders”. You must manually add group restrictions to existing forums and topics.

Manually Add Group Restrictions to Existing Forums & Topics

TIP: If you do not have enough discussion topics copied from the previous course to accommodate all the groups that have been created in your new course, create additional topics in the appropriate forum before following the steps below.

To manually modify group restrictions for a forum with existing topics, do one of the following:

From the Groups Tool, Edit Category option, click on the “Edit Discussion Restrictions” link. Select the discussion forum and select the appropriate groups for the topics in the table.
or
Navigate to Discussions and select the Group Restrictions option. Choose the correct group and the correct forum from the dropdown menus, and select the group for each topic in the table.

Verifying Group Restrictions on Discussion Topics

If you are not sure whether topics are restricted to the required groups, you can verify topic restrictions as follows:

Navigate to the Discussions List in the Communication dropdown menu.
All topics that are linked to groups will be “Hyper-linked”. (Topics that have no groups assigned will not be “clickable”).
To confirm which group has been assigned to a topic, click on the Edit Pencil icon and then the Restrictions tab. In the Group Restrictions area you will see which group the topic is restricted to.

If you determine that group restrictions have not been set up correctly for a forum, you can follow the directions for Manually Adding Group Restrictions to make any necessary changes.