In this article, you can read how you can make discussion topics per group in the Groups tool.

You can use Groups to create small groups of students within a course, thereby giving them the possibility to discuss several topics. You can also create groups with one student, so each student has their own group. They can use this as a blog or diary.

• Click on Course Tools in the navigationbar of your course.
• Click on Groups. You will be directed to the Groups homepage.
• Do you want to make a new group? Please see the instruction: How do I create groups?

1. Use the drop-down menu under View Categories to select a Group Category for which you want to make a discussion topic.
2. Click on the arrow next to the name of the group.
3. Click on Edit Category.

1. Scroll down and check the box next to Set up discussion areas (under Additional Options). Several options will be available now.
2. Select from the drop-down menu under Forum which forum you want to add the discussion topic to. You can also create a new forum by clicking on New Forum.
3. Select Create new topic if you want to create a new discussion topic for groups within the group category. If you want to make a new thread within an existing topic for the group category, select Attach to existing topic.
4. Click on Save.

1. Choose from:
   • Create one topic per group: if you want to create a discussion topic per group within a group category. (For example: the group category "Lecture" consists of two groups, meaning that this option creates two topics: one for group 1 and one for group 2. If you choose to make multiple topics for each group, then it is possible to make certain topics visible to certain groups. With this option, students will not see the topics from groups they are not part of)
   • Create one topic with threads separated by group: if you want to make a topic in a forum with different threads for each group (students will not be able to see threads made by other groups).
2. Give the topics a title and a description if desired.
3. Click on Create and Next (or on Add another if you want to make additional discussion topics.)

You will now see an overview of the changes you have made.

• Click on Done.

You will now be returned to the Edit Category page.

At the bottom of the page, you can see the title Existing Workspace and below that, the Discussion(s) you have created. (The example only shows one discussion topic that has been created: Lecture discussion: The battle of orange".)

1. Click on (one of) the links to edit the discussion topic. You will be directed to the Edit Topic page in discussions, where you can personalize the topics. You can do the following:
   • Allow anonymous messages, add a grade scheme, or give the topic a start- or end date;
   • Add restrictions to the topic;
   • Assess the topic, and if so, how you would like to do that.
2. Click on Save to return to the overview page of the group category for which the discussion topic has been created.

The Discussions column shows which discussion topics have been added to your group(s). Click on the name of the topic to open it. (The figure below shows that the two groups (1 and 2) both have a discussion topic within the group category "lecture". If you click on this, then you can view the topic.)

Discussion topics for groups can also be created when creating new topics in Discussions. When making a new topic, you can choose whether every member of the course gets access to the topic (Open Topic) or whether they can only see the threads of the topic that has been assigned to their group (Group or Section Topic) under Topic Type. Please also see the article: How do I create a Discussion Forum and Topic?