In this article we will walk you through the process of configuring groups when using Peer Review, Group Member Evaluation, Assignment Review or Skill Review.
Once all students are added, they can be assigned to groups manually or automatically. There are three ways to create groups:
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Manually assigning groups
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Automatically divide students in groups
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Manually importing groups from Excel or a .csv file
When choosing to either the manually or automatically method, the students have to enter the assignment first before you can assign them to groups. If you would like to set up the groups in the assignment beforehand, you should choose method 3 Paste groups from CSV.
To start, press change in the first step of the assignment, next to your group settings.
For this example, we chose Peer Review. Peer Review has several collaboration options that can use a group functionality.
Then, you will see these three options to add groups. In this article we will go through all of them.
1. Manually assigning groups
For manual filling, it is important that all students are added to the assignment. Click here to find out more about how students are added.
Once you have selected 'Manually divide students in groups', you will see the following page. To start, first select the number of groups you want to create. Then, choose the option 'manually' then assign each student to each group.
The list of students that are in the assignment (students that have clicked on the link) is shown. Click on Assigned group next to a student's name and select the group that you want to place that student in.
Make sure all students are assigned to a group before the 'give feedback process' starts. Bear in mind that adding a student to a group after the 'give feedback' step has started, may cause errors in the allocation of peers.
2. Automatically assigning groups
To automatically fill groups, choose 'Automatically divide students in groups'. Fill in the required amount of groups.
Automatically filling groups works as follows. If all students are added before you start configuring groups, they are randomly distributed amongst the groups straight away.
If you set automatic filling before students are added to the assignment: the groups start filling automatically as soon as a student clicks on the link. The group that is the most empty is filled first. If you have 30 students and 5 groups the first 6 students get allocated in the following manner:
Student A-> group 1
Student B -> group 2
Student C -> group 3
Student D -> group 4
Student E -> group 5
Student F is randomly assigned to one of the groups.
3. Manually exporting groups from Excel or a .csv file
Another way to manually create groups is by exporting them from a .csv file or an Excel sheet. After selecting the option 'Paste groups from CSV' in FeedbackFruits, you will be directed to another screen where you can add the students' email addresses and their group allocation.
You will need to have a spreadsheet (for example in Excel) with all the students' email addresses in one column and the group names in the next column (see below).
In Excel, select the data from both columns and copy it.
Go to FeedbackFruits and paste the data in the text field. The email addresses and group names need to be separated by either a space, comma, semicolon or tab. This will automatically be the case when copying it from an Excel / CSV sheet.
When you click next, you will reach a window where you have the opportunity to make final adjustments to the group allocation, following the same procedure as the first section of this article (Manually assigning groups).
When all your students are allocated to the right group, you can press done and you have created your groups.
If you are experiencing any issues with adding the groups, this article might be able to help clear up any questions.