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Group Formation: Overview

Dayne
Updated

Introduction

In this article, we will walk you through the purpose and main functionality of the Group Formation tool.

Group Formation allows instructors to create balanced, diverse, and effective student groups automatically. Instead of forming groups manually or at random, instructors define the criteria that matter for their activity, and the tool allocates students into well-composed teams based on how they respond to a short survey.

The tool is especially useful when group work needs to be intentional — for example, when instructors want to balance skills and experience, account for student availability, or promote diversity and inclusion across teams, while saving the time that manual grouping usually takes.

Here you can find our user guides for Group Formation:

 

How It Works

The instructor begins by adding instructions for the activity, so students understand what is expected of them. They then configure the tool's settings, which cover three main areas: 

  • Survey questions

  • Number of students per group

  • Scheduling deadlines

To build the survey, instructors create question cards using either multiple-choice or open questions. Questions can be written from scratch or adapted from ready-made inspiration questions, and each question can be weighted so that the factors most important to the learning goal carry more influence in the grouping.

When Group Formation is used through an LMS integration, students complete the survey inside their LMS using their existing login, with no separate account needed. They answer questions about topics such as their skills, working style, learning preferences, and availability. Based on these responses, the algorithm assigns students to groups — placing them with peers who answered similarly (for compatibility) or differently (to complement one another), depending on the instructor's configuration.

Throughout the activity, instructors can monitor overall student progress from a dashboard that shows participation in real time and provides analytics that can be exported. After the groups are formed, instructors can review them and manually override any allocation by clicking a student's assigned group and selecting a different one from the dropdown. Instructors who prefer not to use the survey can instead divide students manually or automatically, or — on the standalone platform only — paste groups from a CSV file.

When the groups are ready, they can be published to the LMS. This works directly through a Publish to LMS button for Canvas/Instructure and D2L/Brightspace, and via a downloadable export that is imported into the LMS for Blackboard, Moodle, Teams, and others.

Note: Once groups are published to the LMS, they can no longer be modified in FeedbackFruits — only within the LMS. The formed groups can also be reused in other FeedbackFruits activities in the same course.

 

Highlighted Features

Survey-based, automated grouping: Students complete a short instructor-configured survey, and the tool automatically forms groups from their responses.

Multiple-choice and open questions: Instructors build the survey from multiple-choice or open question cards. Only multiple-choice answers feed the grouping algorithm; open responses are for the teacher to review.

Per-question grouping preference: For each multiple-choice question, instructors choose whether students are grouped with peers who answered similarly or differently.

Question weighting: Each question can be given an importance from 0 (ignored) to 5 (highest), controlling how much it influences the final groups.

Inspiration questions: A set of ready-made sample questions gives instructors a starting point for building their own survey.

Manual group adjustments: Instructors can override the tool's suggestions by reassigning any student to a different group from a dropdown before publishing.

 

Benefits of using Group Formation

  • Saves instructor time - Automating group creation removes the need to organize and set up groups manually, even in large or multi-section courses.

  • Creates balanced, intentional groups - Group membership is based on meaningful criteria rather than chance, helping avoid lopsided teams and reducing potential conflict.

  • Supports diversity, equity, and inclusion - The algorithm distributes skills, experience, and participation levels evenly while promoting diverse and inclusive collaboration.

  • Improves collaboration and group dynamics - Well-composed teams give every member a clearer role, supporting smoother collaboration and better learning outcomes.

  • Encourages student self-reflection - Completing the survey prompts students to consider their own skills, preferences, and availability before the group work begins.

  • Gives teachers insight into progress - Real-time data and exportable analytics help instructors track participation and identify any issues early.

 

Good to Know

  • Group Formation automates group creation based on instructor-defined criteria.

  • Students are grouped through a short survey; only multiple-choice answers feed the algorithm, while open responses are for the teacher to review.

  • Questions can be weighted, and ready-made inspiration questions speed up setup.

  • The algorithm groups students by similarity or complementarity — see the Algorithm Explainer for details.

  • Real-time progress and exportable analytics help instructors monitor participation.

  • Groups can be published to the LMS and reused across other FeedbackFruits activities.