Group tools overview

Each group in Brightspace has a maximum capacity of 200 participants and is restricted to 200 groups per category.

There are three group tools available in Brightspace:

1. Brightspace Group Tool: Use this tool to:

  • Make groups for assignments
  • Make groups for administrative purposes
  • Make groups to restrict content or assignments
  • Automatically enroll the classlist in groups
  • Manually divide students into groups in Brightspace
  • Let students self-enroll in groups

2. Self Enrollment Tool: Use this tool to:

  • Make groups of different sizes
  • Enable a waiting list for groups

After making groups in the Self Enrollment Tool, you have to push them to the Brightspace group tool. Categories can only be created once and cannot be deleted afterwards.

3. Group Import/Export tool: use this tool when you want to:

  • Enroll and unenroll students in groups using a CSV or Excel file.
  • Quickly download a course’s classlist.

The Group tools are available under the Collaboration tab in your navigation bar.

The table below gives a basic indication of functionalities per tool:

  Brightspace Group Tool
(Groups)
Self Enrollment Tool
(Group Self Enrollment)
Group Import/Export Tool
Self Enrollment  
Auto Enrollment  
Max. # students per group & max # groups per category 200 200 200
Closing date  
Waitlist    

There are further instructions available on managing groups within Brightspace covering how to set up groups for electronic assignments.