If as a teacher you haven't already started using the automatically created 'LSE for You' class groups in Moodle, we thought some of you might be interested in finding out about group related possibilities in Moodle.
Class group discussions
For example, it is possible to set up a discussion forum so that each class group has a separate copy of the same forum. These class group forums can be entirely separate and invisible to students that are not members of the class group or you can set them up so that students can also see other groups.
Restrict access to class materials
It is also possible to restrict access to any resource in Moodle using groups and groupings. For example, you could restrict access to PDF files that are specific to your class group and then also restrict related activities such as a class group wiki by group.
Differentiating between registered students and auditing students
One of the groups created by 'LSE for You' is a list of all officially registered students. This means that it is possible to restrict certain resources or activities to students studying the course, while others can be made open to anybody auditing the Moodle course.
See our Moodle Groups guide (PDF) for further use examples and for more detail on how to use groups in Moodle. Please do contact us if you have any further ideas that you would like to discuss. Email: clt-support@lse.ac.uk or phone: 020 7849 4697.
Unitu student community platform
You may have noticed this message on Moodle about a new system called Unitu: https://moodle.lse.ac.uk/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=118181
Unitu is not an LSE system, but it is free to use and students may find it useful. It has some overlap with Moodle, in that it allows students to discuss their work online, but in Unitu's case it's the students who control the discussion. You can help your students to make use of it by adding the Unitu block to your Moodle course, providing a direct link to the corresponding course area in Unitu. Just turn editing on, then use "Add the block" menu at the bottom of the left column and look for "Unitu".
