Learner Grouping Needs & Functionality

The function of learner grouping tools is to subdivide learners into groups within a single course. In this doc, we’re going to look at some common use-cases for learner grouping, and what functionality is required to fulfil those use-cases. We will not be discussing learner grouping functionality that exists to divide learner access to courses, such as which courses a group can find in the course catalogue, or are enrolled into courses as a group, as our focus is on in-course groupings.

For the sake of clarity, these groups of learners will be referred to simply as groups in these docs, as other common terms such as “cohorts” have wildly different meanings in different LMSes (Cohorts in Open edX are in-course groups, whereas Cohorts in Moodle are platform level user groups), whereas groups are more generic.

Types of Group

From my research into other platforms and reviewing the use-cases, it seems that two types of learner groups are necessary for the at-scale use-case:

• Learner interaction groups

  • To divide discussions, peer learning activities, and content

  • Learner-facing groups that enable learners to engage with each other.

• Learner management groups

  • To manage group-specific assignment due dates, group learners together for easier management, etc.

  • Staff-facing groups that simplify the management of learners and enable different forms of course delivery.

These two use-cases are effectively reflected in our existing implementation of groups - cohorts vs, teams, but the two implementations lack key functionality for each use-case, captured in the documents below this one: