Most instructors follow this workflow when setting up groups in their course(s):

1. Create each group.
2. Assign students as members of one or more groups.
3. Configure the course or individual activities to use the groups.

There are three ways groups can be applied to your course or activities you create:

1. No Groups: Groups you've created will not be considered when displaying the course or course content.
2. Visible Groups: Students can only interact with members of their group, but can see what students in other groups create in shared spaces like Forums.
3. Separate Groups: Students can only interact with members of their group, and cannot see what students in other groups create in shared spaces like Forums. 

Groups can be used to facilitate any or all of the following:

Group activities

With groups set up in your course, activities like Forum and Assignment can be configured to use groups. This allows you to collect and assess Assignment submissions from groups instead of individual students. In Forums, it can limit students to only being able to see and reply to posts from members of their own group. 

Quiz overrides

You may have multiple students with registered accommodations for additional test time. These accommodations can be managed in bulk by adding these students to a group, then adding a group override to the quiz. 

Manage multiple sections

Some instructors use the metalink enrollment option to combine multiple courses into one section. (See the article Combining courses for further context.) Groups can help manage:

1. Separate due dates for each section in Assignments, or separate open and close dates for Quizzes 
2. Selectively hide or show course content to one section instead of another
3. Filter the course gradebook to only show one section at a time

Can students message group members?

With Group Messaging turned on, a student can message any other member of their group.

Can students be in more than one group?

Yes! If students will be members of multiple groups throughout the semester, you can use the Groupings feature to manage all of your groups. Groupings are collections of groups, and allow you to force an activity to use specific groups while ignoring others.