1. Choose the Participants tab in the Course Menu
2. Open the Participants menu
3. Choose Groups

Groups must be created first, and students are then added to the groups.  For each group you want to create, do the following:

1. On the Groups screen, click the Create group button near the bottom of the page
2. On the next screen, enter a Group name and any other details about the group; then click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page

Next, you must add students to each of your groups.  To do this:

1. On the Groups page, click on one of your groups to highlight it
2. Click the Add/remove users button
3. On the next screen, click on a student in the Potential members list that you want to add to the group
4. Click the Add button to add the student; repeat Steps 3 and 4 until the group contains all the desired students

Repeat the above steps with the other groups.

To give groups a forum to communicate, first add a new forum to your course.  On that forum's settings page, find the Common module settings section, and change Group mode to "Separate groups."  Now, whenever a students visits that forum, that student will only see posts made by members of his or her group.  This means that you do not need to create a forum for each group.

Setting Group mode to "Visible groups" has the effect of allowing each student to read posts from all students, but only reply to posts made by members of his or her group.  The difference between "Separate groups" and 'Visible groups" is similar in many other activities.  For example, in a Wiki activity, setting Common module settings to "Separate groups" means that a student will only see one wiki, and only his or her group can edit that wiki; setting Common module settings to "Visible groups" means that a student will be able to see and read a wiki from each group, but only edit his or her own group's wiki.

To have students submit an assignment as a group, go to the assignment's settings page, find the Group submission settings section, and change Students submit in groups to "Yes."  Now, when one student in a group submits the assignment, all students in that group will be listed as having submitted the assignment, and the grade you give to that assignment will be shared by all members of that group.  

We also recommend that you change Group mode in the Common module settings section to "Separate groups."

When you choose "View all submissions" from an assignment's page, you'll see a screen similar to the one below.  The general layout is similar to a non-group assignment, but there are several things to note:

1. A column will be added listing the name of the group to which each student belongs.
2. Use the drop-down menu to filter the list; you can choose to list all students, or just the members of a particular group.
3. When one member of a group makes a submission, that becomes the submission for all other members of the group.  In this example, the second and third students are both members of Group 1.  The third student submitted "Group 1 Assign 1.pdf" and Moodle automatically listed the same file as the second student's submission.

Although Moodle is aware of students' membership in groups, Moodle will display the students individually in the grading interface.  When grading students in groups:

1. Enter the first student's grade in the grading interface.
2. At the bottom of the interface screen, you'll see the Apply grades and feedback to entire group drop-down menu.  When set to "Yes," the grade and feedback you enter for a student is automatically entered for all other members of that student's group.  So, after entering a student's grade and feedback, and then navigating to another group member's submission in the grading interface, you'll find the grade and feedback already filled in.  Using the above example, suppose you entered a grade and feedback for Blair Goodlin; you'll see that same grade and feedback already entered when you navigate to Robert Smith's submission, so you need not enter the same information again.
3. Continue going through all the students in the class using the grading interface.  Click the Save changes button when you've entered grades and feedback for all groups.

If the Apply grades and feedback to entire group drop-down menu is set to "No," the grade and feedback you enter for a student is not copied to any other students, including other members of that student's group.  This allows you to grade all students as individuals even if they submitted the assignment as a group, and you have the option of giving different grades to members of the same group.