Organize students into groups
Updated 29 Aug 2024
For filtering your view of the Mastering Gradebook or exporting Gradebook data, you might find it useful to organize students into smaller, more workable groups, for example by class sections that meet on different days.
- Groups can be created and removed, and students can be assigned or reassigned, anytime. Students can be assigned to more than one group. When you remove a group, students in the group remain enrolled in the course.
- For large courses with many students, see instead use a spreadsheet to create groups and assign students.
Watch a video: Group students and edit groups
- Select Roster from the course menu.
- Select Add/Edit Groups.
- Select Add New Group, and then enter a name for the new group in the new row.
Acceptable characters are A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _ (underscore), - (dash), /, and spaces. Group names must begin with A-Z, a-z, 0-9, or _.
- Create as many groups as you need by selecting Add New Group and entering a name for each.
- When you're done, select Save and Close.
- Assign students to groups (see below).
For courses with many students, see instead use a spreadsheet to create groups and assign students.
- Select Roster from the course menu.
- For each student, select the down arrow in the Groups column (visible only after you create a group) and select the group.
- To assign a student to more than one group —
Select the Add another Group Name box for this student, then select an additional group for the student. - To remove a student from a group —
Select the Remove this Group Name box for the student.
- To assign a student to more than one group —
- Select Save.
- Select Roster from the course menu.
- Select Add/Edit Groups.
-
Choose Remove in the row for any group you want to remove.
To more easily find a group if there are many, sort the list by Group Name or # of Members.
- Select Save or Save and Close.
All students remain enrolled in the course; only the group is removed.
If you request the Beta Assign-by-Group feature from your Pearson rep, you can make an assignment available to a specific group or groups of students. For example, you might want to group students who may benefit from a remedial assignment or students who may capable of more advanced work. This option works best when students are not expected to change from one section to another.
- Specialized assignments cannot be assigned by group. The Beta Assign-by-Group feature supports standard Mastering assignments only. This feature does NOT support Dynamic Study Modules, Adaptive Follow-Ups, and Learning Catalytics assignments.
- Caution: Avoid moving a student if the student has already completed work assigned by group. If you do so, the student's work and scores for those assignments are removed from the Gradebook. You can restore the work and scores by adding the student back to the same group.
- Request access to the BETA Assign-by-Group feature from your Pearson rep.
- Create or open an assignment for editing.
- From the Dates & Follow-Up page, select Select Groups.
The Assign to Groups window opens. - Choose whether you want one or more student groups to do this assignment.
- To select one group: Use the up and down arrow to choose the group name you want. The selected group appears with a gray background.
- To select ALL groups: Choose Select All.
- To select NO groups: Choose Select None to deselect any selected groups.
- Select Save.
By following these steps, you can "move" the student's scores, but not the student's original work:
- As a precaution, consider exporting scores in Standard Gradebook Format from your Mastering Gradebook.
Tip: To generate a smaller .csv file, filter the Gradebook before you export.
- Use instructions earlier in this topic to assign the student to the group he or she is moving to, and select Save.
- Refer to the Gradebook or to the exported .csv file to note a score that needs to be "moved" for work the student completed for an assignment given to the original group.
- In the Gradebook, select the empty cell for the missing score for the corresponding assignment given to the group the student is being moved to. The student's Assignment Grade page opens.
- On the Assignment Grade page, in the Adjust Total Points by (+/-) box, enter a score for the student's original work.
Note: You can enter any number here. If the assignments given to the groups were not equivalent, you can adjust the student's score accordingly.
- Select Save.
The Gradebook now shows the student has credit for doing the assignment twice, but that will change after step 8, when you remove the student from the original group.
- Repeat steps 3–6 for each score to be "moved."
- When you are satisfied that you have captured the student's scores from the original group's assignments, use instructions earlier in this topic to remove the student from the original group.
The student's original work and scores are never lost. They can always be restored by assigning the student back to the original group, even temporarily. But the Gradebook now accurately reflects only the manually "moved" scores—not a double set of original plus "moved" scores.