How do groups work?

Perusall uses grouping to encourage dynamic interactions when reading and viewing Perusall content. All groups are set at the document level in your Perusall Library, which are then applied to assignments utilizing that material (i.e. the grouping from Book X will be used in an assignment configured with that text). Groups help to ensure that students:

• See all threads started by members of their group or by an instructor/TA
• Within each thread, will see comments from other members of their group and by an instructor/TA
• Are not left feeling overwhelmed by too many highlights or comments, particularly in high-enrollment courses

Differentiated assignments and Peer Review assignments override course grouping settings, so students will see all conversations from the other students assigned to the same content.

Grouping Methods

Under Settings > Grouping, Perusall offers two types of Grouping methods.

• By default, Perusall automatically groups students in the course into smaller "discussion groups" of about 20 students. When creating your course, you can adjust the automatic grouping details, including Enrollment estimate and Target group size, in Get started > Step 4: Basic settings.

  After completing Get started, you can manage your grouping under Settings > Grouping.

  With automatic grouping, each library item has a different set of groups formed, so students have an opportunity to interact with different people over the course of the semester. Groups for a particular document are fixed once the document is uploaded to ensure students have a consistent view of the comments on each document.

  Automatic grouping also allows you to customize Target group size for each library item (i.e. Document A has group size of 7, Document B has group size of 10, etc.)

  Since groups are fixed for each library item, changing these settings will not affect groups for any documents already added to the course. Changes made under Settings > Grouping will instead take effect for any document uploaded after that point, unless you decide to retroactively apply grouping settings. In this case, make sure to check the box shown below:

  

• If you prefer to manually place students into groups, you can do so under the Grouping tab of the course settings, and select Specify groups. At the bottom of the page, you can also enter custom names for each group.
  
  Using this grouping method places students in the same groups for all documents in the course, and allows you to create assignments that are assigned to one ore more groups only. Under Specify groups, you can manually assign students to groups by the following methods:

  • Scroll down and manually enter a group number next to each student in your roster. For example, to place students A, B, C, and D into two groups, you could assign students A and B to group 1 and students C and D to group 2.

    When using manually specified groups, students who enroll in your course after you set the groups will be placed into one of the groups at random. You can change this in the Grouping tab at any time.

  • Rather than manually entering numbers into each Group # slot, use Grouping shortcuts to quickly place students into 1 - 5 groups.
    

  • If you would like to organize your grouping on a spreadsheet, follow these steps:

    • Navigate to Import to/export from spreadsheet to download a pre-populated template of your current Perusall course enrollment.
    • Fill in a group number for each student in the "Group number" column, and save the file to your computer. Do not edit or remove any of the other columns in this spreadsheet.
    • Upload it to your course by using the Select file from my computer button.
    • Click Save Changes.

    These groups will only apply to students currently enrolled in your course. If students join after you establish these groups, you will need to manually place them into a specific group.

  • To import groups from Canvas, Blackboard, & Desire2Learn.
    
    LTI 1.3 Integration 

    • Learn how to import groups from Blackboard.
    • Learn how to import groups or sections from Canvas.
    • Learn how to import groups from Desire2Learn.

    LTI 1.1 Integration 

    • Learn how to apply groups from Canvas.

Reviewing student groups

Use the tabs below to learn how to see the groups that students have been placed into based on your selected Grouping method.

•  

  1. Click on the Library tab on the course home page.
  2. Select a document, and then click the Groups button in the panel.

  

• When using Specify groups, grouping is the same for all documents in the course. To see grouping, navigate to Settings > Grouping, and scroll down. There is no Groups button in the Library when you're using Specify groups.

Viewing comments by group

Instructors will always be able to see all comments, and students can navigate to My scores to download all of their individual comments per assignment.

If you want to see all comments for a specific group, navigate to your Course home, select an assignment, click All comments, and in the dropdown, select a specific group to see who has participated. 

You can also filter comments by group while viewing assignments.  Click All comments at the top of the window, then click Specific group, and select the group you'd like to see.  Click the All conversations icon on the right navigation panel to see all conversations from that group. Learn more about what icons are visible.

• If a student is the first one in their group to comment on a particular document, then they won't see any other comments in the document even though other students in the class may have also started commenting. This is normal; they should start to see other students' comments as others in their group start reading and commenting on the document as well. As a first step, you can check their group's activity using one of the methods from above.
  
  Contact Perusall support for further assistance.

Changing group membership

Be careful when changing groups.

Students will always be able to see their initial comments within the document, however, since students only see the comments of others in their group, a change mid-course could be confusing since they will see a different set of comments when reopening library content or assignments after you have made the change.

For example, if student B responded to a comment by student A and then those two students were later placed into separate groups, student B would no longer be able to see their own response because she would no longer see student A's comment.

Additionally, for instructors, when you filter conversations by group, it's possible that you'll see conversation threads appearing in multiple groups due to the change of membership.

• There are a few ways to change the groups that students are in while using the automatic grouping option:
  • Navigate to Library, select a document, click Groups, and click & drag students to the desired grouping
  • Navigate to Library, select a document, click Groups, and click Reshuffle groups to resort students based on your current values in Settings > Grouping. 
  • If you want to reshuffle all documents to your most recent group setting, navigate to Settings > Grouping, re-enter the Target group size, and check the box in the yellow pop-up to Retroactively change groups on all existing items in the Library to match the grouping parameters above.
• Use the following methods to change grouping when using Specify groups:
  • Navigate to Settings > Grouping, and you can manually enter the new desired group number in the Group # field to the left of the student’s name.
  • If you’re importing groups from your LMS (LTI 1.3), you will need to re-import groups to Perusall, and save changes.
  • If you’re applying groups from Canvas (LTI 1.1), you will need to update changes in Canvas, and the students will be moved to their new group the next time they launch Perusall from Canvas. 

Changing grouping methods

We recommend using one Grouping method throughout the duration of your course; however, we recognize that sometimes grouping must change.  If you'd like to change change grouping methods, please be aware of the information below:

• You will always be able to change from Automatic grouping to Specify groups.
• If you are using Specify groups and have assignments in your course that are assigned only to one or more groups, the grouping method cannot be changed unless you remove the Assign to: Specific groups setting. To do this, you must edit the assignment(s) and adjust this setting under Options. 

Changing Grouping methods affects all documents in your course Library, i.e. if changing from automatic groups to specify groups, you will no longer have the Groups button in your course Library, and all document grouping will be based on the list under Settings > Grouping.

How groups adjust to student enrollment changes

• Late enrollment

  If your course is set to Allow Perusall to automatically assign students to groups, when a new student is enrolled, they will randomly be added to a group for each document in your course Library.  Perusall's automatic sort will prefer to place students in groups with the lowest enrollment to balance the numbers.

  Unenrollment

  When a student is unenrolled from your Perusall course, the student's name will remain in groups from Library view of documents, however the group Size will reflect that the student has been removed.  If you would like to remove the student's name, you will need to Reshuffle groups.

  Reshuffling groups affects the entire group sort for this document and all associated assignments.

• Late enrollment

  If your course is set to Specify groups, when a new student is enrolled, they will be placed in groups with the lowest enrollment.

  If you are using the Canvas LTI 1.1 integration feature, Apply groups from Canvas, late students will be added to Group 1: Unassigned until you place them in a group in Canvas, and they relaunch Perusall.

  Unenrollment

  When a student is unenrolled from your Perusall course, they will be removed from the list under Settings > Grouping.