Creating sections

Table of contents

1. On the Manage Sections page, click Create Sections. If sections already exist, see Add additional sections to learn how to add more sections.
2. Select an Enrollment Type from the drop-down list. See Section enrollment types for descriptions of the enrollment types.
3. Enter the Number of Sections or Number of Users field depending on the Enrollment Type chosen.
4. Select Auto-Enroll New Users if you want new users to automatically enroll in sections.
5. Select Randomize users in Sections if you want to enroll users in sections randomly. If you don’t select this check box, users enroll in sections alphabetically.
6. Select Set Up Discussion Areas if you want to create section-specific discussion topics inside a forum.
7. Click Create.

Tip  In most cases, it is better to set up sections after the majority of users enroll in your course. This gives you a better idea of how many users you are organizing and how many sections you need. Setting up sections after enrollment can also ensure better distribution of users between sections.

Restricted discussion areas

If you select Set up Discussion areas when creating sections, you will be taken to the Create Restricted Discussion Areas page. On this page, you can create a separate topic for each section within an existing or new forum, complete with automatically configured restrictions for each group.

Tip  Click Add Another to add additional topics for each section within a chosen forum. To edit or delete these topics, use the Discussions tool.

Note  If you decide not to create individual discussion topics for each section, click Skip. This clears the Set up Discussion areas check box and takes you back to the Manage Sections page.

Bulk edit section restrictions for discussion forums and topics

You can edit section enrollment in restricted discussion forums and topics using the Sections tool. For example, you can assign specific sections to specific topics, multiple sections to the same topic, and restrict topics to certain sections.

1. On the Manage Sections page, click Edit overall section properties.
2. Click Edit Discussion Restrictions from the Additional Options section.
3. Select the Forum you want to edit from the drop-down list.
4. Select or clear the check boxes in the Edit Restrictions area to modify section enrollment in discussion forums and topics. You can click Automatically create restricted topics if you want to create more topics and forums.
5. Click Save.