A group in Wattle is a set of students that you can use to sort content, organise submissions or allocate marking. A grouping is a collection of groups, they allow you to sort and organise your groups and gives you more options when restricting/providing access to items on your site. Using both groups and groupings in your site allows you to have greater control over the release, restriction and organisation of activities, student submissions and marking in Wattle. To find out more about groups, groupings, and their uses in Wattle, please feel free to read section 4 of the Wattle Manual which contains more information on participant management.

Where can I find the groups list in my course site?

To access the groups list in a Wattle site;

First access the participants list through the course navigation menu on the lefthand side of the screen.
Then click the cogwheel on the righthand side of the screen and select groups,

This will bring you to the course groups menu.

MyTimetable integration - Introducing [MyTT] Groups & Groupings

What are the new [MyTT] groups & groupings in my course site?

Groups and groupings with the [MyTT] prefix will be automatically created and receive student allocations in to timetabled activities from MyTimetable without any need for manual creation in the Wattle site.

What does the default group name mean?

The default group name includes the [MyTT] prefix (indicating the activity is managed by MyTimetable), the type of activity, the session number of the activity, as well as which classes are going to be attending the activity.

For example, the following group name can be separated into the following;

[MyTT] LecA/01 (Classes 2258, 2627)
[MyTT] – Indicates this group receives student allocation through MyTimetable
LecA/01 - Indicates that this is the first instance of Lecture A
(Classes 2258, 2627) - Indicates that this is a co-taught activity, with students from 2 different classes participating.

Can I change the default group name to something more specific with time/location? Will that cause any issue?

You can change the name of the group without impacting the flow of students, but it is advised that you retain the ‘[MyTT]’ prefix. This helps all staff to easily identify which of the groups are receiving enrolment from MyTimetable. Please note that changes made in Wattle both to the group name and to student allocation will not flow back into MyTimetable.

Additionally, when manually renaming [MyTT] groups that the location/time of a teaching activity can change, meaning that keeping many groups up to date using time/location as the naming convention may be difficult.

Should I still create a Group Select activity for tutorial sign-up in Wattle?

In the past, Group Select activities were used in conjunction with groups and groupings to facilitate tutorial sign-ups within Wattle.

With the introduction of MyTimetable, you will no longer need to create a Group Select activity for tutorials or any other officially timetabled activity (workshops, labs, etc.). Students will sign up for all timetabled activities via MyTimetable and Wattle will create and populate groups and groupings with these student enrolments automatically. Students that have unenrolled from the course, or moved to another tutorial group, will also be removed/added to other groups automatically*.

You will still be able to use Group Select activities for other purposes, such as having students enrolling in small groups for assignments / in-class activities or select their preferred essay topic for easier marking allocation.

If your course site contains a Group Select activity that pertains to timetabled activities (such as tutorials workshops, labs) from a past semester, please consider deleting this activity to prevent any confusion for students.

*Note this will be handled differently in MyTimetable for courses scheduled in the Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter sessions.

I do not see these groups in my Wattle site, when will these groups appear?

Both the groups and their student enrolments will be set up as a part of the bulk course creation process – there is no action required on your part to set-up the flowthrough between MyTimetable and Wattle.

If you don’t see any [MyTT] groups in your course site please first check that your scheduled activities have been registered and are visible in ANU Timetable viewer. If you are unable to find your scheduled activities, please check with your local timetabling co-ordinator to ensure that your activities are timetabled.

If your activities are visibly scheduled, but no [MyTT] groups or groupings are visible in your Wattle site, please reach out to the Wattle Support Team via a service desk ticket including your name, university ID and affected course code.

When / How frequently will the enrolments in these groups be updated to match the timetabled activities in MyTimetable?

If the site was created as part of the bulk course creation process, groups will be created approximately 24 hours after the timetabled activity has been scheduled.

Students will begin to flowthrough into these groups two weeks prior to the course start date, with the opening of MyTimetable Student allocations.

If your site was created on request, or outside the bulk course creation period (earlier/later), then you will need to first lodge a ticket with Wattle Support Team to ensure that both the groups and student allocation flowthrough are enabled for the site.

After this initial start, updates to the student enrolment in [MyTT] groups will occur approximately every 30 minutes but may take longer during peak Wattle & MyTimetable operating hours. Changes to student membership of [MyTT] groups need to be managed in MyTimetable directly and will flow through from there into Wattle (changes made in Wattle will not flow back into MyTimetable).

What will I be able to use these groups for?

Because [MyTT] groups are automatically created and maintained, it is significantly easier to use these groups to accurately provide material to specific groups of students or sort students submissions based on their enrolment in timetabled activities.

Examples

Restricting course materials via [MyTT] groups

Restricting Zoom links so that they are visible only to students in a particular tutorial.
Making certain topic sections available to only online tutorial groups.
Separating lecture material pertaining to a lecture / seminar only available to a specific cohort in a course.
For more information on restricting content using groups and groupings – please refer to the Wattle Manual.

Using [MyTT] groupings and the separate/visible groups setting to filter student submissions/discussion

Filtering Turnitin assignments by tutorial group for easier marking allocation between markers.
Having a single forum divided into lab/tutorial groups to allow for small group discussions to questions or discussion topics.
Either having visible or hiding the other groups students are attempting activities with

Using [MyTT] groups for group overrides in quizzes / assignments

Using group overrides to make quizzes available and close at separate distinct times for different tutorial/lecture/lab/workshops groups.
Assigning an alternative due date for an assignment where a specific lab / workgroup has been disadvantaged (i.e. absent tutor).
For more information on using group overrides – please refer to the Wattle Manual.

Can I manually add students to [MyTT] groups in Wattle?

While it is possible to manually add students to [MyTT] groups in Wattle, it is recommended that all changes to student membership is managed directly in MyTimetable. Updates made to [MyTT] group membership in Wattle will not flow back into MyTimetable. MyTimetable will only update group membership in Wattle if there is a change in MyTimetable, so students added manually into Wattle groups will not be removed by MyTimetable.

MyTimetable considers venue capacity, waitlists, and other factors, along with generating personal timetables for students, and changes to group enrolments for timetabled activities should therefore always be made in the MyTimetable system. Updates made in MyTimetable will flow through to Wattle shortly afterwards, removing the need for any double-handling of group enrolment.

Will I still need to manually remove students from groups if they unenroll from the course?

If a student unenrolls from the course via ISIS, they will automatically be removed from their MyTimetable groups without any need for manual removal. This will flow through to Wattle within 24 hours.

My course has co-taught teaching and learning activities with cohorts in different / the same site, how will this impact my site management?

Co-taught teaching and learning activities (or jointly taught activities) are activities that have students from multiple classes as participants. Depending on the structure of the Wattle site(s) this can be represented differently.

Scenario 1 – Multiple classes, one Wattle site

ANU1001/1002/1003 - A Combined Wattle Site - Sem 1 20XX

Groups in this site:

[MyTT] LecA/01 (Classes 2258, 2627,2781)

In a single Wattle site with students that have separate class enrolments; all students allocated to this activity would be in the group in the one Wattle site.

Scenario 2 – Multiple classes, multiple Wattle sites

ANU1001 – Separate Wattle Site 1 – Sem 1 20XX

Groups in this site:

[MyTT] LecA/01 (Classes 2258, 2627,2781)

ANU1002 – Separate Wattle Site 2 – Sem 1 20XX

Groups in this site:

[MyTT] LecA/01 (Classes 2258, 2627,2781)

ANU1003 – Separate Wattle Site 3 – Sem 1 20XX

Groups in this site:

[MyTT] LecA/01 (Classes 2258, 2627,2781)

Alternatively, Co-taught teaching activities can also be represented across multiple Wattle sites - each of these sites would contain a group pertaining to the teaching activity, but each group in Wattle would only contain student allocations enrolled in that respective site.

Why are there MyTT groups/groupings in my Wattle site with an [Archived] prefix?

MyTT groups/groupings are automatically updated to be listed as [Archived] in when the timetabled activity is no longer in the MyTimetable system. Once an activity is archived, students are removed from that group in Wattle. E.x. if a specific tutorial is cancelled, the MyTT group pertaining to that group in Wattle will be listed as archived and the students removed from that group.

[MyTT] TutA/03 (Class 7088) (30 participants); if cancelled would become -
[Archived] [MyTT] TutA/03 (Class 7088) (0 participants)

Wattle Integration - MyTimetable FAQ

Related links