moodlefairy’s posterous

I’ve noticed a trend, as the new term approaches in many Moodle-using countries, that questions are asked on the Moodle.org forums regarding installation, enrolment of students and the best way to “share” courses between several teachers with different classes without everyone getting in each others’ way. This latter query has appeared several  times in the last couple of weeks. Personally I don’t have a problem with everyone seeing everyone else’s activities. (The students will never see their classmates’ work anyway, and if teachers can view what their colleagues are doing, surely that’s a Good Thing in terms of collaboration and self-evaluation?) But there have been various workarounds suggested, from each teacher and class having their own Moodle course to  the setting up of  metcourses.  However, in Moodle 1.9 onwards, there is another way: Groupings. Groupings act a bit like the Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak and give you the power to make certain tasks invisible from some classes (groups) but available to others, all within a single Moodle course. So  if you don’t want Mr Jones’ class to see what Mrs Smith’s class is doing - or if you want your set 4 not to have access to your set 1 work -and you are absolutely sure that’s a good idea - then this video shows you how: