Q: In my Quercus course, I want to give students an easy way to connect with each other so they can form project groups and ask questions. If I make the People navigation item visible, will students be able to email their classmates? Or is it better to open a discussion instead?
A: We recommend using a Quercus Discussion post to facilitate student interaction, as it is a simple and straightforward method. Making the People navigation item visible is not an effective way to support student messaging: students cannot see their peers’ email addresses, and they cannot use the Inbox to message classmates.
Note: At U of T, the ability for students to message each other through the Quercus Inbox has been disabled for privacy reasons.
Set up the Discussion post to facilitate student interaction
Follow these steps to create the Quercus Discussion post:
- Create an ungraded Quercus Discussion post with a clear title such as “Connect with your peers”.
- Use the discussion description to explain that this space is intended for students to meet classmates, form project groups, ask questions, and coordinate communication.
- Publish this Discussion so that students can access it.
(Tip: To allow students to respond to one another, ensure that “Disallow threaded replies” under the Options section is unchecked.)
Create the group set and student groups in Quercus
Once students have formed their groups through the discussion post, you can manually assign them to their respective groups in Quercus. See the following guides for details:
Each group in Quercus will have its own group page, which allows group members to post messages, collaborate with their group mates, and ask questions independently: How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor?
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For further questions or assistance with organizing and managing course groups or creating group assignments, please contact the EdTech Office or book a consultation.