If you want to have discussion boards used in  your class, and also use groups in such a way that members of different groups do not see each others posts… rather they only see the posts from their own group in the discussion board – these are the steps you follow.

Please note that these are steps that should be taken before the discussion board has any posts.

Go to Groups:

Set up your Groups, by creating a Group Category:  I used the # of groups “Enrollment Type” option.

Click Save.

Go to Discussions:

*This assumes you already have the discussion boards in place.*

Use the drop down to the right of the Topic name to “Edit Topic”.

Go to “Availability Dates & Conditions” on the right hand part of the screen.

Click on “Manage Restrictions”.

Select “Restrict Topic and Separate Threads” Users in the selected groups/sections can view this topic but will only see threads from their group/section.

It is possible to have multiple Group Categories and Course sections to chose from.   You will probably have only one Group Category.

Click Add.  Click Save and Close.

You should now see under the topic name an indication that Group/section restrictions have been applied.