Using learner teams in your Tahoe courses

You have the option to allow learners to work in small group teams on specific projects or activities. Teams are formed under specific topics, and each topic can include multiple teams. 

  • Course Authors/Admins define one or more team topics and set the max number of learners a team can include.
  • Inside a course, learners choose their topic of interest and join a team, or create their own team under a topic. Learners can only be a member of one team at a time. (If they want to join a new team, they will need to leave their existing team.)

Configure Teams from Advanced Settings

After logging in to  Studio and accessing your course, go to Settings  > Advanced Settings. The Teams Configuration field is the next to last field at the bottom of the page.

In the Teams Configuration field, you will define the team topics and set the max team size. You'll need to use the exact format you see below. The following configuration creates three team topics (Cat Chat, Dog Discussion, Ferret Fest) and sets the max team size for each team to 10. 

{
    "topics": [
        {
            "description": "Cats Rule, Dogs Drool",
            "name": "Cat Chat",
            "id": "cat_chat"
        },
        {
            "description": "Dogs Rock, Cats Mock",
            "name": "Dog Discussion",
            "id": "dog_discussion"
        },
        {
            "description": "Ferrets Furr-ever",
            "name": "Ferret Fest",
            "id": "ferret_fest"
        }
    ],
    "max_team_size": 10
}

You can copy the example above - just be sure to change the values for description, id, and name to your own, define your own max_team_size, and either add or remove entries (everything in a middle set of {} brackets) to create more or fewer teams.

Note: Underscore, hyphen, and period are the only acceptable special characters in "id" values.

What the Learner Sees

Once you have configured teams for your course, Learners will see a Teams navigation link near the top of their course.

When a Learner selects Teams in the top navigation, they will see a page with a list of topics to choose from. The learner will click the arrow to see a list of teams for the topic.

If there are existing teams, the learner can choose one to join. If there are no teams yet (like in the above example), the learner can create a new team.


When learners create a new team, they must give it a Team Name and a Team Description (required fields). They can also set a Language and Country for the team (These optional fields are blank by default - we set them to French / Canada in the example below.)

After the team is created, learners will see the screen below. They have the option to now add new posts, comment on existing posts, or leave the team.

After a leaner clicks to Add a Post, they will have these options:
Learners can then click on the post name ("What color is your labrador retriever" in the example below) to add a comment.
They can easily add text and pictures, using the tools in the editor. Learners can follow the post by clicking the star icon. And for questions, the original poster can mark an answer as their chosen one.

And that's how you configure and use learner Teams in Tahoe!