In Flipgrid, educators create Topics to engage their scholars in learning. Topics can be tasks, prompts, questions or even a “playground” for connecting. Simply create a Topic, set Permissions, and share with your community!
If you’re planning to use multiple Topics to engage your community, you can create a Group (formerly known as a “Grid”). Groups provide a single access point to any number of Flipgrid Topics.
Curious as to whether you should create a standalone Topic or a Group with multiple Topics? The answer depends on your purpose and intended outcome. If your learning community will be engaging in more than one Topic, create a Group to provide a single join code they will use to access all of your Topics. If you’re just getting started or sparking a one-off discussion, create a standalone Topic. If you’re not sure, start with a Topic! You can always add a Topic to a Group or duplicate into many Groups.
You can create unlimited Topics and Groups! Click here to learn more about the difference between Topics and Groups. Let’s look at some examples and scenarios for when to create Topics or Groups.
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Standalone Topic Examples:
- Icebreakers
- Virtual art show
- Career Day
- Presentation feedback after an event
- Birthday greetings
- School talent show
Group Examples:
- Classrooms (e.g. math or Spanish class)
- School-wide yearbook
- Goal setting and reflection throughout the year
- State of the Classroom
- Employee Onboarding and Training
Some benefits for creating a Group:
- Organize and centralize various discussions in one place
- One customizable join code for the Group will allow access to all Topics in that Group
- Searching simplified to the specific Group
- Add a CoPilot (co-manager) to a Group to review responses, add Topics, and give feedback
- Duplicate Topics to multiple Groups at once
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Now, let’s look at a few scenarios that will help educators decide whether to create a Topic or a Group.
⚡ Scenario No. 1: Just getting started with Flipgrid.
Current State: No Topics or just a few Topics.
- Go to Discussion header
- Focus on Topics tab
- “Add a Topic,” set Permissions, and share
End State: (Standalone) Topic or Topics.
Click here and learn more about how to create a Topic.
⚡ Scenario No. 2: Educator is using Flipgrid on a regular basis for a class or group of learners.
Current State: (Standalone) Topic or Topics for a few weeks or months with video responses and replies yet no Group created.
- Go to Discussion tab
- Select the Group sub-tab
- “Create a Group,” define, and “skip adding Topics”
- Go to Topics tab
- Select a Topic and “Add to Group” – select the Group created in step 3
- Continue steps No. 4 and No. 5 until all Topics are associated to a Group
- Share Group Join Code
End State: Group has one or many Topics, no change in Topic Permissions, video responses and replies all preserved. Click here to learn more about how to Add a Topic to a Group.
⚡ Scenario No. 3: Plan to use Flipgrid on a weekly basis for a class or group of learners.
Current State: No topics or Topics that aren’t relevant for this Group.
- Go to Discussion header
- Click on Group sub-tab
- “Create a Group”, define and “skip adding Topics”
- With focus on newly created Group, “Add a Topic”
- Define topic
- Share Group Join Code
End State: Group has one or many topics, Topic inherits Permissions from Group by default. Click here to learn more about how to create a Group.
⚡ Scenario No. 4: It’s a new semester! Add existing Topics to a new class.
- Focus on Group tab
- “Create a Group,” define and “Add a Topic”
- Select the Topics you want to add to this Group
- Share Group Join Code