Welcome to TopicTeamUp!

TopicTeamUp is a free online tool that helps instructors groups students together and assign them a topic based on their interests. You provide a spreadsheet listing your students and their level of interest in each offered topic, enter your desired size and number of groups, and TopicTeamUp will form groups that meet your requirements and maximize student satisfaction. You can also take greater control by adding rules regarding which topics get assigned and which students get paired. Use TopicTeamUp to organize presentations, debates, group projects, and any other collaborative activity where student choice matters. TopicTeamUp can sort up to 50 students into groups based on their preferences for up to 50 topics in just minutes. To get started, click "Next."

Collect Student Preferences

Before you can use TopicTeamUp, you first need to give your students a list of available topics, ask them to rate their interest in each topic on a scale of 0 to 10, and record their responses in a spreadsheet. It is recommended that you use a Microsoft Form or Google Form to do this. TopicTeamUp requires preference data to be uploaded in a specific format, and it will be easier for you to format your data if you use one of these tools to collect it. The short video below explains how to design your form for maximum compatability with TopicTeamUp.

Upload Student Preferences

After you collect student preferences, you must format your spreadsheet before you upload it. Each row should correspond to a student. The first column should list your students and have "Student" or "Name" as its header. The headers for all other columns should be the topics, and their cells should contain integers between 0 and 10. These integers should express the preference of the student for that row to be assigned the topic for that column, with higher numbers indicating stronger preferences. To view an example of a properly formatted spreadsheet, press "Download Example" below. When you are ready to upload your own data, press "Upload Spreadsheet." (You can also upload the example spreadsheet if you want to practice using TopicTeamUp.)

Note: Spreadsheet must use file extension .csv, .xls, or .xlsx

Verify Uploaded Data

Please review your uploaded data for errors. If there is an unwanted item, revise and reupload your spreadsheet.

Set Number and Size of Groups

Enter the minimum and maximum number of groups you want as well as the minimum and maximum number of students that should be assigned to a group. If you would like an exact number of groups or students per group rather than a range, just enter the same number for the minimum and the maximum. TopicTeamUp will group students together based on shared interests and assign a unique topic to each group.

Link Topics Together (Optional)

You can choose to link topics together so that a topic gets assigned only if all its linked topics also get assigned. This is great for debates. You can ensure the PRO side gets assigned if and only if the CON side gets assigned. To create a topic chain, select multiple topics below, name the topic chain, and then press "Link Selected Topics." To delete a topic chain, click the "X" next to it. Note that a topic cannot belong to more than one chain.

Create Topic Categories (Optional)

You can also choose to categorize topics and specify how many topics from each category should be assigned. To create a category, select one or more topics from the list below, enter a short name for the category as well as the minimum and maximum number of topics that should be assigned from it, and press "Create Topic Category". To delete a category, click the "X" next to it. Note that a topic cannot be placed into more than one category.

Group Students Together (Optional)

TopicTeamUp groups students based on shared interests by default, but you can require that certain students be placed in the same group. To manually group students together, select them from the list below and then press "Group Students Together." This will add the group to the right window. To delete a group, click the "X" next to it. Note that TopicTeamUp may assign additional students to these groups if there is room.

Keep Students Separate (Optional)

You can also require that certain students be placed into different groups. To do this, select two or more students from the list and press "Separate Selected Students." This will add the set of separated students to the window. To remove the separation, click the "X". Note that you can put the same student into multiple "separation sets". This enables you to separate Alice from Bob and Alice from Carly without also separating Bob and Carly.

Assign Students to Topics (Optional)

You can manually assign a student to a topic by selecting a student and topic from the lists below and pressing "Assign Student To Topic." This will add the assignment to the window. To delete an assignment, just click the "X" next to it. Note that you can manually assign only one student a time. If you prefer TopicTeamUp to automatically assign all students for you, then skip this step.

Exclude Students From Topics (Optional)

You can also manually exclude a student from a topic. This will prevent TopicTeamUp from assigning that student to that topic. To do this, select a student and topic from the lists below and press "Exclude Student From Topic." This will add the restriction to the window. To remove the restriction, click on the "X" next to it. You can exclude students from multiple topics, but you can select only one student and one topic at a time.

Generate Groups

TopicTeamUp will try to generate groups that both fulfill your requirements and satisfy your students' preferences. This process can take up to 5 minutes. The duration depends on the number of students and topics in your data, the complexity of your requirements (e.g., topic chains / categories), and the distribution of student preferences. During this time, do not refresh your browser or go back until TopicTeamUp responds or 5 minutes have elapsed. If it succeeds, TopicTeamUp will download a text file to your device listing your students and their assigned topic. If it fails, TopicTeamUp will try to identify the cause (e.g., user error, problem complexity, or server unresponsive). Press "Generate Groups" to begin.