Hello - we have created groups in a class, and then created a forum. We can see the users under the users tab, but not the groups. It appears that only the original super user can see the groups to assign them to a specific forum. Is there a setting somewhere that I am missing to make it so the instructor can both assign groups and assign them to a specific forum?

Unfortunately you have to make changes in the code.

Would it be easier to use the project format if that's something we want?

Give it a try and see if it works as expected.
Otherwise you can write me in private and I'll develop whatever you need.