Setting Up Groups in a Canvas Course

Setting Up Groups in a Canvas Course

Groups in a Canvas course can be a powerful way for students to work together. Examples of how groups could be used include (assuming 20 students in the course):

  • Divide students up into five groups of four students each. Ask them to discuss a specific topic within a Discussion thread in your Canvas course.
  • Divide students up into ten groups of two students each. Each group of two students will work together to complete a group assignment. The two students in each group will receive the same score for their submitted assignment.

Creating a Group Set

Think of a Group Set like a container to hold multiple groups. Using the first example above, a Group Set might be titled the same as a Discussion topic in the course. The groups within the Group Set will live here. Groups might be called Green Team, Red Team, Blue Team, Orange Team, and Purple Team. Students can then be assigned to each of these group team names automatically or manually.

Similarly, a second Group Set could be created for the group assignment…again, naming it the same as the group assignment. In this Group Set, there would be ten groups of two students each.

In a Canvas course:

  1. In Course Navigation, click the People link.
  2. Click on the + Group Set button on the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
  3. In the Create Group Set window that appears, provide a name for the Group Set (Example: Week 1 Group Discussion, Team Art Project, etc.)
  4. Select other options in the Self Sign-Up and Group Structure areas of this screen.
    • Additional options will appear on the screen depending on what is selected in these two areas.
    • If either Split students by number of groups or Split number of students per group is selected, Canvas will automatically place students in groups.
The "Create Group Set" window includes option for "Group Set Name", "Self Sign-Up", "Group Structure", and even to set a leader of a group.

Assigning Students to Groups in a Group Set

If Create groups later was selected for the Group Structure (see above), students can be manually assigned to each of the groups.

  1. On the People page, additional tabs will display each Group Set that has been created. In the below example, two Group Sets have been created: Group Project and Week 1 Group Discussion. The Group Project Group Set is currently selected.
  2. Students will be listed under the Unassigned Students heading. To manually assign students to groups, click on the ▶️ triangle next to each group name to expand the group details, and then either:
    • Click on the eight vertical dots icon to the left of a student’s name to drag that person to the appropriate group.
    • Click the ➕ sign to the right of a students’ name, and then select the appropriate group name the student should be placed in.
On the "People" page of a Canvas course, Group Sets are displayed as tabs at the top of the screen. To manually add students to a group, either drag names to each group, or click on the "+" sign to select the name of the group to add a student to.

Assigning Group Sets to Discussion Topics and Assignments

Once Group Sets and groups have been created via the People page of a course, Group Sets can be assigned to Discussion Topics and Assignments in the Canvas course.

Discussion Topics

When editing the details of a discussion topic:

  1. Select the This is a Group Discussion checkbox.
  2. From the Group Set drop-down list, select the appropriate Group Set created above.
    • NOTE: You are not selecting the group/team names you created earlier. Rather, you are selecting the Group Set name. Canvas does the rest of the leg work for you to figure out the students who need to be together for their group discussion conversations.
When editing Discussion Topic details, click on the "This is a Group Discussion" checkbox, and then select a "Group Set".

Assignments

When editing the details of an assignment (which must be of the type: No Submission, Online, or On Paper):

  1. Select the This is a Group Assignment checkbox.
  2. Optional: Select the Assign Grades to Each Student Individually checkbox.
  3. Select the Group Set from the Select a group category drop-down list.
    • NOTE: You are not selecting the group/team names you created earlier. Rather, you are selecting the Group Set name. Canvas does the rest of the leg work for you to figure out the students who need to be together for their group project assignment.
When editing assignment details, click on the "This is a Group Assignment" checkbox. Then, select an item from the "Group Set" drop-down list.

Additional Resources

Assign an assignment to a course group

How do I assign an assignment to a course group?

00:07: How do I assign an assignment to a course group? 00:14: Click the add assignment button. 00:17: Add details to the assignment. 00:20: Click the, this is a group assignment checkbox. 00:23: You can choose to assign grades to students individually by selecting the assign 00:28: grades to each student individually. Checkbox. 00:30: If this box is left unchecked all the students in the group will 00:34: receive the same grade. 00:37: To select an existing group set, click the group set drop-down menu. 00:42: To create a new group set select, the create new group set option. 00:48: Peer reviews can be used with group assignments. 00:50: If you want to assign peer reviews, click the required peer 00:54: reviews, checkbox. 00:57: By default, the assignment is assigned to everyone in your course. 01:01: To add different do and availability dates for specific groups or users. 01:04: In your course, click the, add assigned to button. 01:09: Then start to type part of the group name in the new assigned to field. 01:13: Click the group’s name when it appears lists are not scrollable. 01:18: You can include more than one group in the assigned to field as long as the groups are to 01:22: be assigned the same, do and availability dates. 01:26: To create an assignment that is only for a specific group. 01:28: In the group set, click the remove icon next to the everyone label. 01:34: Start to type the name of a group in the assigned to field. 01:37: Click the group’s name when it appears. 01:40: Due date, set the date and time that the assignment is due. 01:44: The due date will already be populated for you if you created an assignment shell, 01:48: but you can change it if necessary. 01:52: Available from set, the date and time when the assignment will become available. 01:58: Intel set the date and time when the assignment will no longer be available. 02:03: You can also delete additional dates by clicking the clear link next to the appropriate 02:08: date. 02:10: If you are ready to publish your assignment, click the save and publish button. 02:15: If you want to create a draft of your assignment and publish it later, click the save 02:19: button. 02:21: If you submit an invalid string of due dates and try to save the assignment canvas 02:26: generates an error notification, Such invalid entries, include 02:30: not unlocking, the assignment before it is due, not placing the due date 02:34: inside the range of availability dates or assigning a date. 02:37: That is outside the course or term dates, correct, the date, and then update 02:41: the assignment again. 02:43: View the dates and users assigned to the assignment. 02:47: On the assignments, index page, the assignment displays, if there are 02:51: multiple users and dates assigned to the assignment, you can hover over the text 02:55: to view data. Availability on their assignments, page students can 02:59: view their group assignments along with all other assignments. 03:03: Students can learn more about using groups as a student and submitting assignments on 03:07: behalf of the group. 03:09: This guide covered how to sign an assignment to a course group.