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Canvas - How do I create groups?
When using groups, each group has access to its own group home page which will allow students to add and edit pages, create their own discussions, and more.
When creating group sets, you can allow students to form their own groups, manually place them in groups, or have them randomly assigned to a group. Once these groups are created, you can also add them to assignments and discussions.
Skip to:
- Creating Group Sets
- Assigning Students to Groups
- Adding Group Sets to Assignments and/or Discussions
- Tips & Tricks
Groups Video Overview
Resources
Creating group sets
- Canvas guide: How do I add a group set in a course?
- Canvas guide: How do I edit a group set in a course?
- Canvas guide: How do I automatically create groups in a group set?
- Canvas guide: How do I manually create groups in a group set?
- Canvas guide: How do I create self sign-up groups in a group set?
- Canvas guide: How do I view all groups in a course as an instructor?
Assigning students to groups
- Canvas guide: How do I automatically assign students to groups?
- Canvas guide: How do I manually assign students to groups?
- Canvas guide: How do I prevent students from switching groups in self sign-up groups?
- Canvas guide: How do I move a student into a different group?
- Changes should be made before assigning a group to an assignment.
- If a student is added to or removed from a group after receiving submissions, the submissions and grades may not align correctly.
- If you want to move a group member with a graded submission, you may want to clone the group set instead.
Adding group sets to assignments and/or discussions
Group assignments should be used when you want a group of students to submit one product for grading. You can choose to give all students the same grade or individual grades.
- Canvas guide: How do I assign an assignment to a course group?
- Canvas guide: How do I grade group assignments in SpeedGrader?
Group discussions should be used when you want smaller groups of students to discuss a topic, rather than the whole class in a discussion. You cannot assign students in these groups the same grade.
- Canvas guide: How do I create a group discussion in a course?
- Canvas guide: How do I assign a graded discussion to a course group?
- Canvas guide: How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor?
Tips and Tricks
- When students are added to a group, they do not know which course the group is for. It is suggested that you include the course name, number, and section in the name of each group you create so that students know which class the group is for.
- We do not recommend assigning group leaders. Students are not notified when they are named group leaders, and they have almost no extra abilities.
- The Canvas guides say that students will be able to access their groups through the People tab. They may also access groups that they are in through Groups in the Global Navigation Bar or the home page of the class in which they have a group. Course Groups are shown in the sidebar under the To Do section.
24/7 Canvas Support is available through the help icon in Canvas, by calling the phone support for faculty, staff and students or email us directly at canvas@uwlax.edu.