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Canvas

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  • Canvas
    • Access Canvas
    • Import Content into Your Canvas Course
    • Upload Your Syllabus
    • Share Your Syllabus
    • Review the Course-Launch Checklist
    • Publish Your Canvas Course
    • Understanding Your Canvas Courses Menu
  • Get Started In Canvas
    • Basic Computer Specifications for Canvas
    • Canvas-Supported Browsers
    • Customize User Display Settings
    • Customize Your Notifications
    • Your Canvas Dashboard
    • Customize "My Courses"
    • Get Started With The Calendar
    • Canvas on a Mobile Device
    • Link Canvas Courses
  • Design Your Course
    • Options To Organize Content
    • Set Up A Homepage
    • Import Content Into Your Canvas Course
      • Remove announcements when copying a Canvas site
    • Course-level Settings
    • Modify Your Course Menu
    • Get Started with the Rich Content Editor
    • Get Started With Modules
    • Get Started With Pages
    • Get Started With Files
    • Student View
    • Share Your Syllabus
    • Library Content
    • Add Media In Canvas
    • Canvas Commons
  • Assignments and Grades
    • Get Started With Assignments
    • Get Started with Quizzes
      • Building a Quiz and Grading a Quiz
      • Quiz Options for Managing Accommodations & Supporting Academic Integrity
    • Get Started with Google Assignments
      • Create a Google Assignment
        • Get Started with the Google Originality Checker
        • Compare Google Grader and Canvas SpeedGrader
        • Compare Google Rubrics and Canvas Rubrics
    • Introducing New Quizzes
      • Migrating Classic Quizzes to New Quizzes
      • Building a New Quiz
      • Accessibility & Accommodations in New Quizzes
      • New Quizzes Support for Academic Integrity
      • Grading New Quizzes
    • Get Started with Respondus LockDown Browser & Monitor
      • Enabling LockDown Browser
      • Enabling Respondus Monitor
      • Student Respondus LockDown Browser & Monitor GuideĀ 
    • Get Started with the Gradebook
      • Posting Grades and Feedback
      • Student-Facing Grade Notifications
      • Troubleshooting in the Canvas Gradebook
    • Take Attendance In Canvas
    • Student View Of Grades
    • Get Started with SpeedGrader
      • Addressing Bias in SpeedGrader
    • Grading Schemes
    • Rubrics
    • Peer Review
    • Canvas Discussions
      • Discussions: Navigating the Interface
      • Discussions: Locating Groups
      • Discussions: Anonymity & Privacy
  • People and Groups
    • Add People To Canvas
    • User Roles + Permissions
    • Get Started With Groups
    • Get Started With Analytics
  • Model Canvas Courses
  • Canvas Guide for Students
    • Changing Your Display Name and Setting Pronouns
    • Syllabus Search Student Guide
    • Using the Immersive Reader
    • Google Assignments Student Guide

Get Started With Groups

Updated on April 4, 2024

Groups are a helpful way to organize and manage collective assignments in your course.  The following scenarios are ways in which instructors might use groups in their Canvas sites:

  • An instructor of a lecture course of 160 students is looking to give students a chance to discuss course readings with their peers outside of class.  The instructor splits the course into 20 groups of 8 students, and the 8 students are required to discuss the course readings each week in preparation for the course lectures.
  • An instructor of a 25 student course is trying to organize group presentations on five topics related to the course.  The instructor has students sign up for topics of their interest, such that five groups of five students each are formed.  The instructor then accepts student work via online submission and submits one grade for each of the five groups.
  • An instructor wants to give students a place to collaborate on a year-long project for a small group seminar of 15 students.  The instructor creates 5 groups of 3 students, and students create group Canvas sites with Canvas Pages, videos and multimedia, and other content to describe their course content.
  • An instructor is teaching a course of both undergraduate and graduate students in the same course.  The instructor would like to make some content available to the graduate students without granting access to the undergraduate students.  The instructor creates two groups (undergraduate vs. graduate) and restricts access of some advanced readings under modules such that they are only available to graduate students.

Groups thus allow instructors to organize the work students complete, grant and restrict access to certain students vs. other students, and provide a space for student to collaborate in a password-protected online environment.  Below you will find links to help you set up and use groups within your Canvas course.

For further information on how to do this, see these guides:

  • What are student groups?
  • How do I view student groups?
  • Where do I find the Group sets that I already created?
  • How do I create a new group set?
  • How do I automatically create groups in a group set?
  • How do I manually create groups in a group set?
  • How do I create self sign-up groups?
  • How do I automatically assign students to groups?
  • How do I manually assign students to groups?

Additional information on groups can be found in the “Groups Chapter” of Instructure’s guides.

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