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Getting Started with Groups in Canvas

  • Last modification date Updated On February 16, 2022
  • Categories: Canvas , Groups
  • Categories: collaboration , communication , content differentiation , Getting Started

Canvas  Groups  are a way for instructors to organize students within a course for group assignments, group discussions, or other collaborative work. The Groups tool creates course-like areas in Canvas that include the following navigational options:

  • Announcements
  • Discussions
  • BigBlueButton (Formerly Conferences)
  • Collaborations

Main page of a Canvas group

Managing Group Sets

Managing groups, managing group enrollment, managing group activities & content.

A  Group Set  is a collection of groups. A new Group Set is needed for every assignment that calls for a new grouping of students. When getting started with Group Sets, learn to:

  • Create a Group Set with the Canvas guide  How do I add a group set in a course?
  • Edit a Group Set with the Canvas guide  How do I edit a group set in a course?

Do not delete a group set after submissions have been made by any group in that set.

Use unique group names in order to ensure students can identify which course the group is from, as all of their groups are listed in a single place outside of the course.

Do not delete a group after a submission has been made by that group.

Groups  are the specific groupings of students within a Group Set.  When getting started with Groups, learn to:

  • Automatically create groups in a group set with the Canvas guide  How do I automatically create groups in a group set?
  • Manually create groups in a group set with the Canvas guide  How do I manually create groups in a group set?
  • Create self sign-up groups in a group set with the Canvas guide  How do I create self sign-up groups in a group set?
  • Allow students to create groups with the Canvas guide  How do I allow students to create their own student groups?

Students can only belong to one group in a group set. This precludes them from taking part in group work or group discussions in Canvas in multiple groups for the same assignment/activity.

Do not change membership in a group after a submission has been made by that group.

When enrolling students in Groups, learn to:

  • Automatically enroll students in groups with the Canvas guide  How do I automatically assign students to groups?
  • Manually enroll students in groups with the Canvas guide  How do I manually assign students to groups?
  • Assign a student leader to a group with the Canvas guide  How do I assign a student leader to a group?
  • Change group enrollments with the Canvas guide  How do I move a student into a different group?
  • Prevent students from changing self sign-up group enrollment with the Canvas guide  How do I prevent students from switching groups in self sign-up groups?

While students can manage their Group spaces in Canvas, instructors are able to generate activities for groups and view group content. When managing group activities and content, learn to:

  • Grade Group Assignments in the SpeedGrader with the Canvas guide  How do I grade group assignments in SpeedGrader?
  • Create a graded Group Discussion with the Canvas guide  How do I assign a graded discussion to a course group?
  • View a group’s files with the Canvas guide  How do I view group files as an instructor?
  • View a group’s content and student group activity with the Canvas guide  How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor?

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Canvas assignment groups.

The Assignments page is arguably the most central to successful Canvas course utilization.

  • It controls the columns in the gradebook and gradebook calculations.
  • It displays all things gradable, including assignments, gradable discussions, and quizzes. Each can be created in Assignments.
  • Dates used in the syllabus and calendar are rapidly edited in Assignments.

Use assignment groups to achieve:

  • Assignment categorization
  • Drop lowest  n  scores
  • Drop highest  n  scores
  • Never drop  x  assignment
  • Weighting of grades

Canvas creates a group called "Assignments" by default, but you can change the group title or create additional groups. Because the default group is Assignments, Canvas places all assignment types into that group. When you are creating a new assignment, graded discussion, or quiz you will have the option to designate it as belonging to a previously created assignment group.

On This Page

Create an Assignment Group

Move an assignment between groups, weighting assignment groups, video tutorial, assignment page icons, filter the gradebook by assignment group.

On the Assignment page, click + Group

+Group assignment

In the Add Assignment Group box, type the name of the group and click Save

Canvas add assignment group

Click on the double column of dots next to an assignment and drag to a new group.

Or, click on the three dots to the right of the assignment and click on Move To... then choose the desired assignment group and location.

Click on the assignment settings, then choose Assignment Groups Weight from the menu

Assignment groups weight

Check the box to "Weight final grade based on assignment groups" and then enter the percentage assigned for each group

(weights should typically equal 100, but can exceed 100 for extra credit)

Assignment groups weight save

This short video will walk you through the process of creating weighted assignment groups in your Canvas course.

On the Grades page, click on the View dropdown menu and choose the Filters option

Then, select Assignment Groups from the menu

Filters drop down menu

A new dropdown menu will appear at the top of the page

Click on All Assignment Groups to select a certain group of assignments you would like to see

Asll assignment groups dropdown menu

Canvas How-To: Groups

Section menu close, office of academic technology.

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Understanding Group Sets and Groups

Groups and Group Sets help instructors organize students into teams. At least one Group Set must exist before any Groups can be created.

A Brief Analogy

Group Set = A filing cabinet Group = A drawer in the filing cabinet Member = A hanging folder in the drawer

Important: Group activities in Canvas are assigned and associated with the filing cabinet , not the individual drawers (see below). Just as an office can have many filing cabinets, a Canvas course can have many Group Sets. Students can be members of multiple Group Sets but can be a member of only one group per set.

Group Set filing cabinet with groups for each drawer

Create a Group Set

Open the People page  [1] . Next, click the "+ Group Set" button  [2] . Configure the group set.  It is not necessary to create the groups at this point.  The groups can be created later if necessary by returning to the People page and clicking the name of the Group Set above the course roster.

Steps to create a group set

How do I add a group set in a course?

How do I manually create groups in a group set?

How do I manually assign students to groups?

Creating Groups and Assigning Students Automatically

Use the  Group Structure  area to specify how the groups will be structured, and where the students will be placed.

Illustrating the Group Structure area of the Group Set page

How do I automatically create groups in a group set?

Enabling Self-Sign Up Groups

Enabled students to join the group of their choosing by ticking the checkbox and setting the maximum number of people per group.

Steps to allow student self-selection of groups

How do I create self sign-up groups in a group set?

Making an Assignment a Group Assignment

You can create a group assignment by using the  Group Assignment  checkbox. Canvas uses group sets to assign group assignments, and each group within the group set that is assigned to the assignment is required to complete the assignment.  All groups will complete the assignment using the same due date.

Note:  It is not possible to use individual groups as the basis for differentiated assignments, such as assigning an activity only to a single group or configuring unique due dates for specific groups.  Only Group Sets can receive special settings in assignments. 

Group assignment settings

How do I assign an assignment to a course group?

Making a Discussion a Group Discussion

You can create a single prompt and have groups to discuss it, either as a graded or ungraded activity.  Simple associate the discussion with an existing Group Set (or create a new one on-the-fly).

Be sure the Group Set has Groups before you open the discussion activity to students!

How to Create a Group Discussion

On the settings page of the discussion, check the box "This is a Group Discussion"  [1] . Then, open the Group Category menu to select the Group Set that will govern the group organization for the activity  [2] .  Alternatively, click the "New Group Category" button if you would like to create the Set to be used by the discussion.

Steps to create a group discussion

Important:  Students must be placed into a Group in order to properly participate. Students who are not in a group can still post, but the posts are only visible to the instructor and other students not in a group.

How Students Participate in a Group Discussion

To participate, students click the link for the Discussion activity and begin posting.  They are automatically participating in their group and do not need to do anything special to "enter" or "join" the discussion.  Students cannot view other groups' posts.

How Instructors Monitor a Group Discussion

Instructors can get an overview of activity in the groups by opening the discussion activity link and viewing the information at the top of the page. New posts are indicated in the badges on the far right.  To view a group's discussion, click the link for the group on the left.

View the list of groups and recent activity at the top of the discussion page.

Viewing Another Group

After reading one group's discussion, click the "Home" link in the left navigation menu and then click the breadcrumb link for the course at the top of the page to return to the home page.  Find the main link for the discussion and re-enter it.  Sorry, this is really an area where Canvas could be improved.

Viewing and Monitoring Group Activity

As an instructor, you can view what is happening in groups by viewing each user group from the  People  page of the course. You can view student activity within the group and view group-created content. You can also access student groups to create group collaborations and add other group-specific content if necessary.

Steps to view a group home page

How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor?

Updated: October 11, 2022

Modal Title

  • Assignment Groups

How Do I Use Assignment Groups in Canvas?

In Canvas, assignment groups allow you to organize your assignments into discrete groups. For example, you may want to group all the essay assignments in your course within one assignment group titled ‘Essays’.

Assignment groups allow you to leverage a weighted grade scheme in your Canvas course. A weighted grade scheme allows you to distribute percentages of a student’s final grade across these assignment groups. Following our previous example, you may want the Essays group to account for 30% of the final grade. 

By default, Grade weighting is turned off for all Canvas courses. To turn on Grade weighting, please follow Canvas’ tutorial for weighting final grades based on Assignment Groups.

How do grade weights get distributed across an Assignment Group?

In Canvas, the weight of an assignment group is distributed proportionally across the assignments inside it. Because of this, assignments worth different points will be weighted differently if they are in the same assignment group.

Here’s an example of an assignment group in Canvas. This group is worth 30% of the total grade and contains three assignments with different point values. The table further below outlines how the assignment group weight of 30% is distributed across the three Assignments.

how to set up assignment groups in canvas

Here, since Essay Two is out of 200 points, it will count two times more than Essays One and Three.

***assignment group weight distribution for assignments with differing point totals.

If you want all assignments within a given assignment group to be worth the same weight, you have two options:

1. Make all assignments inside an assignment group worth the same number of points, as shown below.

how to set up assignment groups in canvas

***In this scenario, we have changed Essay Two’s point value from 200 to 100 points. Since all point values in this assignment Group are the same, each Assignment will be worth the same, 10% in this case.

2. Create new assignment groups for any outlier assignments if you cannot or do not want to change their point value.

how to set up assignment groups in canvas

***In this scenario, we have not changed Essay Two’s point values, so we will need to put it in its own assignment group worth 10% and change the first assignment group to be worth 20% so that all Essays are now worth 10% of the total grade.

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IMAGES

  1. Create Assignment Groups in Canvas

    how to set up assignment groups in canvas

  2. Canvas How-To: Groups

    how to set up assignment groups in canvas

  3. Create Assignment Groups in Canvas

    how to set up assignment groups in canvas

  4. Setting Up Assignments and Assignment Groups In Canvas

    how to set up assignment groups in canvas

  5. Canvas Assignment Groups

    how to set up assignment groups in canvas

  6. How to Create Groups in Canvas

    how to set up assignment groups in canvas

VIDEO

  1. Adding Assignment Groups to Canvas

  2. How to contact people in a group in Canvas

  3. ChatGPT for teachers: create an assignment

  4. Canvas Student Grouping and Discussion Groups

  5. Importing Assignments Groups to Canvas

  6. Canvas Basics: Assignment Groups & Gradebook

COMMENTS

  1. How do I add an assignment group in a course? - Instructure ...

    Using Assignment Groups allows you to organize the assignments in your course. When Assignment Groups are set up you can weight the final course grade based on assignment groups, and filter by assignment groups in the Gradebook.

  2. How do I assign an assignment to a course group ...

    You can create a group assignment by using the Group Assignment checkbox. Canvas uses group sets to assign group assignments, and each group within the group set that is assigned to the assignment is required to complete the assignment.

  3. How do I create rules for an assignment group? - Instructure ...

    Once you have added assignments to your assignment group, you can create rules for the entire assignment group. Assignment group rules determine how Canvas handles any exceptions you want to create for grade calculations.

  4. Getting Started with Groups in Canvas

    Canvas Groups are a way for instructors to organize students within a course for group assignments, group discussions, or other collaborative work. The Groups tool creates course-like areas in Canvas that include the following navigational options: Figure: Sample Group space in Canvas. A Group Set is a collection of groups.

  5. How to Create Assignment Groups in Canvas (for Teachers)

    #3: In this video, I cover how to create Assignment Groups (Categories) in Canvas; as well as assigning each category a percentage. This video is Part 3 of ...

  6. How to create group assignments in Canvas - Clemson University

    Create Groups for the Group Set: 1. Click on People in the Course Navigation menu. 2. Click on the tab for the Group Set. 3. Click on +Group. 4. Enter the name of the group, the limit of students that can be in the group, then click Save. 5. Create as many groups as needed. 6. Drag and drop students from the Unassigned Students list into their ...

  7. How to create and manage groups - How to Canvas

    Click + Group Set. 4. Type the assignment or project name in Group Set Name box. 5. Let's have Canvas automatically create groups for us. Select Split students into groups. 6. You can determine how many groups you would like. 7. Scroll down and click Save. 8. Let's expand the groups. Click Capstone Project 2. 9. Now click Capstone Project 1. 10.

  8. Canvas Assignment Groups | Teach | USU - Utah State University

    Assignment groups allow you to organize the assignment list or gradebook by the type of assignment and allow you to drop a low score among the assignments listed in the group or weight the final grade based on percentages assigned to each group.

  9. Canvas How-To: Groups | California State University Stanislaus

    You can create a group assignment by using the Group Assignment checkbox. Canvas uses group sets to assign group assignments, and each group within the group set that is assigned to the assignment is required to complete the assignment.

  10. Assignment Groups | Office of Information Technology

    In Canvas, assignment groups allow you to organize your assignments into discrete groups. For example, you may want to group all the essay assignments in your course within one assignment group titled ‘Essays’. Assignment groups allow you to leverage a weighted grade scheme in your Canvas course.