Using Groups for Discussions

This video describes how to set up groups within a class, how to create group discussions, and Biola's suggestions for using group discussions.

Watch the video here: (length = 3:48)

Resources:

Documentation for Creating Groups

Documentation for Creating Discussions

Transcript

On Canvas, teachers can split up a class roster into groups. You can use these student groups for discussions, group projects, or group assignments. At Biola, for online classes we recommend splitting up students into groups of about seven each, mainly to use for online discussions.

This diagram shows the structure of groups on Canvas. The Roster is the list of all students in the class. There are zero or more Group Sets. Each Group Set has one or more groups in it, and each group has zero or more students.

Each Group Set is basically a different way of splitting up students, so Bob, for example, can be in Discussion Group 2 and also in Project Group 3.

A typical online class will have one group set with three or four groups, each with about seven students. Your Instructional Designer will usually be the one to set these up for you, but here's a quick demonstration of how to create groups.

Let's assume you have 23 people and you want to split them into three discussion groups. Go to People, then click the "Plus Group Set" button.

Choose a name and choose to split students into three groups. You can ignore the leadership section. Click the "Save" button and notice that Canvas helpfully names the groups by taking off the S and adding numbers. You can edit the group name, and you can move people around to different groups if you want to.

Also: be sure to check these groups a few times when the class first starts. If a new student adds a class, they will appear in this Unassigned Students section, and you will need to assign them to a group so that their discussions won't get lost.

Once you have groups set up, you can assign a discussion topic to be a Group Discussion, which means that students will do this discussion in their own, separate groups. You can also make Assignments into group assignments, which means the group only submits one paper, then they all get the same grade, or you can assign different grades individually.

Next, I'll explain navigating between these groups. Group look sort of like smaller classes or sub-classes attached to the main class. You can go to a group by going to People, then choose "Visit Group Home Page." Notice that the title at the top changes, so you know where you are. The student group has its own content, like Files and Pages, and students can add to these sections on their own, unlike in the main class, where only teachers and TAs can add content. From here, you can navigate to a different group, or go back to the main course with the link at the top. Another way to get to a group is to click on a group's discussion - you'll see links to each individual group discussion, plus a sort of Twilight Zone of discussion posts for Unassigned Students.

When you click on one of the group's discussions, you'll end up leaving the class and going to that group. See the official documentation for more details.

Let me just say a few words about our philosophy of group discussions for online classes at Biola. We recommend group sizes of about six, seven, or eight. Anything higher than nine or ten can be unwieldy, with too many posts to follow. On the other hand, if you only have four or five, discussions can kind of drag. So we aim for about seven students.

Also, we recommend making group discussions a significant portion of the grade, even 20 or 25 percent. This can encourage the students to read the material, watch the videos, and engage with other students about the content. It also fosters a sense of community, even outside of a physical classroom. In many ways, online discussions can be better than in-person classroom discussions, which privilege the outgoing, articulate students. With online discussions, the rest of the students also get a chance to contribute, even if they are more deliberative in their thoughts, or English isn't their first language. With online discussions, we get to hear from all students.

Our standard recommendation is to require that students submit an initial post in response to the discussion prompt, then require that they write two or three follow-up posts in response to other students within two or three days. These should be graded with a clear rubric encouraging students to write substantive posts that further the conversation. Your Instructional Designer has some sample rubrics you could use.

So that's a bit about Groups and Discussions. Thanks for watching.