Groups

At the iSchool, faculty primarlily use groups as a way to collect group assignments. But Canvas Groups also allow each student group to have their own collaborative space within the course. Each group's space is not accessible to the rest of the class, so students can can share files, create discussions, and work on assignments privately within their groups.

Group Assignment Must-Do

It is important group assignments must be set up correctly because you will run into issues otherwise, particularly during grading. To ensure group assignments work as intended, you must:

1. Create a group set

2. Assign all students to the correct groups under the group set, or have them self signed up to their group.

3. Create a group assignment and select the correct group set.

4. Make sure that all students are in the correct groups before a student makes a submission to the group assignment.

Create a Group Set

Create a group set with self sign-up

1. Go to your Canvas course and click People on the left sidebar.

2. Click on + Group Set.

3. Group Set Name: Enter the name for your group.

4. Allow self sign-up: check this box to let students sign themselves up to a group.

5. Require group members to be in the same section: Applicable only if you have multiple sections in the same course (e.g. LIS 500 A and LIS 500 B) and you do not want groups to consist of students from different sections.

6. Group Structure: Enter the number of groups to be created and the maximum number of students in each group (or leave blank if you don't want to have a limit). Students won't be able to join groups that are full.

7. Leadership: Keep unchecked if you don't want to assign a student group leader, or want to assign a leader later. If you'd like Canvas to assign a student group leader, check "Automatically assign a student group leader," and choose whether the first student to join a group or a random student will selected as group leader.

Create a group set (automated or manual)

1. Go to your Canvas course and click on People located on the left sidebar.

2. Click on + Group Set.

3. Group Set Name: Enter the name of the group.

4. Group Structure: If you want Canvas to distribute students into a certain number of groups, enter the number of groups you'd like created. Choose "I'll create groups manually" if you prefer to create the groups on your own.

5. Leadership (option isn't available if you choose to create groups manually): Keep unchecked if you don't want to assign a student group leader, or want to assign a leader later. If you'd like Canvas to assign a student group leader, check "Automatically assign a student group leader," and choose whether the first student to join a group or a random student will selected as group leader.

Create a Group Assignment

Before configuring a group assignment, create a group set (instructions above) and make sure that you assign students to the groups. This is imperative, or you may experience issues when grading!

It's also possible to have multiple group sets in the course, e.g. a group set for discussion and another one for final project. Be sure to select the correct group set in the assignment/discussion setting!

1. On your course, click Assignments on the left sidebar and click the + Assignment button near the top right of the page.

2. Once you've typed in the assignment name, content, and points, scroll down to the option for Submission Type. If students will not need to submit anything, select "No Submission". If you'd like one member in each group to submit a document on their group's behalf, select "Online", and check "File Uploads."

3. Next to Group Assignment, check This is a Group Assignment.

   1. If you'd like to assign grades for the assignment individually instead of Canvas automatically assigning the same grade all members of the group, check the box for Assign Grades to Each Student Individually.

4. Then, select the Group Set for the assignment.

Grade Group Assignments

Only one person per group will need to submit the group assignment.

Assign Group Grades

1. Go to Assignments and select the assignment you want to grade.

2. Open SpeedGrader and assign a grade to the first group on the list.

3. Canvas will automatically assign a grade to the rest of the students in the list, which you can verify by checking the Gradebook.

Assign Individual Grades in Group Assignments

If you have checked Assign Grades to Each Student Individually on the assignment settings, then you can immediately grade the group assignments on individual basis. Otherwise, please follow the following steps:

1. Finish group grading first if there are only a few students you want to assign individual grades to.

2. Edit the assignment to check the Assign Grades to Each Student Individually box.

3. Edit the existing grades.

Without checking the Assign Grades to Each Student Individually box, editing any individual grade through the Grade page will change the grades of other group members as well.

If you experience the "Canvas ate my comments" moment while grading a group assignment, watch this video to learn about the issue: