Creating Groups and Group Projects in ISU Canvas

This article provides instructions on how to create groups and group activities in ISU Canvas at Idaho State University (ISU).

Groups are located within the People tab in Canvas. You can assign students to groups manually, randomly, or have students select and/or create their own groups. Groups are organized into Group sets. Groups can be used for Assignments, Discussions, and Collaborations. Within their Groups, students will have access to Group-specific Pages, Announcements, and Discussions which they can use to communicate with each other while working on projects. 

• Allowing Students to Self Sign-Up for a Group
• Assigning Students to Groups
• Creating Collaboration Activities for Students in Groups
• Creating a Group Assignment

Self sign-ups allow students to choose the group they want to be in as part of a group set. You can limit the number of members who can sign up for each group. This might be an option if you want to allow only a certain number of students to choose an assignment topic or you want students to form their own groups with a limited number of students per group.  Groups can be used to create study groups, collaborate on projects, host discussions, and schedule meetings and conferences. Note: Groups created by students cannot be used to assign group projects.

1. In Course Navigation, click the Settings link.
2. Click the Course Details tab.
3. To allow students to create their own student groups, select the Let students organize their own groups check box.
4. Click the Update Course Details button to save the settings.
5. In Course Navigation, click the People link.
6. Click the Add Group Set button.
7. Create a name for the group set in the Group Set Name text field. Click the Allow self sign-up check box. Note: Groups will be automatically named based on the group set name.
8. Next to the Group Structure heading, enter the number of groups you would like to create. You can create additional groups at a later time if necessary. You can also use the arrows in the number field to increase or decrease the number of groups.
9. Click the Save button.

For more information on creating, viewing and managing groups, see How do I create self sign-up groups in a group set? (external link).

Once you create groups in a group set:

• You can randomly bulk assign students to those groups. See How do I bulk assign students to groups? (external link)
• You can choose to manually assign (external link) students to group. See How do I manually assign students to groups? (external link)
• You can create and assign students to groups by importing a CSV file. See How do I import groups in a group set? (external link)

Within a group set, students can initiate and participate in the following activities:

• Start a collaboration using web-based tools such as Google docs. The Google doc created within the course can be viewed by each student in a group and by the instructor. For more information, see How do I start a collaboration in a group as a student (external link)?
• Create a group discussion. For more information, see How do I create a discussion in a group as a student (external link)?
• If there are any assignments assigned to a group, one member can submit assignments on behalf of the group.
• Make group announcements.
• Create a group page within Canvas.
• View and upload group files.
• Access group conferences, and
• Access group collaborations.

For more information, see How do I use groups as a student (external link).

As in instructor, you can do the following within groups:

1. View what is happening in groups within the shared documents, discussions and more
2. Access student groups to create group collaborations
3. Add group-specific content

For more information, see How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor (external link).

Creating a Group Assignment

• You can create a group assignment by using the Group Assignment check box. 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. See How do I assign an assignment to everyone, individual students, differentiated tags, or sections? (external link). Note: ISU Canvas does not have sections enabled.
• In group assignments, one submission will count for the entire group. 
• You can set different due dates and availability dates for groups within an assignment.
• Note: Students can only view the assignment if they are a member of an assigned group, an assigned user, or if you assign to Everyone or to Everyone Else. Otherwise, the assignment does not appear in the student's assignments page. You cannot grade students who have not been included in the assignment, and assignments that are not assigned to a student are not factored into overall grades.

For more information, see How do I assign an assignment to a course group (external link) and How do I grade group discussions in SpeedGrader (external link).

• Chat with Canvas Support for Faculty (external link)
• Canvas Instructor Guides (external link)
• Visit the ITRC Portal for answers to common questions (external link)
• For additional assistance email AnswersITRC@isu.edu (external link)