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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

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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CSUEB Online Tools Help

• Submitting a Group Assignment in Canvas

Updated on Feb 25, 2023

This article is for Students working in Canvas course groups who need to submit a group assignment. Instructors may have you submit a group assignment in one of two ways. We will cover both in this article. If your instructor has you accessing assignments via the Modules tab, click here: Submit a Group Assignment to a Module in Canvas

If your instructor has you submit assignments via the Assignments tab in a course, click here: Submit a Group Assignment to the Assignments Area in Your Canvas Course.

Article Overview

• Access Your Group Collaboration in Your Canvas Group
• Submit a Group Assignment to a Module in Canvas
• Submit a Group Assignment to the Assignments Area in Your Canvas Course.

1. Access Your Group Collaboration in Your Canvas Group

Note if you are not using Collaborations inside your Canvas course Group and are sharing group work  with another file management system, ex. Office 365, you can skip to submit your assignment via the Modules tab , or the Assignments tab in your Canvas course.

1.1. Navigate to the Course's Homepage

Select a course from your Canvas Dashboard.

1.2. Select your Course Group from the Homepage.

Select a course group for which a group assignment is due from the bottom right hand side of the Homepage.

Note that if the group assignment appears above Course Groups , in the ToDo list, you can quickly select the name of the assignment from the ToDo list to view the instructions and submit the group work.

1.3. Select the Collaborations link on the left in your Group Homepage.

1.4. Select the linked name of a Collaboration to access the group work.

Collaborations in Canvas allow students to work together on Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets for group assignments. Select this link to read about Creating Collaborations in Canvas' Student Groups

1.5. Select File from your Google Doc Group Collaboration

1.6. Choose Download and Select a file type your instructor will accept for submission

1.7. Note that the file downloads and shows at the bottom of your browser.

Additionally, you can access and organize your class assignments via your file browser (PC) or Finder on a Mac and organize assignments by class folder on your harddrive and/or CSUEB Google Drive account.

Click here if you will Submit a group assignment to the Assignments area in your Canvas course.

2. Submit a Group Assignment to a Module in Canvas

2.1. navigate back to your group collaborations page in canvas.

Group assignments must be submitted in your course's Modules or Assignments areas. Both of these areas are accessible via the course's homepage. Select the name of your group in the upper left corner to continue to Modules.

2.2. Select the course ID in the upper left corner to navigate back to the course's homepage.

If you are reviewing steps 2.1-2.2 for accessing a group assignment from the Assignments tab in the course click here to jump to step three.

2.3. Access the Modules link on the left in Course navigation on a course's homepage.

Select Modules to navigate to your Group assignment.

2.4. Select the name of the assignment in the module to submit.

Assignments in Modules have paper and pencil icons displayed to the left of the names.

2.5. Scroll to the bottom of the assignment page and select the Upload button

2.6. Drag a file into the perforated space with a rocket ship

(1) Drag the group submission into the perforated box . The (2) name of the file appears below the upload button. (3) Note that this submission will count for everyone in your group. (4) Select the Submit Assignment button to finalize the file upload on behalf of your group.

You may see confetti when you select the Submit Assignment button. Congratulations on submitting your group assignment.

3. Submit a Group Assignment to the Assignments Area in Your Canvas Course.

3.1. navigate to the course's assignments tab..

Jump to step 2.1 to 2.2 to review how to get back to the Course's homepage.

3.2. Select the assignment from an Assignment category your instructor has available for you.

This example shows assignments that are categorized by due dates. Select the assignment you will submit group work to.

3.3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and drag a file into the perforated box with a rocket ship.

Additionally, you may click into the box and select a file to upload from your file browser or finder.

3.4. Select Submit Assignment to finalize the file upload for your group.

Note the file name is listed under the Upload button. Select the Submit Assignment button to finish uploading your group assignment.

Canvas displays confetti when a submission is successful.

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Canvas for Students

• (Students) Access Course Evaluations in Canvas
• Replying to a Canvas Discussion Board for Students
• How to Submit an Assignment in Canvas
• (Students) Using Turnitin Draft Coach in Canvas
• Submit a Turnitin Assignment on Canvas
• (Students) Accessing Canvas Groups
• Creating Collaborations in Canvas Student Groups
• Calculating What if Scores in Grades
• Accessing Materials in a Course with Prerequisites, Requirements, and Mastery Paths
• Taking a Canvas Quiz with Respondus Lockdown Browser
• How to Check Waitlist Status Within Canvas

Featured Articles for Faculty

• Preparing to Teach Your First Canvas Course
• Locate and Import Blackboard-Migrated Course Content in Canvas
• Canvas Migration Exception Log
• Change Canvas Course Availability
• Create a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas

Featured Articles for Students

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• RTP, Post Tenure & Range Elevation Processes and Interfolio (eDossier) Tutorials
• Sabbatical and DIP Info/Tutorials
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• Miscellaneous OAA Form Tutorials

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E-Campus Faculty and Staff

How-to: create collaborative group assignments in canvas with google drive.

By:  Gracia Ostendorf     

Imagine this scenario...

Professor Morgan is teaching an English Studies course online this term in which his studies are required to complete a group project analyzing a piece of literature. Since the course is online, students won’t be meeting together in person. He needs to come up with a way for the students to easily collaborate and share their ideas (ideally in a way where he can see how individual students are contributing to the assignment too)!

As a Miami instructor, Professor Morgan and all of his students have access to a Google Drive account with their Miami email addresses. And fortunately, there’s a simple way to create space for collaborative work right within the course site by integrating these two tools.

Using Collaborations + Google Drive for group assignments and detailed feedback

With Canvas’s Collaborations tool, students and instructors can create Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides directly within their Canvas course site and share them with others in the course. Between students, this makes it easy to start a collaborative brainstorming document, report, presentation, or other type of group assignment.

Instructors can also take advantage of this feature to provide detailed feedback, comments, and suggestions directly on brainstorming documents, papers, and assignment files.

To start a Collaboration:

• Click on Collaborations in the left-hand navigation menu (if this isn’t visible to students, the instructor will need to update the navigation menu options in the course settings).
• If this is your first time using Google Drive in Canvas, authorize Google by following the prompt that appears.

• Select the type of Collaboration you’d like to start from the “Collaborate using:” dropdown: Google Docs (1) or Google Apps (2). Google Apps gives you the option of creating a Document, Spreadsheet, or Presentation.

• Give your collaboration a name and a description if desired. Add collaborators by selecting their name from the list that appears on the left, then click the “Start Collaborating” button.

Important information for students on using Collaborations:

Students can view a list of all of their Collaborations at any time from the Collaborations page. Students will also be able to see the documents, spreadsheets, and presentations created in Canvas Collaborations from within their own Google Drives as well.

Note that instructors will be able to view all Collaborations created in a course, regardless of whether the instructor was specifically added as a collaborator or not.

Need instructions to share with your students to explain how they can access and work with Collaborations in Canvas? Try these step by step guides:

• How do I view Collaborations as a student?
• How do I create a Google Drive collaboration as a student?

For more information on setting up Collaborations with Google Drive, take a look at these instructor-facing guides:

• How do I create a Google Drive collaboration as an instructor?
• How do I use the Collaborations Index Page?

You may also be interested in:

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If at any point you would like support or guidance while you are teaching a distance learning course, please connect with us!  We are here to help.

Canvas @ Yale

• Canvas Assignment Tool: Overview

Updated on Mar 22, 2022

The Canvas Assignments tool is one of several native Canvas tools that allows instructors to collect student work for grading. Through the Canvas Assignment tool, students can submit their completed work and instructors can easily collect and score the work either offline (by downloading all submissions with a single button click) or online through the Canvas SpeedGrader function. Canvas Assignments can also be used to create columns in the gradebook for grading student work that is not submitted online.

Several of the External Applications integrated into Canvas work in coordination with the Canvas Assignments tool. For these tools, you will still create the Canvas Assignment as normal, but you will need to follow the detailed instructions for the specific external application to properly link it to the Canvas Assignment. Visit our Instructional Tools support page and click on the appropriate tool for details.  

Table of Contents

This article will address the following information:

Why use Canvas Assignments?

Use cases for assignments, how do i use canvas assignments in my course, what will my students see, additional resources, for students.

Canvas Assignments are a great centralized location to find and submit their coursework.  It can provide students with detailed instructions for each assignment, due dates, template files for students to use when applicable, and rubrics to help students understand what is expected to achieve full credit for their work. Canvas' online grading via the SpeedGrader tool is a core feature of the Canvas Assignment tool, which allows students to quickly receive and reply to instructor comments on their work. Canvas Assignments also work hand-in-hand with the Canvas Grades area, so students can quickly see how well they did on each assignment and how they are doing overall in the course in one place.

For Instructors

Canvas Assignments streamlines the way that student work is collected. Instead of receiving digitally completed homework in the form of individual emails from each student for each assignment, instructors can create a Canvas Assignment to collect the work of all students. With Canvas' online grading tools, instructors can use rubrics for consistent grading and can use the Canvas SpeedGrader tool to provide detailed annotations on student-submitted files or simply use the one button download all submissions button to export all student files at once to their local computer. The Canvas Assignments tool also allows instructors the flexibility to assign activities to specific due dates for individual students or even create activities that are only available to certain students.

Canvas Assignments can be used in many ways—below are just a few examples of how assignments can be used in your course:

• Homework Assignments
• Research Papers
• Written Exams
• Handwritten Student Work (check out our help article for students on  how to create a PDF of handwritten work )
• Overall grade for course (that differs from the Canvas-calculated Totals column)
• Grade for an oral exam or other activity that does not require students to hand in work
• Class participation grade
• Peer Review Assignments – students can be assigned to read and comment on one or more of their classmates' submissions
• Group Assignments – require one submission for a group of students

Instructor and TA level users can always access the tool to create and organize activities, but the tool can be hidden from students if desired. To learn more about how to use Canvas Assignments to facilitate your online course work, please reference:

• Creating an Assignment
• Grading Assignments Using the SpeedGrader
• Due Dates versus Display Dates
• How do I automatically assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I view student peer review comments as an instructor?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course group?
• Turnitin Assignment Settings Options
• Viewing a Turnitin Report (Instructor)

The actual view your students see will depend on the settings you set on your assignments. Below you can see what a student would see for an online, file upload submission type assignment.  

On each assignment, instructors can set an " Available From " date, which is the date when the assignment will open for students to start submitting their work. Even though an assignment may not yet be open, students will be able to see that there is an assignment and will be able to click on it.  

When a student views an assignment that has not opened for submissions yet, they will see a message showing that the assignment is locked and the date when the assignment will open, which is the " Available From " date.

When going to submit a file, the students will see the assignment instructions, points, due / available from / until dates, and the rubric (if one exists). The students will submit by clicking the " Submit Assignment " button and following the process to upload and submit their file(s).

Creating Assignments

• Duplicating an Assignment
• How do I exclude an assignment from the course's final grades?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I add a rubric to an assignment?
• Rubrics (Vendor Guides)

Assignment Groups (For organizing assessments and weighting grades)

• How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment?
• Creating Weighted Assignments Groups

Grade Posting Policies

• How do I select a grade posting policy for a course in the Gradebook?
• How do I select a grade posting policy for an assignment in the Gradebook?
• Using the Grade Posting Policy

Student Resources

• How to create a PDF of hand written assignments
• How do I submit an online assignment?
• How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I submit a text entry assignment?
• How do I enter a URL as an assignment submission?
• How do I submit a media file as an assignment submission?

For more help, please contact  [email protected] .

Discover Instructional Tools

• Assessment Finder Tool
• Canvas @ Yale External Applications: Overview
• Feedback & Accessibility Barriers Tool: Overview
• Panorama: Overview
• FeedbackFruits: Overview
• Canvas Quizzes: Overview
• Gradescope: Overview
• Respondus LockDown Browser: Overview
• Turnitin: Overview
• LabArchives: Overview
• WordPress: Overview
• Canvas Collaborations: Overview
• Canvas Groups: Overview
• Canvas Announcements: Overview
• Canvas Inbox: Overview
• Canvas Modules: Overview
• Canvas Pages: Overview
• Canvas Syllabus: Overview
• Photo Roster: Overview
• Canvas Discussions: Overview
• VoiceThread: Overview
• Ed Discussion: Overview
• Perusall: Overview
• Mid-Semester Feedback: Overview
• Post'Em: Overview
• Qualtrics LTI: Overview
• Poll Everywhere: Overview
• Media Library (Panopto): Overview
• LinkedIn Learning: Overview
• Zoom: Overview

Other Resources

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• Inclusivity
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• Enrollment & Permissions
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• Updates & Known Issues
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• Course Management
• Assessments, Feedback and Grades
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• Instructor FAQ
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• Student FAQ

• 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.

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.

***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.

***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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Using group assignments in Canvas

Group assignments can be a great way to foster student collaboration and develop a sense of community in online learning.

When creating group assignments in Canvas, the basic steps are:

• Create a Group Set your subject. This will allow you to determine the groups before you go ahead with creating the assignment itself. You can manually assign students to each group yourself using the  Bulk group membership tool or allow students to create their own groups.
• Create the group assignment. When creating an assignment you will have the option to tick 'This is a group assignment'. When you tick this box, you can then choose the Group set as per the previous step.
• Decide whether students will be graded as a group, or individually.  After checking the box 'This is a group assignment' you will also see a setting 'Assign Grades to Each Student Individually'. If you check this box, you will be able to allocate a different mark to each member of a group. If you leave the box unchecked, when you mark and give feedback for one of the students in the group, or annotate the paper, the mark and all feedback will automatically populate for the other students in the group.

Please note!

Ensure that you do not change the membership of groups *after* you have created the assignment. This will cause the assignment to revert to an *individual* assignment and cannot be reversed!

For more information on Groups, see our full index of guides.

For help and support, contact Learning Environments .

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Use Weighted Assignment Groups in Your Canvas Course

by Thomas Keith | Aug 26, 2022 | Canvas , Canvas Features/Functions , How-tos , Pedagogy

Introduction

• Create an Assignment Group

Weight Assignment Groups

Use weighted assignment groups to calculate the total grade, drop a low score from an assignment group, further resources and getting help.

It is good pedagogical practice to maintain a Canvas Gradebook that gives an accurate reflection of your students’ performance. Students frequently consult their grades in Canvas to get a sense of how they are doing in your course and of areas in which they need to improve. You can use weighted Assignment Groups in your Canvas course to help ensure that the grade calculated by Canvas is indicative of students’ actual performance.

Create An Assignment Group

An Assignment Group in Canvas is a means of sorting assignments according to the categories to which they belong in your syllabus. By default, new assignments created in your Canvas course will be added to a catch-all group called Assignments . (Note that “assignments” in this context refers to anything that is graded; this can be an Assignment proper, a Quiz, or a graded Discussion.)

You can create a new Assignment Group by going to the Assignments tab in your course and clicking the gray +Group button at the upper right.

It is a good idea to give your group a name that reflects the assessment categories on your syllabus. For example, if the group contains quizzes that are given each week of the quarter, you might call it Weekly Quizzes .

Once a group has been created, there are two ways to add assignments to it:

Assignment Groups are most useful when used to weight grades. With weighted Assignment Groups, you can make the organization of your assignments in Canvas match the organization used on your syllabus. You also have greater flexibility than is offered by weighting each individual assignment: if an assignment needs to be dropped or added, you can simply remove it from/add it to the appropriate assignment group, and Canvas will automatically recalculate the final grade accordingly.

For the remainder of this post, we will use as an example a course in which the grading is as follows:

• Five short quizzes: 20% of the final grade
• One midterm exam: 30% of the final grade
• One final exam: 40% of the final grade
• Attendance and participation: 10% of the final grade

To begin, the instructor creates four assignment groups, named Short Quizzes , Midterm , Final Exam , and Attendance and Participation .

She then clicks the column of three dots at the upper right and chooses Assignment Groups Weight .

She then checks the box next to Weight final grade based on assignment groups . This allows her to set the percentage weight for each assignment group.

Note that Canvas shows the instructor that the assignment groups add up to 100%. It is important to check this, as Canvas will not stop you if your groups add up to less than or greater than 100%.

Once the instructor has weighted her groups to her satisfaction, she clicks the maroon Save button. Canvas then indicates across from each assignment group’s name the percentage value of the total grade that it carries.

The instructor can now create her assignments and add them to the appropriate assignment groups by one of the two methods enumerated above.

An important caveat: If an assignment group contains more than one assignment, it is important that all assignments have the same point value for Canvas’ math to work out correctly. This avoids the risk of “double weighting,” which will occur if assignments within a group have different point values. For example: if a quiz worth 5 points and a quiz worth 50 points are placed in the same assignment group, the latter quiz will be worth ten times as much in Canvas’ calculations, which will greatly skew the result. In our example course, the instructor has avoided this risk by creating five quizzes within the Short Quizzes group, each of which is worth three points.

The Midterm and Final Exam groups each contain only one assignment. This can be an assignment of type Online Assignment if the instructor wishes her students to submit it through Canvas, or it can be an assignment of type On Paper if students will hand in a physical exam paper.

For the Attendance and Participation group, the instructor creates an assignment of type No Submission .

Remember that in Canvas, there is a one-to-one correspondence between assignments and columns in the Gradebook. Thus, if you wish to create a column for (e.g.) students’ attendance/participation grade, it is necessary to create a corresponding assignment. By making it of type No Submission , the instructor has ensured that students do not need to hand in any work, while still creating a Gradebook column where the grade is recorded.

Note also that if students need to submit work that will not be graded, such as an outline for an upcoming paper, you can create an assignment of submission type Online Assignment and check the box Do not count this assignment toward the final grade in the assignment options area.

Using weighted assignment groups allows Canvas to do your math for you. A column will appear in the Gradebook for each assignment group. The Total column will be calculated by multiplying the value of each column by its percentage weight and adding the results. In the case of the student below, the grade is calculated as follows:

Short Quizzes: 12 out of 15 possible points = 80 * 0.2 = 16

Midterm Exam: 90 out of 100 possible points = 90*0.3 = 27

Final Exam: 80 out of 100 possible points = 80*0.4 = 32

Attendance and Participation: 100 out of 100 possible points = 100*0.1 = 10

Total: 16+27+32+10 = 85

If you wish, you can set an assignment group to drop one or more low scores (or high scores) automatically. To do this, go to the group within the Assignments tab and click on the column of three dots across from its name to open a dialog box. Then enter the number of low or high scores you wish to drop and click Save .

You can also specify that an assignment should never be dropped by clicking the blue +Add an assignment link next to Never drop: and choosing its name from the drop-down that appears.

For more information, please see:

• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
• How do I create rules for an assignment group?

If you have additional questions, Academic Technology Solutions is here to help. You can attend our workshops to learn more about Canvas and other tools for teaching with technology. You can also drop into our Office Hours (virtual and in-person) to ask any questions you may have; no appointment is required.

(Cover Photo by Piret Ilver on Unsplash )

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

Updated: October 11, 2022

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Canvas support.

• A-Z directory

Creating a Group Assignment

Creating groups.

To create groups manually, go to:

How do I manually create groups in a group set?

To create groups automatically, go to:

How do I automatically create groups in a group set?

To import groups by csv, go to:

How do I import groups in a group set?

This documentation is also available via a How to Quickstart video: https://youtu.be/wUrDmD-t1-Y (Links to an external site.)

The first step is to create a group set. Group sets house the different groups within a course. When you create a group assignment or group discussion you would attach the group set to the group assignment to assign it to the groups within the group set.

1. Click People

2. Create a group set by clicking + Group Set

3. Name the Group Set

4. Choose whether you want to allow self sign up, have the groups automatically created or create groups manually. This example shows how to create groups manually.

5. Click Save

You can assign a student group leader to help manage a group within your course. You can assign group leaders automatically or manually. When students are assigned to be a group leader, they can manage members of the group and edit the group name. However, they cannot change the number of members in the group.

6. Click + Group to create a group. You will need to repeat this as many times as you need to create all the groups that you need.

7. Choose a group name.

8. Choose if you want to limit the number of students in a group.

9. Click Save

You will see the groups:

10. You can drag students into the groups or click the + sign to move the student into a group

11. Click the arrow beside the group name to see the students in the group

TC Technology Knowledge Base

• Create a Group Assignment with randomly assigned students in Canvas

Updated on Aug 08, 2024

1. Click Assignments in the Course Navigation Menu.

2. Click + Assignment in the top right corner.

3. Enter a title in the Topic Title field, and enter instructions in the Rich Content Editor.

4. To create groups of the students in your class, click  +Group Set.

5. Enter Points, Assignment Group, Display and allowable Submission Type information. Then, select how many attempts you will allow students to submit their assignments.

• Use No Submission when you do not want students to submit an assignment in Canvas. This assignment type can be used to create extra columns in the Gradebook, or when you want to create an assignment that involves multiple scores. Submission Type does not apply to Not Graded assignments.
• Use Online when you want students to submit their assignments using Canvas.
• Use On Paper when you want students to submit an assignment to you but not through Canvas. This assignment type applies to traditional face-to-face courses or hybrid courses when you want the assignment turned in on paper during class, but you still want to create a column in the Canvas Gradebook for grading purposes.
• Use External Tool when you want students to submit their assignments using an external app (LTI) enabled for your course.

The unlimited submission feature allows students to submit a file more than once due to error or revisions without faculty manually resetting the assignment. The feature does not extend due dates.

6. In the Group Assignment section, click This is a Group Assignment.

7. An extended menu will appear.

7.1 if would like students have be scored individually, check assign grades to each student individually. if not, leave the the option unchecked..

7.2 Click New Group Category.

7.3 In the pop-up window, enter a group name. Then, click the arrow next to Create groups later. Then, select how to sort the students into groups.

There are two options for creating randomly assigned groups:

1. Split by Number of Groups: Students will be randomly assigned into the specified number of groups. If the total number of students does not divide evenly into the groups, the groups will be made as balanced as possible.

2. Split by Number of Students per Group: Students will be randomly assigned into groups of the specified size. If the total number of students is not a multiple of the desired group size, the remaining students will be placed into an additional group.

7.4 The section will extend. In Group Structure, enter how many groups you want to create (or how many students should be in a group).  If you have more than one section of the course, click Require group members to be in the same section.

7.5 If you want a student to be assigned the group leader, check Automatically assign a student a group leader. Then, select how the leader should be chosen.

7.6 Click Save. A pop-up window will appear stating it will take a few minutes for Canvas to assign students to groups.

8. To set due dates, click Manage Due Dates and Assign To. In the new window, set the date and time for the the due date. Click Apply to save your date range.

9. In the new side panel, select who will complete the assignment. Click the Assign to field. Assignments may be assigned to the whole class, specific sections, or individual students. Select who should complete the assignment by click on sections or names.

10. Select Due Date and Time and Availability range. Then, click Apply.

Canvas allows instructors to set different due dates for individual students. For information on how to use the multiple due date/user feature, see

11. Click the Save or Save & Publish button.

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Google Classroom comes back from summer break with a better approach to group projects

Assigning group work will finally be less of a headache for teachers..

By Joanna Nelius , laptop reviewer. She has covered consumer technology, with an emphasis on PC gaming, since 2018. Previous bylines: USA Today, Gizmodo, PC Gamer, Maximum PC, among others.

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Today, Google announced it’s making assigning group work in Google Classroom easier and faster with a new feature called Student Groups . Teachers will now be able to add individual students to predefined groups before creating and assigning group work.

Google is entering this school year with a bunch of new updates for the now 10-year-old Classroom platform , like a new Education Navigator , a Read Along feature, and Dark Mode to the mobile app. But teachers have been waiting for something like Student Groups for a long time.

Previously, teachers would need to create an assignment first and then individually add students to that assignment if they wanted to assign group work. For occasional group projects, this worked okay, but it was a pain for teachers who regularly have their students do group work — especially if their students remained in the same groups throughout the school year.

But now, the process of assigning group work is no longer as much of a hassle. From inside the People tab, teachers can use the new Group button above the class roster to create, name, add, and modify custom student groups. These groups will be an available option whenever a teacher creates an assignment.

Previously, Google added the ability to import class rosters from certain Student Information Systems (SIS), which meant some teachers no longer had to manually add student names one at a time into every new Classroom they created.

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