Groups

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Groups and Sections are both subsets of students in a course. In this page you will learn how you can use Groups in Canvas.

Groups

Groups can be seen as a smaller version of your course, and are used as a collaborative tool where students can work together on group projects. Every Group gets their own calendar, discussion board and collaboration tools so the students can organise themselves and work together more effectively. 

Watch this video to to learn more about group creation and management:

 

Create Groups 

Teachers can manually create groups and populate these groups with students. To create groups, first you have to create a group set. Within a group set you can create multiple groups to which you can assign your students.

To manually add group sets and groups:

  • Go to People.
  • Click the +Group Set button in the upper right of the page.
  • Enter a group set name (f.e. “Project Groups”).
  • If you want students to self-join the groups, check the ‘Allow self sign-up’ option and then enter the desired number of groups and group limit.
  • If you do not check ‘Allow self sign-up’, choose whether to split up students into equal groups or to create groups manually.
  • Click Save.
  • If you need to edit group names or capacity, click the group tab, select Edit from the Settings menu next to the desired group to make changes.
  • You can also use the +Group button to create more groups.
  • Learn more about how to create a group set in a course in the following guide:

To manually add students to groups:

  • Go to People.
  • Click the desired group tab.
  • Drag and drop a student (listed on left of page) to the desired group. You can also click the + icon next to the student’s name to assign a section.
  • If you need to change a student’s group, click the expanding triangle next to the student’s current group, click the + icon next to the student’s name and select a different group.
  • Learn more on how to manually assign students to groups in the following guide: 

Note: Students can only belong to one Group per Group Set.

Note: To allow students to join Groups, the People tool must be visible in the course navigation menu.

By default, students of a course can create their own Student Groups. If students choose to do that, the groupset Student Groups will automatically be created. You can disable this function in the settings of your course:

  • Go to Settings -->  Course Details
  • Click at the end of the page on more options
  • Uncheck the box next to Let Students organise their own groups.