1) Why should I create Student Groups in Canvas?

To assign group discussions or group assignments
To give students their own group homepage within Canvas to
- Collaborate on projects like wiki pages and Google documents
- Share files with each other
- Discuss ideas with each other

2) How do I create Students Groups in Canvas?

Go to the desired course and click on People.
Select +Group Set and name the group set (e.g. Presentation Groups).
You can allow students to pick their own groups, randomly assign students to groups, or assign them manually.
Click Save.
If you selected the option to assign students manually, go to the new group tab you just created and click +Group.
Name each group (e.g. Group A, Group B) and click Save.
Drag and drop each student into their respective group.

3) How do I edit a Student Group? Go to the desired course and click on People. Each Group set will have its own tab. Click on the appropriate tab and then choose the Gear icon next to the +Group icon to edit it. You can also edit each group within the set (e.g. Group A, Group B) by clicking on the Gear button next to the group name.

If you need to move a student from one group to another, go to the appropriate Group tab and expand each of the Group names. Drag and drop the students to the correct group.

4) How do I message students who have not signed up for a group? Go to the desired course and click on People. Click on the appropriate Group set tab and then choose the Gear icon next to the +Group icon. Choose “Message All Unassigned Students” and create a message from there.

5) How do I access a Group’s homepage? Students can access their group homepages directly from the Canvas course drop-down list. You as the instructor can access Student Group homepages by going to People, clicking on the Gear icon next to the Group name (e.g. Group A) and selecting “Visit Group Homepage”.

6) What does a Student Group homepage include? A Student Group homepage includes an Announcements, Pages, People, Discussions, Files, Conferences, and Collaborations section.

7) How do I assign a Group Assignment? First, set up a Student Group Set by following the instructions in Questions #3. Then go to the Assignments section of the course. Add or edit the assignment and check the "This is a Group Assignment" box.

You can choose to assign grades individually or give a grade to one person submitting the assignment, which will then automatically be given as the grade for the other group members. Select the appropriate Group Set and click on Save [and Publish].

8) How do I assign a Group Discussion? First, set up a Student Group Set by following the instructions in Questions #3. Then go to the Discussions section of the course. Add or edit the discussion and check the "This a Group Discussion" box. Select the appropriate Group Set and click on Save [and Publish].

9) What are Collaborations? Collaborations can be used to give up to 50 students access to a Google document to view and edit at the same time.

You can give access to all the students in your class if you want them to access lecture notes or a collaborative whiteboard or you can give access to select students if you want them to collaborate on a group paper.

10) How do I use Collaborations? Go to the desired course and click on Collaborations (student groups can also create a Collaboration within their group homepage). Click on “Start a new collaboration” and give the document a name and description. Click on the names of the students or groups that you wish to add to the collaboration. Then click on “Start Collaboration”.

Note: You may need to authorize access to students to edit the document in Google Drive and/or enable Google Drive within Canvas. Follow these instructions to do so.