Intro to Groups

Introduction

Collaborative groups can be difficult to manage in any LMS, but Canvas has a variety of options and tools available to help. Before you learn how to create and handle student groups in Canvas, it’s important to identify what student groups are and ways that you can use them.

On This Page:

1. Learn about student groups
2. Ways to use student groups

 

Learn about student groups

Read this tutorial to learn about student groups and when to use them:

• What are Groups? Links to an external site. (External resource)

 

Ways to use student groups

Student groups can be used to meet a variety of instructional needs. The examples below are just a few of the reasons some faculty choose to use student groups in their courses:

Group Assignments: Creating student groups in Canvas gives you the ability to create and grade group assignments/projects. Instructors can choose to grade each student individually or to grade the entire group for a single submission.

Project Teams: Any time you want to give students tools in Canvas that will allow them to collaborate, you may want to consider creating student groups in your course. If you plan to create group assignments, student groups will also grant students access to a variety of tools that can help them manage their group project, communicate, and collaborate to complete the work.

Group Discussions: The student groups feature allows you to break down a large class into smaller groups for the purpose of online discussions. When a class of 100 can become 10 groups of 10, there is an opportunity for students to engage in more focused discussions, and instructors will retain easy access to the discussions that exist in each group.