Making & Managing Groups

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Jul 03, 2024 by Helen Gong
2 min read

Overview

Creating groups in a course in Canvas allows students to have more interactions and connections among themselves for a greater learning experience. In groups, students are able to share files, chat, hold video meetings, and work on group assignments, within the same space. This page will show how to set up groups automatically and manually. We will also show how to allow students to "self-sign up" into groups created my the instructor. 

Video Tutorial

Groups Creation and Management

Sort Students into Groups Automatically

  1. From the People tab in Canvas, select +Group Set.

  2. Name the group set. ex. Groups for Assignment 1.

  3. Select "Split students into __ groups".

  4. Enter the number of groups you want to make.

  5. Canvas will automatically assign students into groups of the same size.

Assign Students to a Group

  1. From the People tab in Canvas, select +Group Set.

  2. Name the group set. ex. Groups for Assignment 1.

  3. Select the option "I'll create groups manually" and save.

  4. You will be automatically re-directed to the new tab for your group. Here, you can create groups within the group set and assign students to the groups.

  5. To create a group, select +Group, name the group and indicate the maximum number of students.

  6. Assign students to groups by dragging their names from the Unassigned Student columns into a group. Click the group name to see a list of students in a group.

Allow Students to Make Their Own Groups

  1. From the People tab in Canvas, select +Group Set.

  2. Name the group set. ex. Groups for Assignment 1.

  3. Select "Allow self sign-up".

  4. There is an option to create groups now and limit the number of students in a group. You can enter values into these fields or leave them blank.

  5. If you want to have a group leader for every group, select an option under the Leadership options.

  6. Hit Save.

  7. You will redirected to you new group tab. Students can go into this tab and assign themselves to groups. If you choose not to pre-make the groups, they will be able to create their own groups here as well.

Additional Resources