Groups
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Canvas Groups
Canvas Groups are a feature of Canvas designed to support student collaboration by creating smaller, dedicated workspaces within a course. Each group functions like a mini‑course area where students can work together on shared projects, activities, and assignments.
Within a group, members have access to their own homepage, private discussions, announcements, shared file storage, collaborative pages, a group calendar, and tools for real‑time document collaboration.
Study Groups
Canvas Groups can be used effectively for study groups by providing students with a private, collaborative space where they can organise their learning and support one another. Because each group functions as a small version of a course, students gain access to shared tools such as Discussions, Files, Pages, and Collaboration features, which allow them to review materials together, share notes, create revision resources, and discuss course content in a focused environment.
Group Projects
Canvas Groups allow instructors to divide a class into smaller teams, each with its own private workspace. For group projects, this space becomes a central hub where students can plan, communicate, and collaborate.
Members can use Group Discussions to brainstorm ideas, share updates, or divide tasks. The Group Files area enables students to upload drafts, resources, or final project materials in one shared location.
Group Pages are useful for collaboratively building content, outlines, or project plans, while Collaborations allow real‑time co‑authoring using tools such as Office 365. There is also a Group Calendar helps teams coordinate deadlines or schedule meetings.
Group Assignments
Group assignments in Canvas allow you to set up assignments where students work together as a team and submit their work collectively. When you enable the group assignment option, Canvas links the task to one of your group sets so each group submits once on behalf of all members.
This makes it easier to manage collaborative work, streamline marking, and ensure every student in the group receives the same grade unless you choose to grade individuals separately.
To learn more about group assignments in Canvas, please visit How do I assign an assignment to a course group? guide.
Peer Evaluation using Buddycheck
Buddycheck is a Canvas integrated tool for peer evaluation of group work contribution. It can be used to enable students to evaluate their own and their peer's contribution to, and performance in, group work. The output is an adjustment factor which can be used to update the mark awarded to each student individually.
To learn more about how you could use Buddycheck in your group assignments, please visit Buddycheck the guides.
Canvas Groups - How To Guides
The following guidance will walk you through everything you need to know to set up and manage your Canvas Groups effectively. From creating group sets and building student groups to assigning members and supporting group activities, these steps will help you use groups within your course.
Viewing and Accessing Groups
As a teacher in the course, you can easily see which students belong to each group and access any group space to review what’s happening inside it. This allows you to monitor group activity, check participation, and follow the progress of ongoing tasks or discussions.
By being able to view each group’s workspace, you can step in to support collaboration, offer guidance when needed, and ensure groups are staying on track throughout the activity or assignment.
How do I view all groups in a course as an instructor?
You can view and manage all the groups in your Canvas course in the People area. You’ll see any existing group sets as tabs that you can switch between.
By opening groups you can see which students are in them, explore their activity, and adjust how the group sets are organised.
For information on how you can do this, please visit the How do I view all groups in a course as an instructor? guide.
How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor?
You can check in on what’s happening within groups by opening each user group. This lets you review student activity and any content the group has created. You can also enter a group’s space to set up collaborations or add any group‑specific materials when needed.
For more information on how you can do this in your Canvas courses, visit the How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor? guide.
Creating and Managing Group Sets
A group set in Canvas is a simple way to organise different collections of student groups for various activities in your course. Each group set acts like a category that keeps its groups separate from others, helping you manage different task groups.
For example, you might create a “Project Groups” set for a group task, containing groups like Project Team 1 and Project Team 2.
How do I add a group set in a course?
In order to add groups to your course, you will first need to create a group set. This group set should have a meaningful name that reflects the groups that will be contained within the set.
To find out information on how to add a group set to your course, visit the How do I add a group set in a course? guide.
How do I edit or delete a group set in a course?
You can make changes to a group set whenever you need to. Editing it lets you update the name, enable self sign‑up for students, and choose a group leader if required. This also includes the ability to delete a group set if this is not needed.
To learn how to edit or delete a group set in your course in the How do I edit or delete a group set in a course? guide.
Creating Groups Within a Group Set
Once you’ve set up your group sets, the next step is to create the student groups that sit within them. Canvas gives you several ways to do this, allowing you to form groups automatically or manually.
This flexibility lets you choose the approach that fits your class size and the type of activity students will be completing.
How do I automatically create groups in a group set?
In Canvas, a group set gives you the option to automatically create groups for your students, making it quick and easy to organise them in groups. Instead of manually assigning members, Canvas can generate groups based on the size or number of groups you need, ensuring students are evenly distributed. This helps streamline setup, especially in larger courses.
To learn how to automatically create groups in your Canvas group sets, visit the How do I automatically create groups in a group set? guide.
How do I manually create groups in a group set?
You also have the option to manually create groups within a group set, giving you full control over how students are organised. This approach lets you decide exactly how many groups to create and which students belong in each one, making it ideal when you want to balance skills, manage specific group dynamics, or accommodate student preferences.
To learn how to manually create groups in your group sets, visit the How do I manually create groups in a group set? guide.
How do I create self sign-up groups in a group set?
Self sign‑up groups give students the freedom to choose which group they want to join within a group set, making the process more flexible and student‑driven. This option works well when you want learners to form groups based on shared interests, topics, or availability. You can also set limits on how many students can join each group, ensuring that group sizes stay balanced and manageable.
To learn how to create self sign-up groups in your Canvas group sets, visit the How do I create self sign-up groups in a group set? guide.
How do I allow students to create their own student groups?
You can also allow students to create their own groups within your course, giving them space to form study teams, collaborate informally, or organise discussions and meetings. These student‑created groups are separate from instructor‑managed groups and can’t be used for graded group assignments, but students are free to join more than one if they wish. Whenever a new student group is created, it automatically appears under the Student Groups tab on the People page, making it easy for everyone to find and access.
To learn how to allow students to create their own student groups in your group set, visit the How do I allow students to create their own student groups? guide.
How do I import groups in a group set?
You can also set up groups in a group set by importing a CSV file, which is especially useful when you already have predefined group lists or need to organise students quickly at scale. This method lets you create all groups at once and automatically place students into their assigned groups based on the information in your file. It’s an efficient way to manage group setup when working with large classes or where allocations are already known.
To learn how to import groups into your group set, visit the How do I import groups in a group set? guide.
Managing Group Membership
Once you’ve created your group sets and the groups within them, you’re ready to start adding students to those groups. Canvas allows you to manage group membership at any time, so you can place students into groups, adjust existing allocations, or update group settings as needed.
How do I bulk assign students to groups?
If you have a group and group sets already created but without any members, you have the option to randomly bulk‑assign students to the groups you’ve created within a group set.
This feature automatically distributes students evenly across all groups, saving you time and ensuring a fair and balanced mix of members. It’s a quick and efficient way to populate groups, especially when there’s no need to manually choose who works together.
To learn how to add students in bulk to your groups, visit the How do I bulk assign students to groups? guide.
How do I manually assign students to groups?
If you have a group and group sets already created but without any members, you can manually assign students to groups. This gives you complete control over group membership, so you can place students in the appropriate group.
To learn how to manually add students to group, please visit the How do I manually assign students to groups? guide.
How do I prevent students from switching groups in self sign-up groups?
When self sign‑up is turned on for a group, students can move between groups on their own. If you want to prevent them from switching after groups are formed, you can disable self sign‑up at any time. This gives you control over when group membership should stay fixed.
You can learn how to prevent students from moving into different groups by visiting the How do I prevent students from switching groups in self sign-up groups? guide.
How do I message students who have not signed up for a self sign-up group?
If you’re using self sign‑up groups in your course, you can easily reach out to students who haven’t joined a group yet. This allows you to send a reminder and encourage them to sign up, helping ensure everyone is placed in a group before the activity begins.
To learn how to message students that have not signed up to a self sign-up group, visit the How do I message students who have not signed up for a self sign-up group? guide.
How do I move a student into a different group?
You can move students between groups within a group set.
To learn how to move a student into a different group within a group set, visit the How do I move a student into a different group? guide.
Please be aware - If the group as a group assignment, adjusting group membership after students have already submitted work can cause issues with how submissions and grades align. For example, if a student joins a group after the group has submitted, any new submission will overwrite the original, and the Gradebook will show the assignment as resubmitted.
If you need to move a student who already has a graded submission, it’s safer to clone the group set instead to avoid disrupting existing grades.
How do I assign a student leader to a group?
You can assign a student to serve as a group leader within a group set, giving them a small set of management responsibilities to help keep their group organised. Group leaders can be assigned automatically by Canvas or chosen manually based on your preference. Once assigned, they can manage group membership (where permitted), update the group name, and act as a central point of coordination for tasks, communication, and organisation within the group.
While they have some helpful organisational abilities, group leaders can’t change group size limits or access instructor‑level tools. This role is designed to support smoother collaboration and reduce the amount of group‑level administration you need to handle.
To learn more about group leaders, visit the How do I assign a student leader to a group? guide.