Canvas has built-in functionality that allows instructors to create and assign group projects to students.

It’s important to make sure that group assignments are set up correctly before students submit work. Once students have submitted, the ability to edit becomes limited. Your Local Support Provider or the Canvas Support Team can help with setting up assignments to achieve your course goals.

Setting Expectations

Thoroughly describe in your syllabus what you expect from all group members, how and when students should contact you if a group conflict occurs, and any opportunities you may provide for group members to provide feedback on working with each other.

Creating an Assignment

There are two steps to setting up a Group Assignment in Canvas. Both steps must be completed for the Group Assignment to work correctly.

Add a Group Set

In the course navigation menu, go to People. Use the Groups tab to create a group set before the assignment opens and students begin submitting work.

Groups must be set up in the People tab before students submit assignments. Otherwise, the group assignment will not function as intended.

If you are unsure which students will be in which group (for example, before the add/drop period ends or if students will select their own groups), you can create the groups without assigning students. You can later manually or randomly place students into groups or have students sign up for groups of their choice. You may also adjust the maximum number of group members by editing the Split [number] of students per group option from the drop-down menu.

Create the assignment

Follow the directions for creating a group assignment in Canvas and ensure the Group Assignment box is checked. 

By default, Group Assignments will assign the same grade to all group members. If you prefer, you may check the box to assign grades individually to each student.

Evaluating Group Assignments

Grading Group Assignments looks slightly different than grading individual assignments in Canvas. You will have additional options in SpeedGrader, depending on whether you give students in the group a collective or individual grade based on their contributions.

It’s important to set up your groups before students submit work. If groups are not set up prior to submissions, your assignment might not behave as expected.

Introduce group assignments after Add/Drop

Students may Add, Drop, or Withdraw from a class during certain periods in the semester. While withdrawals can (rarely) happen throughout the term, Add/Drop is generally limited to approximately the first two weeks for most semester-long courses. Consider introducing Group Assignments after this period is over when the course roster has stabilized. This will minimize the need to reassign group members.

Recreate Group Sets each semester

If you copy a course from a previous semester (for example, using the Course Import Tool), it’s important to know that the assignment won’t automatically have any groups associated with it in the new course. Additionally, it can be challenging to know which assignments are designated as group assignments in a copied course.

Troubleshooting

Students only see activity in a group that occurs after they have joined or been placed in a group. Keep this in mind when troubleshooting a Group Assignment, and be sure all students are assigned to a group before grading.

If groups were not set up before students began submitting work, your assignment may not behave as expected. Below are solutions to other known issues with group assignments.

In a graded discussion board, individual students’ posts do not appear.

If a group is assigned to a discussion board, only the group members can read and comment on the same board. Each group will have its own board. This is a different concept than a group assignment where one student submits on behalf of the entire group.

Solution: 

  1. Edit the assignment.
  2. Make the Discussion ungraded.
  3. Uncheck the box for groups.
  4. Save your changes.
  5. Edit the assignment to make it a graded discussion again.
  6. Click Save.
In SpeedGrader, instructor comments disappear.

In some cases, instructors may submit comments that seem to disappear, though it may still be visible in the Gradebook.

Solution:

  • Edit the assignment, check the box to Assign grades to each student individually, and click Save. 
  • If groups are configured in a Group Set other than the one used for the assignment, consider filtering the Gradebook by Student Groups to enter grades individually.

Additional Resources

Getting Help

Please contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.