CanvasCanvas Group Sets and Course GroupsHow do I create Group Sets and Course Groups?

How do I create Group Sets and Course Groups?

Canvas Instructor Training video on how to create Group Sets and Course Groups:

A Group Set is a container that holds a number of Groups. For instance, an instructor might create a Group Set named “Recitations”, which might hold a number of Groups (Recitation 1, Recitation 2, Recitation 3…)

Instructors can create as many Group Sets as they want and each Group Set can contain any number of Groups. Students can be part of multiple Group Sets but can belong to only one Group within a Group Set.

Each Group, within a Group Set can:

-Share files (Group has its own Files tool)
-Send and post Announcements (Group has its own Announcements tool)
-Create Canvas Pages (Group has its own Pages tool)
-Conduct Group Discussions (Group has its own Discussions tool)

Canvas Groups can be used for Group Assignments and Group Discussions. Groups cannot be used with Quizzes.

Go to the People tool

Click Add (+) Group Set

This displays the Group Set creation panel.

1 - Name the new group by typing it in the Group Set Name field.

2 - If you want to allow students to sign up for groups themselves, select the Allow self sign-up checkbox.

3 - You can have Canvas randomly assign the students into groups by clicking the Split students into [number] groups radio button and then typing the number of groups in the dialog box. Groups will have roughly equal numbers of students.

4 - You can manually create the groups by clicking on the I'll create groups manually radio button.

5 - If you choose to let Canvas randomly assign students to groups,  you can also choose to let Canvas assign student group leaders.

6 - Click the Save button.

Notes: The Require group members to be in the same section option is available in self sign-up and automatically created groups.

Example of two groups in a Group set

To view a Group site, click the group's "gear" icon and select "Visit Group Homepage"

To set up a Group Assignment, see: How do I assign a graded assignment to a Group?

To set up a Group Discussion, see: How do I assign a graded discussion to a Group?