How do I create a group assignment in Bongo?

In a Group Assignment in Bongo students can submit video and content as a group. They can do this synchronously or asynchronously —

NOTE: The Bongo groups must be set up in Bongo (Canvas groups cannot be transferred into Bongo)

If needed, create a Bongo "sign-in" assignment

If your students have not yet accessed an Individual Bongo assignment from your Canvas course, they must do so before you give them a group Bongo assignment. The reason for this is that Bongo needs to create a student roster by having students access an individual assignment.

So, if your students have not yet accessed Bongo from the Canvas course, create a "sign-in" assignment, i.e. an individual Bongo assignment which students will click into, and submit a simple reply (such as their name).

See: How do I create an individual assignment in Bongo?

Once that's done, you'll be able to see the complete student roster in Bongo, and set up the group assignment.

To avoid needing a sign-in assignment, select either "Learners can choose their own group." or "Automatically put learns into Groups."

Create the Bongo group assignment as follows:

In the Canvas course, create an assignment

  1. Enter a Title for the Assignment.  It must be unique to all your other course assignment titles and cannot be changed once the assignment has been saved.
  2. Add a Point Value for the assignment

Set the Submission Type

  1. Choose External Tool as the Submission Type
  2. Click Find and select Bongo Learn from the external tool list
  3. Check Load This Tool In A New Tab

Be sure to check the "Load This Tool in a New Tab" checkbox so that the Bongo tool will load properly.

Complete and save the assignment information in Canvas:

  1. Enter Due, Available from, and Until dates. You will also need to set the identical due date in Bongo.
  2. Click Save. Remember to click Save & Publish once you have set up the assignment in Bongo.

NOTE: To avoid confusion, you can opt to only set the assignment dates within Canvas (and enter no dates in Bongo).

Load the Bongo Assignment in a New Tab

Click the "Load..." button to load the assignment in a new tab in the browser.

Once in the Bongo site, set up the group assignment as follows —

If accessing Bongo for the first time in this course, choose "Create a Blank Course"

NOTE: If this is the first time you are creating a Bongo assignment in this particular course you will be prompted with the "CREATE A BLANK COURSE" option.

If you have already created a Bongo assignment in this course you will not see this option.

In the "Add Course Content" window choose "Assignment"

In the "Add an Assignment" window choose "Group"

Complete the assignment settings and instructions

Click "General" in the left-hand panel

Bongo

Add assignment instructions and details

Bongo
  1. The assignment name will be carried over from Canvas. Do not change this setting.
  2. Due date and time is set independently from the Canvas due date. (And students can submit even after the Bongo due date.) To avoid confusion use only the Canvas due date and leave the Bongo due date blank.
  3. Enter text instructions for the assignment (required). 
  4. In the Instructions section, click on the camera icon to add a video prompt (optional, but recommended).

Choose "Evaluation" from the left-hand panel

Select Evaluation Type

NOTE: The evaluation types with a 3-diamonds logo use a form of AI grading and evaluation. Tufts does not recommend the use of these tools at this time.

Bongo

We recommend matching your evaluation type and total points to those you indicated when creating the Canvas Assignment.

NOTE: If you select Peer Review as the evaluation type you (the instructor) will not have the ability to grade the assignment at all.

If instead you want to both grade the students assignment yourself and have them do peer review, turn on "Peer Review" from the left-hand panel as shown below:

Evaluation type: Rubric

Bongo

If you choose rubric as your evaluation type, you must either select a rubric you have already created in Bongo or create a new rubric.

NOTE: If you want students to do peer-review with a rubric, the evaluation type selected must also be set to "Rubric". The same rubric will be used for both the instructor's evaluation and the peer review

Select "AI Feedback" in the left-hand panel and turn it off

Bongo

NOTE: The AI Feedback tool is is enabled by default for each Bongo assignment.  This feature may not work well for students speaking in accented English or who are neurodiverse.

For these reasons ETS strongly recommends that you turn AI Feedback off.

See: Bongo Auto Analysis

Select Group Options from the Left-Hand Panel

Bongo

Choose your group management method

Bongo

If using "Team Evaluation" turn the feature on and choose the students' grading method

Bongo

Team Evaluation Type: Rubric

Students can be graded with 5 stars or with a rubric

Bongo

If you opt for team evaluation with a rubric, you can choose the same rubric you chose for grading the assignment, or choose a different rubric.

NOTE: Comments made by peers about other students are anonymous to their group members unless you share them with the students after the assignment. If you plan to share the comments, you should inform students prior to the team evaluation.

Select Toolset from the Left-Hand Panel

Bongo

Choose which tools you want your students to use for their submissions

Bongo

Select "Peer Review" from the left-hand panel

If using Peer Review, turn it on

For more information on the Peer Review settings see: How Do I Customize Peer Review in Bongo?

Click "Save" in the top-right corner to save all the assignment settings

Look for a confirmation that the assignment was created

Bongo

A green check mark will appear in the top right of Bongo to confirm that the assignment was successfully created.

On the Assignment Overview page click "Manage Groups"

NOTE: This will only be required if you selected 'Instructor Managed' in Group Options

Click "Create Group"

If you have opted to add students to groups manually, you can create additional groups and add students to them.

Add students manually to groups if you chose that option

  1. Click the student's name so that a green circle-check appears
  2. Click "ADD"
  3. When all the students are in groups, click "Save".  Note that the Canvas "Test Student" will be in your list of students to assign to groups.

REMINDER: All of your students must have already accessed Bongo from your Canvas course before their names can appear on a student list for a group Bongo assignment.

To accomplish this be sure to give students an individual "sign-in" assignment in Bongo before giving them a group assignment.

Group Project resource for students

This user guide for students explains how to complete a group project in Bongo:

See: How to Complete a Group Project