What are groups?
The group function in Canvas is a collaborative tool which allows you to organise students so they can work together on projects and assignments.
Features:
- Each group space acts like a small version of the course, containing a number of tools over which the students have full control.
- There are different ways to create groups:
- Teachers can allow students to create their own groups. These are self organised by students.
- Teachers can great groups manually, allowing them to select the members of each group.
- Groups can also be created automatically. In this case Canvas will generate the groups and assign student to each group randomly.
- Teachers can allow students to self sign-up to their group of preference.
- Teachers can assign a student leader to each group.
- Teachers can create group Collaborations.
How do I create groups?
In order to create groups, you must first create a group set. A group set is a container of groups, inside which you create the groups.
Creating the group set
- Click People on the navigation bar.
- Click Add Group Set.
- Enter the name for the Group Set, e.g., project topics, reading groups, etc.
-  If you want students to allocate themselves to groups, select Allow self sign-up. Alternatively, you can create the groups manually by selecting I’ll create groups manually.
- Once you made your selection click Save.
- You will be taken back to the Groups page, and can proceed to create the groups.
Creating the groups manually
- To add groups, click +Group.
- Enter a Group Name.
- Specify the maximum number of members.
- Click Save.
- Â Repeat steps from 6 – 10 to add another group.
- Assign students by dragging the student (by name) to the group. You can also click the plus sign (+) next to the student’s name and select the group from the list.
- Learn more about Self Sign-up groups [Canvas community documentation].
- Learn more about creating groups automatically [Canvas community documentation].
- Learn more about starting a collaboration with a group [Canvas community documentation].