Creating Student Groups

Overview

Replicating student group work online is challenging, but Canvas has some dedicated features that can help. Having learners interact with one another not only promotes a connection between them - it also strongly correlates with improved student perceptions of your course and overall topic. When you create student groups in Canvas, each group has their own Homepage full of Canvas tools and you as the instructor can go to these homepages and provide feedback.

 

Video Overview

Video of how to create groups

 

Best Practices

• Encourage students to use Zoom to meet with their groups synchronously.
• Provide students with instructions on how to use Zoom or other tools as needed. You can find a Zoom student guide here. Download student guide here.
• Students can use the Canvas collaborations tool to work synchronously editing a document, spreadsheet, or slides presentation.
• Groups homepages also have a files, and discussion tools they can work asynchronously.
• Create group assignments and discussions.

 

Please visit Group Work to learn more about specific strategies and best practices for online learning environments.

 

Additional Resources

• Canvas Official:
  • How do I manually create groups in a group set? Links to an external site.
  • How do I automatically create groups in a group set? Links to an external site.
  • How do I assign an assignment to a course group? Links to an external site.
  • How do I create a group discussion in a course? Links to an external site.