Groups
Some Unity Courses use the Groups function in Canvas. Courses with groups are noted in the Course Oddities Spreadsheet. It is the responsibility of the LXD/LTSS to tell the instructor to set up Groups for their section when they send the Course Ready Notification. Please let them know the instructions are in their course’s Instructor Guide. Make sure to check that the instructions are in the Instructor Guide before sending the email. Please add the instructions if they are not in the Instructor Guide (see instructions below). Please assist instructors if they need help setting up groups.
You must unlock the Peer Review Discussion in the Blueprint so that instructors have permission to set up the Groups.
Instructions for Setting up Groups in Canvas
Groups need to be made in the live sections of a course. Even though group assignments are made in the master, when the course is copied and synced the established groups “break." A discussion will “remember” it’s a group assignment but won’t display the groups. Instructors are expected to set up groups and the Instructor Guide for their course should contain directions to do so. Courses with groups are noted in the Course Oddities Spreadsheet.
Go to the assignment in the live section. (For example, EVPC101 used to have Groups for week 4 assignment 1. In this assignment, students get assigned to group and have discussion to collaborate on something for later)
Open the Assignment/Discussion that has Groups
Click “Edit”
Go down to Groups box and click the button for “new group category”
Write the group title, eg “week 4 discussion group”
Split students up in X number of groups
Aim for groups of ~4-5
Class of 23
Split into 4 groups
Save and save
We know it’s successful when we see groups after clicking save. You can also verify the number of students in each group by clicking “People” in the left column menu, then selecting the tab with the group title
Go into every live section of the course and assign students to groups
Examples of Courses with Groups
EVPC 401 - 2022-SP1A-5W - 19 students Week 2 Assignment - groups of 4 students Week 3 Assignment - 4 groups (most wil have 5 students) - name each group with one of the following titles: Facilities, Finance, Marketing, IT
Another course with Groups is EVPC401, where one assignment’s groups have a specific name (Facilities, Management, IT, etc.) and so you can create groups with the above process, then under the “People” tab select the Group Set and rename the individual groups to have the corresponding name. These groups can also be created by going through the “People” page from the left menu navigation links and creating them outside of the Discussion. Check the Course Oddities document for other courses with Groups, though they are not a commonly used Canvas feature.