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Making Canvas Items Available or Unavailable to Students

Have you ever been confused about how to make sure students can’t access a quiz scheduled for later in the semester, or wanted to make a module available at midnight without having it to publish it manually? This article explains Canvas’s tools for making items like Discussions, Assignments, Quizzes, and Pages visible or invisible to students.

Finding and Understanding Canvas Publication and Availability Settings

You are probably familiar with the publication settings in Canvas, but you might not be familiar with exactly what they do.

• Publish: set the item so that it exists for students. If you publish an item and do not set an “Available” date or put it in a locked module, it will be completely available to students and will appear in the Course Summary and calendar (if it has a due date). Published items have green check-marks to the right when seen in the Modules, Assignments, Discussions, or Quizzes views.
• Unpublished: item is visible to instructors, designers, and administrators, but students cannot tell that it exists. It will not appear in students’ to-do lists, the Course Summary, or the calendar, even if it has a due date set. Students will also not be able to see it in the Gradebook. If you have legacy materials in your course, you want them unpublished; anything that is part of the current course must be published for students to access it. Unpublished items do not have a green checkmark; instead, they display a circle with a line through it.

It’s common for faculty to think these are the only two options (all or nothing). Fortunately, you have many other options for customizing the visibility and release of your items.  Note that you must publish the item for all these options to work.

• Available From: date on which students can access the item if it is published. A published assignment with an “Available” date in the future will show up in students’ calendars and the Course Summary, but they will not have access to it. If your item is unpublished and has an “Available” date, it will  not  become available on the date and will not be visible in the Summary or calendar. You must  publish the item before the “Available” date.
• Until: date on which students can no longer submit the assignment/quiz/discussion. This is not a due date, and students will not receive a reminder. See this Canvas article for more information on “Available” and “Until” dates.

• Lock Until: this option appears only in the module settings. It allows you to lock everything in a module until a specific date. Items in the module  and the module itself  must be published for it to become available on the set date. Even if a given item in the module does not have an Available date set, putting a lock on the module will make the item locked from any access point (e.g., the Assignments area).

There are also two ways to set a date when the item needs to be completed. They work similarly, but the process of setting them differs based on whether the item is graded or not.

• Due Date: date on which a graded  item (assignment, quiz, or graded discussion) is due; this date will display in the Course Summary and students’ calendars
• To-do Date: date on which an ungraded  item (content page or ungraded discussion) is due; this date will display in the Course Summary and students’ calendars

What Is the Best Way to Handle Publication and Availability?

While the exact settings you use may vary based on your course and needs, here is a rule of thumb:

Whenever possible, publish your items and restrict their availability to students using “Available” dates on the items or “Lock Until” dates on the modules.

Why? Primarily, you want students to know what the requirements are, when they’re due, and how they will figure into the gradebook well in advance. This is especially important for major assignments like papers and tests. Secondarily, this method avoids the possibility of forgetting to publish items when you want them to become available. It also allows you to make students aware that items will exist without letting them see that you haven’t yet added the prompts! A published, unavailable assignment serves as an ideal placeholder. If you are concerned about students seeing a test or exam too early, an “Available” date allows you to prevent that.

If you have regular weekly assignments (homework, discussions, reflections, etc) that students know will recur, it’s not a big deal to have those unpublished until the week before.

Deciding Between “Available” Dates and “Lock Until” Dates

“Available” dates are set by item. “Lock Until” dates are set by module, and affect all items that are in the module, but  only  items in the module. If you have a module that is available from September 15, for example, and you have an item that is due that week but is not in the module, its availability will not be affected.

“Available” dates are best if you would like items in a particular module to be accessible at different times. For example, if you have a weekly discussion that you want to include in a module, but you would like to have a student discussant post discussion questions in advance, they will not be able to open that item if it’s in a locked module. If your module does not have a “Lock Until” date, you can make that discussion available a couple of days early and restrict other items until the beginning of the week using “Available” dates.

Using a “Lock Until” date is more efficient to set up and works well as long as no students need access to items in the module earlier. If you use “Lock Until” dates, you may need to leave major assignments out of the modules, which might not be ideal.

In either case, remember that the  whole module  has to be published (you’ll see that green checkmark in the module title bar) in addition to the items being published. From the Modules page, you can publish anything simply by clicking on the circle with the line through it; it will turn into a green check. You can learn about publishing items (link describes assignments, but other item types are the same) and modules in the Canvas resource guide.

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• Last updated: Jul 3, 2023 by Claire Streckenbach

Canvas allows you to create assignments for your students and customize the settings to meet your grading approach for your course.  Within the grading settings of a Canvas Assignment,  you can select the grading settings for each assignment based on the assignment’s type, objectives, and expectations.  You may also choose to use points, percentages, or complete/incomplete to track progress and provide feedback to students about their work. 

Create Canvas Assignments

To create an assignment:

• Log in to Canvas at canvas.brown.edu  and select your course from the Global Navigation menu on the left.

• Enter the name of the assignment in the Assignment Name  box.
• Enter a description of the assignment in the box below if relevant.

Your new assignment will appear on the Assignments page under the assignment group you selected.  Any Assignments you create automatically show up in the Calendar, Syllabus page and Gradebook.  

For more information on how to create and manage assignments, please see the following links:

• How do I add a rubric to an assignment
• How do I manage rubrics in a course
• How do I set notifications

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Related Content

• Enable TurnItIn for Student Assignment Submissions
• Enter Grades into Canvas Grades
• Set Varied Due Dates by Section for Canvas Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
• Create Weighted Assignment Groups in Canvas for Grading
• Canvas Speedgrader
• Annotate Student Submissions using Speedgrader
• Create Weighted Assignment Groups for Grading
• Canvas Quizzes

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Getting Started with Canvas Assignments

• Last modification date Updated On June 8, 2023
• Categories: Assignments , Canvas , Uncategorized
• Categories: assessment , Getting Started , Grading

Canvas  Assignments  are a way for instructors to provide students opportunities to practice using the knowledge and skills they have gained or to assess student performance related to such knowledge and skills. (Creating an Assignment is the  only  way to create a new column in the Gradebook.)

In Canvas there are four basic  Submission Types  for assignments. The submission types include:

• No Submission : For assignments for which you are not collecting any content from the students.
• Text Entry : For students to enter text directly into a text box on Canvas.
• Website URL : For students to enter a URL (usually to a blog, video, podcast, etc.).
• Media Recordings : For students to upload or record media for submission.
• File Uploads : For students to upload files for submission ( Restrict Upload File Types  will allow you to limit which types of files may be submitted).
• On Paper : For assignments students will submit in person.
• External Tool : For assignments which students will submit through a third-party tool (such as Turnitin, Panopto Video Quiz, and PlayPosit).

Managing an Assignment

Managing assignment groups.

When getting started with Assignments, learn to

• Create an assignment shell with the Canvas guide  How do I create an assignment? 

If you select  Peer Reviews Appear Anonymously , annotation tools in  SpeedGrader  will become unavailable.

If you change the  Assign To  area from  Everyone  to select students after submissions have already begun, and do not have a second set of Assign To dates, submissions from unassigned students will disappear.

• Published assignments are visible as existing outside of availability dates, but students cannot see the details.
• If looking to update the due and/or availability dates on multiple assignments, see   How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• If choosing the option to make an assignment a  Group Assignment : If only assigning to specific groups, make sure to click the  X  on the  Everyone Else  choice under  Assign to .

Media Recording  Assignments are not recommended due to technical reasons. Instead, have students submit media by embedding it in a  Text Entry  assignment through Panopto .

Clearly express expectations and criteria for grading by using a  Rubric .

Be cautious limiting submission attempts, as students often make mistakes loading documents and need multiple attempts to ensure you have the correct submission.

• Delete an assignment with the Canvas guide  How do I delete an assignment?
• This duplication process will not work for Quizzes.
• Attach a rubric to an assignment for grading or to communicate expectations to students with the Canvas guide  How do I add a rubric to an assignment?

Accessibility Tips

• Use descriptive text for links, instead of long URLs or ‘click here’. 
• Make instructions brief and to-the-point. Avoid long paragraphs and sentences.
• Consider allowing multiple submission types to accommodate technical limitations students may face.

Assignment Groups  are a way to categorize different graded items in Canvas. For example, you may have journals, blogs, and essays which your students create in your course. Assignment Groups allow you to label and group different types of assignments separately in order to better organize and for ease when applying weighting (see  How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? ). When getting started with Assignment Groups, learn to

• Add and delete assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• Move or reorder an assignment group with the Canvas guide  How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• Make rules governing grading expectations within assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I create rules for an assignment group?

Additional Resources

• CTI Resource: What is the Assignments Index Page?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
• Canvas Student Guide

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How can we help you today, how to make your canvas course visible to students. print.

Modified on: Tue, 4 Jan, 2022 at 1:07 PM

By default your Canvas course is not visible to students.  To make it visible, click the Publish button in the upper right corner of the Home page:

Publishing the course does not mean all the individual content will be visible.  Modules and pages and files ... may be individually published or not by clicking on the slash or checkmark symbol. In this example, the module, Overview Week 3 page, and Learning Materials header are published and visible to students. But the "Mudslide Materials" page is not published, and thus not visible to students:

To test whether students can see content in a published course, switch to Student view, which is available across almost all areas of Canvas. Just look for the "Student View" button in the top right and give it a try!

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LTC Instructional Resources

Making Discussions Visible in Canvas

Canvas and Desire2Learn (D2L) share much of the same functionality, but with the move to Canvas there might be confusion about some of the details about how to get the desired results for your courses.  One of the most common questions we are seeing is about how students will access Online Discussions inside the course.  While the advice below was prompted by the questions about Discussions, the same is true for Quizzes and Assignments.

In D2L there was a dedicated “Discussions” button that could be added to the navigation bar.  In Canvas, this same button exists, but it is only available to Instructors for building purposes.  There are two ways to make sure students can access your discussions; place the Discussions in Modules, or make them Graded.

The best way to make sure students can find discussions is to place them in your Modules in the most appropriate location.  Most courses are separated into units, and the discussion can be placed into the appropriate unit for when the Discussion starts.  Other instructors may create a separate unit just for ongoing discussions that are meant to cross multiple units.

It is also worth knowing that all items that are worth points will be visible to students in the Assignments area.  This includes quizzes and discussions.  While we would encourage you to include those items in your Modules, they will also be added to Assignments for you automatically.

If you have additional questions about Canvas please reach out to 24/7/365 support by going to http://uww.edu/canvas .

Canvas: Enabling and Using the Tools

Groups are like a smaller version of a Canvas course site. They're used as a collaborative tool for students working together on group projects and assignments.

Creating Student Groups and adding students

• Automatically
• Self-Sign Up  
• Viewing Student Groups
• Tips and troubleshooting for Groups
• Watch a short video about CTools vs.Canvas Groups .

Video and other media in Canvas

MiVideo is U-M's content management service. It helps organize, catalog, share, search, and publish multimedia content.

• Using MiVideo in Canvas
• Uploading Media
• Working with "My Media"
• Advanced Editing Tools

Publish each Module, Quiz, Assignment, Page, File, and Discussion , as well as your course site

In Canvas, you will publish your course site to make it visible to students, and you must also publish any modules, quizzes, pages, assignments, files, and discussions in your course site. To publish these items, click the little gray circle icon to toggle it to green.

Enabling and hiding tools

You can choose which tools are visible to students in the left navigation menu.

• Click Settings at the bottom of the menu.
• Click Navigation along the top. 
• Drag items between the upper and lower lists to hide (disable) or make them visible (enable) to students. 
• IMPORTANT:  Click Save .   You may need to scroll down to see the Save button.

Navigation links in blue text are displayed to students. Navigation links in gray text are hidden from students.

You can also change a feature’s position within the menu: click an icon to the right of a feature and then use the “Move” up-down arrow.  Then click Save .

More about reordering and hiding tools

Using Canvas tools

Tool by tool in alphabetical order

Announcements

Announcements allow you to communicate with your students about course activities and post course-related topics.

• About Announcements
• Making an Announcement
• More about Announcements
• Tips and troubleshooting for Announcements

Assignments

Assignment creation sequence: add an assignment group, create an assignment shell, edit the assignment details, and add content.

• Creating an Assignment
• Adding Assignment Groups
• Adding content to an Assignment
• More about Assignments
• Tips and troubleshooting for Assignments

The Calendar automatically syncs with other features in Canvas, such as Assignments, Syllabus, and Grades.

• About the Canvas Calendar
• Accessing my course Calendar
• More about the Calendar
• Using the Canvas Calendar with your Google Calendar

Canvas Course Manager

The Canvas Course Management tool allows U-M instructors and users in specific roles to:

• Add sections to an existing Canvas course
• Add non-UM external users to a Canvas course

Using the Canvas Course Manager

The Chat tool allows students and teachers to interact in real time.

• Joining the course Chat
• More about Chat

Conferences

Conferences are used for virtual lectures, virtual office hours, and student groups.

• About Conferences
• Starting a Conference
• More about Conferences

Doc Viewer is a tool in the Speedgrader that allows the instructor and peer review annotations on online assignment submissions.

• Using DocViewer
• How do I view annotation feedback comments from my instructor

Conversations

Conversations is a messaging system within Canvas. The Inbox is split into two windows and displays messages chronologically.

• About the Conversations Inbox
• Finding my unread Conversations messages
• More about Conversations

Discussions

Canvas provides an integrated system for class discussions.

• Starting a Discussion
• Replying to a Discussion
• More about Discussions

The Files feature is where you upload course files, syllabi, readings, or other documents. Instructors can lock folders so students cannot access the files.

• About Files
• Finding your course Files
• Moving and organizing my Files
• More about Files
• Alternatives to creating items in Files that are weblinks
• Tips and troubleshooting for Files

Grades and the Gradebook

The Gradebook stores all information about student progress in the course, measuring both letter grades and course outcomes.

• All you need to know about the New Gradebook
• Preparing final grades for Wolverine Access
• More about Grades and the Gradebook
• Tips and troubleshooting for Grades and the Gradebook

i>Clicker and Canvas

To use i>Clicker with Canvas, you will need to install a version that has been configured specifically for U-M.  

• Learn about using i>Clicker in Canvas

LinkedIn Learning

Integrate LinkedIn Learning content (full courses or individual videos) into your Canvas course by setting up an External Tool in an assignment or module.

• Adding LinkedIn Learning Content to your Canvas course
• Adding LinkedIn Learning Content to your Blackboard course (U-M Flint)

Modules allow you to organize your content to help control the flow of your course.

• About Modules
• Creating a new Module
• Adding items to a Module
• More about Modules
• Tips and troubleshooting for Modules

Pages are where you can put content and educational resources that are part of your course but don't necessarily belong in an assignment, or that you want to refer to in multiple assignments.

• Creating a new Page
• Editing Pages
• More about Pages
• Tips and troubleshooting for Pages

With Quizzes, you can create a graded or ungraded quiz, exam, homework assignment, or survey.

• About the different types of Quizzes
• Options that are available for Quizzes
• Creating a new Quiz with individual Questions
• More about Quizzes
• Learn about Quiz settings to maximize security
• Tips and troubleshooting for Quizzes

Redirect tool

With the Redirect Tool, you can add a link to the left-hand navigation that will open an external webpage in Canvas. It serves the same purpose as the CTools Web Content tool.

• Adding the Redirect Tool to your Canvas course (Option #3)

Rich Content Editor

The Rich Content Editor allows you to create new content (assignments, announcements, discussions, blogs, etc.) within Canvas. It supports embedding any video content, math formulas, and other rich media.

• About the Rich Content Editor
• Editing content in the HTML view in the Rich Content Editor
• Embedding images from the web into the Rich Content Editor
• More about the Rich Content Editor

Rubrics are a way to set up custom or outcome-based assessment criteria for scoring.

• What is a Rubric
• Creating a Rubric
• More about Rubrics

SpeedGrader

SpeedGrader allows you to quickly access and efficiently grade student work. You can view, annotate, comment on, and grade submissions without downloading and re-uploading files, all from a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Anything graded in SpeedGrader is automatically recorded in the grade book.

• Using SpeedGrader
• More about SpeedGrader
• Printing annotated assignments

Student View

The Student View allows instructors to see the course as a student views it.

• Accessing Student View

The Syllabus has three parts: description, calendar and table.

• Using the Syllabus

Tips and troubleshooting

• Tool-by-tool suggestions, best practices, and solutions

External apps to use with Canvas

Instructors can add apps to their course in two ways:

• Enable U-M preconfigured external apps (Box, Piazza, LectureTools, My Media, U-M Library Search, U-M Library Help, i>clicker)
• Add additional apps through the Canvas app store

Customizing Your Canvas Course Navigation Menu

by Thomas Keith | Mar 22, 2019 | Canvas , Canvas Features/Functions , How-tos

The Canvas Course Navigation Menu: A Brief Introduction

For both you and your students, the course navigation menu is your means of finding your way around your Canvas course site.  However, the menu may not look the same for you and your students. When you view the course navigation menu of a site in which you are an instructor, you will note that some links are black, while others are light gray.  Links in black are visible to, and usable by, anyone enrolled in the course; links in light gray, on the other hand, are invisible to students, and cannot be used by them.  (There are also certain links that are light gray until you add content to the corresponding content areas, at which point the links will become available to students; Modules and Assignments fall into this category.)

Certain links are disabled by default when your course site is first created.  Note, for example, that Files is turned off by default.  This is a security measure ; it helps to make sure that if you upload any files to your course site which students should not see – answer keys, for example – students will not be able to find them by browsing through folders in the Files tab.

As an instructor, you have the ability to enable or disable links in the course navigation menu.  You can also reorder links to suit your preferences. Customizing the course navigation menu in this way has several advantages for you and your students.  You can move links that will be used frequently to the top of the menu, making them easy to find. You can also disable links that your students will not need to use.  This makes navigation through the course site much simpler for your students; they will be less likely to be confused by a bewildering array of links, and you can exercise control over how they progress through the course content.  For example, if you are using Modules to organize your course and you have placed assignments within different modules, it often makes sense to disable the Assignments link.  Your students will then encounter their assignments only in the context of the modules to which they have been added, rather than seeing them all together by clicking on the Assignments link.

How to Customize Your Course Navigation Menu

1. To begin adjusting your course navigation menu, click on Settings in the course navigation menu, and choose the Navigation tab at the top.

2. You will see two lists of menu items.  Items in the top list are enabled and visible to students; items in the bottom list are hidden and invisible to students.

3. If you want to reorder menu items within the top list, you can do it in one of two ways.

a. Drag-and-drop the item to the desired position in the list.

In the dialog box that appears, use the drop-down menu to choose where you want the item to be located, and click the         maroon Move button.

4. If you want to disable menu items that are currently enabled, you again have two ways to do it.

a. Drag-and-drop the item from the top list to the bottom list.

b. Open the item menu by clicking the column of three dots to the right of the item name, and choose Disable .

5. You can also enable items that are disabled, either by dragging-and-dropping them from the bottom list to the top list, or by opening the item menu and choosing Enable .   Remember that once you enable a menu item, it will be visible to your students, and they can see content you place within that item.

6. Once you have finished making your desired changes to the course navigation menu, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the maroon Save button.   Otherwise, your changes will be discarded when you leave the page.

Using Student View to Check Your Course Navigation Menu Organization

Once you have customized your course navigation menu to your liking, you can use Canvas’ Student View tool to look at your course site through the eyes of a student.  This is an excellent way to make sure that your students will have access to the correct items in the course navigation menu. For more information, see Canvas Student View as a Tool for Faculty .

More Information and Getting Help

If you need further assistance with customizing your course menu, or if you have any other questions, Academic Technology Solutions is happy to help.  You can attend one of our walk-in sessions held in the TechBar of the Regenstein Library (see our workshop schedule for upcoming sessions), or contact us to schedule a consultation.

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University Center for Teaching and Learning

How to create assignments for your canvas course.

• Quick Start
• Instructor Help
• Student Help

How to Create Assignments

Using assignments in Canvas provides a streamlined process for assigning homework and creating quizzes for students.  Canvas considers an ‘assignment’ to be anything that is graded, whether that be a quiz or homework assignment, and whether it’s delivered entirely online, paper-and-pencil, or is a participatory assignment with no actual deliverable.

This Quick Start guide will cover the creation of assignments where the student submits a file electronically, on paper, using an external tool such as Turnitin or Panopto , or where no submission is expected (e.g. class participation). See How to Create Tests and Quizzes for Your Canvas Course and Create and Manage Discussions for more information about using those tools as assignments.

1. In the Course Navigation menu, click the Assignments link.

2. Click “ +Assignment ” at the top right.

3. Write the assignment title and directions for students.

4. Assign the number of points available for the assignment.

5. Choose an “ Assignment Group” . Assignment groups are, in essence, a category of assignment. For more information about using Assignment Groups, see the Canvas guides regarding Assignments.

6. There are four submission types :

• No Submission: an activity where nothing will be collected from students (e.g. a participation grade)
• For the full details about the online assignment subtypes, (text entry, annotation, file upload, etc.), please see the official documentation .
• We have a recorded mini-webinar on annotation assignments, including assignment ideas, available on the Training Webinars page.
• On Paper: assignments/quizzes/activities that were written on paper and collected by the instructor
• External Tool: assignments submitted through a 3rd party tool that is integrated with Canvas, such as a textbook publisher’s website or Turnitin

7. Submission Attempts: You may allow unlimited submission attempts for Online assignments, or restrict attempts to one or more. When a student submits to an assignment they have already submitted to, the previous submission is retained as well, and the instructor may view both.

8. Group Assignments and Peer Reviews:  Assignments can be created as either a group assignment or peer review assignment.

9. Assign options- You can assign an assignment to your entire class, a specific student, and/or a section of your class. You can also set the due date and the availability dates (when your students can submit their assignment). Each section can have different due dates and availability dates.

10. If you are finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save & Publish “. If you are not finished creating the assignment, click on “ Save ” and you may come back and work on it more later without students having access to it.

Instructor Help for Assignments

Creating assignments.

• How do I create an assignment?
• How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers?
• How do I create an online assignment?
• How do I add or edit details in an assignment?
• How do I add or edit points for an assignment?
• What assignment types can I create in a course?
• How do I limit submission attempts for an assignment?
• How do I add an assignment that includes anonymous grading?
• How do I enable anonymous instructor annotations in student submissions?
• How do I import SCORM files as an assignment?
• How do I publish or unpublish an assignment as an instructor?

Managing Assignments

• How do I use the Assignments Index Page?
• Can a student resubmit Canvas assignments?
• How do I assign an assignment to everyone in a course?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course group?
• How do I assign an assignment to a course section?
• How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?
• How do I view differentiated assignments with different due dates in a course?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I delete an assignment?
• How do I duplicate an assignment?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment?
• How do I use Direct Share to copy an assignment to another course?
• How do I use Direct Share to send an assignment to another instructor?

Creating and Managing Peer Review Assignments

• How do I create a peer review assignment?
• How do I use peer review assignments in a course?
• How do I automatically assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I manually assign peer reviews for an assignment?
• How do I view student peer review comments as an instructor?

Creating External Tool Assignments

• How do I add an assignment using an external app?
• How do I create a cloud assignment with a Microsoft Office 365 file?

Using Assignment Groups

• How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• How do I create an assignment shell in an assignment group?
• How do I create rules for an assignment group?
• How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?

Grading Considerations

• How do I add a grading scheme to an assignment?
• How do I download all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I upload all student submissions for an assignment?
• How do I exclude an assignment from the course’s final grades?
• How do I give extra credit in a course?

Student Help for Assignments

• How do I view Assignments as a student?
• How do I filter assignments by type as a student?
• How do I submit an online assignment?
• How do I submit a text entry assignment?
• How do I enter a URL as an assignment submission?
• How do I submit a media file as an assignment submission?
• How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I upload a file from Microsoft Office 365 as an assignment submission?
• How do I know when my assignment has been submitted?
• How do I manage celebration animations in Canvas as a student?
• How do I submit a cloud assignment with Microsoft Office 365?
• How do I download assignment submissions from all my courses?
• How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?
• How do I use DocViewer in Canvas assignments as a student?
• How do I submit a PDF assignment with annotations in the Student app on my Android device?
• How do I add annotations to a submission in the Student app on my iOS device?

Groups and Peer

• How do I submit an assignment on behalf of a group?
• How do I know if I have a peer review assignment to complete?
• How do I submit a peer review to an assignment?
• Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer reviewed assignments?
• How do I view the rubric for my assignment?
• How do I view the rubric for my external tool assignment?
• How do I view rubric results for my assignment?
• How do I know when my instructor has graded my assignment?
• How do I view assignment comments from my instructor?
• How do I view annotation feedback comments from my instructor directly in my assignment submission?
• How do I view my Roll Call Attendance report as a student?
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Section menu close, office of academic technology.

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Contact Information

Mary Stuart Rogers, MSR 380

Understanding Group Sets and Groups

Groups and Group Sets help instructors organize students into teams. At least one Group Set must exist before any Groups can be created.

A Brief Analogy

Group Set = A filing cabinet Group = A drawer in the filing cabinet Member = A hanging folder in the drawer

Important: Group activities in Canvas are assigned and associated with the filing cabinet , not the individual drawers (see below). Just as an office can have many filing cabinets, a Canvas course can have many Group Sets. Students can be members of multiple Group Sets but can be a member of only one group per set.

Create a Group Set

Open the People page  [1] . Next, click the "+ Group Set" button  [2] . Configure the group set.  It is not necessary to create the groups at this point.  The groups can be created later if necessary by returning to the People page and clicking the name of the Group Set above the course roster.

How do I add a group set in a course?

How do I manually create groups in a group set?

How do I manually assign students to groups?

Creating Groups and Assigning Students Automatically

Use the  Group Structure  area to specify how the groups will be structured, and where the students will be placed.

How do I automatically create groups in a group set?

Enabling Self-Sign Up Groups

Enabled students to join the group of their choosing by ticking the checkbox and setting the maximum number of people per group.

How do I create self sign-up groups in a group set?

Making an Assignment a Group Assignment

You can create a group assignment by using the  Group Assignment  checkbox. Canvas uses group sets to assign group assignments, and each group within the group set that is assigned to the assignment is required to complete the assignment.  All groups will complete the assignment using the same due date.

Note:  It is not possible to use individual groups as the basis for differentiated assignments, such as assigning an activity only to a single group or configuring unique due dates for specific groups.  Only Group Sets can receive special settings in assignments. 

How do I assign an assignment to a course group?

Making a Discussion a Group Discussion

You can create a single prompt and have groups to discuss it, either as a graded or ungraded activity.  Simple associate the discussion with an existing Group Set (or create a new one on-the-fly).

Be sure the Group Set has Groups before you open the discussion activity to students!

How to Create a Group Discussion

On the settings page of the discussion, check the box "This is a Group Discussion"  [1] . Then, open the Group Category menu to select the Group Set that will govern the group organization for the activity  [2] .  Alternatively, click the "New Group Category" button if you would like to create the Set to be used by the discussion.

Important:  Students must be placed into a Group in order to properly participate. Students who are not in a group can still post, but the posts are only visible to the instructor and other students not in a group.

How Students Participate in a Group Discussion

To participate, students click the link for the Discussion activity and begin posting.  They are automatically participating in their group and do not need to do anything special to "enter" or "join" the discussion.  Students cannot view other groups' posts.

How Instructors Monitor a Group Discussion

Instructors can get an overview of activity in the groups by opening the discussion activity link and viewing the information at the top of the page. New posts are indicated in the badges on the far right.  To view a group's discussion, click the link for the group on the left.

Viewing Another Group

After reading one group's discussion, click the "Home" link in the left navigation menu and then click the breadcrumb link for the course at the top of the page to return to the home page.  Find the main link for the discussion and re-enter it.  Sorry, this is really an area where Canvas could be improved.

Viewing and Monitoring Group Activity

As an instructor, you can view what is happening in groups by viewing each user group from the  People  page of the course. You can view student activity within the group and view group-created content. You can also access student groups to create group collaborations and add other group-specific content if necessary.

How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor?

Updated: October 11, 2022

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