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Participants in a Canvas course can be divided into groups much like in eClass (Moodle) however there are some key differences which will be outlined in this article. Most notable is that it is NOT possible to have anonymous groups - if placed in groups, students will be able to see and interact with their group mates.
Functional Differences Between Canvas and Moodle
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Moodle |
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Can designate a group leader (who can add/remove members)
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Perform CSV imports based on membership lists, vs. instead of just empty groups in Moodle
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Drag-and-drop membership functionality
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Clone a group set, i.e copy a group for other activities without disrupting the previous iteration. Canvas leverages this instead of using Groupings.
- Course cohorts distinguished by Section names.
- Students can view groups for all courses through their Groups tab in any course navigation menu. Thus, it is advisable to include your course name in Canvas Groups and Group Sets.
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Creating Groups (Canvas how-to articles)
The basic practices for creating groups are well documented in the Canvas guides:
Additional notes:
- When creating groups, it is possible to specify group leaders who can control membership (add/remove users) and edit the group name.
- Since students have access to an area that shows their groups across courses, instructors should add a short course code identifying their course in front of the group name when auto-creating groups (eg. Math 101 - Group...)
Group Self-Sign Up
It is possible to allow students to easily sign up for group however this option will only be available to students if the People (Navigation) tab is visible.
Group Home Page Functions
Once groups have been created, students in them will have access to a Group Home Page with functions similar to those found at the course level. The Group Home Page cannot be disabled. Group home pages are always visible to and can be moderated by course instructors.
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Home: a homepage landing screen that populates with a feed of any activities from the sub-functions below, eg. discussion topics, collaborations.
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Announcements: Important messages that should go to all group members can be posted. Any messages posted wil send a notifcation email message.
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Pages: Group members can create shared pages using the Canvas RCE editor.
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People: The list of group members.
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Discussions: Discussion topics added to the group.
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Files: Files uploaded and shared with the group.
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Collaborations: Shared editable google docs. The docs are owned by the creator with all other group members added as editors.
More info on Groups
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eClass Support
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