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On your course site, click on the “People” People tab on the left hand side of the screen.
Click on the “+Group Set” Set button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Name your group set.
Set the Group Structure settings.
By checking the “Allow self sign-up” box, you allow students to choose their own groups. Note that they will be limited to joining one group per set. However, they can move between groups as long as this setting is enabled.
“Split students by number of groups” allows Canvas to divide up students automatically according to how many groups you wish to have. It will try to put the same number of students into each group.
“Split number of students per group” allows Canvas to create groups with the number of students you indicated in each automatically.
If you choose “I’ll create groups later,” this gives you the option of adding groups manually by using the “+ group” button in the upper right hand corner of your screen OR importing groups by uploading a CSV file. See the steps in the next section for instructions on how to do this.
If you are doing the latter, click on the “+ import” button.
Check “Require group members to be in the same section,” if you would like for this to be the case.
Set a group leader if you would like for someone to be the point person on the project, and be sure to indicate if you would like for the first student who joins or a random student to be the group leader. There does not seem to be a way to assign a group leader.
Once a group leader has been selected, their name will appear next to the name of the group when you are viewing the groups in a group set.
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