[Groups] Copy Group Settings

[donaldjo]

Group settings should be included when doing a course copy or Import.

I have a course which relies heavily on an intricate set of groups tied to assignments (it's a negotiations course) so I need to be able to copy the course over from term to term in complete form. Currently whenever I copy the course, the groups are all lost, as well as the tying of groups to the appropriate assignments. Re-creating the groups and then re-tying them to assignments takes an incredible amount of time.

Comments from Instructure

The Canvas Production Release Notes (2015-06-27) indicate that importing a course with group assignments now brings the group assignment settings to the new course; however, upon testing the group structures within a group set do not come with it.  For this reason we will keep this feature idea open for voting.  We will continue testing and update this post as soon as we have more information.

Course Settings and Grading Schemes

Importing Course Settings from a Canvas course export package also imports the grading scheme.

Explanation: When a user imported selective course content from a Canvas export package, the grading scheme was not included in the import. Importing the entire course was not affected. This behavior occurred because Canvas was not verifying grading standard copies if it was part of selected content. Canvas code has been updated to import the course grading scheme when part of selected course content.

[cgray5]

My college is new to Canvas and this is a feature that I was surprised that didn't exist. Like the original poster (in 2015?!), we have a Negotiations course which relies heavily on assignments using group sets/groups - and I didn't realize we would have to re-do these each time the course runs. Please up-vote this ... my sanity may depend on it!

[carl_collins1]

This is my course exactly! It would be nice to be able to carry over students as well, so that all I need to do is add the new enrollments.

[jaiyoung]

I was in the process of developing a set of group discussion assignments that involves unique topics for each group. The development of the unique topics within each group discussion requires a lot of time and development and It would be easier to maintain/sustain in the form of a mastered/ blueprinted course if these settings could be copied from course to course. For the course to work presently, I would have to reformat 30 unique group assignments for multiple sections each semester. That isn't the innovation I was looking forward to. I hope Canvas is able to deliver an update for this limitation. 

[brittany_usman]

This is the same exact use case that brought me here. Please Canvas! We need Group Sets and Groups to copy!

[jkeohane]

I have this same problem, and would like it prioritized.

1.  I spent many hours setting up an intricate group structure for a course, and then it did not import the next semester.  So, please work on this.

2.  Now depending on the course, I may, or may not, want student work to import as well.   For example in my year-long research methods course, I want to be able to set-up a group that stays from semester to semester.   On the other hand, in my introductory course I want my lab group structure to stay, including materials that I put in the group, and assignment given to one group or another, but I want all student work to to be deleted.  

So, please include options under group import.  Something like:

1.   Default:  Import groups, but not members or student work.

2.  Do not import any groups (the way it is now).
               Sub option:  make all group assignments individual assignments.

3.  Import groups, all content, and add groups members to the new course.

4.  Import groups, and all content, but not members.

[liana]

This ability would be a huge help for my institution!

[Anna_Shaver]

I use group discussions in my composition classes. Groups are an essential feature in my class for things like peer review (another poorly-supported feature: Add due date for completing peer review), which I manage through discussions.

I have noticed that if I only use the default group set "Project groups" and add students manually to each group, Canvas retains the proper group assignments in the assignment settings. However, if I use any other name for my group sets, I have to manually reassign each group assignment each quarter for each class. I also like to assign the groups randomly, which always creates a new group set, meaning I can't easily use the "Project groups" option.

I assign a different set of groups for each of the three essays in my class, so students get a chance to work with a different set of peers. I need the course import to copy the group names and sets so I don't have to manually reassign them all the time. 

[dspiel]

I'm guessing since this is a much-needed improvement it won't happen sadly.

[aeagle]

It's 2022! This is still an issue! 

The import CSV workaround isn't that must of a "fix." The instructor still has to create the group set, still has to rename the group set, and then has to import the CSV file. The CSV file will only work for that individual group set, which is not all that convenient for instructors who use multiple group sets in a course. This whole procedure takes just as much time as manually adding groups each semester. 

[PaulSijpkes]

Allowing an exact copy of group sets and linked assignments is essential.  For example, I am currently working with an academic who needs self-selected groups that are each assigned to a supervisor in an architectural studio design course.

Each group has its own group pages and assignments and much of this would carry over year by year for each offering of the course. Having to recreate this manually is arduous and unnecessary. 

I add my vote to enable this feature in Canvas as this is a common use case in many project based higher education courses.