Assign to a group without it being a "Group Project"

[StefanieDean]

A little background: I teach ceramics. My courses are mixed level so I may have a class with kids who are taking their first semester along with kids who have taken several semesters. Because if this, I have different assignments for different levels. 

Ideally, I could put kids into groups, say Level 1, and give everyone in that Level 1 the assignment, but assign it separately. I know there is an "assign individual grades" button, so it allows me to give them separate grades. 

The problem I run into is when they upload their submissions (I have them take a photo of their work and upload to Canvas) it turns it in for everyone in the group. This makes keeping track of who has turned in what an absolute nightmare. 

[mzimmerman]

Groups are primarily for collaboration.  What would work best in the scenario you describe are separate sections in the course, because each section can have its own assignments and due dates.  That is how we do it for combined undergrad a grad courses, or regular and honors courses.  However, you may or may not have permission to create sections in your courses, depending on the settings in your school's Canvas.

[KristinL]

Hi @StefanieDean -

I completely understand what you're trying to accomplish! When I taught multiple levels of photography in a single course, I would create different sections, and that would allow me to differentiate assignments based on level. In assignments, instead of selecting Everyone, you'd be able to select the section (or group) of students for which the assignment was created. The students who were not assigned the activity would not see it in their To Do List, Assignments, Modules, ...anywhere! That would clean up the user experience for everyone. 🙂

I wonder if your Canvas Admin would work with you to make this possible. They would need to be involved to make sure that any data that is sent to/from the course and into your SIS would stay intact. 

Let the Community know if you'd like to collaborate further!

[StefanieDean]

I would love to collaborate to make this possible. I am not sure what this means though: They would need to be involved to make sure that any data that is sent to/from the course and into your SIS would stay intact. 

Any help or pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated!

[KristinL · Accepted solution]

@StefanieDean -

When your school created your course, it's likely that they are taking rosters and enrollment information from another system. Sometimes there is information passed back and forth between Canvas and that student information system (grades, etc.). The established "connection" needs to be carefully maintained is all!

A quick email to your local Canvas Admin or Tech Coordinator should be the best place to start. Ask if it's possible to create multiple sections within one course, one section for each level, even when they attend the same hour. If you share your reasons, I bet they'll work with you to make it possible! ...and if not, I'm sure they'll be able to explain to you why it can't work in your district's setup. 

[raviv201]

This is a potentially helpful workaround; thanks. My issue, personally, is that if students have already registered, changing everything in a way that would affect their registration in the course (as in, they have to re-register for a different section is way more trouble than it's worth. I just spoke to Canvas Support about this same issue, and they suggested that I manually go in and assign everything to each member of a specific group...which will take hours. Sigh. Seems like it's the only thing I can do, though.

For now, I've got students who have already submitted an assignment and are confused because they're seeing other people's submissions...so I'm having to figure out how to grade those. Apparently, it's possible to change the assignment you're looking at in SpeedGrader by clicking "submission to view." That will work, except if anyone forgot to put their name on their paper, you've got a conundrum. Sigh. Really wish Canvas would create a way to do what @StefanieDean suggested above.