Inactive Students in Groups

[CamiArcher]

How are other instructors handling inactive student's in groups? Right now instructors have to expand their groups to find them and manually remove them from a group. They take the place of active students and the instructor has to manually remove them and replace them. If they are inactive, it'd be helpful if they were removed automatically or at least give the options to do that in bulk after drop dates or a notice on the group title that states there are inactive students in the group. 

[ProfessorBeyrer · Accepted solution]

Hello @CamiArcher, that sounds like a great suggestion for Idea Conversations - Instructure Community: "Inactive students in groups...removed automatically...after instructor-designated date."

Since this is not yet possible in Canvas I am going to mark this as a solution, but I hope our colleagues in the community share how they take care of this issue.

Here's what I do in my online classes: I have self-forming groups to do a specific project. It's later in the semester, so I'm well past the drop deadline for the course. Since the groups self-form, students who are not interested in participating decide not to join a group. They miss out on the points for that assignment, but they can still pass the class.

I have also used groups in my in-person classes, which was throughout the semester. In that case, I had each group complete an activity each time we met. The activity included a list of students who were there (hey, that's attendance!). I also have a group project toward the end of the semester.

In both modes, I give each student an individual assignment that is part of the overall project. That minimizes the free-rider scenario, and I also give an overall grade for their product. My intent is for each student to see the value they bring to the group.