Why can't students see Group Sets tab?

[Canvas007]

This might be an oversight on my part but, I can't find the option to allow students see the group sets created by the course instructor. The instructor creating the group sets can see them as tabs. However, the students in the classroom only see one groups tab with all the groups listed.

Scenario: 
A faculty wants to create two group sets with self sign option, each group set has about 15 - 20 groups. After the faculty created the group sets and subsequent group lists, the faculty is able to see the group sets as tabs but the students only see one groups tab and have to scroll 30 - 40 plus group lists. 

Also, student view lists the groups but show them as locked. This creates a false issue as students not having access to the groups. 

Is this a limitation of Canvas groups or am I missing something in setting up Group Sets and groups?

The attachment show the confusion for faculty using the Canvas Student view (the locked icon causes faculty to panic students wouldn't be able to access the groups created) and the enrolled student view highlighting how all the groups showing in one endless list to scroll.

[SusanNiemeyer]

I think that your faculty member is making this far too complicated.

First, looking at the Test Student isn't helpful in this case. The Test Student can't join a group, and there's no point in looking at the Student View.

I put my students in Groups all of the time for group discussions. I know that there is an option for students to self-select groups, but I think it's A LOT EASIER for the teacher to create the groups and put students in them. For example, I have placed my students into three groups: Blue, Red, and Yellow.

Once the instructor has put the students into Groups, the student will automatically see that he or she belongs to the Blue group (or the Red group or the Yellow group). And, then all I have to do is set up the discussion or assignment to be done in Groups. 

Is it really necessary for the students to "self select" their Groups?  The instructor can make all of this MUCH SIMPLER by just placing the students in Groups. It would only take five minutes for the instructor to do this, and it would eliminate all of the confusion.

[Canvas007]

Point taken, but sometimes the task on hand is providing a solution around what the faculty wants to do and not the alternative solution.

[thomas_brueckne]

That is not a solution.  The problem is that students cannot see anything other than a really long list that scrolls very slowly.  If a teacher has small enrollments, placing students is easy, but that are teaching reasons for students to select their own group.

[johnnoel1]

I agree, this is the point of crowdsourcing. 5-10 minutes to do this every class isn't really ideal. So it's nice if the students can just drop themselves into their group. We have several hundred students and a dozen groups by the end of the semester. This means that students have to scroll through hundreds of groups. The pages don't even load due to the lag after a while. The work around is to have the students search in the bar for the group number they want to join. But just making the tabs visible to students would be very easy in my opinion. I don't see a good reason why the tabs are only visible to instructors.

[SteveSmith1231]

Hello, I am having the same issue.  I have 162 students spread out over 4 sections so student self-sign up is less time consuming and it allows students from different sections to create a group together.  Yet, when I check "Allow Self Sign-up" for each assignment group, the students cannot see them.  They only see the headings "Everyone" and "Group".  I have tried different settings for participation, both Term and Course, with assigned dates, but nothing changes.  Does anyone know the Setting I need to click to allow students to see all 4 of my Groups that allows them to create teams for each assignment?

[chriscas]

Hi @SteveSmith1231,

The student and instructor interface for groups is slightly different (I don't know the reasoning behind that, only that it's basically always been like this in Canvas).  The  How do I join a group as a student? - Instructure Community  guide shows that students do just see the groups tab, and will see all of the different groups there (with the corresponding group set name next to them).

Hope this clarification helps out a bit, even if it doesn't necessarily match your expectations for the student interface.

-Chris

[johnnoel1]

If it helps, our work around is to have the students agree on a group number, then they can enter it into the search bar on the groups tab and find it quickly that way rather than scrolling. However, I do wish they could just see the groups tab.