Students outside of group can see discussions

[swilson34]

I have an instructor who is using groups in her course and has discussion questions. She has 3 groups setup.

The problem is that the groups are seeing the post from other groups. 

I masqueraded as a student in the Purple group and she was able to see and post in the discussion group for the Green group, I didn't think it should behave this way. 

When I look at the groups under people, I see the students names listed in the groups to which they are assigned and under the Unassigned Students list. Is there a setting within the groups that is affecting this behavior?

[ericwerth]

Hi  @swilson34 . Under the discussion assignment settings itself, is the discussion assigned to the groups that were created or to "everyone"?  I just checked and it doesn't seem that in a sandbox when I set up a similar situation that students in one group can see the replies in a group to which they are not assigned.

Thanks for the update!

[swilson34]

Group discussion is checked so the choice in the Post To field is unavailable.

 

[Note: Names partially redacted by Community Team to protect students' privacy.] 

This is the view in the groups.

[swilson34]

Do you need to create the groups when you create the discussion? I see there is a New Group Category choice and I'm wondering if that's the way to make sure the groups don't mix.

[ericwerth]

Hi  @swilson34 , you don't need to create a New Group in this case.  You should be able to assign the discussion to the groups already created without an issue.  I tested again, and unassigned students can see the discussion topic posted by other unassigned students, but cannot see the replies posted by a student assigned to a group.  So, in your example with one group and unassigned students, I would expect that everyone could see what an unassigned student posted, but that someone in the group would only see what someone else inside the group sees.  That may explain what you are experiencing.

It might not be a bad idea to contact Support to see if they have any insight as Support could look into your class specifically.  I am not sure if changes made to the discussion may be causing issues as well.  For example, what if, before being made a group assignment, a an unassigned student replies to the discussion and then the group discussion feature is enabled?  There may be lots of variables in play but Support would be best equipped to do a deep dive into the system and see what may explain your observation.

I hope this helps but please keep us updated as to what you learn!

Eric

[swilson34]

I'm going to contact support on this one. The teams can not only see the post across teams but they can also post to other discussions. 

I'll keep you posted.

[ericwerth]

Thanks  @swilson34  I look forward to hearing what Support finds.  Definitely an abnormal discussion behavior!

All the best---

[swilson34 · Accepted solution]

Actually it's not abnormal. The problem is the distinction between Group Sets and Groups. 

The instructor has them set up as 3 Group Sets, not Groups. They can view and participate in Sets to which they do not belong. So it's a little confusing, I'll need to play with it for a solution. 

[ericwerth]

Hi  @swilson34   This makes sense and thanks for the update.  Group Sets are designed more for keeping track of various student group arrangements and not assigning students to groups themselves.  For example, I have may have a Group Set for Project 1 and another Group Set for Project 2, or one Group Set where students are broken into partners and another where students are broken into groups of 4.  I could these use these for multiple assignments without needing to recreate the groups each time.  However, without students being assigned to groups in a Group Set, Canvas would probably treat anyone not in a group in that Set as being "unassigned".  Have you found a solution to the problem?  I would think that if students were assigned to different groups within the Group Set, that it would result in students only being able to see what was posted within their group.

I hope all is well!

[swilson34]

For the current assignment we left the settings as they are. I walked the instructor through the next part of her project set up, just like you describe. So there's a Group Set called Part 2 and three groups within it. That got rid of the unassigned list. The task/question was the same for the Group Set but the answers were only visible to the individuals in the group.

We have a couple instructors who are really running the Group function through its paces, I'm learning a lot.