[Course Import/Export] Warn about Group Discussions/Assignments on Import

[James_Kocher_UF]

When copying content from other courses, any group assignment/discussion gets assigned to "project groups" as the default. It would be nice to have a warning after import to let the user know what assignments/discussions are set to groups to avoid any confusion once the course starts. 

We get countless support calls about copied courses where instructors forgot to update the group set assigned and experience errors in Speed Grader.

[hesspe]

@James_Kocher_UF    I sure am glad to see someone else reporting this.  We get similar support calls.  It almost seems like a booby trap.  "Oh Project Groups - that sounds like just what I'm looking for, and it must. be OK because there it is, entered as the default setting."

[James_Kocher_UF]

@hesspe  Just had our 3rd call about this today and said "enough is enough"  😄

Hope this gets picked up!

[lindalee]

@James_Kocher_UF, thank you so much for raising awareness of this issue! It's, unfortunately, one that we encounter regularly in a variety of instances. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to remediate the cascade of problems that can emerge from this. We've suggested various feature ideas to help address some of the unwelcome issues:

• You cannot use the Group Setup Wizard for group sets that have already been created, like the default "Project Groups" group set when copied/imported group assignments and discussions. (See "Enable Group Setup Wizard for Existing Group Sets (resubmission)" vintage 2018 in Colder Storage AND "Enable Group Setup Wizard for Existing Group Sets" vintage 2016 in Colder Storage)
• If you delete the default-created Project Groups group set, there's no warning that it's associated with an assignment and that you need to re-associate the assignment with a newly create group set to function correctly. (See "Warn before deleting an assignment-associated group set" in Colder Storage)
• And because there's no discrete icon for group assignments or discussions, you cannot readily identify which assignment might need to reconfigured. (See "Icon for Group Assignments (resubmission)" vintage 2017 in Colder Storage AND "Differentiate Assignment Icon for Group Assignments (resubmission)" vintage 2018 also in Colder Storage)
• Because of the various grading difficulties that happen when individuals submit to group assignments (aka, the "disappearing comments problem"), we even suggested a more draconian fix of preventing students from submitting to group assignments if they haven't joined a group in the associated group set. That feature idea (currently still open for discussion) lays out the problems this situation creates for students, teaching teams, and Canvas support teams, and there's some lively discussion about this general problem in the comments.

I really hope that Groups, Group Sets, and Group Assignments get some attention on the Canvas Roadmap soon!

[James_Kocher_UF]

@lindalee I agree on all of these. We were just talking about how it would be nice if students couldn't post to a group discussion if they weren't in a group. Give them some notice to contact the teacher.  

Considering your idea was posted in 2018, I'm not confident we'll see anything along these lines any time soon!

[lindalee]

@James_Kocher_UF  -- oooof! Commenting on Group Discussions when you aren't in a group is really problematic. Those comments are added to what looks like the assignment itself, and they can be seen by the teaching team. But unlike file upload submissions, they don't "follow" someone if they are later moved into a group. So you can very easily end up with a situation where students make comments, later join/are added to a group, and they can no longer see those submissions in their group discussion.