How to make self-sign up groups on bulk with different names without adding the students

[sharon_kitching]

Scenario:

I want to make self-sign up groups that have different names - so 80 groups in total, divided into 3 lots of groupwork -Tutorial 1, groupwork -Tutorial 2, groupwork -Tutorial 3. This helps to identify for students which groups in their tutorial they should be signing up for. Note this is a large cohort of 400+ so the more defined the groupname, the more chance students will self-sign up with a group in their cohort. We turn off self-sign up after a time period and then randomly assign the remaining students. 

Unless I manually change the name, I cannot see how to upload a .csv with the group names and no students attached. Am I missing something? I can see the API call but not the function in the upload? 

[nuscitpkg]

(reposting this as my earlier reply seems to have disappeared... good thing I saved a copy)

Hi @sharon_kitching,

Ah, this requires a workaround, as far as I am aware. Credit for this method goes to my colleague, Husaini.

Overview:

We will create all the groups using the import method. This will result in one student in each of the groups.

If there are not that many groups, you can remove the sole student in each group to get the empty groups for sign up.

If there are lots of groups (as in your case), we will create one dummy group with all the students, then delete that group, leaving all the students outside the groups and leaving only the empty groups you created earlier for sign up.

Steps:

1. Create your list of groups in a spreadsheet according to what you want.
   In your case, Tutorial 1 Group 1, Tutorial 1 Group 2... until the last group in Tutorial 1.
   Then Tutorial 2 Group 1, Tutorial 2 Group 2 etc. Then same for Tutorial Group 3.
   
   
2. Create a new group set. Uncheck Allow self sign-up (for now). For Group Structure, choose Create groups later.
   
   
3. Download the course roster .csv via +Import in the Group Set in People (described here).
   
   
4. Paste the list of groups you created in step 1 on the group_name column of the downloaded course roster .csv, then save.
   
   
5. Import this .csv to the group set. You will get one student in each of the groups - this is expected.
   In your case, this means the first 80 students in your course will be in a group each.
   
   
6. Duplicate the course roster .csv. Under the group_name column, create one group e.g. 01deletethisgroup, or something else obviously different from your group naming convention. (The 01 is to make sure that the group appears on the top of the group list - it will be easier to find it to delete it later.) Drag this down in the excel so that all the students in your course are in that group. Save the .csv.
   
   
7. Import this .csv to the group set. All the students will be in this dummy group. The groups you intend to use will all be empty.
   
   
8. Once imported, delete this group. All the students now do not belong to any group.
   
   
9. Edit the Group Set (three dots - edit). Now check Allow group sign up and set the Maximum members per group. If your sections are mutually exclusive (i.e. the students are in only one section each), check Require group members to be in the same section. (If they also belong to one or more lecture sections, for example, this won't effectively restrict students to groups within their tutorial sections.) Click Save.

I hope that helps!

[sharon_kitching]

@nuscitpkg That is quite convoluted but a work around. So the second upload moves all the students out of their groups and into the one group which you then delete and I assume tick the self-select for groups I'll put this in our workarounds knowledge bank. I feel that Canvas should have a tool to make x number of empty groups with name A, x number of groups with name B as part of their UX. That would mean you start out with friendly names from the getgo. 

[nuscitpkg]

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@sharon_kitching wrote:

I feel that Canvas should have a tool to make x number of empty groups with name A, x number of groups with name B as part of their UX. That would mean you start out with friendly names from the getgo. 

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Exactly. 🙂

[nuscitpkg]

Hmmm... I posted twice and both my replies disappeared. Perhaps the post was too long.

I am attaching my reply and well as linking to an FAQ we wrote for our instructors about this.