[Assignments] Assign to by Group for Individual Assignment

This idea was submitted previously and archived (see below). I would also request the same thing. For individual assignments, I would like to be able to "Assign to" by Group. I often divide the class into groups with varying discussion assignments or assignment due dates, yet these are individual assignments. I teach large classes, so it is too much work to type in individual names repeatedly.

 

Assign to" Student Groups for Individual Assessment

 

I want to be able to create Groups based on their modification or need and assign it to that group.Currently we have teachers who have to type in a LOT of student names when it's a modified assignment. Being able to pre-create groups with those students in them and assign or exclude that group would save a lot of time.

Added to Theme

Enable Differentiated Learning at Scale Theme Status: In Development

135 Comments
ltscal2
Community Contributor

Thanks for this idea. This is what we have been struggling with for awhile. There are many many unique use cases of why people want to differentiated groups with in a course that doesnt correspond with sections. In our institution, the work around is to create manual sections that are not generated from Peoplesoft/Banner sync. However due to a customization it has some issues. So this would be really feature to have and one that does not need central ITS intervention.

schreiners
Community Member

This would be an extremely helpful feature for our nursing program.

Our students are divided into groups for clinical rotations, which we currently do by hand.  For each clinical experience, each student must complete a self-evaluation and worksheet that is then submitted to a Canvas assignment.  So for example, I have 6 clinical groups and 14 separate clinical experiences.  This means that I have to make 6 different due dates for each of the 14 clinical experiences and enter each of the students names individually into the due dates.  Not only is this time consuming, but it also leads to errors where a student is left off or put on the wrong day.

 

I would like to be able to break the students into groups using canvas and then assign due dates for the groups with each student being able to submit their own assignment and receive a grade individually.  This would be a huge time-saver for our department.

 

Thank you!

adam_engel
Community Participant

I'm an instructional technologist supporting Canvas at Emerson College. We've been receiving faculty requests to give distinct student Groups unique due dates for assignments within a course. Because we can't enable separate submissions, we would need to create distinct Sections for each group of students to allow them to submit separately. We can't give permission to manage Sections to faculty (it would enable other permissions we don't want to give them), so repeatedly implementing this workaround would take up a lot of our time. We would love to see the "Assign to by Group for Individual Assignment" feature added as soon as possible. Thank you!

cressler
Community Member

I work in a high school and teach a population with a significant number of students who require assignments that are modified.    Begin able to use the "groups" feature for differentiation and not just collaboration would save me a significant amount of time.   In today's world where education is being more and more individualized, being able to assignment a particular version of a quiz or a specific version of an assignment for a group of students for individual assessment of mastery is key to collecting data that charts a student's individual progress.  

evdoxia_liatiri
Community Explorer

We have a similar need! From an admin point of view, this problem would be solved if Canvas could give us the option to paste a list of student IDs under "Assign to" instead of having to manually type and select students by name. Thank you!

kristy_bergeron
Community Participant

Not every institution is okay with the manual creation of non-SIS sections in Canvas courses. Groups should allow for maximum flexibility--please understand that these are containers/spaces that the instructor should be able to work magic with and use however they see fit. 

hannah_crowder
Community Novice

Has there been any movement on this? I went to try to assign a quiz to a group of students and only had options to assign to sections or manually type in each student's name. With 170 students this is not manageable. It seems like this has been a known issue for well over a year. Can we get an update as to when we can expect this? I have a legal responsibility to provide individual instruction and I need this to work now...not in another year. 

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

 

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

svalisa
Community Novice

I am surprised this feature is not offered in Canvas already and would really like it to be available. I have a large enrollment class and I will assign different critical responses to different groups with different due dates. Having to manually insert 30 names each time for each group is not a feasible option! 

macdonal
Community Explorer

Please, please, PLEASE adopt this idea!! In our institution, sections are SIS-generated, and instructors can't simply create the sections they need for a purpose like this. So the only current option is to enter student names one by one -- which, as others have pointed out, is not reasonable or efficient, especially in large classes.