Establish a "teams" feature for differentiation that's available for all Canvas users.

[braxton_thornle]

As an instructor, I'd like to be able to create student groups for the purpose of differentiation (not necessarily collaboration). Essentially, I want to be able to create lists of students (ELLs, Gifted and Talented, etc.) that allow me to assign assignments, due dates, access dates, etc. to individual groups of students within the same course. 

When researching the topic to see if it already existed, I noticed that this feature has already been built for Penn State, but I would like to see the feature opened to all users to assist in differentiation. 

[RobDitto]

 @braxton_thornle ‌, thanks for pointing out the Penn State tool. (I'm not from PSU, but rather from UPenn!) My sense is that the tool you found was developed specifically for that university; while their solution is delivered within the People tab of Canvas, I believe much of what you see on their page is not part of the standard Canvas platform.

You might want to consider voting or commenting on these related feature ideas which, if implemented, could lead to a standard workflow in Canvas for teacher-controlled section enrollment for purposes of differentiation:

• https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/16160-make-it-easier-to-populate-and-manage-sections (most similar to your idea)
• https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/16138-dont-allow-students-to-access-course-sections-they-are-n... (if built, would resolve an edge case around "pending" status)

And, finally, if you're friends with a Canvas admin at your district, ask them whether it's practical to help you establish parallel sections for differentiation within courses you teach.

[braxton_thornle]

Thanks for the response, Rob! One potential problem I see with managing sections (rather than establishing "teams" within the People tab) is that my district syncs grades and other enrollment data from Canvas with a separate SIS. If I was to establish parallel sections for students within differentiation groups or teams, would their parallel sections interfere with syncing data to their actual, physical sections in our SIS?

[MrsWade]

Create a group of specific students that I need to give an assignment to periodically or for differentiation of assignments. It isn't a group of students working together. It takes too long typing each name every time!!!

[Nancy_Webb_CCSF]

I love the idea and the term "Teams".  Makes it different from groups, none of the overhead of a group workspace when it's not necessary.  I like this in addition to Differentiate-Assignments , which posits checkboxes next to the student names to more easily select/deselect students in the Assign to field. 

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.