We are looking to include a graded group discussion in a design for one of our business courses. We have couched it in a scenario that will have the students working together in a team to produce a short presentation for the president of a small company that will solve an issue the company is facing. All of this is fairly simple with the tools available. This issues arise when we move to the next part of the design we would like to implement.
Once the groups have produced their short presentations, we would like those to go to the general discussion topic so that all students may view the presentations from the point of view of the company's president and then choose the best option for solving the company's identified problem.
To add another layer to this, it would be ideal if the discussion could include both an individual and a group grade that could be averaged to provide the students with a grade that reflects both their ability to work with the team and to work independently.
Can we set up a group discussion that will allow students to work in groups to prepare their presentations, present these in the same discussion to the whole class, respond from the president's perspective, and be graded both as individuals and team members?
Teri, this short quick answer is no, you can not "set up a group discussion that will allow students to work in groups to prepare their presentations, present these in the same discussion to the whole class, respond from the president's perspective, and be graded both as individuals and team members?"
There are ways to do these different things in Canvas, but nothing that would allow you to do everything using one discussion. The primary issue is that group discussions are limited to only the members of a group who can see what other members of a group post. There is no way around that or to change that. What you could do is have them build and create the presentation in one "group" discussion (group grade), then have them post their final presentation to a separate non-group whole class discussion (one person from each group would post their presentation). This would also be where they could respond from the President's perspective (individual grade). Then you could have students "like" their favorite presentation on the whole class discussion and have this count as their voting.
Hope this is helpful!
Kona