Is there a way to create discussion SUB GROUPS within a group discussion? I am working with a course that has three sections. I can get into my section C which is set up as a discussion group to begin with (I think) with each student in it. But I want to create SUB DISCUSSION GROUPS of two each under that section.
Can this be done?
Thanks, Chris
There is no such thing as a sub-group in Canvas.
Sections and groups are two different things, each have their own benefits and downsides. You can use sections when you want to differentiate who gets assigned something. You can use groups when you want to have people work together and have their own little space to work on it.
You have group sets that contain groups. The groups can be automatically created and told to require group members be in the same section as Kona Jones wrote and linked to the lesson in the Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I automatically create groups in a group set?
You can make a group discussion that everyone gets assigned to no matter what section they're in so they can work in pairs if you like. You can assign a discussion to a section, say just section C.
What you cannot do is assign a discussion to a section and make it a group discussion. Checking the box to make it a group discussion removes the ability to assign it to a section and if you assign it to a section, it disables the box to make it a group discussion.
You can make it a group discussion, assign it to everyone, and then go through and excuse it for everyone except section C by entering EX in the gradebook. I would filter the gradebook by section to make it easier to do this. Unfortunately, the EX cannot be used with set default grade, so you'll have to manually do this for everyone.
The students with the excused grade will still be able to reply to the discussion, it just won't count against them for a grade. This means it's going to be confusing, so you'll need to carefully explain what's going on and that the discussion is really just for section C.
Christopher, if I'm understanding you correctly, you'd like to have Section C students separated from the other section students, but then also broken apart further into additional sub-groups? If so, then you could divide all the students up into their subgroups (have groups determined by section) from the get-go. The directions for this can be found here - just make sure to check the box to "require group members to be in the same section." - How do I automatically create groups in a group set?
Would this work?
Kona