Canvas Assignments: How Do You Set Up Self-signup Group Assignments?

When Self Sign-up is enabled, students can move between groups indefinitely until you disable it.

Please consider the following for self-sign-up groups to operate smoothly:

  • Notify students that there will be a designated period to self-sign-up.
  • Disable self-sign-up at the end of the period.
  • Publish the group assignment after self-sign-up is disabled to guarantee that grades will apply to finalized group members only.

To enable the People tab for your course:

  1. Go to Settings from your course menu.
  2. Switch to the Navigation tab.
  3. Scroll down and locate the People item in the second list of disabled menu items.
  4. Click on the three dots next to the People item and select + Enable.
  5. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Creating Groups

  1. Go to People from your course navigation menu.
  2. Click + Group Set.
  3. Create a name for the group set in the Group Set Name field.
  4. Checkmark Allow self sign-up.
    • If group members are to be in the same section, checkmark Require group members to be in the same section.
  5. Enter the number of groups in the field next to the Group Structure heading.
    • Enter the maximum number of members in each group in the Limit groups to …field, otherwise, there will be no limit.
  6. To assign a student group leader, click the Automatically assign a student group leader checkbox.
    • After you click the checkbox, you will be able to select if the first student to join the group will be the leader or if it will be assigned to a random student.
  7. Click Save at the bottom of the pop-up.

Note: Once there are submissions made, groups should not be changed/deleted. It may affect instructor access to work done on assignments.

Disabling Self Sign-up

  1. Go to People from your course navigation menu. 
  2. Click the name of the Group Set you will edit. 
  3. Click the triple dots icon > Click Edit.

  4. Uncheck Allow self sign-up.
  5. Click Save.

Creating the Assignment

Assignments may be created and saved but should only be published once self-sign-up is disabled and groups are finalized.

  1. Go to Assignments from your course navigation menu.
  2. Click + Assignment.
  3. Fill in and select the appropriate fields.
    • Make sure to checkmark This is a Group Assignment. 
  4. Checkmark the Assign Grades to Each Student Individually if students will be receiving grades individually.
  5. Select the group from the group category dropdown menu.
  6. Click Save and Publish at the bottom of the page.