Canvas has two types of groups: student groups and group sets:

Student groups can be created by either an instructor or a student and are self-organized by students.
Group sets are groups that you create to use for graded assignments.

Instructors can create groups for students to collaborate on group assignments, pages, collaborations, and more. Instructors can also allow students to create their own groups.

Within Groups, instructors can:

View all activity within all the groups within their course, including groups created by students as noted in the instructor's Student Groups tab (by default students will be allowed to create their own groups as noted in the Course Details tab)
View all created groups within the course
Manually or automatically create groups within a group set
Manually or automatically assign students to groups within a group set
Assign group leaders to each group
Allow students to sign up for their own groups
Expand and collapse subgroups
Move students into different subgroups
Create group collaborations

Within Groups, students can:

View the groups list
View the groups they are enrolled in
Join a student group
Create a student group
Store and share Files
Start a Discussion
Send a message
Create group collaborations

When Should I Use Groups as an Instructor?

As an instructor, create groups to:

Set up student group configurations at the course level for assignments and in-class work, both graded and ungraded.
Facilitate semester-long projects so that students can communicate and iterate on documents together.
Facilitate faculty professional development and institutional committees or activities.
Facilitate student-run study groups within courses or at the account level.

Quick Start: Creating a Student Group

Open People

In Course Navigation, click the People link.

People link from Course Navigation menu

Add Group Set

Click the Add Group Set button.

Save Group Set

Name the new group by typing it in the Group Set Name field [1].
You can allow self sign-ups by selecting the Allow self sign-up checkbox [2]. This requires that the People link remain visible to students in your Course Navigation Menu.
You can automatically split the groups in a number of equal groups by clicking the Split students into [number] groups radio button [3] and then typing the number of groups in the dialog box.
You can manually create the groups by clicking on the I'll create groups manually radio button [4].
Click the Save button [5].

👉 Heads Up!

Except when creating groups manually, you can automatically set student group leaders.
The Require group members to be in the same section option is available in self sign-up and automatically created groups.
The maximum number of groups that Canvas can create for an automatically assigned group set is 200. If you ask Canvas to create more than 200 groups, it will only create 200.

View Group Set

View the group set you created.

Add Group

Click the Add Group button.

Save Group

Name the group by typing in the Group Name field [1]. If you want to limit groups to a specific size, enter the maximum number of group members in the Limit groups to field [2]. Click the Save button [3].

👉 Heads Up!

If your group set allows self sign-up and you set a group limit for the entire group set, the group limit will apply to each individual group you create. The option above allows you to modify the limitations within an individual group, such as changing one group to allow a few more members than the other groups. However, at a later time if you decide to edit the entire group set and change the group set limitations, Canvas will override all member limitations created within individual groups.

Manually Assign via Drag and Drop

In the Unassigned Students section, find the student you want to add to a group [1]. Click the student's name and drag it to the group [2].

dragging and dropping students into groups

Randomly Assign Students

Click the Options menu [1], then click the Randomly Assign Students link [2].

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🤿 Deeper Dive Guides

For more information on Groups, click here.