TeachWell Digital
University of Auckland logo

Sections and Groups in Canvas

Sections and Groups are two different ways of managing students within Canvas.

Use Canvas Groups for project work where students work independently from other students/groups and for collaborative tasks using Google Docs.

Use Canvas Sections for allocating content to specific categories of students (through Modules, Pages, Announcements, Discussions) or for assigning Quizzes and Assessments.

Sections

Sections represent enrolled classes within a Canvas course. Every course has at least one section (the name of the course), containing all people. Additional sections are automatically created by the Enrolment Office through Student Services Online (SSO), e.g., a cross-listed course.

To view the sections for your Canvas course, go to ‘Settings’ in the course menu, then select the ‘Sections’ tab. Students will be enrolled into sections that represent lecture streams, lab streams, tutorial streams etc., for example:

  • L01C (lecture stream 1, City)
  • B02C (Lab stream 2, City)
  • T03C (tutorial stream 3, City)
  • OO (students who are studying remotely)

There may be a few exemptions where students have been approved to study remotely. Only approved exceptions will be enrolled into OO classes; students will not be able to self-enrol. Course directors can notify the Timetable and Enrolment team (enrolment.team@auckland.ac.nz) if a student has been granted an exception for remote study. The Timetable and Enrolment team will then create an OO section and swap the student’s enrolments.

Cross-listed courses will also include sections for each of the original courses:

  • STATS 101
  • STATS 101G
  • STATS 108
A Canvas course showing student numbers allocated to sections

Canvas Announcements are convenient way to broadcast information to all students, but did you know you can also post an announcement to students in a particular lecture, lab or tutorial stream?

Assignments, quizzes, graded discussions, modules and pages can also be allocated to various sections (and individual students) as a way of differentiating content by course stream.

When course access authorisers add additional teachers, teaching assistants (TAs) etc., to your course, they have the option to add them to the main section (the course section) or a particular section only, and to restrict their interaction to only the users within that section.

A note about marking

If you use TAs to mark assignments through SpeedGrader, and the assignments have been allocated to particular sections of students, make sure that the TAs have either:

  • Not been restricted to interact with users of a particular section only
  • Been allocated to the section that they will be marking

Failing this, a TA will not be able to access the assignment submissions for students outside of their allocated section.

Groups

Not to be confused with assignment groups (for applying ‘weightings’), Canvas Groups creates a course area in which members can communicate and collaborate privately.

Students can work collaboratively through group:

  • Pages
  • Files
  • Announcements
  • Discussions
  • Collaborations (Google Docs or Microsoft OneDrive shared documents)
  • Conferences

Groups and group sets are created by teachers:

Students are either:

Students can create their own groups (if permitted in the course settings):

They enable separate discussion forums visible only to the members and teachers:

They enable group assessment options where groups and group sets can be distributed to markers:

Grade functions are not included in group ‘spaces.’ Teachers can restrict course content to just the members of a group, but remember—students can also add, delete and edit all files and pages in this space.

Note: Unlike course discussions, lecturers do not receive notifications from group discussions. So you may want to regularly check each group to monitor progress and respond to queries.

Video: Setting up Canvas Groups.

Assigning Canvas components

This table illustrates which Canvas components can be assigned specifically to Canvas Groups, Sections, and to individual students.

Canvas component
Homepage
Syllabus page
Announcements
Modules
Pages
Files
Recordings
Outcomes
Assignments
Quizzes
Discussions
Collaboration (Google Doc)
Conference (BigBlueButton)
Appointment groups in Calendar
Assign to all students
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Assign to sections
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
yes
No
No
Yes
Assign to groups
Yes (Group area)
No
Yes (Group area)
No
Yes (Group area)
Yes (Group area)
No
No
Yes (Group assignment)
No
Yes (Group discussion, Group area)
Yes
Yes (Group area)
No
Assign to individual students
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes (graded discussion)
Yes
Yes
No

Support

Support options for Canvas are available through the Staff Service Centre or the 24-hour hotline. Please visit the learning technology support page for details.

Page updated 26/08/2025 (added a bit about marking, converted to accessible table)

Send us your feedback

What do you think about this page? Is there something missing? For enquiries unrelated to this content, please raise a ticket with the Staff Service Centre or call +64 9 923 6000.

This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.