How does a group assignment work?

Instructors can set up a group assignment where students in the group submit once and the instructor can enter a single grade for all group members. This article will answer frequently asked questions about group assignments.

For more information on setting up a group assignment, see How do I add an assignment?

For more information on creating groups, see How do I create groups?

How do students submit their work?

In a group assignment, one student submits on behalf of the group by following the steps in How do I submit an assignment? When a grade is assigned to a group submission, each student in the group receives the same grade.

If resubmissions are allowed, any of the group members can modify the first group member's submission and resubmit it.

Note: An individual student's grade can be overriden. For more information, see the Assign grade overrides step in the How do I grade group assignments? section below.

What do I do if a student is a member of multiple groups for an assignment?

A student cannot be in multiple groups associated with the same group assignment. If a student is in multiple groups for the same assignment, any student who tries to access it will be presented with an alert that displays which student(s) are in multiple groups. Follow the steps below to remove a student from the additional group.

Go to Site Settings.

Select Site Settings from the tool menu in your site.

Select Manage Groups.

Select the group to remove the student from.

Select the group that you wish to remove the student from in the Group Title column.

Select group members.

  1. In the Assigned Members list, select the name(s) of the site participant(s) to remove from the group.
  2. Select the left arrow (<) button under Membership controls to unassign the selected members or roles to the group.
  3. Once you have removed any students who are also members of another group, select the Save group button.

Tip: You may select several members in the Assigned Members list to move as follows:

  • With a mouse:
    • To select several consecutive names, click the first name in the list to add. Then hold down the Shift key on your keyboard while clicking the last name in the list to add.
    • To select select several non-consecutive names, hold down the Ctrl key (on a PC) or the Command key (on a Mac) while clicking each name.
  • With a keyboard:
    • To select several consecutive names, select the first name in the list to add using the up and down arrow keys. Then hold down the Shift key and use the arrow keys to navigate down the list of names until you have selected the last name in the list to add.
    • To select several non-consecutive names, select a name in the list to add using the up and down arrow keys. Then hold down the Ctrl key (on a PC) or the Command key (on a Mac) and use the arrow keys to navigate to another name to add. Select the next name with the spacebar.

What happens if group membership changes?

A student is added to a group.

If a student is added to a group, they would have the ability to submit on behalf of the group. If the group has already submitted the assignment or been graded, the student would be able to see that group's submission, grades and comments. The student would also receive the same grade as the rest of the group for any graded assignments, including assignments graded prior to them joining the group. If the group is allowed to resubmit, the new group member would be able to resubmit.

A student is removed from a group.

If a student is removed from a group, they would lose access to any drafts, submissions, comments, and grades from their previous group. The group members of the previous group would still be able to access any drafts or submissions saved by the student who was removed from the group.

How do I grade group assignments?

Go to Assignments.

Select Assignments from the tool menu in your site.

Select the assignment to grade.

Select Grade under the assignment's title.  

Enable or disable File Preview.

File Preview is a feature in Assignments that displays submissions, whether it be an uploaded file or work done inline, and allows you to grade them all in the same window. For information about grading an assignment using File Preview, see the help article: How do I grade an assignment using File Preview?

The steps below describe how to grade a group assignment with File Preview disabled.

Tip: You can assign grade overrides to individual students in a group assignment. If you are assigning a grade override, verify that File Preview is off. To turn it off, select the slider and it will change from On to Off. Find more information about grade overrides in the Assign grade overrides step below.

Select a group.

Under the Group column, select the name of a group. 

In addition to the list of groups, you will see the Submitted Date, Status, Grade, and Released columns. Sort the page display by any of these columns by selecting the column's title.  

Grading Navigation Bar

Navigate Submissions allows you to navigate between the groups' submissions for the assignment.  Options include:

  1. Previous: Go to the previous group's grade page.
  2. Previous Ungraded: Go to the previous ungraded group's submission.
  3. Return to List: Go to the list of all groups.
  4. Next Ungraded: Go to the next ungraded group's submission.
  5. Next: Go to the next group's grade page.
  6. Navigate between students with submissions only: Allows you to navigate between only the groups who have submitted.

Note: Selecting any of the options above that take you to a different page (options 1-5) will save changes you have made on the current group's grade page.

View group submission.

The group submission will be displayed as follows:   

  1. The group's name, group members, submission date, graded status, and History.
  2. Next, under Assignment Submission, the group's inline submission text (if applicable) is shown.
  3. Under Submitted Attachments, any attached files will appear.  The file name as well as the the file size and submission date are also shown.  

Note: To view group file attachments, you will need to click on the file name to download and open the file.  

Enter grade.

Enter the score for the group's assignment in the grade entry text box provided.

Note: If the iRubric tool is included in your UVACollab site, a rubric cannot be used to enter the grade for a group assignment.

Assign grade overrides. (Optional)

You can assign grade overrides to individual students in a group assignment. This may be helpful if you add a student who joined the class later to an existing group with a submission.

  1. Select the Assign Grade Overrides checkbox.
  2. Assign a grade override to a student by entering a new score in the Override grade with: field under the student's name.
  3. Leave the Override grade with: field blank for a student to give them the assigned grade for the group in the Grade field above.

Note: You can only assign grade overrides with File Preview turned off. Go to the Enable or disable File Preview step above to disable File Preview.

Enter instructor comments. (Optional)

To include additional comments along with the grade, you may enter them into the Rich-Text Editor under the Instructor Summary Comments section. These comments will be visible to all group members.

Return an attachment. (Optional)

To return a file attachment to all group members with additional feedback, select the Add Attachments button to browse for and select a file.

Override Accept Until Date. (Optional)

To give a specific group a date extension on their first submission to the assignment:

  1. Select the Override Accept Until Date checkbox.
  2. The assignment's Accept Until date will be automatically filled in the Accept Until date field that appears. Edit this date as needed.

Note: If the group already submitted the assignment, you may allow them to modify their submission by following the step below to allow resubmission.

Allow resubmissions. (Optional)

To allow the group to resubmit the assignment:

  1. Check the Allow Resubmission box.
  2. Specify the number of resubmissions allowed and the date until which they will be accepted.

Note: If you allowed resubmissions on the assignment when you created it, the Number of resubmissions allowed and Accept Until date will be automatically filled with the assignment's resubmission information. However, you may override the default settings for a specific group by changing the information on the group's grade page for the assignment.

Save the grade and other changes.

If you are finished grading and would like to release the information to all group members, select the Save and Release to Student button.   

Alternatively, to save the grade but wait and release it to all group members at a later date, you may select the Save and Don't Release to Student button.

Tip: Some faculty prefer to release all of the grades at one time when they have finished entering grades for the whole class.