Pronto and Canvas Groups

Managing Canvas groups in Pronto

Why would you want to manage student groups in Pronto when Pronto already creates and syncs those groups with Canvas?
The automatically synced Pronto groups don't include you, so you cannot message a group or monitor group interaction. If either of those abilities is needed, you'll need to override the Pronto groups by manually creating student groups in Pronto, adding students to each group based on their Canvas group, and then disabling the automatic sync for student groups in Pronto.

Canvas groups

When you create groups in Canvas (see Resources below for how to do that), Pronto will recognize those groups when you activate and sync your course in Pronto Course Management Links to an external site.. Every six hours or so, Pronto will automatically sync up with your Canvas course unless you turn synchronization off. Pronto syncs at the course level and at the group level.

Heads up! 

Because Pronto syncs with Canvas at the group level, if you manually create groups of the same name in Pronto in order to add yourself to the group, students will see two groups: the one Pronto creates automatically and the one you created manually. This can be very confusing for students.

Disabling automatic syncing of groups in Pronto can prevent group duplication in Pronto.

You can disable automatic syncing at the group level using Pronto Course Management for each Pronto student group you create. Read "Steps" below to learn how.

Pronto groups

Both you and your students can create groups in Pronto. These groups provide enhanced communication and interaction between students and between you and your students. For example, Pronto groups are very helpful for study groups or groups undertaking project-based learning.

If you create groups in your Canvas course, Pronto will mirror those groups when it syncs to your course. If you don't need to message groups or monitor group activity, then you don't need to do anything further. Note that you can still message the entire course group in Pronto--just not individual student groups.

Steps to override Canvas groups with Pronto groups

Open the "People" list in your Canvas course in one browser tab.

Open a new browser tab and navigate to Pronto at Cuesta Links to an external site.. This will open the Pronto messenger app in your browser.

The Pronto "Drawer" will appear on the left hand side (the list of courses where Pronto is enabled), and the message window will appear on the right. 

  1. Click the + Actions button at the bottom of the left panel.
  2. Under + Actions, select "Create Group".
  3. In the Create Group window, add the name of the group you want to create.
  4. Under Category, select your course.
  5. Click + People and in the pop-up Add Users window, click the dropdown list under "Filter" and select Group.
  6. Under Group, you'll see a list of courses. Click the course from which people should be selected (your Canvas course, for example).
  7. Once you click on a Pronto group course from the list, the people in that group will appear in the Add Users window. If the list of names is long, you can start typing either the first or last name of the person in the search box above the list, which will narrow the list to matching names.
  8. Click on the name of the person to add to the Pronto group.

Repeat steps 7 and 8 for each person to add to the group.

Repeat steps 1 to 8 to create another Pronto group and add members of that group.

Once all the Pronto groups for a course have been created, navigate to Pronto Course Management Links to an external site..

In course management, navigate to the course where you created the new groups.

Click the Groups panel link, and disable the automatic synchronization for each group you created. This will prevent Pronto from adding groups that match the group name from Canvas and will prevent Pronto from changing group membership based on Canvas group settings for those groups.

That's it!

Video to follow :)