docs/content/education/manage-coursework-with-github-classroom/create-a-group-assignment.md

title, intro, versions, redirect_from

title	intro	versions	redirect_from
Create a group assignment	You can create a collaborative assignment for teams of students who participate in your course.	free-pro-team *	/education/manage-coursework-with-github-classroom/create-group-assignments

About group assignments

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-group-definition %} Students can work together on a group assignment in a shared repository, like a team of professional developers.

When a student accepts a group assignment, the student can create a new team or join an existing team. {% data variables.product.prodname_classroom %} saves the teams for an assignment as a set. You can name the set of teams for a specific assignment when you create the assignment, and you can reuse that set of teams for a later assignment.

{% data reusables.classroom.classroom-creates-group-repositories %}

{% data reusables.classroom.about-assignments %}

You can decide how many teams one assignment can have, and how many members each team can have. Each team that a student creates for an assignment is a team within your organization on {% data variables.product.product_name %}. The visibility of the team is secret. Teams that you create on {% data variables.product.product_name %} will not appear in {% data variables.product.prodname_classroom %}. For more information, see "About teams."

For a video demonstration of the creation of a group assignment, see "Basics of setting up {% data variables.product.prodname_classroom %}."

Prerequisites

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-classroom-prerequisite %}

Creating an assignment

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-create-the-assignment %}

Setting up the basics for an assignment

Name your assignment, decide whether to assign a deadline, define teams, and choose the visibility of assignment repositories.

• Naming an assignment
• Assigning a deadline for an assignment
• Choosing an assignment type
• Defining teams for an assignment
• Choosing a visibility for assignment repositories

Naming an assignment

For a group assignment, {% data variables.product.prodname_classroom %} names repositories by the repository prefix and the name of the team. By default, the repository prefix is the assignment title. For example, if you name an assignment "assignment-1" and the team's name on {% data variables.product.product_name %} is "student-team", the name of the assignment repository for members of the team will be assignment-1-student-team.

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-type-a-title %}

Assigning a deadline for an assignment

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-assign-a-deadline %}

Choosing an assignment type

Under "Individual or group assignment", select the drop-down menu, then click Group assignment. You can't change the assignment type after you create the assignment. If you'd rather create a individual assignment, see "Create an individual assignment."

Defining teams for an assignment

If you've already created a group assignment for the classroom, you can reuse a set of teams for the new assignment. To create a new set with the teams that your students create for the assignment, type the name for the set. Optionally, type the maximum number of team members and total teams.

{% tip %}

Tips:

• We recommend including details about the set of teams in the name for the set. For example, if you want to use the set of teams for one assignment, name the set after the assignment. If you want to reuse the set throughout a semester or course, name the set after the semester or course.

• If you'd like to assign students to a specific team, give your students a name for the team and provide a list of members.

{% endtip %}

Choosing a visibility for assignment repositories

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-choose-visibility %}

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-click-continue-after-basics %}

Adding starter code and configuring a development environment

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-intro-for-environment %}

• Choosing a template repository
• Choosing an online integrated development environment (IDE)

Choosing a template repository

By default, a new assignment will create an empty repository for each team that a student creates. {% data reusables.classroom.you-can-choose-a-template-repository %}

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-choose-template-repository %}

Choosing an online integrated development environment (IDE)

{% data reusables.classroom.about-online-ides %} For more information, see "Integrate {% data variables.product.prodname_classroom %} with an IDE."

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-choose-an-online-ide %}

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-click-continue-after-starter-code-and-feedback %}

Providing feedback

Optionally, you can automatically grade assignments and create a space for discussing each submission with the team.

• Testing assignments automatically
• Preventing changes to important files
• Creating a pull request for feedback

Testing assignments automatically

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-using-autograding %}

Preventing changes to important files

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-prevent-changes %}

Creating a pull request for feedback

{% data reusables.classroom.you-can-create-a-pull-request-for-feedback %}

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-create-review-pull-request %}

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-click-create-assignment-button %}

Inviting students to an assignment

{% data reusables.classroom.assignments-guide-invite-students-to-assignment %}

You can see the teams that are working on or have submitted an assignment in the Teams tab for the assignment. {% data reusables.classroom.assignments-to-prevent-submission %}

Next steps

• After you create the assignment and your students form teams, team members can start work on the assignment using Git and {% data variables.product.product_name %}'s features. Students can clone the repository, push commits, manage branches, create and review pull requests, address merge conflicts, and discuss changes with issues. Both you and the team can review the commit history for the repository. For more information, see "Getting started with {% data variables.product.prodname_dotcom %}," "Creating, cloning, and archiving repositories," "Using Git," and "Collaborating with issues and pull requests," and the free course on managing merge conflicts from {% data variables.product.prodname_learning %}.

• When a team finishes an assignment, you can review the files in the repository, or you can review the history and visualizations for the repository to better understand how the team collaborated. For more information, see "Visualizing repository data with graphs."

• You can provide feedback for an assignment by commenting on individual commits or lines in a pull request. For more information, see "Commenting on a pull request" and "Opening an issue from code." For more information about creating saved replies to provide feedback for common errors, see "About saved replies."

Further reading

• "Use {% data variables.product.prodname_dotcom %} in your classroom and research"
• "Connect a learning management system to {% data variables.product.prodname_classroom %}"
• Using Existing Teams in Group Assignments? in the {% data variables.product.prodname_education %} Community