How do I create a Google Drive collaboration as a student?
You can use Google Drive to create a collaboration with a Google Document, Spreadsheet, or Presentation. You can select individual users, groups, or both as part of a collaboration.
Google Docs allows you to add up to 50 users per collaboration, and all users can view and edit a document at the same time. However, a Google file may be shared with up to 200 email addresses including viewers, commenters, and editors.
Notes:
- This lesson is for creating a collaboration in a course; when collaborations are created in a group, only group members and users with instructor-based roles (including TAs) can be selected as collaborators. However, your instructor can always view your collaboration.
- Creating a collaboration is a course permission. If you cannot create a collaboration in a course, your institution has restricted this feature.
- When creating a collaboration you cannot link to a previously created collaboration.
- Google Drive collaborations are separate from Google Docs collaborations.
- Once you invite a user to a collaboration, the collaboration is available to the user in the user's Google Drive. Uninviting the user or deleting the collaboration does not remove access to the collaboration once a user has been added.
- Once a you have created a Google Drive collaboration, only users invited to participate in the collaboration may access and edit the document. The document's share settings cannot be modified from within the Drive document. The only way to add a collaborator is by adding them to the collaboration in Canvas.
Open Collaborations
In Course Navigation, click the Collaborations link.
Start a New Collaboration
Click the Start a new collaboration button.
Authorize Google
If you have not previously authorized Google Drive access in Canvas, you may be prompted to authorize access. Click the Authorize button.
Select Type
In the Kind drop-down menu, select the type of collaboration you want to create. You can create a Document, Spreadsheet, or Presentation.
Add Details
To create a name for the collaboration, click the Name header [1]. The page will create a text field for you to enter the name [2].
To create a description for the collaboration, click the Description header [3]. The page will create a text field for you to enter the description [4].
Add People
The collaboration defaults to the People tab. If you want to collaborate with individual people in your course, click the name of a user you want to add to the collaboration [1]. The user's name will move to the right side of the window [2].
Add as many users as necessary.
Notes:
- Your instructor can view and access all collaborations added in the course, even if you do not add your instructor to the collaboration directly.
- Collaborators must have a Google account and will need to authorize Canvas before they can view the collaboration.
- You can add multiple groups to a collaboration, but all groups will collaborate in the same document. For group-specific collaborations, consider creating a new collaboration for each group or creating a group collaboration from groups.
Remove Collaborators
To remove a collaborator, click the Remove icon [1]. To remove all users, click the Remove All link [2].
Add Groups
You can also create collaborations with groups. To select an entire group, click the Groups tab [1]. Select the group(s) you want to add to the collaboration [2].
Notes:
- You can select individual users as well as a group in a collaboration.
- Collaborators must have Google account and will need to authorize Canvas before they can view the collaboration.
Submit Collaboration
Click the Submit button.
View Collaboration
View your collaboration. To edit the collaboration, click the Edit icon [1]. To delete the collaboration, click the Delete icon [2].
