In the Group sets, you can automatically create sub-groups for users to participate in.

Once you create groups, you can randomly assign students to those groups.

Sometimes instructors will assign students to peer review another student's work.

Canvas leverages technologies like Google Docs and EtherPad allow multiple users to work together on the same document at the same time. Collaborative documents are saved in real-time, meaning a change made by any of its users will be immediately visible to everyone.