1) Carmen Discussions & Groups

1.1 FAQ: “I copied my course. Why do my group discussions not work with groups anymore?”

Your discussions may still be marked as group discussions, but they are not connected to any Carmen Groups in the new term until you recreate groups and re-associate them.

What’s happening:

• If discussions were set as “group discussions” in the previous term, they retain that group discussion setting after porting.

• However, they will not be using any Carmen Groups by default in the new course.

• Create Carmen Groups under the "People" tab and indicate which group to use for the respective discussions

1.2 FAQ: “What do I need to do after copying to make group discussions work?”

Checklist / Steps:

1. Go to "People".

2. Create the Carmen Groups (group sets as needed) under the Groups tab/area.

3. Open each discussion that should be group-based.

4. Confirm it is set as a Group Discussion. (Note: You will NOT be able to edit this on discussions where students have already submitted responses.)

5. Select the appropriate Group Set / Group assignment for that discussion (so it points to the newly created groups).

6. Repeat for all group discussions in the course.

Resources:

• Creating groups:

  • How to automatically create groups in a group set

  • How to manually create groups in a group set

  • How to automatically assign students to groups

  • How to manually assign students to groups

2) Hypothes.is Group Assignments

2.1 FAQ: “Will my Hypothes.is groups carry over when I copy my course?”

• The group naming must match exactly (spelling, spacing, punctuation, capitalization—whatever your convention is).

2.2 FAQ: “What should I do if groups did NOT retain correctly?”

Troubleshooting steps:

1. Review the names of the Hypothes.is groups in the old course.

2. Compare against the new course group assignment names.

3. Rename groups/assignments to match the previous names exactly.

4. Re-check the group assignment settings to ensure they point to the correct group(s).

Resources:

• Creating Hypothesis Groups using Canvas

3) EchoVideo & Carmen Student View

FAQ: “Why does EchoVideo show an error when I use Carmen Student View?”

This is a known limitation. Carmen Student View simulates the student role, but it is not an actual registered student. EchoVideo cannot validate that “user,” so it may throw an authentication/validation error.

As long as your video is linked correctly and you can see it as an instructor, the video will work for students.

• You can check the stats on the video to see if students are accessing them to make sure they are working. 

  • Resource on viewing analytics in EchoVideo

4) CarmenCanvas Peer Review Assignments

FAQ: “What are the key things I need to know to make peer review assignments work correctly in CarmenCanvas?”

What’s happening:

• Peer reviews (manual or automatic) only become visible to students after the assignment due date.

• The peer review assignment date must be later than the due date; otherwise automated distribution may fail. A small buffer is recommended. 

• If the assignment availability window extends past the due date, students can overwrite submissions. To prevent this, set availability to end at the due date. 

• For Group Assignments, automatic peer‑review distribution does not account for group membership, so reviews may be assigned across groups.

Checklist / Steps:

1. Set the assignment due date, then adjust the peer review assignment date/time to occur afterward.

2. Set the availability end time to be the same as the due date to avoid having users be able to overwrite their submissions.

3. Choose manual or automatic peer‑review assignment and configure the number of reviews if using automatic assignment. 

4. Enable anonymous reviews if desired.

Resources:

• Peer Review Assignment Canvas Guide for Instructors