Go to Settings in your course, then select Sections from the options across the top of Canvas.
Your class will have, at minimum, one section already. Beneath that section is a text entry field next to the button Add Section. In my example, I named the section Essays and Discussions. You’ll want to have a section for each kind of differentiated assignment you’re giving.
Next is to add the students to the correct section. The next set of steps assumes that you have a large number of students to assign to sections. Go to Grades and click Export in the upper right, the CSV File. This will give you a spreadsheet of your gradebook. Column C in that spreadsheet will be the usernames of your students.
Go to People in your course navigation and click +People. Choose Login ID in the window that appears. Then, copy and paste student login id’s from the the CSV we exported. You can copy large portions of the column at once or paste individual names. (You can randomize the student name list in Excel via this method: https://www.excel-easy.com/examples/randomize-list.html) Each name should be on a separate line. Confirm that it says “Student” in the Role field, and the correct section under Section. Click Next to go to a confirmation screen.
Finally, we’re going to assign an assignment to one of these sections. Go to an assignment and click Edit. Scroll all the way to the bottom where it says Assign To. Click the x next to “Everyone” and then select the section that should be allowed to see this assignment.
Click Save. You will likely get a warning message that not everyone in your class has been assigned this item. Since that’s what we actually want to do, click Continue.
Your assignment is now assigned to a particular section.