Groups
Groups A group is a subset of students enrolled in a Blackboard course who collaborate on course work, share files, and communicate via e-mail. Once groups are created they can be applied to other tools within the system such as blobs, wikis, assignments and discussions. How to Create Groups 1. From the Control Panel, select Users and Groups 2. Select Groups 3. Create Single Group (create one group of students at a time) or Create Group Set (multiple groups of students) 4. Name the group. This gives all groups the same name and differentiates them by number. 5. Set Group Availability 6. Set Tool Availability (check only those you need for now to avoid confusing students; you can add back tools later). Note: Group tools must be accessed via Groups, not via Tools. Created by brownt Updated 6.23.15 by brownt Page 1 of 7 7. Determine whether you will allow Personalization. This allows users to add personal modules to the group – only the group member adding them can view them. 8. Select Membership settings. Remember to enroll yourself in each group. a. Self Enroll - Members enroll themselves i. Type the Name of Sign-up Sheet. ii. Enter a Maximum Number of Members. iii. Select any other Sign-up options you want to include. iv. Students will access groups in which they self enrolled via a Group link in the navigation menu. See “Course Management > Setting up Your Blackboard Course” for information on creating a tool link in the navigation menu. v. Note: students cannot unenroll themselves from groups Created by brownt Updated 6.23.15 by brownt Page 2 of 7 b. Manual Enroll - instructor selects group members i. Select the students from the Items to Select box and click the rightpointing arrow to add the selected names to the Selected Items box c. Random Enroll (available for Group Sets) – Blackboard determines groups i. Enter the Number of Students per Group to create or the Number of Groups. ii. Select an option under Determine How to Enroll any Remaining Members in the groups. Created by brownt Updated 6.23.15 by brownt Page 3 of 7 9. Click Submit 10. Groups or group sets appear on the Groups page found under Course Tools. View group properties and members by clicking the link for the group. Created by brownt Updated 6.23.15 by brownt Page 4 of 7 How to Add a Group Link in a Content Area When you add a link to a specific group in a content area, all students will see the link, however, if a student is not a member of the group, he or she will not be able to access the group homepage. 1. In the content area select Tools, Groups 2. Create a link to the groups page or to a group or group set 3. Select a Name for the link 4. Set Availability dates 5. Click Submit Created by brownt Updated 6.23.15 by brownt Page 5 of 7 How it Looks to Students 1. Students will access groups under the Groups link in the navigation menu if the group was set up as self-enroll. Other groups will be found under My Groups at the bottom of the navigation menu. Clicking the name of the group will expand the menu of tools available to the group. 2. If you created a link to the group in the content area, a link will appear with the group icon 3. If students are using group tools such as a group discussion board, it must be accessed from within the group, not on the main tool page How to Create a Group Assignment You can create a group assignment and release it to one or more groups within your course. Each group submits one collaborative assignment and all members receive the Created by brownt Updated 6.23.15 by brownt Page 6 of 7 same grade. You can create a single assignment and assign it to all groups, or create several unique assignments and assign them to individual groups. Only you and the members in a group have access to the assignment. Note: Groups must exist prior to creating group assignments for them. 1. See “Adding Content to Course >Assignments” for more information on how to set up an assignment. 2. In the Recipients section, select the Groups of Students option. 3. In the Items to Select box, select the group or groups. 4. Click Submit. How to Grade a Group Assignment 1. See “Grade Center>Using the Grade Center” for instructions on how to access an assignment from the Full Grade Center or Needs Grading menu 2. If you are accessing the Needs Grading page a. Click the item’s contextual menu and click Grade All Users or b. Click Group name in User Attempt column 3. If you are accessing the assignment from the Full Grade Center a. Access the group assignment column’s contextual menu and click Grade Attempts or b. Locate any group member’s cell for the group assignment containing an exclamation mark. Point to the cell to access the contextual menu. Click the Group Attempt. 4. The group grade you assigned is added automatically to each group member’s cell in the Grade Center, even if a member did not contribute. Additional Resources: Blackboard Help https://help.blackboard.com Created by brownt Updated 6.23.15 by brownt Page 7 of 7
