This guide outlines the steps that you will need to take to set up and manage groups in your Blackboard course.
Blackboard allows you to set up groups within your course and to provide each group with a set of communication tools (file exchange, discussion board, chat and email) that are only accessible by group members. You can also assign content items to a particular group using Adaptive Release management tools.

Setting up your groups

1. Login to Blackboard. Navigate to the Control Panel of the course where you wish to set up groups then, under Users and Groups, click Groups.

Groups

2. There are two main types of group in Blackboard 9.1, the Single Group and Group Set:

Single Groups are the same as standard Groups from previous versions of Blackboard.

Group Sets allow you to bulk-create two or more similar groups. Each group will automatically have a number appended to the end of its name, saving you time and effort.

Each of these group types have their own sub-types:

Self-Enrol groups are groups which students may optionally enrol themselves in. This might be used to sign students up for optional tutorials or exam revision classes.

Manual Enrol groups are groups in which the instructor must manually decide which students go in which group.

Random Enrol groups are only available for Group Sets. These groups randomly enrol students to each group instance, increasing efficiency and removing any potential bias. However, the instructor can always override these random enrollments and move students to another group.

Note: It is possible to enrol students in more than one group.

Example 1: Self-Enrol Single Group

1. Under the Create Single Group dropdown menu, choose Self-Enrol.

2. Under Group Information, give the group a name and enter a group description as below:

3. Under Tool Availability, choose which tools you wish to enable for all students enrolled in the group. In the example below, we have removed access for students to the Campus Pack and Blackboard Scholar tools, but your groups may require different tools.

4. Under Sign-up options, give a name and description to the Sign-up Sheet, as below. You may set a group member limit in the Maximum Number of Members box.

Example 2: Random Enrol Group Set

1. Under the Create Group Set dropdown menu, choose Random Enrol.

2. Under Group Information, give the group a name and enter a group description as below:

3. Under Tool Availability, choose which tools you wish to enable for all students enrolled in the group. See Step 3 in Example 1.

4. Under Membership, you can choose what way you'd like the system to create groups. If you'd like each group to have a maximum of four students, you can select the Number of Students per Group option and enter the number '4' in the box, as demonstrated below e.g. if you have 24 students in your course and set 4 students per group, the system will create 6 groups of 4 random students.

Alternatively, you can set a maximum number of groups. This will instruct the system to divide students between these groups as evenly as possible.

You can then choose how to distribute any remaining students (if you have an uneven number of students in your class) using the Determine How to Enrol any Remaining Members options.

5. Once finished, you can click the Submit button and your groups will be created, each with a number after their name.

Assigning group resources using Adaptive Release

The Adaptive Release feature in Blackboard allows instructors to establish rules or criteria that govern when materials are made available to students. The following steps illustrate how to make a single item (in this instance an item called "Lecture 1" located in the Content area) available to a particular group (in this example the "Green Group").

1. In your course menu, click the Content link.

2. Click the dropdown tool menu next to the item you wish to use Adaptive Release with (in this case, an item called "Lecture 1"). Then click Adaptive Release.

3. Under Membership, highlight any Course Groups in the Items to Select box that you wish to access your content item. Now click on the right arrow to add it to the Selected Items box.

4. Click on the Submit button. The selected groups will now have exclusive access to the content item.

Blackboard
This page was last updated Wednesday, August 24, 2011