Bb Groups

2nd July 2021

Adding a New Group to an Existing Group Set

The group set allows you to set up a number of groups all at once. You can edit these sets after they have been created by following the instructions below.

From your course Control Panel expand the Users and Groups section and select Groups.

Select Group Sets the top right corner of the groups screen.

Identify the Group Set you wish to edit and click on the action button (downward pointing arrow), which will appear when you hover the mouse beside the Group Set name.

Select Edit Group Set Membership

You will be presented with a list of the Groups in this Group Set. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the “Add Group” button.
Select this button to create a new Group to be added to the bottom of the list.

You can rename the Group and add users manually or batch import users with a comma separated file.

Note: In groups created with Randomized enrolments, students will not be reassigned automatically into any new groups created.

14th January 2016

Adding members to existing groups

Matthew Deeprose Bb Groups, Bb User admin, Blackboard 0 Comments

1. From your course Control Panel expand the Users and Groups section and click on Groups.

2. Find the group to which you wish to add users, hover your mouse on the action button that appears beside it and choose Edit Group.

3.Scroll down to the Membership section and click on Add Users.

4. Tick the box/es beside the users you wish to add. When you have finished click on Submit.

5. Click on submit again to finish.

25th September 2015

How to set up Group Wikis in Blackboard

Matthew Deeprose Bb Groups, Bb Wikis, Blackboard 0 Comments

Group Wikis can be enabled when creating a Blackboard group. See the guide under what’s related for more information on setting up groups. If you have already made a group and want to enable a wiki for that group follow the guide below.

Be aware the group wikis are not private to the group unless chosen specifically.

Find the group

1. Find the group for whom you wish to enable wikis in the Groups area (found via Control Panel -> User and Groups -> Groups), click on the Modify button beside the group and click on Edit.

Tools

2. Under the Tool Availability section tick Wikis.

3. If you wish you can choose to have a Grade Centre column added for this wiki.

4. Click on Submit.

How to access

Group Wikis can be found in the following ways.

1) From the general wikis area accessed via Control Panel -> Course Tools -> Wikis. (This applies to Instructors only.)

How to access (2)

2) From the Control Panel – Users and Groups – Groups menu. (This applies to Instructors only.)

How to access (3)

3) Students and instructors who have been made members of the group can access the wiki also in this way.

Change wiki options?

Note that if you wish to change the behaviour of the wiki a number of options are available. To get to these options follow these instructions:

1) From Control Panel expand Course Tools and click on Wikis.

Edit Properties

2. Identify the Group Wiki you wish to change and click on the Modify button beside it and choose Edit Properties.

Options

3. Scroll down to section 3 where the following options are available:

Student Access: whether students are able to edit the wiki or not.
Student Comment access: whether students are able to add comments or not.
Viewers: whether non group members can view the wiki or solely group members.

25th September 2015

Group Blogs

Matthew Deeprose Bb Blogs, Bb Groups, Blackboard 0 Comments

Group Blogs can be enabled when creating a Blackboard group. See the guide for more information on setting up groups. If you have already made a group and want to enable a blog for that group follow the guide below.

Be aware the group blogs are not private to the group. Any other course user may read other group’s blog entries and make comments.

Groups

1. Find the group for whom you wish to enable blogs in the Groups area (found via Control Panel -> User and Groups -> Groups), click on the Modify button beside the group and click on Edit.

Tool Availability

2. Under the Tool Availability section tick Blogs.

3. If you wish you can choose to have a Grade Centre column added for this blog.

4. Click on Submit.

Finding the blogs

Group Blogs can be found in the following ways.

1) From the general blogs area accessed via Control Panel -> Course Tools -> Blogs.

Finding the blogs (2)

2) From the Control Panel – Users and Groups – Groups menu.

Finding the blogs (3)

3) Students and instructors who have been made members of the group can access the blog also in this way.

25th September 2015

Group Journals in Blackboard

Matthew Deeprose Bb Blogs, Bb Groups, Blackboard 0 Comments

Group Journals can be enabled when creating a Blackboard group. See the guide under what’s related for more information on setting up groups. If you have already made a group and want to enable a journal for that group follow the guide below.

Be aware the group journals should be private to the group. However the extra step detailed at the end of this guide is necessary to achieve this.

Groups

1. Find the group for whom you wish to enable journals in the Groups area (found via Control Panel -> User and Groups -> Groups), click on the Modify button beside the group and click on Edit.

Tool Availability

2. Under the Tool Availability section tick Journals.

3. If you wish you can choose to have a Grade Centre column added for this journal.

4. Click on Submit.

Finding Group Journals

Group Journals can be found in the following ways.

1) From the general journals area, accessed via Control Panel > Course Tools > Journals. (Instructors only)

Finding Group Journals (2)

2) From the Control Panel > Users and Groups > Groups menu. (Instructors only)

Finding Group Journals (3)

3) Students and instructors who have been made members of the group can access the journal also in this way via the Groups menu.

Make Journals private

To ensure that students who are not in a group cannot see that group’s posts do the following.

1. From the Control Panel, expand Course Tools and click on Journals.

grpjournalpriv1

2. Find the group journal in question and click on the action button beside it and click on Edit from the menu that appears.

grpjournalpriv2

3. Scroll down to Journal Settings and untick “Permit Members to View Journal”.

grpjournalpriv3

4. Click on Submit

Repeat the above process for any group journals where you wish for them to be private from the other groups.

25th September 2015

Using Grade Centre Smart Views

Matthew Deeprose Bb Assessment, Bb Grade Centre, Bb Groups, Blackboard 0 Comments

Smart Views are views of the Grade Centre based on certain user selectable criteria. Once smart views have been set up they may be used at any time within your course’s Grade Centre.

To set up and use a Smart View follow these instructions.

Note: an error has been reported within the Blackboard community. If a Smart View is created that is based on membership of a group, or by selecting students, and a student within that criteria drops the course, meaning that they are disabled from the course by the snapshot, then the Smart View will fail. If this Smart View has been made a default view of the Grade Centre then you will not be able to get into the Grade Centre. Therefore do not make a Smart View you create the default view for the Grade Centre.

Grade Centre

1. From your course Control Panel open the Grade Centre.

Manage

2. Hover your mouse pointer over Manage, a menu will appear, choose Smart Views.

Smart Views

3. You will be presented with a list of any existing Smart Views, which you may edit, copy, delete, or make a favourite.

Note that “favourite” smart views will appear as short cuts within the Grade Centre menu within the Control Panel.

4. To create a new Smart View click on Create Smart View.

Name and Description

5. Enter a name and description for your Smart View.

6. If you wish you may set it to be a favourite smart view. Favourites will appear within the Control Panel so they are easy to get to.

Type of Smart View

7. Choose the type of Smart View you wish to set up:

Group
A group smart view will show selected groups that have been set up in your course.

Benchmark
A benchmark view will show a view based on performance in a single gradable item.

Focus
A focus view will show selected users only.

Investigate
An Investigate smart view will show data based on a complex query of student and grade centre column attributes.

8. Select the criteria to be used by the view. This will vary depending on the type of view you have chosen to create.

Data

9. Choose which data should be shown in the view by selecting Filter Results from the dropdown menu.

10. Click on Submit to finish.

Using Smart Views

11. To view a Smart View from the Grade Centre, click on the Filter button, hover the mouse over Current View, and choose the Smart View you wish. Do not set a custom smart view to be the default view – if a student within that view drops from the course the view will become inaccessible and you will be locked out of the Grade Centre. Instead make the Smart View a favourite.

25th September 2015

Creating Blackboard Random Enrol Group Sets

Matthew Deeprose Bb Groups, Bb User admin, Blackboard 0 Comments

The group set allows you to set up a number of groups all at once.

The random enrol option allows you to quickly set up a number of groups and randomly assign students to the groups. You are able to set it to put all students into a specific number of groups, or put all the students into groups containing a specified number of members.

Control Panel

1. From your course Control Panel expand the Users and Groups section and click on Groups.

Group Set

2. Hover your mouse over Create Group Set and choose Random Enrol.

Details

3. Enter a Name for the group. Later, depending on how many groups you request are created, Blackboard will add a number onto the name you choose. For example if you just enter “Group” and later choose to make 5 groups, Blackboard will call them Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, and Group 5.

4. Enter a description if you wish.

5. If you wish for students to access the group, make sure Group Available is set to Yes. If you only wish to use the group for your own purposes such as Adaptive Release or to email groups of students then do not make the group available.

Tools

6. Choose which tools should be made available for the group to use.

Personalisation

7. If you wish to allow the members of the group a small degree of freedom to personalise their group space select Allow Personalisation.

Smart View

8. If you wish to have a smart view for the group shown in the Grade Centre tick this box.

Number of Groups

9. Now decide whether you wish to have a certain Number of Students per Group, or a certain Number of Groups.

10. Decide how any remaining users should be distributed, this can be amongst the groups, into an additional group, or you can elect to assign them manually.

11. Click on Submit to finish.

12. If you elected to assign the remaining members manually you will be able to do so in the next screen. Otherwise Blackboard will go with your selected options and return you to the groups screen.

25th September 2015

Creating Blackboard Self–Enrol Group Sets

Matthew Deeprose Bb Groups, Bb User admin, Blackboard 0 Comments

The group set allows you to set up a number of groups all at once.

This guide explains how this works for self enrol groups. It assumes that you have experience with how self enrol groups work. For more information about self enrolment groups check the separate guide.

Note that when you make a self enrol group set students can only join one of the groups.

Users and Groups

1. From your course Control Panel expand the Users and Groups section and click on Groups.

Group Sets

2. Hover your mouse over Create Group Set and choose Self-Enrol.

Name

3. Enter a name for the group set. Blackboard will take this name and then add a number to it automatically depending on the number of groups you choose to set up. For example if you just enter “Group” and later choose to make 5 groups, Blackboard will call them Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, and Group 5.

4. Enter a description if you wish. This description will be repeated for each group, so is not very useful.

How does it look?

This screenshot shows how the settings chosen in the previous slide look from the student’s point of view.

First from the groups page it shows the name chosen and the description.

How does it look? (2)

Then once the student has clicked to view the sign up sheets they see the list of groups that use the name you chose, plus the number. The description is shown again.

Option

5. If you wish for students to access the group, make sure Group Visible is set to Yes. If you only wish to use the group for your own purposes such as Adaptive Release or to email groups of students then do not make the group available.

Sign-Up Sheet Only means that the students can sign up to join the group, but none of the group functionality will be made available to them and they will not be able to go into their “group area”. This means they will not have a reminder of which group they have signed up to because it will not appear in their group list below the course menu. They will not be able to see who else is in the group after signing up to it even if you have enabled this option below. Therefore in most circumstances it is better not to use this option and instead make the group available.

Tools

6. Choose which tools should be made available for the group to use.

Note: Content Market Tools, and Academic Materials refer to publisher integrations set up for a small number of courses and should usually be left un-ticked.

Personalisation?

7. If you wish to allow the members of the group a small degree of freedom to personalise their group space select Allow Personalisation.

Instructions

8. Enter a sign up sheet name and instructions. The Sign Up Sheet Name and Instructions are shown when students are choosing which sign up group to join.

9. Set the following options according to your preference.

Maximum Number of Members
Set the maximum number of users who may be members of this group.

Show Members
If you would like to let users see who else is in the group before they join tick this box.

Allow Students to sign up from the Groups listing page
If you only want students to be able to sign up at any time from the Groups area tick this box. However if you want to restrict the availability of when students can sign up do not tick this box. You would then need to add a link to this group from a content area. This can be done from any content area by going to Add Interactive Tool and then choosing Group.

How it looks

The image above shows how the Sign Up Sheet Name and Instructions are shown to the student. You can see them at the top of the screenshot above.

Number of groups

10. Enter the number of groups that you wish to make.

Smart Views

11. If you wish to have a smart view for the group shown in the Grade Centre tick this box.

12. Click Submit.

Success!

12. Your groups will be created.

25th September 2015

Manual Enrol Groups in Blackboard

Matthew Deeprose Bb Groups, Bb User admin, Blackboard 0 Comments

A “manual enrol group” is a Blackboard group into which you the instructor manually add users. You say who should be in the group.

Users and Groups

1. From your course Control Panel expand the Users and Groups section and click on Groups.

Manual Enrol

2. Hover your mouse over Create and choose Manual Enrol from the Single Group section.

Details

3. Enter a Name for the group.

4. Enter a Description for the group if you wish.

Tools

6. Choose which tools should be made available for the group to use.

Note: Content Market Tools, and Academic Materials refer to publisher integrations set up for a small number of courses and should usually be left un-ticked.

Allow Personalisation

7. If you wish to allow the members of the group a small degree of freedom to personalise their group space select Allow Personalisation.

Smart View

8. If you wish to have a smart view for the group shown in the Grade Centre tick this box.

Add Users

9. To add users to the group click on the Add Users button.

Select Members

10.Place ticks beside the users you wish to add to the group and then click on Submit.

11. Click on Submit to finish.

The Group

12. The group has now been set up. Clicking on the Modify button allows you to

Open
Clicking Open will take you into the Group’s area.

Edit
Allows you to go back and Edit the group settings.

Email
Allows you to choose to send an email to members of the group.

Delete
Allows you to delete the group and all related files.

Create Smart View
You may create a Grade Centre Smart View for this group by choosing this option.

13. You may wish to add a group section to your course menu to make it easy for you and your students to find the groups area. To do so check the guide on our web site.

25th September 2015

How to set up a Self Enrol Group in Blackboard

Matthew Deeprose Bb Groups, Bb User admin, Blackboard 0 Comments

A “self enrol group” is a Blackboard group into which students may enrol themselves.

Note that because Blackboard only shows a group listing to members of that group, once the membership list is full the group is not visible to non-members. In the eyes of non members it “disappears”.

Users and Groups

1. From your course Control Panel expand the Users and Groups section and click on Groups.

Self-Enrol

2. Hover your mouse over Create and choose Self-Enrol from the Single Group section.

Details

3. Enter a Name for the group.

4. Enter a Description for the group.

5. If you wish for students to access the group, make sure ‘Group is visible to students’ is set to Yes. If you only wish to use the group for your own purposes such as Adaptive Release or to email groups of students then do not make the group available in this way.

Sign-Up Sheet Only means that the students can sign up to join the group, but none of the group functionality will be made available to them and they will not be able to go into their “group area”. They will not be able to see who else is in the group even if you have enabled this option below. Therefore in most circumstances it is better not to use this option and instead make the group available / visible.

Tools

6. Choose which tools should be made available for the group to use.

Note: Content Market Tools, and Academic Materials refer to publisher integrations set up for a small number of courses and should usually be left un-ticked.

Allow Personalisation?

7. If you wish to allow the members of the group a small degree of freedom to personalise their group space, select Allow Personalisation.

Sign Up Instructions

8. Enter the name of the sign up sheet and also some instructions.

When students sign up to join a group they will first see the group in the groups area, provided you have made a link to it in your course menu or added a link to the groups area in a content area. They will then see a button labelled “Sign Up”. They are then shown the Sign up sheet name and instructions, as well as who else is in the group (if you have allowed this below) and how many members are allowed in the group. They can then click on Sign Up again to confirm they wish to join the group.

It is important to put meaningful information that students will understand when setting up self-enrol groups.

Once the group is full, its existence will only be shown to members of the group. Non-members will not see the group or know that it exists in your course.

Options

9. Set the following options according to your preference.

Maximum Number of Members
Set the maximum number of users who may be members of this group.

Show Members
If you would like to let users see who else is in the group before they join tick this box.

Allow Students to sign up from the Groups listing page
If you want students to be able to sign up at any time from the Groups area tick this box. However if you want to restrict the availability of when students can sign up do not tick this box. You would then need to add a link to this group from a content area. This can be done from any content area by going to Add Interactive Tool and then choosing Group.

Smart View

10. If you wish to have a smart view for the group shown in the Grade Centre tick this box.

11. Click Submit to finish.

Groups

12. The group has now been set up. Clicking on the Modify button allows you to:

Open
Clicking Open will take you into the Group’s area.

Edit
Allows you to go back and Edit the group settings.

Email
Allows you to send an email to members of the group.

Delete
Allows you to delete the group and all related files.

Create Smart View
Allows you to create a Grade Centre Smart View for this group.

13. You may wish to add a group section to your course menu to make it easy for you and your students to find the groups area. Instructions on how to do this can be found in our online guide.

When students sign up for a group the page will look like this: