This Information is Intended for: Faculty, Staff, Teaching Assistants
Last Updated: September 14, 2020
Average Rating: Not Rated
What are Blackboard groups?
A group is a subset of students enrolled in a Blackboard course. Each group gets its own workspace, where members may privately collaborate on projects, share files, and communicate via e-mail. Only Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Course Builders may create groups.
Which tools are available for group members?
Instructors may choose any or all of the following tools to be made available to group members:
- Blogs (can be graded)
- Collaboration (chat room and virtual classroom)
- Discussion Board
- File Exchange
- Journals (can be graded)
- Tasks
- Wikis (can be graded)
Where can I access Groups?
Instructors can access Groups by scrolling down to the Control Panel, clicking on Users and Groups and then clicking Groups.
Students can access Groups by clicking on Tools in their Course Menu or see a list of all groups they have access to at the bottom of their menu.
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Group Resources
| Creating and Managing Groups |
Steps for creating and managing groups:
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| Best Practices on Creating Groups | Discusses the different types of Groups and enrollment methods. |
| Creating Group Assignments | Creating assignments for your groups that allow you to evaluate the group as whole instead of individual participants. |
Import/Export Groups
Instructors can export a CSV (comma-separated value) file containing their existing groups and group members, reorganize as needed offline, and then import them.
To export a group:
1. Go into your Control Panel and select Users and Groups
2. Expand the Users and Groups menu and select Groups
3. In the upper right-hand corner, select Export.
4. After clicking Export and selecting your settings, you will receive a message at the top of Blackboard "his action has been queued. An email will be sent when the process is complete."
5. You will receive an email via your SBU email account that will contain a ZIP file to download. Click on the download here link. The .CSV file will download and appear at the bottom of your internet browser.
6. After it has downloaded at the bottom of your browser, you can then click on it to open it up in Microsoft Excel.