What are Groups in Blackboard? What are the benefits of using Groups?

Collaborative learning offers many benefits over traditional instruction. Studies show that when students work as a team, they:

• develop positive attitudes
• solve problems more effectively
• experience a greater sense of accomplishment

You can organize students into groups in Blackboard so they can interact with each other and demonstrate their knowledge while they learn to appreciate the perspectives of others.

You can create group sets to use for graded work, such as:

• assignments
• tests
• discussions

You can learn more about creating Group Discussions here, and learn more about creating Group assignments here.

 

How do I create Groups in Blackboard?

Learn more about creating groups in Blackboard by following the instructions in the video below:

 

How do I ‘Reuse’ Groups?

You can reuse an existing group set you had created previously by following the instructions below. Please note that if you make changes to a group set you’ve reused, those changes affect any group assignments and discussions based on that group set.

1. From the menu, select Groups.
   
   
2. On the Manage Groups page, select New Group Set.
   
   
3. Change the name of the group set to something meaningful.
   
4. Select the Group students > look under Reuse groups. There will be a list of groups you had created previously. Select the group you want to reuse. 
   
   
5. Optionally you can make any changes to the groups.
6. Select Save when you have finished.

Note: When you are assigning groups to an assignment, we recommend using “reuse groups” unless you have a good reason not to do so. This ensures that the group set is always visible from the Groups tab. If you select Custom, Randomly assign, or Self-enrollment from Assignment Settings, it creates a new group set not directly accessible from the Groups tab.

 

What should I know about editing or deleting groups?

Please review the following information:

• If you add or delete a group in a group set used to create a new group set, the new group set is unaffected.
• If you add or delete a group in a group set that you used to create a group assessment or discussion, that content item’s groups are updated. Edits to group titles and descriptions also affect the content items.
• If you add or delete a group in a group assessment or discussion that’s based on a course group set, the course group set is updated. Edits to group titles and descriptions also affect the course group set.
• If you delete a group set used to create a new group set, the new group set is unaffected.
• If you delete an entire group set used to create a group assessment or discussion, the content item’s groups are removed.
• If you delete a group assessment or discussion based on a course group set, the group set is unaffected.

 

Need support? Contact the Innovative Learning Support Centre. We are here to help!