Student Groups in Blackboard

 

Blackboard can be used for group projects and other small group activities.  Blackboard Groups allows smaller groups of students to meet online privately to share and exchange files, send group emails, participate in discussion boards, and meet to chat in virtual classrooms. 

Getting Started

Log into Blackboard, and enter your course.  After you have entered your course site;

  • Click on either the Groups button (if there is one) or find the Group Pages link under the button labeled Communication.  There are two places to access the Communication button:  in your Blackboard course menu, or in the box underneath the menu labeled “Tools.”

 

Finding Groups Pages

 

 

 

 

 

  • The group you belong to will be underlined.  You will not be able to enter any group to which you are not a member.

 

Enter Your Designated Group

 

Group Options (communication tools group members can use)

There are several group communication tools, which may or may not be available to your group depending on how your instructor set it up.  Sometimes, an instructor may only want to use the Discussion Board, in which case he or she may turn off the other communication tools.  Below is a list of all the communication tools which may be available to groups:

  • Group Discussion: Group members can have discussions with one another.  This works just like the main discussion board but is limited to group members. Note that instructors must set up the forum for students.  If there isn’t one there, contact your instructor.
  • Group Virtual Classroom: A chat tool.
  • Group File Exchange: Group members can share files.  This works similarly to the Digital Dropbox, but only has one button, the ‘Add File’ button.    Be sure to append filenames with initials to avoid overwriting each other’s files.
  • Group E-mail: Group members can send group emails.

 

The Discussion Tool is the tool most widely used in Groups.  To enter the Discussion Board, click on the link that says Group Discussion Board.

 

Entering the Discussion Board

You will now see the Discussion Board(s).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Discussion Board

Discussion Board

The Group Discussion Board functions the same way as the main Discussion Board for the course.  You can:

 

  1. Read posts (messages) by clicking on the subject line of the post.
  2. You can reply using the Reply button.
  3. If it’s an option, new threads (discussion topics) are started by clicking the Add New Thread button on the upper left. 
  4. Click on the Subscribe button to receive thread postings via email.