{"id":545,"date":"2014-03-28T11:09:28","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T11:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/?p=545"},"modified":"2014-04-28T07:27:39","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T07:27:39","slug":"first-look-improved-blackboard-group-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/2014\/03\/28\/first-look-improved-blackboard-group-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"First look: Improved Blackboard Group Administration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When we<a title=\"Blackboard Summer Downtime 2014\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/2014\/02\/07\/blackboard-summer-downtime-2014\/\"> upgrade Blackboard this summer<\/a>, there will be a number of valuable improvements to the Groups feature. The Groups feature allows instructors to place students into groups and give them a dedicated group area where they may use blog, journal, wiki, calendar, task management, file exchange, and discussion board functionality. Adaptive Release rules can be set so that groups see different content within their Blackboard course based on which group they belong to.<\/p>\n<p>With the upgrade new functionality will be available that improves the administration of groups for Instructors.<\/p>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"#grouptools\">Easily add \/ remove group tools<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"#export\">Export Group and Group Membership Lists<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"#import\">Import Groups and Group Membership Lists<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"#smart\">Create Smart Views from Groups<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"#hol\">Holistic view of which students are in which groups<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h1 id=\"grouptools\">Easily add \/ remove group tools<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/chngrptls2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-542\" alt=\"chngrptls2\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/chngrptls2.png\" width=\"537\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/chngrptls2.png 537w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/chngrptls2-300x221.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 537px) 100vw, 537px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using a matrix interface instructors may tick and cross tools that they wish to be made available to groups in their course.<br \/>\n<a href=\"#top\">&#8220;Back to Top&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h1 id=\"export\">Export Group and Group Memberships Lists<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-543\" alt=\"expgrp1\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp1.png\" width=\"611\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp1.png 611w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp1-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 611px) 100vw, 611px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-544\" alt=\"expgrp2\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp2.png\" width=\"371\" height=\"246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp2.png 371w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp2-300x198.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 371px) 100vw, 371px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Instructors may export their group details to Excel Files.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp6.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-536\" alt=\"expgrp6\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp6.png\" width=\"479\" height=\"141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp6.png 479w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/expgrp6-300x88.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#top\">&#8220;Back to Top&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h1 id=\"import\">Import Groups and Group Membership Lists<\/h1>\n<p>Likewise instructors may import group members via a CSV file. \u00a0This is much faster than picking students from a long list.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-537\" alt=\"impgrp2\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp2.png\" width=\"316\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp2.png 316w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp2-300x269.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-538\" alt=\"impgrp3\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp3.png\" width=\"486\" height=\"638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp3.png 486w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp3-228x300.png 228w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 486px) 100vw, 486px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The CSV file may be easily created using Notepad or Excel:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp6.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-539\" alt=\"impgrp6\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp6.png\" width=\"324\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp6.png 324w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/impgrp6-300x208.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#top\">&#8220;Back to Top&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h1 id=\"smart\">Create Smart Views from Groups<\/h1>\n<p>Grade Centre <a title=\"http:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/isolutions\/computing\/elearn\/blackboard\/smartviews.html\" href=\"http:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/isolutions\/computing\/elearn\/blackboard\/smartviews.html\">Smart Views<\/a> allow instructors to quickly filter their view of their Blackboard course&#8217;s Grade Centre so that only a subset of students are shown. \u00a0A new feature has been added to create Grade Centre Smart Views based on group membership. \u00a0When taken along with the ability to import group members it will now be easy to create smart views of personal tutor groups.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/smrtvwgrp2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-540\" alt=\"smrtvwgrp2\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/smrtvwgrp2.png\" width=\"398\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/smrtvwgrp2.png 398w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/smrtvwgrp2-300x289.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#top\">&#8220;Back to Top&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h1 id=\"hol\">Holistic view of which students are in which groups<\/h1>\n<p>Currently to see which students are in which group requires the instructor to view each group one by one and note the membership list. \u00a0In the new Blackboard instructors can view a list of all their students and are shown to\u00a0which, if any, groups each student belongs. \u00a0Students may also be added to and removed from groups on from this screen.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/usingrps2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-541\" alt=\"usingrps2\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/usingrps2.png\" width=\"780\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/usingrps2.png 780w, https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/files\/2014\/03\/usingrps2-300x176.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#top\">&#8220;Back to Top&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we upgrade Blackboard this summer, there will be a number of valuable improvements to the Groups feature. The Groups feature allows instructors to place students into groups and give them a dedicated group area where they may use blog, journal, wiki, calendar, task management, file exchange, and discussion board functionality. Adaptive Release rules can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[471619,284875,430555,430554],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bb-2014","category-blackboard","category-coming-up","category-first-look","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/mle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}