You can set up Ultra assignments for assessments where students are working in groups:
- one student in each group submits work on behalf of the whole group
- you can assign marks and feedback for the group as a whole.
Please note:
- Anonymous Marking is not currently possible with Blackboard Group Assignments.
- It is not possible to bulk download all Group submissions in one action, however, you can download each group individually.
Defining groups to submit to an assignment
When setting up an Ultra assignment, towards the bottom of the Settings panel there is an option to Assign to groups.
Click here to open a new page where you can either
- select groups which already exist in the course
- or create new groups and select the members of each group.
Option 1: Select groups already in your course (recommended)
Click on the Group students drop-down list, under Reuse groups select the group set you wish to assign to the assignment.
If no groups sets are listed, exit the assignment set up page and go to the Groups tab to create a group set. See our guide Creating Groups.
When you click on the group set you wish to “reuse”, a tick and highlight will indicated the selected group set.
Press Save to save your changes and return to the Assignment settings screen.
Option 2: Create new groups
If there are no groups in your course, or you wish to create new groups for this assignment you can do so.
NB* If you create groups here they will not be added to the groups page or visible in the Release Conditions groups dropdown list. We recommend returning to the Groups tab and creating the groups there.
Choose one of the first three options from the ‘Group students’ drop-down list.
- Custom
You choose which students are in each group - Randomly assign
Blackboard randomly adds students to each group - Self-enrolment
You specify how many groups there should be, and students select the group they want to join. Create in Groups tab.
Custom group set
Once you have selected Custom
- Use the plus sign (a) to add groups (the group names can be edited)
- Select the students you wish to place in a group (b)
- Use the three dot menu from one the selected students to add them to the group (you can also create new groups from this menu)
Students can only be in one group in the group set. You do not have to assign all students to a group, unassigned students will remain in the unassigned section at the top of the page.
Press Save to save your changes and return to the Assignment settings screen.
Please note: Groups created in this way are set up specifically for this assignment. They cannot be reused elsewhere in the course, and they do not show up when you go to the Groups tab at the top of the course.
Randomly assigned group set
Once Randomly assigned has been selected choose from the ‘Number of groups’ dropdown list, specify how many groups you wish to set up.
The randomly assigned groups will display on the page, you can make changes to the groups membership and to their names.
Press Save to save your changes and return to the Assignment settings screen.
Please note: Groups created in this way are set up specifically for this assignment. They cannot be reused elsewhere in the course, and they do not show up when you go to the Groups tab at the top of the course.
Self-enrol
If you wish to set up a self-enrol group for your assessment to only way is to go to the Group tab and create the group there, see our guide Creating Groups. Students will not able able to access and enol to self-enrol groups created via the Assign Groups link.
Guide last updated on November 1, 2024
