Blackboard Ultra (Faculty) - Groups: Importing Group Sets using a Template

Creating Group Sets by Importing a Template

There are many use cases for establishing group sets based on predetermined assignments of students. For example, when teaching a merged course, you may need to create groups for students based on their specific sections. This guide will walk you through the process of creating groups in Blackboard Ultra, based on a course with merged sections. 

Accessing the Course Groups Tool and Template

1. Navigate to your merged course in Blackboard Ultra.
2. Enter the Groups tab in the top navigation menu. Locate the Import Group Set tool in the top right and select it to open the Import Group Set panel.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the link to Download Group Sets Template.
   
   
   
   
4. The .csv file will save to your local device. Open it and enter the information to create your group set and the groups. Columns that have a heading with an asterisk are required. The only column that is not required is the description. You may add that in the template or wait and customize it within the groups at a later time.  Members will be added in a later step. Enter "N" if you plan to assign group members to the groups, and "Y" if you plan to allow students to self-enroll into the groups created by this import. 
   Note: If using student section numbers to identify the different groups, it will be easiest to use the Course ID for those sections for each Group Code. That will make the member enrollment simple in a later step. 
5. Save the file again as a .csv and drag the file or browser to the file in the Import Groups panel. It may take a few minutes for the group set to generate in the Blackboard course. Refresh the page until the new group set appears in the list. 
   
   

Enrolling Students into Section Groups

This step is not necessary for self-enrolling groups. Before importing members, download a gradebook file from your course to gather student eIDs as user names for group enrollment. 

1. In the Course Groups panel, select the ellipses (3-dot) menu for the group set you just imported. 
2. Select Edit.
   
   
   
   
3. Locate the "Import Members" icon in the top right to expand the Import Groups or Members panel. Click the link to Download Group Members Template.
   
   
   
   
4. Update the template with information that matches the Gradebook exported file to ensure accurate student usernames. The only required columns are the group code and user name. Save the updated .csv file and return to the Blackboard shell to use the import button and upload the file.
5. The new group set will show that the groups now have students enrolled.

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