Whether you teach online or in the classroom, Blackboard Groups allows you to put students into groups for activities like peer reviewing and other group projects.  Groups are areas created in Blackboard that only group members can access.  The Group area provides the members in the group with a private Discussion Board, an Email link for group members, and a File Exchange area for exchanging papers.  Students like having a private area that only their study group or peer review group members can access.  Groups are easily created by the instructor using the Manage Groups link in the Control Panel . 

Group Tools

The Discussion Board in each Group is exactly like the discussion board used for all students except it is limited to only the students assigned to this group.  Students can only acess the discussion board for their group and cannot see posts made by other groups. 

The email link in each Group provides an easy way for students to send email to everyone in their group.  The sender sees a list of group members and can check off who should receive the email or send it to everyone in the Group. 

The File Exchange area in each Group is extremely helpful in exchanging rough drafts for peer review.  Each student simply clicks on the Add File button to add their paper to the File Exchange.  Once the files are posted to the File Exchange, every student in the Group can access the file by clicking on it.  I also add the Peer Review Form and any other documents I want students to use for peer reviewing to the File Exchange of each Group.  This is a simple and efficient way for students to exchange papers without having to send email attachments and remember individual email addresses of their classmates. 

Getting Started with Blackboard

Blackboard is not just for online or hybrid classes.  It's a tool that can be used in traditional classes, as well as those taught traditionally in the computer classrooms.  Let's get started in Blackboard!

1.  To create your Blackboard account, email Bb@gcmail.maricopa.edu and request a Blackboard account and a Blackboard shell course for you to practice. 
2. Once you can access Blackboard, email Karen Schwalm or Marla DeSoto for access to the English Sandbox in Blackboard, a practice area for instructors.