Hello,
I am a teacher and have several courses in Blackboard 9, but I'm having trouble creating Groups (Manual Group Set), because whenever I create them and try to add manually the students to each of the groups, the alphabetical order that was shown at the beginning dissappears; I just select and insert 1 student to a group and all of the lists (the little windows at the left with all the students) have the same behavior and are not in alphabetical order any more.... the problem is that I have about 200 students per course!
Why is this happening? It happens in the 3 courses I have...
Karla,
I am not seeing that happen on my Bb9 test server. For me, the order stays exactly the same on the remaining names when I add one name to a group. What happens if you select multiple names (hold down the CTRL key as you click on the names to select multiple names) and add them all at once?
Mike
Mike,
Thanks for your response. I used to have other accounts where I created fake groups with fake students, and there was no problem... but now I don't know if there is an error with my account, or with the Blackboard version. I am working with version 9.0.440.8.
About your advise of selecting multiple names and adding them at once, I made it, and once the students are added to the right side, they lose the order as well (both sides lose the alphabetical order).
I checked the names and try to figure out which kind of sorting method Blackboard is using, but got no clue (checked last name, first name, username). Is there any way I can send you a picture regarding this matter ?
Where do you think the problem is ?
Thank you!
I found out something weird; when I make a group by selecting Create Single Group / Manual Enroll, the problem is not there anymore, only when I choose Create GROUP SET / Manuall Enroll.
So, the problem is with the Group Set, does anyone knows why?
Thanks,
Karla.
On the Group Set initial manual enrollment page that shows all the groups at once, I don't see the names being listed in alphabetical order to begin with, though the order doesn't change if I move a person in or out of a group. I'm also looking at 9.0.440.8. The fact that the names do not appear in a sorted order in the individual group enrollment lists is probably a bug, though I do not see anything about it in the "known issues" listings.
The only time I see the names in order (by first name, not last name) is if I go into "Edit" for an individual group out of the group set and do my enrollments there. The individual group edit screen seems to work the same whether the group is part of a group set or not.
When I select the option Create Group Set, Manual Enroll, I do see the names in alphabetical orden (first name), but, what I just noticed is that there is a filter option "Group Set Members Filter Options ", and the second option: "Remove Members already in a Group from the Available Members List ", is selected by default. If I unselect this option, even if I don't do anything to the students list, the sort order changes to the same one that I am having trouble with, (no order at all).
If I unselect this option, and select the first option: "Show All Course Constituencies in the Available Members List ", the list changes to another kind of sort ordering (again no alphabetical order).
Do you think this is some kind of bug ? Do you think there is a solution to this ? I basically need alphabetical order, so I can easily find my students.
Karla
If you select the "Show all course constituencies..." option, you are adding instructors, TAs, etc. to the list. They are not sorted alphabetically, but (as far as I can tell) in the order they were added. Depending on your process for adding students and instructors to a class, that may or may not happen to be alphabetically.
Now, the list to add people to groups within the groupset creation screen probably *should* be alphabetical, so it's worth submitting a bug report to your Blackboard Tech Support Manager (or having your Blackboard administrator submit one) so that Blackboard can look for a fix.
However, until Blackboard comes up with a fix, the simplest way I can see to have the user lists displayed alphabetically is to add the group members by creating the group set, then adding the members by selecting "Edit" next to each of the individual groups in the group set after it has been created, not from the initial creation screen that allows you to enroll members in all the groups on the same screen.