I am working with a faculty member who has organized his students into groups. Our current learning mangement system is Bb Vista 8. This particular faculty member has 100 students in his course. He divided the students into groups using the Group Manager. He chose to allow Blackboard to create the groups and also selected that students are randomly distributed into groups. His question was would Blackboard add students to pre-existing groups if he chose the 'randomly distribute members' option? If it will not, will Blackboard recognize and provide a list of students that need to added to groups? Will students who drop be automatically removed from the group? I vaguely remember Blackboard providing a list of students who 'needed to be distributed' in the past, but I am unsure.
Katara
I'll try to answer your questions.
1. would Blackboard add students to pre-existing groups if he chose the 'randomly distribute members' option?
No, you can only manually add members to pre-existing sections.
2. If it will not, will Blackboard recognize and provide a list of students that need to added to groups?
Not that I'm aware of, you will see a list of students when you click the Add Members button but I don't believe it tells you if they are members of any other group.
3. Will students who drop be automatically removed from the group?
not sure. .probably depends on your institution settings and your integration with your SIS.
4. I vaguely remember Blackboard providing a list of students who 'needed to be distributed' in the past, but I am unsure.
I think you are right but when I just looked I don't see that option.
One thing to be aware of with groups, haveing an empty group in between the listing of active groups has been known to cause issues on viewing submissions in the assignment tool.
Hope this helps
hope this helps.