These instructions will enable you to deploy content in your combined (or parent/child) course that is specific to a particular child course or section. This is useful if you are working with other instructors in the same parent course and have slightly diverging content, or would like a different version of the test per section. 


How to limit content by section/child course.

In combined Blackboard courses we can create groups for each child course and then use these groups to limit access to content items to a particular group. To do this will first

  • Generate a student roster that includes which child course each student belongs to.
  • Then we will use an excel spreadsheet to create a group for each child course.
  • Using another spreadsheet, we’ll enroll the students into their respective groups
  • Finally, we can set an adaptive release rule on a content item to only be accessible to one group.

Retrieving the student list

  1. Navigate to the full grade center
  2. Click Work Offline, then Download
  3. Under Data select User Information Only. Click Submit then Download. Save the Excel file in a place where you can easily find it, such as “Downloads”.
  4. Open the file. You may receive a warning; this is normal. Click Yes. Delete every column except for Username and Child Course ID.
  5. Move the column Child Course ID to the left so it’s the first column in the worksheet. You can do this by clicking the “B” above Child Course ID to select the whole column, then right click it and select Cut. Then click the “A” above Username, right click it and select Insert Cut Cells.
  6. Save the document as a CSV file and close the workbook. To do this, go to File > Save as > Browse. Ensure you’re in a folder that’s easy to find and then enter an appropriate filename (such as “spring22_coms-2213_enrollments”). Under the file name option, select the drop-down box next to Save as Type. Find the option that says CSV (Comma Delimited) (*.csv). Click Save.

Create the Groups File

  1. Download the attached sample_groups.csv
  2. Open the file in Excel; do not delete any of the column headings. Under the headings enter the following information
    1. Group Code – Enter the course ID of each child course. You can get this from the user excel file we created earlier.
    2. Title – An easier description of the child course ID, ie “section 1”
    3. Available – Set to “N” (Unless you would like students to work with their section on group projects together, then set to “Y”
    4. Self Enroll – Set to “N”
    5. Columns not mentioned above can be left Blank.

The final sheet should look like this:

Save the file as a CSV with a descriptive title (such as “spring22_coms-2213_groups”

Importing the Groups and Users into Blackboard

  1. In the course navigate to Groups and then click Import.
  2. Uncheck all options under “Tool Availability” (unless you’re using the groups for more than just Adaptive Release rules). Under Import Groups click Import Groups and then upload the group file we created. Click Submit at the bottom.
  3. Return to the import area by repeating step 1. Under Import Group Members click Browse Local Files and select the enrollment file we created.  Select this file and click Submit.
  4. Go to Groups to verify that the users have been added to the correct group.

Applying Adaptive Release Rules

  1. Navigate to the content item you’d like to restrict access to.
  2. Click the “Edit” icon to the right of the content item title and select Adaptive Release
  3. Under Membership > Course Groups highlight the group you’d like to be able to view this content. Click the top arrow to move it the box on the right labelled “Selected Items”. Click Submit.
  4. If you have alternative content for the other section, repeat this action for it, choosing the appropriate group.

Notes

  • If you don’t have many students in your sections, it may be easier to simply create and enroll the groups manually instead of importing the CSV files.

  • You can use these groups to create smart-views based on the group (and by extension, the section. In the Full Grade Center go to Groups > Select the section groups > Bulk Actions > Create Smart Views for Groups. These can be accessed by going into the Grade Center > Manage > Smart Views and clicking the group title. You can create a shortcut to these under the “Gradecenter” drop-down menu by clicking the star next to these groups under Add as Favorite. These smart views will only display the grade center for students in that group, making it easy to grade by sections.

  • When using this to make assessments for different sections (ie, Exam 1-A is for section 1, Exam 1-B is for section 2) keep in mind that the grade center will show both columns for every student. If your Total column is calculated using a running total this will not count against students if no grade is entered for the test they are not intended to take. For example, a student in Section 1 should not have anything entered in the Section 2 test. If you’re not using “Calculate as a Running Total” you will instead need to “exempt” grades for students that cannot view the test from the other group. For example, a student in section 1 should have the section 2 test set as “Exempt”.