For small group discussions on Blackboard, you can use the Group tool. Here is an overview of the process:
- Create a “Group Set” and assign the Discussion Board tool to the groups as you create the sets.
- Create a discussion forum for one group.
- Copy that forum into the other groups.
- Create a Group Set: First, create your groups using the directions outlined in this Knowledge Base article. When creating the group, be sure to uncheck all the other tools (so as not to confuse students). See image.
- Create a Discussion Forum: Open your first group (by clicking on it), and then click the Discussion Board in the group (not the Discussion Board in the main Course Menu). The first time you do this, you will notice that by default, you already have a forum called (Group Name) Discussion. You can either edit this forum (click on the gray circle and choose “Edit”) or you can delete it and start fresh. See image. Enter a title for the forum (the topic to be discussed) and, if desired, enter discussion instructions in the description field. Click submit.For more information about forum settings, see this page.
- Copy the Forum to the Other Groups: If you want all groups to discuss the same topic, you can copy the forum to the other groups. Unfortunately, You can only copy one forum at a time. See image.
- Put your cursor to the right of the forum name until you see the gray circle.
- Choose the Copy option.
- Choose the button for copying the entire forum and highlight the name of the small group you would like to copy that forum into.
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