Group Submissions on Blackboard

This helpsheet outline the process of setting up group submission points.

Overview

• Blackboard has a group submission function.
• It works by one member of the group submitting the work on behalf of the group, and Blackboard associating the submitted work with the remaining group members.
• The work is marked once – grades and feedback are automatically distributed to all group members.

Note: there is also the option to adjust the marks for different group members.

Lecturer Perspective

From the lecturer point of view, the process involves several stages, and they must be completed in the following order, meaning that you cannot create the group assessment prior to creating student groups.

Student Perspective

From the student perspective, the process involves:

STEP 1: Creating the Groups

1. Please see helpsheet ‘BB_057 – Create a Sign Up Sheet on Blackboard’ to help you create a sign up sheet for your students.
2. Direct students to the sign up sheet and provide a deadline for signing up.

Note: The deadline must be at least 3-weeks before the submission deadline.

3. When the deadline for sign up passes, check which students are not in groups, and ask them to sign up to the group that they have been allocated to, as soon as possible.
4. All students must be in their formal groups before the Submission Point is created. The Submission Point will not take into account group membership post-Submission Point creation.

STEP 2: Creating the Group Submission Point

1. Click Assessments and select Assignment from the drop-down list.

2. Add instructions. If you are creating a video submission point, click the Additional Content (+) button and choose ‘Panopto Student Video Submission’ to add the instructions.

3. Adjust the other settings for your assignment as detailed below.

• Set the Due Date.
• Set Points Possible to 100.

• Select Group Submission and move the Groups into the right-hand box.

• Anonymous marking can be set if desired.
• If using Anonymous Marking please ensure that your school has the process in place to facilitate this and students know the protocol for making anonymous submissions (e.g. use Exam ID, don’t put name).
• Set Display Mark as Score.

• Tick make the Assignment Available.
• Set Date Parameters as desired.
• Click Submit.

4. Go to Grade Centre and hide the column related to this assessment. This needs to be unhidden manually when releasing grades. If this step is not done, mark leakage will occur.

STEP 3: Providing students submission instructions

Advise students that each group needs to nominate one person to make the submission.

STEP 4: Marking the submitted work

1. Submitted work can be picked up in the usual way via Needs Marking.

2. In Needs Marking, the submissions needing attention will show. Click on the blue text in the User Attempt column.

3. From the next screen, the submitted work can be downloaded. At overall mark can be added and individual marks can be adjusted (if needed).

4. When ready to release marks, unhide the column in Grade Centre.

Note: As you complete the steps above, the marks and feedback you enter will be applied to all students in the group. Students will be able to access this in ‘My Grades’ as usual.