To share particular information with separate course sections of students in a merged (Parent/Child) course, you'll need to create Groups for each section in Blackboard Learn. 

Create a Groups File 

1. Login to Blackboard,  
2. Go to the Parent course and on the top navigation panel select Groups  
3. Click on Import Group Set on the top right corner  
4. Click on Download Group Sets Template and Download the template  
5. Fill in the following values for your course - leave the other fields that exist in the CSV template file blank:
   • • Group Code*: Use the "Child Course ID" values as group codes.
     • Title - Group title - you may use the name/ID of the child course.
     • Self-Enroll - Set to N for all rows
     • Description - An optional field to provide a description of the group.
     • Group Set*: Group set would be the name for the type of groups, example "Merged Course Sections".
6. Save it again as a CSV file on your computer (Desktop/Downloads folder) and close the workbook.

Import the Groups File(csv) to Create the Groups 

1. Go to the Group tab in the parent courses  
2. Click ‘Import Group Sets’ on the upper right corner of the page 
3. Upload Files to attach the Group CSV file you saved in Step 6 of previous section 
4. Click Import 
5. You will receive an email once the file has been imported. Refresh the page and there should be a new group set
6. Click on the new group set and you will see the new groups that were added in the CS

Create a Group Member File 

1. Go to the ‘Gradebook’ section in the parent course  
2. Click on the download button on the upper right corner of the page. select the ‘Overall Grade’ in Record Details and ‘Comma Separated Values (.csv)’ under File Type
3. Click download and open the file on your computer
4. Delete all the columns besides ‘Child Course ID’ and ‘Username’  
5. Rename ‘Child Course ID’ to ‘Group Code*’   
6. Rename ‘Username’ to ‘User Name*’  
7. Move the ‘Group Code*’ column to column A , so it becomes the first column 
8. Move the ‘User Name*’ column to column  B, so it becomes the second column 
9. Save it again as a CSV file on your computer (Desktop/Downloads folder) and close the workbook

Import Group Member File (csv)  to Assign Members in Groups 

1. Go back to the parent course and click on the groups tab  
2. Click on the Group Set that has been created on section 2 
3. Click ‘Import Groups or Members’ on the upper right corner of the page  
4. Click ‘Assign Members’  
5. Click ‘Upload File’ and upload the file we saved in step 9 of the previous section
6. Click Import  
7. You will receive an email once the file has been imported. Refresh the page, within a short time your groups should appear with the students enrolled in each group by section. 

Note: Course content and assignments can be made available to students in individual sections through the use of “Release Conditions” settings.

Send Emails to Group Members

To send emails to group students, make sure the groupset is visible to students by clicking the dropdown under the group set and selecting ‘Visible to students’  
Then go into the group set, click the three dots which on the right side of the particular group you want to send message and click ‘Message Group’  

Related Resources

• Blackboard - Import and Export Groups and Members
• Blackboard - Groups
• Blackboard - Create and Manage Groups