Granularity

You can choose whether you want to combine students from some or all of the different classes on your module.

If you already understand Granulation click here for the Granulation process guide

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Contents:

1. Summary
2. What is Granulation?
3. Managing Multiple Classes
4. Can I change my mind?

1. Summary

Most Granularity: A separate module instance in Blackboard for each class

Advantages: Each class will only see content specifically for them, communication structures are configured for that class with less likelihood of confusion (e.g. through announcements intended for students at one campus being seen by students studying at another campus)

Disadvantages: Potentially greater workload in uploading material common to all classes. It is possible however to copy all material across from one module instance to another.

Least granularity: One module instance in Blackboard for all classes

Advantages: Increased opportunity for collaborative activities. These could involve students from a wider variety of backgrounds. (e.g. distance learners, perhaps in employment, with full-time students). A single location for all learning materials and information

Disadvantages: Potentially greater workload in setting up communication mechanisms or learning activities that need to be unique for a particular class. Potential complications in organising content logically for different classes

2. What is Granulation?

You may teach a module that has a number of classes within the same academic year.

This may be a result of:

• The module being repeated each semester;
• The module having more than one start date within a particular semester;
• The module being taught on more than one campus
• The module being taught in more than one mode (e.g. both on-campus and e-learning students).
• Or combinations of all the above

If you are sure a module you teach is only taught by you and only runs once a year then your choice is simple: you just create one Blackboard instance of your module for the academic year.

But if you want:

• To use Blackboard to make different material available to different classes
• To use the announcement feature of Blackboard to make different announcements to different classes
• To use Blackboard features to send different communications and emails to different classes

...then you may wish to choose an alternative granularity, i.e. separating certain classes of students within different instances.

The two main criteria that may affect your decision are:-

1. The workload in either:

• Managing multiple instances of your module classes in Blackboard and making areas within the Programme Area for cross-class activities instead
• Setting up and operating separate groups within a single instance of a Blackboard module to distinguish between different module classes

2. The learning benefits for your students in having:

• Simplified communication structures; e.g. only seeing announcements and emails that are relevant to their class
• Dedicated content to meet the needs of a particular class the possibilities of involving a wider number of students from different classes in some collaborative activity organised or tracked online

3. Managing Multiple Classes

If you have decided to create multiple classes of the same module by granulation, there are ways to manage these multiple classes more efficiently

Creation of Content

Usually the bulk of content will be similar across classes. Content can be prepared in one instance of the module and then be copied to the other instances using the Export/Import method.

Module wide announcements

If you use the Blackboard announcements for a general announcement you will probably find issuing a single announcement from the Programme area easier than making duplicated announcements within different instances of the same module.

An alternative to granulation is to use the Groups feature in Blackboard. This can be used if you have set your module to least granularity (One module instance in Blackboard for all classes) and then need to separate students out into smaller groups.

There is no limit to the number of groups that can be created in a module and students can be in more than one group.

Each group can have its own:

• Discussion Board
• File Exchange Area
• Email List

In Conjunction with adaptive release, module content can be shared with some or all groups.

Click on the link for help setting up Groups within your Module (not yet avaliable)