Have you ever wrestled with Blackboard's group management -- spending too many clicks trying to organize students, waiting for pages to load in large courses, or losing track of who's assigned where? We have good news: Blackboard has completely rebuilt the Groups tool, and it's a meaningful upgrade.

Just the Facts:

• The new Groups tool goes live for SU2026 courses on May 20, 2026.

• Want to explore it first? You can preview it on our test server from April 24 – May 19. Please open an RT ticket to get access. 

What's Changed in Groups Management

A more logical setup flow. Instead of diving straight into managing individual students, you now start by choosing how you want to structure your groups: manual assignment, automatic assignment, self-enrollment, or CSV import. This upfront choice eliminates a lot of guesswork.

Image 1: Instructors now start by creating a group set by choosing how they want to structure groups—before managing individual members.

Smarter automatic enrollment. Just enter the number of students you want per group, and Blackboard does the math, creating the right number of groups and randomly assigning students in one step. No more counting rows.

More ways to move students around. You can assign students from an unassigned list, assign a selected group of students to a specific group at once, or add and remove members from within a group. Fewer clicks, more flexibility.

Better sorting and visibility. You can now sort students by first name, last name, or student ID, and sort groups by name or number of members. This sounds small, but if you've ever tried to manage 200 students across 40 groups, you know how much it matters.

Image 2. Instructors can now sort group members by first or last name, student ID and sort groups by group name or number of members.

Context about how groups are being used. Each group now shows whether it's connected to assignments, tests, or discussions, so you can understand the impact before making changes.

Much faster performance. Save operations that previously took minutes in large courses now complete in seconds. You can even close the page mid-save and Blackboard will finish the job in the background. The previous limits of 5,000 students and 1,000 groups per course have also been removed.

More features on the way. Future improvements to groups will include search and sort functions, drag-and-drop group management, and bulk group creation options.

Want to see it in action? Watch a short video walkthrough.

Coming Later This Summer: A New Gradebook

Groups management isn't the only thing being reimagined. Blackboard is also actively developing a redesigned Gradebook experience, with a technical preview beginning May 21. We'll share more details about when the new Gradebook will be released as they become available. Stay tuned for updates as we head into the fall semester.

Questions?

Reach out by opening an RT ticket. We're happy to walk you through what's new or answer questions about how the changes might affect your course setup.

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
  • What's new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources

Thumbnail-image: Ultra news update