What's New in Blackboard?

Group Management: Performance Improvements

Related Topic: Create and Manage Groups

Groups are an important part of managing students in a course, especially in large courses. We improved performance so saving groups is now 80%-90% quicker. This gives instructors more time for other course activities. 

Navigation Added for LTI and SCORM Items within Learning Modules

Related Topic: Learning Modules

Impact: Students

Instructors use learning modules to guide student progress through diverse types of course content. For easier navigation, students can now select arrows to the left and right of LTI or SCORM items to move through learning modules. 

AI Design Assistant: Rubric Generation Improvements

Related Topic: AI Design Assistant

We optimized our AI Design Assistant rubric generation. Rubrics generated by the AI Design Assistant will now have more complex outputs. The AI Design Assistant will also work faster. Instructors can expect better rubrics, even for long, complicated assessments.

Discussion Enhancement: New Post Indicator

Related Topic: Discussions 

We added a "New" indicator that displays next to posts and replies that a user has not yet accessed. This helps direct engagement by making new discussion activity easier to find and access. 

Link to Attempt Log Added to Activity Log

Related Topic: Student Activity Log

Impact: Instructors

Users may now directly go to the attempt log for any test or assignment from the activity log by selecting the Attempt Log button associated with the item. 

Improvements for late submissions

Related Topic: Grade Assignments with Flexible Grading

To help instructors quickly identify late submissions in the attempt banner, late submissions now have a Late indicator. We also updated the wording from Submitted late <date> to Submitted <date>. 

Grade override improvements

Related Topic: Override Grades

To increase transparency when overriding grades, we added an Override indicator to overridden grades on the Grades & Participation screen for Discussions. 

We implemented the Undo Override workflow on the Discussion grading interface, mimicking the Undo Override workflow in the Journal grading interface.

Mobile app sessions renew without requiring authentication

Related topic: Account Lock

Administrators can now define the maximum length of time a user can access the mobile app before they are required to login again. This time limit is controlled through an authentication token.  The token allows the app to automatically renew a session without re-authentication, as long as it hasn't expired.

To set the length of a token, go to the Administrator Tool Panel, select Account Lock Settings, and then Mobile App Token Timeout. By default, the mobile token lifetime is set to the maximum of 336 hours (about 2 weeks). The minimum setting is 1 hour.

Role play option for AI Conversation

Related Topic: AI Conversation 

We expanded our AI Conversation feature to include a role play option. Role play can enhance learning by providing active learning opportunities. Role play also encourages critical thinking. It also provides an opportunity for students to apply knowledge in a simulated environment. 

For example, a student could role play a doctor by speaking to a patient, played by the AI persona. In this scenario, a student gains practical experience in a safe environment for experimentation. 

Instructors customize the AI persona by giving it a name and image. Instructors also define the AI persona's personality traits and select the complexity of the responses. 

Instructors should always preview an AI conversation before releasing the activity to students. AI tools can hallucinate and introduce bias. It is important to ensure that instructions are clear and that the AI persona responds in an expected and appropriate way. 

We also introduced a stepped setup. This approach makes it easier for instructors to select the type of conversation and define the topic, student role, and AI persona.

Improvement to Resizing Blocks in Documents

Related Topic: Create Documents 

To help with resizing blocks that are vertically tall, we modified the resize handle. Now, instructors can resize a block by selecting the vertical edge of a block. It is not necessary to place the mouse directly over the handle. 

Empty State Indicator for Documents

Related Topic: Create Documents

We added an empty state indicator to content blocks in Documents. If a content block is empty, text displays to tell instructors to select the block to add content. The empty state indicator doesn’t display outside of the edit mode.

Print Tests with questions from Question Pools and other improvements

Related topic: Question Pools

Instructors can now print tests that include questions from Question Pools. We also combined the answer key and the corresponding test. This ensures that users always have an answer key that matches the test. We generate the answer key and print it ahead of the test. We also labeled the Answer Key to ensure awareness.  

The system generates a different version of the answer key and test  each time a test is printed when the test:

• Randomizes questions or answer options  
• Includes Question Pools
• Instructors can use the print option to save the answer key and test as a PDF.  

Improved performance for assignment file submissions

Related Topic: Submit Assignments

Working on assignments can be a stressful experience for students. When submitting their work, students need assurance that their files have been successfully attached, received, and stored by Blackboard. They also need to be  informed if there is an issue with their submission. 

In this release, we've made architectural improvements to mitigate against file corruption and to ensure files are correctly attached during uploads. These updates include:

• Managing Multiple File Uploads: To prevent issues when uploading multiple files, students will now be required to wait for the first upload to completely before attaching additional files. 
• File Size Limit Notification: A modal will display a message if a file exceeds the permitted size limit. 
• Corrupted File Alerts: In the unlikely event of a student attempts to submit a corrupted file, a modal will notify them of the issue, and the system will alert the instructor.

Indentations Added to Discussions

Related Topic: Discussions

To better distinguish between responses and replies, we added indentation. 

We removed the delete option for the discussion topic. Instructors can edit discussion topics as needed. 

Note: We're improving the usability and appearance of discussions. Areas of focus include navigation, clearer calls to action, updating UI elements, terminology updates, and others. We’ll release small changes in several releases to benefit users as soon as we can make them available.

Observer Access to Documents and Uploaded Files and Media

Related Topic: Observer Role 

Observers who mentor students need to access course content to understand what topics a student is learning. Observers can now access uploaded files and media and Documents in their students’ courses. 

Observers are limited to the same file permissions that instructors have set for students: view and download, download only, and view only. 

Progress tracking must be on for observers to access course content through the Progress tab. 

Download Option for Student Activity Log 

Related Topic: Student Activity Log 

Instructors and administrators can review the Student Activity Log to troubleshoot or resolve academic disputes. We added the option to download the Student Activity Log as a CSV. All filters applied to the log also apply to the CSV. Only the first 1000 events are downloaded.

Blackboard mobile app rebranding

To reflect Anthology Inc.’s rebranding efforts, the Blackboard Learn App will now be known simply as the Blackboard App. The change aligns the app with Anthology, Inc.’s rebranding efforts. The Blackboard App has an updated:

• Splash screen
• App icon
• Name
• App description 

These changes reflect Anthology’s vision, which is grounded in dedication to customer-centered innovation to inspire student success and institutional growth.

Batch Edit: Usability Improvement

Related Topic: Batch Edit 

"Change dates to a specific date and/or time" is the most popular option used in Batch Edit to change dates in a batch, so it is now the default option. This change simplifies the process for our users and helps instructors to prepare courses for teaching and learning even faster. 

ULTRA: Usability improvements for Documents

Related Topic: Create Documents

We made several usability improvements for Documents.

• For uploaded files, we've restored the default of View and Download in the Edit File Options.
• If there isn’t enough space when resizing blocks with keyboard navigation, the option to expand right is hidden.
• The Redo button now continues to display and function after removing an HTML block.
• The cursor function works as expected when dragging a block.
• We've restored the Content Collection option in the Insert content + in the Content block.
• For institutions that have not enabled support for the Content Designer for Documents, we've restored the option to generate a question bank directly from a Document.

ULTRA: Video Studio: Enhanced caption support for uploaded files

Related Topic: Video Studio (admin page), Video Studio (instructor page)

Video Studio gives instructors the ability to easily upload or record audio and video within Documents, creating a more engaging learning experience. We have enhanced the capabilities of Video Studio to help create a more accessible learning environment. Now Video Studio auto-generates captions for all file types.

Video Studio is a premium solution. We are offering customers a free trial until June 30, 2025. This will provide access to the full version of Video Studio as a feature flag. Video Studio is set to OFF as a default in test/stage environments. If you want to enable it in your institution’s production environment, you can do that for free until the end of June 2025. Customers will have to purchase Video Studio to continue to use it beyond this date.

ULTRA: Usability improvement for Knowledge Checks

We modified the default for the Difficulty metric to display as "--" until there is at least one attempt. We also updated the answer instruction text for instructors to align with the instructions given in a test. It now reads "Choose one or more correct answers."

ULTRA: Mastery tab in the gradebook

The new Mastery tab in the Gradebook allows instructors and students to see how their activities align with institutional goals. Based on the goal performance scale set by your institution, the tab displays the mastery of each alignment.

The Mastery tab enables instructors to:

• View the level of mastery per alignment for each student.
• View how each student is performing against those alignments.
• Drill down view for individual student mastery performance.

The Mastery tab enables students to:

• Access a visual display of their mastery performance.
• View specific skills and competencies that they need to master. This insight helps students understand where they should concentrate their efforts. This leads to more targeted and effective learning.
• Access their performance as it relates to each specific criterion. This allows them to identify areas for improvement and work towards mastery.
• Focus on key areas where mastery was not achieved. This fosters a growth mindset and a deeper understanding of the course content.

The color schema used in the Goal Performance Scale (shown in Image 5) indicates levels of mastery. Instructors can select View Scale to view the Goal Performance Scale from the Mastery tab.

Goals tab

Students can drill down on the Goals tab to individual content items to see how goals align with their mastery progress.

Configuring the Performance Scale (Administrators)

The performance scale is an institutional configuration. This allows for consistent aggregation across courses. It also creates consistency for students in mastery-based programs.
Administrators can configure the number of levels as well as the labels and colors for each.

Notes: 

• Students will always see the Goals tab and instructors will always see the Mastery tab. When there are no goals aligned, the tab will be empty. The Mastery tab will display to other users depending on privileges. If their course role or system role allows them to create or view goal alignment, users will see the tab. 
• Users can select the student column header on the Mastery tab to sort students by last name.
• Instructors can preview what the Goals tab will look like for students.
• The calculation method is points-based. To weigh different items, different point values should be assigned. For example, an instructor wants to weigh performance on a rubric criterion ten times greater than a matching question on a test. Therefore, the rubric row should be set to 50 points and the matching question to 5 points.
• The calculation method prioritizes more granular alignments. Priority is given to alignments on individual rubric rows or test questions, and other alignments are then ignored. When the alignments are only on the assessment itself, those alignments will apply to all the assessment’s test questions or rubric criteria.

For administrators: The Administrator panel has a new configuration option on the Ultra Experience Management page: Enable support for Mastery Tab in Gradebook. The default state is OFF. Note that if enabled, students will see the Goals tab even when goals are not aligned to content items. In addition, all instructors will see the Mastery tab. The ability to control this feature at the course level will be available in a future release.

ULTRA: Generate question banks

Related Topic: Question Banks

Creating questions is time consuming. Instructors now have the option to generate questions in a question bank. Generating question banks from course materials provides inspiration and saves time.

To generate a question bank, select the Auto-generate option from the + on the Question Banks page

From the menu, instructors can select content items. These content items provide context for the questions. Instructors can further refine the questions they ask by entering a description of the learning objectives or topic.

Instructors can select the type of question to generate, such as multiple choice or fill in the blank. The complexity of the questions can also be adjusted. Instructors choose which questions to include in the question bank.

For administrators: The option to generate questions only appears for instructors when the tool is on. Select Building Blocks from the Administrator Panel, then select Installed Tools. Locate "AI Design Assistant and Unsplash" and select Settings from the dropdown. The default state is off. You must also activate privileges. Assign the “Use AI Design Assistant” privilege for the appropriate Course Roles (for example, Instructor).

ULTRA: Enhancements to student submission review page

The student submission review page makes it easier for students to access instructor feedback on their submissions.

We made several enhancements to this page:

• When an instructor selects student preview, they can now access the student submission review page.
• Students can now access offline submissions from this page.
• Students now have a Read more option for overall and attempt feedback.

We also made general usability improvements, including additional labels and other indicators, to help students easily find the information they need.

ULTRA: Email notifications for followed discussions

Related Topic: Discussions

Key Enhancements: 

User Notification Settings: New notification options allow users to manage their emails for discussions they follow. To help with consistency, these settings align with the user's settings for their activity stream.

• Activity on my responses
• Activity on responses I have replied to
• Responses from instructors
• Responses for followed discussions
• Replies for followed discussions

Administrator Settings: New administrator controls allow institutions to set defaults for user notification settings. These are enabled by default:

• Discussion activity on the current user’s responses
• Discussion activity on responses the current user has replied to
• Discussion responses from instructors
• Discussion responses and replies for followed

ULTRA: Quickly access items that need grade reconciliation

With parallel grading, multiple people can share grading responsibilities for a course. For example, an instructor can divide up the grading tasks among teaching assistants and other graders. The designated reconciler reviews all grades and feedback to determine the final grade.

A Needs reconciling section now appears on the gradebook Overview tab. In this section, reconcilers can easily access all items ready for reconciliation.

This section is hidden when the grader has no items for reconciliation.

Graders can select Reconcile now to open the Submissions tab for the item. They can review grades and feedback from others before determining the final grade.

The Gradebook tab displays an exclamation point when there are items to reconcile or post.

ULTRA: Show unavailable students in the gradebook

Instructors may have students in their courses whose access to Blackboard is temporarily restricted. For example, if a student has a payment pending, an administrator can set the student’s user account as unavailable until the hold is lifted.

In direct response to user feedback, we’ve made changes to how unavailable students appear in the gradebook. Now unavailable students appear in the gradebook for their enrolled courses, but their avatar has a strikethrough to indicate the unavailable status.

To completely hide unavailable students from their gradebooks, instructors can use the Students Visibility setting introduced in the last release.

When the hide unenrolled students from the gradebook option is turned on, unavailable and unenrolled students are hidden from these gradebook areas:

• Grades page
• Students page
• Calculation student list
• Gradable items student list
• Submission tab for an assessment
• Group Submissions tab for an assessment
• Student Activity tab for an assessment

ULTRA: Flexible Grading performance improvements

We made several adjustments to improve the performance of Flexible Grading. Users will experience faster loading when:

• Scrolling in the Student list (instructors)
• Posting all grades (instructors)
• Viewing the rubric (instructors and students)

For larger classes with more than 2000 enrollments, the Flexible Grading page loads 25% faster!

ULTRA: MOBILE: Email notifications for followed discussion

Instructors and students sometimes need to pay special attention to one or more discussions or threads in a course. Users can now easily follow specific discussions to receive email updates on new contributions. Institutions can set notification defaults for discussion activity and responses for followed discussions. This feature makes it easier for users to monitor and engage with class discussions from the Blackboard Mobile App.

For Administrators: You can configure this feature in the Administrator Panel by selecting Notification settings and enabling/disabling your institution’s preferences.

ULTRA: Content Designer: Knowledge Check in Documents

Related Topic: Create Documents

The Content Designer for Documents now includes a Knowledge Check block. The Knowledge Check enhances the learning experience. Knowledge checks allow students to engage with content and receive immediate feedback. Instructors are also empowered with valuable insights to tailor their teaching strategies.

Key Features:

• Question Types: Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
• Feedback: Pre-populated correct and incorrect answer feedback, which instructors can edit
• Student Interaction: Students can select an answer and submit it. They receive immediate feedback on whether their answer is correct or incorrect. Knowledge checks allow unlimited attempts.
• Metrics: Instructors can access detailed metrics including:
  • Number of students participating
  • Total number of attempts
  • Average number of attempts to reach the correct answer
  • Maximum number of attempts to reach the correct answer
  • Level of difficulty metric
  • Percentage of students selecting each answer option

After saving the Knowledge Check, instructors may resize and move it as desired within the document.

NOTE: Grading for Knowledge Checks isn't supported at this time. There are also no notifications specific to Knowledge Checks.

For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. You must enable the option on the Ultra Experience Management page in the Administrator Panel. It's called "Enable support for customizing Ultra document layouts." This setting is on by default. You can toggle this option on or off. If you turn off this option, it may affect content created with or changed by enhanced options. Note that this option will be available until December 2024. At that time, we will remove the option. Enhanced Documents will be the default.

ULTRA: Content Designer: Video Studio in Documents

Related Topic: Video Studio (admin page), Video Studio (instructor page)

Video Studio is a premium solution. We are offering customers a free trial until June 30, 2025This will provide access to the full version of Video Studio as a feature flag. Video Studio is set to OFF as a default in test/stage environments. If you want to enable it in your institution’s production environment, you can do that for free until the end of June 2025. Customers will have to purchase Video Studio to continue to use it beyond this date.

Instructors have recording capabilities in Announcements and Feedback features. Now they have the ability to upload or record audio and video within Documents. The lightweight, deeply integrated Video Studio solution promotes a more engaging learning experience.

When creating a Document, a new block option is available to create audio and video files from a camera, audio recording, or from screen recordings. Additionally, it is possible to upload audio and video files.

When a user starts recording, there is a 3 second countdown before the recording begins. Users can pause, resume, retake, or end the recording as needed.

After a user ends the recording, the uploading process begins. During this time, the user can preview the result and edit the title. Users can select Save to add the audio or video into a Document. After saving the video, auto captioning for videos is available.

For administrators: These new video capabilities require a license for Video Studio. Also, the "Enable support for customizing Ultra document layouts." setting on the Ultra Experience Management page in the Administrator Panel must be on. The videos created using Video Studio will not count towards your existing storage entitlement. The following existing privileges are used for the Video Studio solution:

• Course/Organization (Content Areas) > Create Materials: To create videos. Includes all operations like save, finish, check Video upload Status. Not needed for playback.
• Course/Organization (Content Areas) > Delete Materials: To delete videos.

ULTRA: Course Content Page Enhancements

User experience (UX) plays a vital role in student engagement and learning. We're committed to continuous improvement of the Blackboard Ultra course view. It's important to us that we meet the needs of our users—both educators and students. We're excited to deliver several changes to improve the Course Content page. Client feedback is at the center of the changes we’ve made.

The improvements include:

• Greater visual depth
• Improved page structure
• Differentiation among course elements
• An enhanced presentation of top-level and nested content

Greater Visual Depth and Content Page Structure

Creating a more appealing and engaging interface has been a key theme in client feedback. To support this, we've created greater visual depth to the Course Content page. This provides a more enjoyable and inviting experience for end users.

The new design incorporates:

• Subtle gradients and softer edges
• A more cohesive color palette with inviting, warmer tones
• More intuitive navigation, which reduces cognitive load and increases focus on the content

Content presentation enhancements

We've improved the differentiation among learning modules, folders, and content items. Currently, users sometimes find it challenging to distinguish among these elements. This can lead to confusion and inefficiency in navigating course materials.

These improvements create a more organized and improved user experience.

To learn more about the visual style changes and to access supporting resources, visit the community blog post here.

ULTRA: AI Conversation

Related Topic: AI Conversation

It's tough to have 1:1 conversations with every student, especially in large courses. Some instructors are asking students to use AI services for topic-related activities to help. But, with many services and limited instructor visibility, results can vary.

To better serve instructors who want to use AI with students, we're launching a new activity called AI Conversation. This is a Socratic questioning exercise guided by AI. AI Conversation lets students explore their thoughts on a topic.

There are two elements to the activity:

• AI Conversation
  • This lets students think critically about the topic that the instructor designs.
• Reflection question
  • This asks the student to share their thoughts on the activity. The reflection question also lets the student flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of our Trustworthy AI Approach. Reflection helps students understand the responsible use of AI services.

Instructors have the following configuration options:

• A topic for the AI Conversation
• An AI persona including a name, avatar (can be uploaded or generated), and personality trait
• Complexity level of responses
• Edit the reflection question, guiding the student on how best to reflect on this activity

On submission, the instructor can review the AI conversation transcript and the student's reflection. The AI Conversation is a formative assessment by default, but you’re not restricted to this option.

For administrators: In the building block, ‘AI Design Assistant and Unsplash,' a new option called ‘AI Chat Conversation’ is available. The default state is 'off.'  When this feature is ‘on,’ the privilege needs to be assigned to course roles as necessary, such as Instructor. The privilege that needs assigning is ‘Use AI Design Assistant.' When that role creates an AI Conversation in a course that’s visible to students, students will be able to complete the activity. Note that toggling this feature to ‘off’ after deployment will stop the AI Conversation services. Therefore, any AI conversation activities visible to students will not operate as expected.

ULTRA: Review instructor feedback on the student submission review page

Assessment feedback gives students insights into their strengths and weaknesses. It also helps them refine their skills and knowledge. 

We are introducing a new student-facing submission review page for assignments. The new page makes all instructor feedback on a submission more accessible. We are planning to add this same feature for tests in a future release. 

Students can access the new assignment submission review page from these locations: 

• The gradebook feedback button for the assignment.
• The small panel that displays when students access an assignment from the Course Content page.

If a student submits multiple attempts, they can review each on the submission review page. By default, the student sees the appropriate graded attempt. The instructor defines which attempt to grade in the assignment's final grade calculation setting.

The new assignment submission review page displays the following information and feedback formats:

• Assessment content
• Student submission with inline feedback
• Submission timestamp
• Submission receipt
• Final grade and calculation model
• Attempt grade and feedback
• Override grade and feedback (if applicable)
• Optimized display of rubrics information and criterion feedback

ULTRA: Access assignment feedback hidden by release conditions

Students must access feedback on past submissions. Feedback review is vital for their academic growth. Now students can access all feedback on their submission, even if the assignment is hidden by a release condition. We are planning to ensure that students have access to all feedback on tests, discussions and journals in future releases.

ULTRA: Exclude attempt when grading

Allowing students to submit multiple attempts for an assessment can help them stay on track. It can improve the quality of the assessment and boost student success.

However, there are some circumstances where an attempt doesn’t need to be graded. For example, the student may have submitted the wrong file, or their submission may be incomplete or an outlier.

We added a new option to help instructors remove submissions from the grading workflow without having to delete them. When grading a student, you can now select Exclude Attempt to remove it from the Needs Grading workflow.

If an attempt is excluded, the Excluded label appears above the attempt grade and in the attempt selector. If you need to remove the attempt exclusion, select from the menu.

Grade calculations ignore excluded attempts. Students aren’t automatically granted an additional attempt if an attempt is excluded. You can grant additional attempts to the student via the exception's workflow.

You can exclude any submitted attempt by a student. If you exclude an attempt when the student has no remaining attempts, you receive a warning that their final grade can’t be calculated.When students review their submissions, a banner notification appears on excluded attempts.

ULTRA: View items that need grading and posting in the new Overview tab

To help instructors stay on top of their grading workload, we added an indicator to the Gradebook tab to let you know when there are new submissions to grade. The indicator displays the number that needs grading. If the count goes higher than 99, it displays as 99+.

We also added a new gradebook Overview tab to improve task orientation and grading efficiency. This tab contains two sections: Needs Grading and Needs Posting.

Needs Grading section

If you face a substantial grading workload, the Needs Grading section is a useful tool for prioritizing your tasks. It allows you to see all items ready for grading and a count of the total number of outstanding grading tasks in your course.

This section displays up to five items at a time, ordered by the oldest ungraded submission. For an item, select Grade now to quickly access the submissions you need to grade. If your course has more than five items that need grading, you can use the buttons at the bottom of section to navigate through all pending tasks.

Needs Posting section

The Needs Posting section increases accessibility of assessments with grades that need posting. For an item, select Post now to its grade If there are more than five items that need posting, you can use the buttons at the bottom of section to navigate through the pending tasks.

ULTRA: View late submissions that need grading

When enabled, the Automatic Zeros gradebook setting gives a zero score to students who haven’t made a submission by the due date. To help instructors to find and grade late assessment submissions, they are now indicated as Needs Grading on the Grades and Gradable Items gradebook pages.

ULTRA: Student Activity Log

Related Topic: Student Activity Log

Instructors often need to review student activity. Student activity helps inform decisions in academic disputes and aids in troubleshooting. You can also analyze the course participation of students at risk.

Instructors can use student participation to support financial aid decisions. For example, requests for tuition fee reimbursements if a student hasn't participated in a course. Course participation records can also help with awarding scholarships.

Now the Student Overview page has a student activity log. Instructors and other higher roles can use the report to check what a particular student did in a course.

The Activity log can be filtered by event type and can look to the past 140 days. Any information older than that won’t be stored in this report. The log can take up to 20 minutes to update from the last time a student performs an action.

The following events can be found in the report:

• Course Access
• Assessment Started
• Assessment Draft saved
• Assessment Submitted
• Assessment Auto-submitted
• Discussion Access
• Discussion Draft saved
• Discussion Edit
• Discussion Reply
• Discussion Response
• Document Access
• Journal Access
• LTI Item Access
• SCORM item Access

ULTRA: Wiris Upgrade and Benefits

We’ve upgraded the Wiris engine and equation editor to the latest versions to improve performance. Version 8.10.2 of the engine and version 7.23 of the editor improves rendering of subscript and superscript formulas. This upgrade provides a better experience for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses.

ULTRA: Calendar Event Management

Institutions can now control which users can create events in the Base Navigation Calendar with a new system-level entitlement Calendar>Create Personal event. This update gives institutions greater control over calendar event creation within their learning environment.

If the Calendar>Create Personal event entitlement is not granted:

• Users can’t create personal events in the Base Navigation Calendar.
• Calendar tool is hidden in Base Navigation if users have no existing events in their calendars and lack this entitlement. Users don’t have permission to import Calendar events from external files (Settings).

When users possess the privilege of the Calendar>Create Personal event entitlement:

• Users can create personal events using the Base Navigation Calendar.
• The add calendar option is displayed.
• The Calendar tool appears in Base Navigation.
• Users can import Calendar events from external files (Settings).

ULTRA: Content Designer: Enhanced Documents

Related Topic: Create Documents

Content design is key to creating an engaging course that supports learner needs. The Document feature is a useful option for creating and presenting a variety of visual elements. We have made significant enhancements to Documents to provide new and robust options for content design. Instructors will be delighted that all enhancements work beautifully using a mouse, trackpad, or the keyboard. All enhancements are mobile friendly for instructors and students.

NOTE: We've removed the option to generate questions from Documents. Generating questions from within a test using the context picker in the AI Design Assistant is the preferred method

Instructors can now design Documents by selecting from a variety of block types.

• Content block 
  Add content via the content editor.
• HTML block
  Add content via HTML or CSS in the Document.
  NOTE: An administrator must configure an alternate domain for the HTML block to appear. Learn more about setting up an alternate domain 
• File upload block 
  Browse for files on the local machine to upload to the Document.
  Note: Administrators can define the maximum size of a file that users can upload.
• Cloud upload block 
  Login to a cloud service and select a file to add into the Document.
• Content Collection block 
  Browse the Content Collection and select a file to add to the Document.
• Convert a file block 
  Browse for files on the local machine. Once selected, the system converts the file into the Document format. Supported file types include PDF, PowerPoint (ppt, pptx, pps), and Word (doc, docx, odt).

NOTE: In this release, the option to convert a file is only available in the main authoring space. In the Add Content panel (the + menu), the option to convert a file doesn’t appear. We'll correct this in an upcoming release.

Instructors can also open the left panel by selecting the + and choosing the desired block.

Document menu bar

To provide greater efficiency when designing content, we added a menu bar to Documents. The menu bar remains in view as the instructor scrolls the Document to view, add, or edit content. The menu bar contains the Edit option when in the view state. After selecting Edit, the menu bar displays the following options:

• Edit
• Add Blocks
• Undo/Redo
• Cancel
• Save

Resizing and moving blocks

Instructors can create appealing layouts by resizing and dragging/dropping blocks into columns and rows.

• Each row includes a menu with options to move or delete the block.

• Each block includes a menu with options to edit, move, or resize, or delete the block.

  NOTES: New LTI placements via the Content Market option in the content editor aren't yet supported in enhanced Documents. Pre-existing placements continue to function as expected. We are working to add this feature. We will update you soon

  For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. A new configuration option is on the Ultra configuration page in the Administrator Panel: “Enable support for customizing Ultra document layouts.” The default state is on. This option will be available until December 2024. At that time, we will remove the configuration option and enhanced Documents will be default.

  The 3900.98 release will begin updating on production sites on Thursday, Aug. 8 in the US morning as usual. The Content Designer: Documents option will not appear as configuration setting for administrators in the Administrator Panel and enhanced Documents will not be available in courses. We will enable the Content Designer: Documents feature on Monday, Aug. 12 at 9 am ET. At this time, the administrator setting will display in the configuration options and will be ON by default, but administrators can toggle it off.

  This option can be toggled on or off. Be mindful of potential impacts to content created with or modified by enhanced options if you turn this option off.

ULTRA: Image Generation Improvements

Related Topic: Add Files, Images, Audio, and Video

Images enhance comprehension and engagement with course content. To help, we introduced the ability for instructors to generate images using the AI Design Assistant.

We are updating the technology in the image generation process from DALL-E 2 to DALL-E 3. This update allows instructors to generate higher quality, higher resolution images in the following workflows:

• Learning Module images
• Document images
• Announcement images
• Assessment question images
• Journal prompts images

Note: For administrators: The "Generate images" options only appear for instructors when each tool is on. Select Building Blocks from the Administrator Panel, then select Installed Tools. Locate "AI Design Assistant and Unsplash" and select Settings from the dropdown. The default state is off. You must also activate privileges. Assign the Use AI Design Assistant privilege for the appropriate Course Roles (for example, Instructor).

ULTRA: Multiple rules for release conditions

Related Topic: Content Release Conditions

Instructors need to release course content based on performance criteria to sequence students on learning paths correctly. Sometimes they also need to release content to different groups using different criteria. For example, graduate students may be required to perform additional activities or perform at a higher level than other students. To support this needed flexibility, instructors can now create multiple rules for release conditions.

You can create rules for release conditions based on these criteria: date, time, and grade range performance criteria. You can also create rules for specific individual learners, groups, or for all members.

This release also improves copying content from Original courses. Rules and criteria now copy from Original adaptive release settings. The supported criterion types are date, time, grade range, and memberships (individual or groups). Only supported criteria types are copied from Original to Ultra courses. These criteria types are removed automatically during a copy:

• Attempt for a gradable item (student submitted the assignment or test)
• Student marked an item reviewed

As before, we recommend reviewing settings after copying content from Original courses.

Note: For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed. For Test/Stage environments, availability will be on July 24.

ULTRA: Improvements to creating assignments

Related Topic: Create and Edit Assignments

Instructors need robust, easy to use tools when creating their assessments.

To create a better experience, the new Assignment page includes these improvements:

• A new Instructions box where instructors can use the full content editor to craft assignment instructions.
• There are no options to add questions to an assignment.
• The Settings panel now includes only options relevant to assignments.
• Blank attempts are no longer created when students view assignment instructions. The system only creates an attempt when students add content to the file drop zone / content editor. Note: Group or timed and proctored assignments continue to create attempts when students view the instructions.

Assignments created before this release will continue to create blank attempts when students view the instructions. We'll address this issue in a future release.

The New Test page remains unchanged. Instructors can access all the same question types and settings options. Attempts are still automatically created when students view the test questions.

ULTRA: Anonymous student responses for Forms

Related topic: Forms

Anonymous responses in forms encourage honest and candid feedback from students and help participants feel safe and secure knowing their identities are protected. Anonymity leads to more genuine responses that convey the respondents' true opinions and experiences. Additionally, it increases participation rates and the overall quality of the results.

Instructors can now collect anonymous submissions in Forms. The new Anonymous submissions option appears in the Grading & Submissions section of Form Settings.

When you select Anonymous submissions, these settings are enabled by default:

• Due date
• Prohibit late submissions
• Prohibit new attempts after due date
• Complete/incomplete is selected as the grading schema for non-graded forms
• When grading, the submission earns the points assigned; you can’t edit or override the points earned

Additional important details to note:

• Anonymous forms cannot be administered to groups.
• Class conversations are not supported when Anonymous submissions is selected.
• To ensure anonymity, student activity, exceptions, exemptions and accommodations are not supported.
• To ensure anonymity, student progress/statistics are not captured.
• Modifications to form questions and settings are not permitted if the form has submissions and the due date has passed.

From the Submissions tab for a form, you can view an anonymized list of students participants along with this information and options:

• Student submission status
• Grading status and grade – At submission, the grading status is set to Complete and the grade is marked (for example., 5/5)
• Post -- Graded forms post automatically
• Download all – You can download all form submissions

To view responses, select an anonymous student from the list. You can enter overall feedback for their submission

From the Gradebook, before the due date for an anonymous form, "Anonymous" appears in the cell for each student. After the due date, the cells display:

• For ungraded forms, the text "Submitted" or "Not submitted"
• For graded forms, the grade

From the Grades tab, you can select Download Gradebook to download responses to forms with anonymous submissions

When converting Original courses containing surveys to Ultra courses, surveys convert to anonymous forms by default.

We've taken care to ensure students know when their submission to a form is anonymous. The Anonymous icon and label appears on:

• the Content Page
• the Form panel where they start the attempt and view their submission
• the Details & Information section that appears while responding to the form

ULTRA: Ability to ‘Follow’ Discussions for Enhanced Engagement

Related Topic: Discussions

Discussions are an important part of the course experience, allowing for easy collaboration between all course members. The ability to engage and re-engage with discussions ensures that collaboration is active and lively. Users can re-engage when they know there are new posts by following the discussion.

Key Enhancements:

• Follow Discussions: Users can follow select discussions and receive notifications for new contributions from peers or instructors.
• User Notification Settings: New notification options for the Activity Stream settings allow users to manage notification types for discussions:
  • Activity on my responses
  • Activity on responses I have replied to
  • Responses from instructors
  • Responses for followed discussions
  • Replies for followed discussions
• Administrator Settings: New administrator controls allow institutions to set defaults for the above user settings:
  • Discussion activity on the current user’s responses
  • Discussion activity on responses the current user has replied to
  • Discussion responses from instructors
  • Discussion responses and replies for followed

The default settings for these options are all “on.”

ULTRA: Send messages to a group from Group Spaces

Related Topic: Group Spaces

Communication and collaboration between group members is important. For this reason, we've expanded opportunities for group members to communicate.

Users can now send a group message from the members page of a group space. This encourages collaboration on content that they have been assigned.

ULTRA: Improved navigation between students in Flexible Grading

Related Topic: Grade Tests with Flexible Grading

To make the grading experience more efficient, we added Next Student and Previous Student buttons to the Students tab in Flexible Grading. Instructors can now quickly navigate between students when grading assessments.

ULTRA: Hide unenrolled students from the gradebook

Related Topic: Ultra Gradebook and Course Settings

Students can change their course schedules at the beginning of a term or semester. Institution policy determines what happens when students change classes. At some institutions, when a student drops a class their enrollment (membership) record is set to unavailable. They display in the gradebook with a strikethrough on their avatar. The instructor's gradebook can become cluttered with students who aren’t actively enrolled in the class.

Using the new Students Visibility setting, instructors now have the option to hide or show unenrolled students.

The default option is to show these students.

You can access the Students Visibility setting from two locations:

• Grades page
• Students page
• Calculation student list
• Gradable items student list
• Submission tab for an assessment
• Student Activity tab for an assessment

Note: Users and enrollment records set to the "disabled" state will continue to be hidden in all cases. A best practice for data integrations is to use the "disabled" record state when instructors no longer have any responsibility to manage those records or should not change data associated with those students. The "unavailable" record state still allows data access and grading activities—it’s most suitable when a student shouldn’t access the course any longer, but instructors are still responsible for reporting data for the student.

ULTRA: Status information removed from the gradebook download file

Related Topic: Work Offline with Grade Data

Instructors can download the full gradebook or selected columns to work with the information offline.

We've removed from the download file the status information associated with grades. Removing this information makes it easier to perform statistical analysis or calculations.

ULTRA: Assessment IP Address Filtering

Related topic: Assessment IP Address Filtering,Assessment Settings (Instructor)

Assessments are sometimes administered in proctored environments to ensure academic integrity. Instructors can now restrict an assessment by location in Ultra Course View. This restriction prevents students from taking tests outside of proctored locations or taking tests on another’s behalf.

To restrict by location, select Test Settings, then Assessment Security. Finally, select your Location restriction. No restriction is the default value.

Students are informed if a test is restricted by location before starting it. They're also informed if they are not meeting the IP address rules when starting an attempt and during the test.

For administrators: The configuration for IP filtering rules in Administrator Tool Panel > Course Settings > Grading Security Settings. For the range, enter as many filters as necessary to correctly capture the part of the network used in the testing environment. We will support multiple profile configurations in a future release.

ULTRA: Math Formula enhancement

Related Topic: Math Editor

We reduced the response time in the text editor when creating a formula. With enhanced data retrieval, instructors can process formula requests more efficiently.

ULTRA: Original Conversion Improvement: Convert Undeployed Tests to Question Banks

Related Topic:Copy Content from Other Courses

We’ve added a new configuration option within the Ultra experience settings: "Convert Undeployed Tests to Question Banks." This new option is designed to provide administrators with more control over how undeployed tests are handled during course conversions. By default, this option is not turned on and must be activated by administrators if they wish to use it.

Using the new Convert Undeployed Tests to Question Banks option in the Ultra experience settings, administrators now have more control over how undeployed tests are handled during course conversions. This provides greater flexibility and efficiency in managing undeployed tests and enables admins to choose the conversion method that best suits their institution’s needs.

Key Features and Benefits:

1. Conversion of Undeployed Tests to Question Banks:
   • When turned on, this option converts all undeployed tests into question banks. This process helps to declutter both the course content page and the gradebook, making it easier for instructors to manage their course materials.
   • This conversion significantly reduces the effort required to clean up courses that have been converted, as it organizes questions more effectively.
2. Removal of Random Blocks, Question Sets, and Linked Questions:
   • During the conversion process, any random blocks, question sets, and linked questions included in undeployed tests will be removed. Question Banks do not support those features. This ensures that the resulting question banks preserve original questions without duplication.

Default Behavior When Option is Disabled:

• By default, this option is not turned on.
• If the "Convert Undeployed Tests to Question Banks" option remains turned off, undeployed tests will instead be converted into deployed tests within the Ultra experience and set to hidden. This default behavior preserves the original structure of the tests, including any random blocks, question sets, and linked questions.
• The primary benefit of this default setting is that it allows instructors to use these converted tests as they were initially intended, without needing to recreate them from question banks.

ULTRA: Print answer key for assessments

Instructors can now print an answer key for their assessments. A printed answer key is helpful for grading any printed assessment.

Printing provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases:

• Accommodating students with specific needs or limited technology access
• Providing a printed assessment for testing in designated centers
• Backup and record keeping
• Conducting offline assessment
• Documentation and compliance
• Maintaining security and integrity

The print answer key option is available in Tests and Assignments with questions. Instructors may also save answer keys as a PDF.

To print an answer key from an assessment, navigate to the assessment. Select Print from the Content and Settings tab.

NOTE: We plan to support printing question pools and printing from the mobile app in upcoming releases.

ULTRA: Improvements to prevent printing a question across pages

In response to client feedback, we enhanced the print functionality for assessments to ensure a more user-friendly experience. For the following use cases, questions now print so that a question is not separated incorrectly on the physical or digital paper page break (e.g., in PDFs). This improves readability and ease of use for instructors and students alike.

• Question headers will split the question number and points possible across pages
• Question header will not split the header from the question text
• Question answer icons and text will not split across pages
• Tables, lists, and images will not split across pages
• Very large text answer options may span pages, but the answer choice icon (e.g. option A) will display next to the first line of text rather than aligning to the center of the option
• In matching questions, the prompt/answer heading will not split from the answer pairs

ULTRA: Needs Grading improvements for assessments allowing multiple attempts

The value of multiple attempts on an assessment ranges from support of mastery learning to reducing student anxiety. To help instructors grade assessments with multiple attempts, we have added new settings.

When an instructor chooses to allow multiple attempts, there is now a way to see which attempt(s) display as Needs Grading.

From the ‘Attempts to grade’ menu. The options are:

• First attempt
• Last attempt (default)
• All attempts

Instructors will always have access to all attempts submitted by a student in the grading interface. The Attempts to grade setting only controls which attempts display as Needs Grading.

If All attempts is selected, the instructor must also select the calculation method for the student’s grade.

From the Final grade calculation menu, the options are:

• Average
• Highest (default)
• Lowest

ULTRA: Send a copy to email when scheduling announcements

Related Topic: Announcements

Managing communication with students is an important instructor task. Instructors often plan certain communications in advance. Now instructors can schedule an announcement for a future date and select that it will send an email copy. The announcement tool will send the email copy on the day and time the announcements are posted.

In the past, instructors could schedule an announcement that would present to students on the selected day and time. Instructors could also immediately post an announcement and send an email copy to students at the same time.

ULTRA: Needs Grading improvements for Students and Questions tabs

We continue to improve the grading experience for instructors. Now, the Needs Grading filter for the Student and Questions tabs reflect the 'Attempts to grade' assessment setting.

The Needs Grading filter on the Student tab will now only display students with ungraded attempts that count towards Needs Grading.

The Needs Grading filter on the Questions tab will now only display questions with ungraded responses from attempts that count towards Needs Grading.

NOTE: Instructors will always have access to all attempts submitted by a student in the grading interface. The ‘Attempts to grade’ setting only controls which attempts need to be graded for the student to be removed from the Needs Grading workflow.

Example: An instructor configures a test with multiple attempts and chooses to grade the last attempt. Two students, Jessica Evans and Nathalie Williams, have made two attempts each. All four attempts are ungraded.

Continuing with the example, one essay question is displayed along with 2 responses to grade. The instructor is grading Jessica Evans. The attempt selector defaults to the last response to that question based on the assessment settings. After the instructor grades Jessica’s last response to the essay question, Jessica's responses will no longer appear on the Questions tab even though the response from her first attempt is ungraded.

ULTRA: Recording audio and video when adding per question feedback

When grading by student or question, instructors can now provide contextual feedback as recorded audio and video. Instructors can add recorded feedback to all question types. Question level feedback promotes deeper understanding and personal growth among students. Question level feedback enhances overall submission feedback and automated feedback for auto-graded questions.

NOTE: Audio and video feedback recordings do not count towards the institution storage quota.

ULTRA: Gradebook: Improved navigation when accessing feedback for Students

Some instructors choose to add feedback on a student’s overall submission and individual attempts. We've improved students' access to this valuable feedback. Now students can view overall and attempt-level feedback from the gradebook.

ULTRA: MOBILE APP: Mobile App token timeout configuration

Related topic: Account Lock

Administrators can now define the maximum length of time of a mobile app user's session before it is auto renewed. Mobile sessions are now controlled via an authentication token. This allows the app to automatically renew a session without re-authentication, as long as the token hasn't expired.

ULTRA: 'Reply to Email' feature for Messages

Related Topic: Messages

We aim to support institutions' specific policies and procedures about email communications. To help, administrators can now control how users interact with Messages sent as emails. When allowed, users can reply to Messages sent as an email.

There are two new settings for Ultra Messages:

• Allow email replies to messages from non-students/non-participants (instructors/leaders, administrators)
• Allow email replies to messages from students/participants

When drafting the message, instructors may choose whether they want to allow replies. When selected, replies from students will be directed to the instructor's email address registered in the system. Allowing replies helps interactions to be more efficient and will foster smoother communication.

MOBILE APP: Improved Mobile Authentication

We made backend improvements to the Blackboard Learn App authentication process. These changes reduce the frequency of logouts and enhance user experience. After the Blackboard Learn App 9.6 is released (July 2024), users will be required to update the app on their devices to ensure proper functionality. Users who do not update after the release will see a red banner informing them that their session has expired.

ULTRA: AI Design Assistant – Language Selector

Related Topic: AI Design Assistant

To support multi-language use cases, the AI Design Assistant now includes a language selector. Instructors may use the language selector to set the desired language for generated content. This feature is especially beneficial for courses with multi-language requirements.

NOTE: The language selector is included in all existing AI Design Assistant workflows. A list of supported languages in the language selector is available.

ULTRA: Printing for Assessments

Instructors can now print assessments. Printing provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases:

• Accommodating students with specific needs or limited technology access
• Providing a printed assessment for testing in designated centers
• Backup and record keeping
• Conducting offline assessment
• Documentation and compliance
• Maintaining security and integrity

The print option is available in Forms, Tests, and Assignments with questions. Printing also provides the option to save as PDF.

To print an assessment, from Content and Settings, select Print.

Note: We plan to support printing answer keys and question pools and printing from the mobile app in upcoming releases

ULTRA: Streamlined point value editing for questions

Related topics: Edit Tests and Questions

When editing a question, instructors can now access and edit the point value field with just two clicks. Reducing the number of clicks needed to edit the point value of a question saves instructors time and effort. This small change leads to a smoother workflow and enhances the overall teaching and learning experience.

Note: Editing the point values for matching questions requires three clicks.

ULTRA: Return a true/false question to an unanswered state

Students can now return a true/false question to an unanswered state after choosing an answer. Students clear their choice by selecting the same option again. Students may need to clear their answer selection for a test question. For questions that use negative scoring, if a student is uncertain about their answer, their score may be better if they leave it unanswered. In this case, clearing a response makes it easy for them to come back later using the unanswered question filter. This helps students better manage their time during a test.

In the past, a student could only change their answer to a true/false question to a different value.

ULTRA: Post immediately when creating announcements

Related Topic: Announcements

Instructors use self-enrollment groups to provide agency to students on group activities. Currently, at the end of the enrollment period, unassigned students are always distributed into groups. To improve the use of self-enrollment groups for optional activities, instructors can now opt-out of this behavior. Instructors can deselect the option, which does not enroll students who do not self-enroll by the end of the enrollment to any group. This option gives instructors more flexibility when managing self-enrollment groups.

ULTRA: Group members list available within the selected group

Related topic: Create and Manage Groups

Groups and group work form an important part of the learning experience. To improve and centralize member information, we have relocated the members list to the selected group page. This will now display as a member’s tab rather than a separate panel. Here, users can search for members and sort them alphabetically. This change enhances the visibility of the selected groups page and provides the groundwork for adding more features in future releases.

ULTRA: Filter out graded responses when grading by question

The Needs Grading filter now filters out graded student responses by default. Filtering this way helps instructors to focus on any remaining ungraded responses for a given question. It also provides instructors with an improved view of their outstanding grading workload. If instructors want to include graded responses, they can select Show graded responses. This selection preference is now stored per course and it persists across assessments in each course.

ULTRA: Grader Notes on student grades

Related topics: Grade Tests with Flexible Grading, Grade Assignments with Flexible Grading

Instructors can now add private grading notes to student grades. After a score is assigned, the new Feedback & Notes menu option is available. Grader notes form an important part of the academic record. These notes may serve as documentation for a grading decision or grade adjustment. Grader notes are private to graders and not visible to students.

Those with grading privileges can access Feedback & Notes from two places:

• The Grades tab in the Gradebook by selecting a specific score.
• The Submissions list page for an assessment, select the More menu for a student

ULTRA: Improved visibility of new grades and feedback in the student gradebook

To ensure that students are aware of any new grades in the course we have added an indicator to the Gradebook tab. When there are new grades, the number of new grades appears on the tab.

After selecting the tab, items with new or updated grades appear at the top of the student gradebook and display a purple indicator. The purple indicator disappears and the count on the tab reduces when the student selects the item or reviews their submission.

We also reviewed the use of color in the gradebook based on student feedback. Now, we mark late assessments with a "(Late)" label to reduce stress sometimes associated with the use of the color red. In the past, late submissions appeared with a red assessment icon and label.

ULTRA: Weighted calculation usability improvements

Related topics: Calculate Grades

Responding to client feedback, we have made two improvements for gradebook weighting:

• The label “0% per item” appeared for categories excluded from weighting. This caused confusion so we removed it.
• We updated the calculation rules panel to make it easier to understand the selected settings.

ULTRA: Student's overall grade visible to Observers

Related Topic: Observer Role

Observers are users who can only view the progress and performance of specified students. We now display the overall grade in the Grades tab along with other grades. This improves student monitoring for observers. If an instructor sets the overall grade to be visible to students, it will be visible to observers.

ORIGINAL and ULTRA: Base Navigation - Course and Organization filters and personalization

The courses and organizations tabs in Base Navigation are some of the most accessed places in Blackboard Learn. We received feedback in numerous focus groups and were inspired by client ideas posted in the Idea Exchange. We heard the pages should fit more institutions’ situations and give users more options to customize. This release includes the following improvements:

We removed the carousel for navigating between terms. There is now a term selector and filter you can use on its own or with other filters.

You can set filters, make term choices, and add text searches. All of these are clearly displayed below the search box. Remove these search settings or filters to see more courses or organizations. Remove them by selecting the close icon “x” on each.

Your selections and filters are remembered automatically even if you log out or switch devices. Set up the pages the way you like, and we’ll keep it that way until you change it.

The terms selector has specific logical behaviors to help users:

• “Current Courses” and “Current Organizations” are the default term selections. If terms aren’t used or all your courses/organizations are open or use continuous duration, you’ll default to the “All Terms” selection option instead.
• You can now choose to view “All Terms” to see everything regardless of term.
• The “Upcoming Courses” and “Upcoming Organizations” term options will only display if you have upcoming courses/organizations.

ORIGINAL and ULTRA: MOBILE APP: Landing Page Enhancements for Blackboard Learn Mobile App

To enhance usability and streamline user interaction in the mobile app, we added filters to the following landing pages:

• Courses
• Organizations
• Grades

Users now can use filters at the top of each landing page, allowing them to refine their search results.

When a user applies a filter, its tag appears at the top of the landing page. Users can remove filters by unselecting the respective tag.

ULTRA: Align goals to questions in question pools

Related topics: Question Pools, Goals

Institutions want to align goals to course content. Goal alignment ensures curriculum design meets specific learning outcomes.

Now, instructors can align goals to questions within a question pool. Question-level goal alignment ensures that assessment items measure the desired learning outcomes. This helps to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of evaluation and feedback practices.

ULTRA: Supporting multiple performance criteria in release conditions

Related topics: Content Release Conditions

Release conditions determine when students can view course content. Release conditions are on the content's visibility setting on the course content page. Currently, you can set:

• Which course members or groups have access;
• When the course content is accessible, visible, and hidden;
• When student performance is necessary for completing an assignment or scoring.

Instructors can now set more than one performance criteria per content item.

ULTRA: Reuse questions in Forms

Related topics: Forms

Instructors can now assign a Form to a group and allow multiple attempts. When assigning forms to groups, enabling multiple attempts promotes dynamic, iterative learning experiences. Groups can now submit the Form, receive feedback, and submit another response.

ULTRA: Improved Gradebook navigation

To create a more intuitive navigation, we replaced the grid and list view buttons with text links. The options are now:

• Gradable Items
• Grades (grid view)
• Students

The Gradebook will remember the last view you used in each course.

ULTRA: Weighted Calculation Improvements

Related topics: Calculate Grades, Grade Columns

Now instructors can assign equal weights to items in the same categories. The chosen calculation method, whether proportional or equal, applies to all categories. In the past, weighted items in the same category had proportional weights. These weighted items were based on the possible points of each item.

To better understand student performance, some instructors use drop rules to remove outliers. Because it’s important to know the weighting method when managing these settings, we now display the instructor's chosen weighting option in the calculation rules panel.

ULTRA: Observer role support in Ultra Courses

Related Topic: Observer Role

Academic advisors, parents, coaches, and other users may find it beneficial to monitor the progress of one or more students. This enables them to effectively support the students in their learning journey. Now these observers can monitor student progress and performance in Ultra courses.

The streamlined process for Ultra courses eliminates the need for complicated instructor settings. Observers will have access to the following information:

• • Last Access Date: Observers can view when the student last accessed the course.
• • Grades tab: This tab provides details on a student’s earned grades. The information included is:
  • Overall Grade
  • Upcoming and past due dates
  • Any exceptions granted to the student
  • Late submissions
• • Progress tab: This tab helps the observer understand a student's progression in the course. The information included is:
  • Navigation through the course content
  • Course elements visible on the student’s learning path
  • Completeness and progress indicators for items, folders, and learning modules

To view a student's progress, progress tracking must be enabled in the course.

Observers can access a dedicated dashboard in the Tools area of the Base Navigation. Observers should first select the student they wish to observe and then choose the specific course they want to access. Both Original and Ultra courses can be observed from this dashboard.

NOTE: A user must be assigned the Observer system role as their primary system role. In this release, Observer accounts continue to be mutually exclusive from other user accounts. We plan to remove this restriction in a future release.

ULTRA and MOBILE: Landing page enhancements for Blackboard Learn Mobile App

The landing pages (Grades, Messages, Courses, Organization) are now designed in a card layout. For the Courses and Organization pages, the course status indicator previously located in the course image has been moved below the course or organization title. The current functionality remains the same. These design changes align the landing pages with the design principles and language of the Blackboard Mobile App.

These enhancements are a part of a larger redesign of the Blackboard Learn mobile app landing pages to ensure uniform design, optimized user experience, and natural user flow across various devices and screen sizes.

ULTRA and MOBLE: Support for Observer role for Ultra Courses in Mobile App

Users with the Observer role can now view student progress in Ultra Courses using our mobile app. This provides student advisors and support staff the ability to track student success. 

They also can view grade related information. Observers view the same information displayed to a student. Mobile access for the Observer role makes it easier for support staff to help students.

ORIGINAL and ULTRA: Restricting Original Course View Course Copy workflow

Related Topic: Copy Courses

We have added a restriction to the Course Copy workflow in Original courses. Users can no longer push a copy from an Original course to an Ultra course. We made this change to reduce the likelihood of an Ultra course becoming corrupted. The Original Course Copy workflow was never designed for copies into an Ultra course.

Instructors can still copy from one Original course to another. For Ultra courses, instructors should always start a copy process from the Ultra course.

Users can copy course materials from Original to Ultra by using Copy Items in an Ultra course. They can copy an entire Original course into an Ultra course. They also have the option to pick and choose which items they want to copy into an Ultra course.

Ultra: AI Design Assistant – Context picker for Learning Modules, Assignments, Discussions, and Journals

Related topics: Learning modules, Assignments,Discussions, and Journals

Context selection is key for tailoring course content generated with the AI Design Assistant. The context picker also helps to ground generated content in an appropriate context.

File types supported by the context picker include PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, RTF, and HTML.

We are extending the context picker for test questions to other generation workflows:

• Learning modules
• Authentic assignments
• Authentic discussions
• Authentic journals

Ultra: Persistent navigation for Learning Modules

Related topic: Learning Modules

To improve students' navigation in a learning module, we updated the navigation bar. Now the navigation bar is sticky and remains visible as students vertically scroll through content. Students no longer need to scroll back up to the top of content to access the navigation tools.

ULTRA: Student feedback remains visible to students regardless of release condition settings

Related topic: Content Release Conditions

Instructors may want to control access to course content using release conditions. This is helpful for providing custom learning paths through course content. The release conditions include an option to show or hide content to/from students before they meet release conditions. We've modified how these settings impact the students' view of feedback from instructors. Now instructors can set release conditions without any impact to feedback to students.

In the past, when an instructor selected the option to hide content, students could view associated grades but not the feedback. We have corrected this to ensure that students can always review feedback.

ULTRA: Default question points value changed from 10 to 1

Related topic: Create Tests

We recognize that manually adjusting the point value for questions can be time-consuming and error prone. Based on valuable client feedback, we are changing the default point value from 10 to 1. Moving forward, any newly created questions will have a default point value of 1. This change helps reduce the need for manual adjustments.

• Questions copied from another assessment retain the designated point value.

ULTRA: Duplicate questions in Assessments, Forms, and Question Banks

Related topic: Edit Tests and Questions

This enhancement is a direct response to client feedback

Sometimes an instructor may want to have a question repeated with the same answer options but a different question. Instructors can now select Duplicate to quickly copy an existing question within the same assessment (test, assignment, form) or in a question bank. This feature eliminates the need for manual duplication and simplifies the process of creating multiple questions with the same answer options.

• Instructors may edit the question text and answer options. There are no changes to how an instructor edits the question.

ULTRA: Likert answer options expanded to include 4 and 6

Instructors can now create Likert scale questions with 4 or 6 answer options. This allows for greater granularity in student responses. An even number of answer options also supports the creation of questions where students cannot select a neutral option. This enhancement is in response to valuable user feedback.

ULTRA: Auto-submitted indicator in attempt logs

Related Topic: Attempt Logs

Understanding the context of student submissions is helpful to instructors. Now the Attempt Log indicates whether a submission is manual or automatic. This indicator provides instructors with deeper insights into student behaviors. This addition also allows instructors to better track their student progress.

ULTRA: Anonymous posts for Discussions

Related topics: Create Discussions for Instructors, Discussions for Students

Discussions play a pivotal role in nurturing peer-to-peer interaction and critical thinking. Students need to feel free to express their ideas and opinions without fear of judgment. To support this, we've added an option for instructors to allow anonymous posts in ungraded discussions. This feature provides flexibility for instructors. They can toggle anonymity on or off as the discussion progresses. Any existing anonymous posts keep their anonymity.

ULTRA: Self-Enrollment Group Improvements

Related Topic: Create Groups

Self-enrollment groups provide an important part of student autonomy throughout the learning experience. To support more use cases for self-enrollment groups and based on client feedback, we are reducing the maximum members per group from 2 to 1. This will cover use cases such as sign-up sheets and booking 1:1 slots with students.

ORIGINAL: Reply all in messages

Related topics: Messages for Instructors, Messages for Students

Responding to messages is an important part of course communication. The "Reply all" option in the Original Course View is limited to messages with up to 100 recipients. With this release, we have raised limits to 1000 recipients. This is to help with wider course communication and based on client feedback. When using the "Reply all" feature, it will respond to all users on the original message. If you wish to select which users to reply to, the "Reply" option allows you to desired select users.

ULTRA: Usability improvements for flexible grading

Related topics: Grade Tests With Flexible Grading, Grade Assignments With Flexible Grading, Override Grades

Streamlining the grading process saves instructors time and reduces their workload. We have implemented several enhancements to Flexible Grading in response to instructor feedback. All the enhancements target improved usability and efficiency.

We relocated the attempt selector to improve visibility and efficiency. It is now nearer to the attempt grade pill. This allows instructors to switch between a student's attempts during grading.

ULTRA: Add question feedback when grading by student

Instructors can now provide contextual feedback by student on all question types. Question level feedback promotes deeper understanding and personal growth among students. Question level feedback complements the existing capabilities of overall submission feedback and automated feedback for auto-graded questions.

Note: We are targeting the 3900.91 May release for per-question feedback when grading tests by questions.

ORIGINAL and ULTRA: Calculations changed from using BigDecimal to BigFraction

Instructors need a gradebook that supports diverse grading scenarios. We are changing the software library used to perform calculations in calculated columns and the overall course grade.

Example: A course contains 3 assignments worth 22 points each. The student scores 13/22 on the first assignment, 14/22 on the second assignment, and 15/22 on the third assignment. An instructor creates a calculated column to calculate the average of these assignments.

Using the new software library, BigFraction, the average will calculate as 14/22.

With the former software library, BigDecimal, the average would incorrectly calculate to 13.99/22. The new software library ensures calculations compute as expected.

ULTRA: Overall Grade added to the Gradebook Download

Related topic: Work Offline with Grade Data

Some instructors download grades from the gradebook to analyze in other applications, such as Microsoft Excel.

Now, instructors can choose to include the Overall Grade for students in the downloaded gradebook. This additional data point helps provide a comprehensive view of student performance.

ULTRA: Edit gradebook category for Partner Cloud content

Related topic: Grade Columns

Some instructors want to change the gradebook category for third-party content and tools (e.g., Cengage). Now instructors can edit the category information from the gradebook.

ORIGINAL, ULTRA and MOBILE: Long names visibility and sorting controls for the Student Activity report for assessments on small devices and mobile app

Related Topic: Activity Details for Assessments

Depending on the culture, personal name lengths vary. To continue demonstrating our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we adjusted long names in the Student Activity report for assessments. This change ensures that names are visible on a variety of devices. This helps instructors avoid confusion when viewing students with similar names.

Also, instructors can now sort the student list by last name in small devices so they can organize the list easily.

ULTRA: Individual date adjustments from Batch Edit

Related Topic: Batch Edit

Updating availability and due dates after a course copy, import, or a conversion can take time. We're making it easier for instructors to make date adjustments for any item on the Batch Edit page. Instructors now have the option to change the due date and availability (Show On and Hide After) for any item.

ULTRA View: AI Design Assistant – Context picker for test question generation – 3900.86

The AI Design Assistant offers inspiration and efficiency when generating test questions. Instructors can now select course items to help define questions. This option improves the alignment of generated questions to course content.

The context picker does not draw context from items that are attached to an Ultra document. Only items that appear on the context picker’s menu are used by the context picker. In future releases, attached files will be included in the context picker

ULTRA View: Goal alignment to Journals – 3900.86

Institutions want to align goals to course content. Goal alignment ensures that the curriculum is designed to meet specific learning outcomes.

Instructors can now align goals to journals to ensure that the activity measures the desired learning outcomes. This helps to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of evaluation and feedback practices.

Instructors can also align goals to the following course items:

• Assignments
• Tests, including individual questions
• Questions in banks
• Discussions
• Rubrics criterion
• Files
• Web links
• Teaching tools with LTI connection
• Documents

ULTRA View: No Due Date assessment option – 3900.86

Due dates are an important aspect of the teaching and learning process. In some scenarios, such as self-paced learning, an instructor may not want to apply a due date. To make the option for not having a due date more evident, we've added a "No due date" option for Tests and Assignments.

We also updated the default due date and time to tomorrow’s date at 11:59 pm.

There may be cases when the “No due date” selection conflicts with the Assessment Results settings. When this occurs, the instructor is prompted to review the settings.

Instructors can navigate to the Assessment Results section in the Settings via the link in the banner.

ULTRA View: Announcement indicators and mark announcements as read/unread – 3900.86

Announcements are an important communications channel within a course. Over the past 12 months, course announcements usage has more than tripled! With such an increase in usage, it is important to help create awareness of new announcements and read/unread controls.

Now, there is a number indicator next to the announcement tab in the course. The indicator signals the number of unread announcements available.

Additionally, users can now mark announcements as read or unread. On the New Course Announcement pop-up, users have the option to mark the read state. Users can also mark announcements as read or unread from the Announcement page.

ULTRA View: Last used view state of flexible grading side panels preserved – 3900.86

Instructors want to configure the grading interface according to their preferences. In flexible grading, instructors can collapse or expand the left panel (student cards) and right panel (feedback and rubrics). To provide a better user experience, the last used state is now preserved in the browser. Now, navigating between student attempts and across sessions provides a more efficient experience.

ULTRA View: Gradebook item statistics – 3900.86

Item statistics give insight to course members' overall performance on a graded content. Now, instructors can select a column in the gradebook to access summary statistics for any graded item. The statistics page displays key metrics such as:

• Minimum and maximum value
• Range
• Average
• Median
• Standard deviation
• Variance

ULTRA View: Text grade schema converts to points – 3900.86

In the Original course view, instructors can create text schemas that are unsupported in the Ultra course view. When converting courses, text schemas convert to a points schema. After conversion to Ultra, instructors can create and apply an alternate schema if desired.

ULTRA View: Send messages to students from the Student Activity report for assessments on small and medium devices and the mobile app – 3900.86

Instructors lead busy, on-the-go lives and access Learn from a variety of devices. Some instructors use small or medium devices or the mobile app. Now these instructors can send messages to students from the Student Activity report for assessments. The message option is in the ellipsis menu for each student.

ORIGINAL and ULTRA View: Moodle Conversion Improvements – 3900.86

These improvements will not be available immediately in the release to Test/Stage environments for the 3900.86 release. We will update this note and send an email notification to followers of this page when it becomes available.

We continue to make progress on improving the conversion of Moodle courses. With this update, we're adding support for converting the following Moodle Question Types:

• Multiple Choice (Single Answer)
• Multiple Choice (Multiple Answers)
• True/False
• Matching
• Short Answer
• Numerical
• Essay
• Calculated
• Calculated Multichoice (Single Answer)
• Calculated Multichoice (Multiple Answers)
• Calculated Simple

ULTRA View: Forms (Survey) – 3900.84

Some instructors need to collect information to place students in clinical experiences. Others need to survey their class to gauge student interests or opinions. Now, instructors can create a Form for these use cases.

The following items are supported in a Form:

• essay question
• Likert question
• multiple choice question
• true/false question
• text
• local file
• file from cloud storage
• page break

By default, a Form is not graded. Questions in a form don’t have correct or incorrect answers.

Some instructors may choose to grade a Form to encourage participation. When this is the case, instructors must manually enter a grade for each submission.

Instructors may view Form submissions by student or by question in the new grading view.

Instructors may download the Form results from the Gradebook and Submissions page as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file.

In the Gradebook grid view, student submissions for an ungraded Form appear as “Submitted.” Graded Forms display the manually entered grade or appropriate grading status.

A Survey created in the Original course view converts/copies to a Form in the Ultra course view. Only questions and options are supported in a Form convert/copy. After conversion, an exception suggests that instructors review their questions.

ULTRA View: Likert question type – 3900.84

Likert questions help provide a quantitative measure of opinions and attitudes. The responses often range from strongly disagree to strongly agree. This question type is now available in the Form assessment type.

The scale range defaults to 3 options, with suggested labeling for options 1 and 3 as strongly disagree and strongly agree. Instructors may select a range of 3, 5, or 7 and label the poles as desired. Instructors may also choose to include a "not applicable" option.

Note: A Likert question in a Survey created in the Original course view converts/copies to a Form in the Ultra course view. The scale range default is 3.

ULTRA View: Rubrics performance level descriptions: Display choice persists – 3900.84

Rubrics play a critical role in the grading process for many educators. Rubrics performance level descriptions are hidden by default. Instructors can choose to display the performance descriptions as needed for grading.

In the past, the performance level descriptions display option didn’t persist when navigating submissions. This caused frustration for instructors.

Now, the rubrics grading interface stores the most recently used display option. This means that instructors who rely on performance level descriptions when grading don’t have to turn them on each time they navigate to grade another submission. The performance level display option preference is stored on a per-user per-assessment basis

ULTRA View: Send reminders from the gradebook: Improved student count for instructors – 3900.84

Some instructors like to send reminders to students who haven't yet made a submission for an assessment. The send reminder option in the gradebook saves instructors time in student support. We have refined the scenarios that determine the students who will receive the reminder. This will make the recipient list more accurate.

A student user will be counted and receive the reminder if they didn't submit and:

• they are available in the course.
• they have not received an automatic zero.
• they don’t have a manual override score that was posted.

These changes help ensure that the number of students indicated in the send reminder confirmation is more accurate.

The Send Reminder option is now also available for LTI and 3rd party tools with assessments in the gradebook. With LTI Advantage integrations, the tool can inform Blackboard Learn when a student has submitted, even if they haven’t yet received a grade. If the tool doesn’t support this, it is possible that students will receive a reminder even if they’ve submitted their work. The tool provider can enhance their integration to improve this.

ULTRA View: Audio/Video Recording in feedback: Usability improvements – 3900.84

Audio/video feedback is a more personalized and engaging means for providing feedback. It is beneficial for addressing complex concepts and sharing detailed explanations. To ensure easy and clear access to this tool, we have exposed the Audio/Video option on the feedback toolbar. When in use, the recording window appears on the right side of the screen so that the instructor can view the student submission.

The instructor can scroll through a student's response while recording their feedback. The instructor can maximize the recording window for better visibility.

ULTRA View: Feedback on override and automatic zero grades for Tests and Assignments – 3900.84

Feedback is crucial for students as it supports and shapes their learning journey. Now, instructors can give feedback for overridden tests, assignment grades, and automatic zeros. This option appears in the Gradebook grid view, and the Submissions list after the override or automatic zero is entered.

Override feedback on group submissions will be supported in a future release.

Additionally, instructors can now upload feedback for students as part of the offline grading process. In the past, only uploaded grades were visible to students.

Students can view override feedback after grades are posted.

We also improved students' access to the feedback. Now, feedback for all attempts on a test or assignment is visible in a panel.

ULTRA View: Missed due dates included in the Course Activity Report – 3900.84

Punctuality and time management are key for student success. Instructors need an easy method for identifying students who may be at risk. Now, instructors can view the number of missed due dates for students in the Course Activity Report.

Instructors can customize the missed due date alert in the Alert Settings.

There is no default setting for missed due date alert. Be sure to customize the alert settings.

Students who trigger the missed due dates alert appear in the Course Activity report table and chart and in the downloaded report.

Students will not receive notifications based on course missed due date alert setting. If a student opts in to missed due date alerts, alerts are sent for each content item.

As before, activity stream notifications for instructors include a summary of students with alerts per course. Now, the summary includes missed due dates alerts. These alerts are triggered every day in case there are new students with alerts in a course. New courses need at least 2 weeks of activity to start triggering these notifications.

The missed due date alert applies when a student doesn’t submit before the due date in the following:

• Assessments, including group and formative
• Assessments with the “collect submissions offline” option selected - when an instructor creates an attempt and enters the submission date/time after the due date
• Assessments with the “hide student names” option selected - alerts only after all student submissions are graded and student names are exposed
• Discussions and journals marked for a grade
• SCORM packages when the “Grade individual SCOs” option is selected in SCORM settings
• Other 3rd party activities, such as LTI and Respondus

Special considerations:

• Students with a due date accommodation never have their work marked late. A student with due date accommodation won't have any missed due date alerts.
• Students with a due date exception will have a missed due date alert if the excepted due date passes and there is no submission.
• Students with an exemption never have their work marked late. A student with an exemption won't have any missed due date alerts.
• Hidden content with a due date or content with date/ time and performance release conditions are included in missed due date alerts.
• Content with a due date and release conditions for individual course members or groups will alert only those students/groups included in the condition who miss the due date.
• New items added to the gradebook with a due date are not included in the missed due date alerts.

To view the Course Activity and Student Activity Details reports, the user’s role needs to have “Course/Organization Control Panel (Grade Center) > View Grades” privilege.

ULTRA View: Long student names visibility in the Course Activity Report – 3900.84

Depending on the culture, personal name lengths vary. In demonstrating our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we have adjusted long names in the Course Activity Report. This change ensures that names are visible even on small devices. This helps instructors avoid confusion when viewing students with similar names.

To view the Course Activity and Student Activity Details reports, the user’s role needs to have the “Course/Organization Control Panel (Grade Center) -> View Grades” privilege.

ULTRA View: Better control over "Student Alerts" notifications for instructors - 3900.84

Notifications of certain student-related alerts help instructors be more aware of students who may be at risk. To help, we've made it easy for instructors to control what student alerts they receive in their Activity Stream.

The “Student Alerts” options are:

• Low overall grade
• Missed due date alert
• and Last access alert

Administrators can control these 3 notifications at the institutional level in the administrator panel.

Notifications are:

• Student Last Access Alert for Instructors
• Student Low Overall Grade Alert for Instructors
• Students Missed Due Dates Alert for Instructors

Key considerations:

• These alerts are only available for courses.
• Courses must have at least 10 students and no more than 2000 students. Courses with enrollments outside of that range won’t receive notifications.
• Notifications for these alerts are sent nightly only when new alerts are met.

To view the Course Activity and Student Activity Details reports, the user’s role needs to have “Course/Organization Control Panel (Grade Center) > View Grades” privilege. These notifications are based on the values set in the Course Activity alert settings.

ORIGINAL and ULTRA View: Limit enrollment management actions based on data source key of enrollments – 3900.84

There are cases when instructors need to manage some course or organization enrollments.

Instructors may need to add co-instructors, assistants, or graders. However, institutional policy often mandates instructors should not alter records from a Student Information System (SIS).

Now, administrators can limit whether users can make changes to enrollment records based on how the enrollment was added. Enrollments added through the GUI belong to the SYSTEM data source. Enrollments added through integrations are assigned to other data sources based on configuration (non-SYSTEM).

The following Course/Organization Role privileges have been changed:

• Change the availability of enrollments
• Change a users’ roles in the course
• Set an instructor as primary instructor
• Remove (delete) users from the course

The 4 Course/Organization Role privileges have been split into 8 privileges—4 for enrollment records in SYSTEM and 4 for enrollment records not in SYSTEM. These are found in the privileges manager for each Course/Organization Role:

• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Remove System DSK Users from Course/Organization
• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Change System DSK User's availability in Course/Organization
• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Change System DSK User's Role in Course/Organization
• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Set System DSK instructor as primary in Ultra Course View
• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Remove Non-System DSK Users from Course/Organization
• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Change Non-System DSK User's Role in Course/Organization
• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Change Non-System DSK User's availability in Course/Organization
• Course/Organization Control Panel (Users and Groups) > Users > Set Non-System DSK instructor as primary in Ultra Course View

Administrators can configure each Course Role with the appropriate privileges for their policies. The privileges and restrictions are applicable to users in both Ultra and Original Course Views.

The Original Course View has a bulk remove action for enrollments. If the course user is restricted from removing any of the selected users, the action is stopped with a warning.

If the above entitlements related to System DSK Users are permitted and entitlements related to Non-System DSK Users are restricted, it will allow user to Remove, Edit Availability, Edit Roles and set Instructor as Primary for System DSK users only.

The remove member icon does not appear when a course user with no permissions tries to delete a Non-System DSK user.

The remove member icon appears in the GUI when a course user with permissions tries to delete a System DSK user.

The upgrade process should retain consistent behavior with the prior release. For example, if a Course Role had the privilege to remove users from a course/organization, they should now have the equivalent privileges:

• Remove System DSK Users from Course/Organization
• Remove Non-System DSK Users from Course/Organization

ORIGINAL and ULTRA View: Import Moodle packages – 3900.84

Switching from Moodle to Blackboard Learn Ultra is now easier than ever. Instructors can now import Moodle packages into Ultra and Original view courses themselves. This change removes instructor reliance on an administrator.

Learn more on importing courses from Moodle for more directions. We also have a guide to help you understand the differences in terminology.

ULTRA View: Batch Edit: Change to specific date and/or time – 3900.82

We heard that instructors want to change the date and time for selected items in their course. For example, the due date times are currently set to 8:00 PM and the instructor would like to change them to 11:59 PM. The change would give students more time to make their submissions. The problem with making that change is that it would be very tedious if you had to do one item at a time.

Using Batch Edit, instructors can override the existing date and/or time for selected items. Instructors can adjust the due date time for all assessments using this option. The same feature also works on show on and hide after dates and times.

ORIGINAL View: Restricting Original Copy Workflows – 3900.82

We had several issues related to copying items from Original to Ultra and Ultra to Ultra course view. The issues stemmed from users copying materials using Original workflows. The Original workflows opened the door for partial copies of items. The Original copy workflows were never designed or updated to support Ultra courses.

Here are two examples:

Example 1

The instructor would select "Discussions" and not select "Grade Center Columns and Settings." The discussions would copy without their associated grade center columns. The discussion would come over in a partial state and would not function. Instructors would need to delete and copy using the supported workflow.

Example 2

The instructor selects a "Content Area" with course links to discussions. They did not select "Discussions" or "Grade Center Columns and Settings." The course links copy. The course links don't function. The "Discussions" were not selected, and the course links have nothing to reference. Instructors would need to delete and copy using the supported workflow.

Previous Behaviors:

Instructors could use Original workflows to Copy from Original to Ultra.
Administrators could use Original workflows to copy from Original to Ultra.
Administrators could use Original workflows to copy from Ultra to Ultra.
New Behaviors: Instructors can no longer use Original workflows to copy from Original to Ultra.
Administrators can no longer use Original workflows to copy from Original to Ultra.
Copy Course Materials into a New Course
Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
Administrators can no longer use Original workflows to copy from Ultra to Ultra.
Copy Course Materials into a New Course
Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
Alternatives:
Instructors can copy from an Original to Ultra using the copy items workflow.
Administrators can copy from an Original to Ultra using the copy items workflow.
Administrators can copy from Ultra to Ultra using the copy items workflow.
Administrators can copy from Ultra to Ultra using the “Copy Course with Users (Exact Copy).
Administrators can export a course package from Ultra to import into another Ultra course.
Administrators can use the SIS Integration Framework to copy from Ultra to Ultra.
 

ORIGINAL AND ULTRA View: Help Center and About sections added to More menu - MOBILE – 3900.82

To elevate user accessibility and awareness, we've added two improved segments to the More menu: Help Center and About.

The About section is a comprehensive reservoir that empowers users with essential information to navigate their app experience.

This includes:
Accessibility details
Institution policies: Institutions can add their institutional privacy policy URL if this link has been configured in the "Data Use and Privacy Disclosure" Building Block settings.
A dedicated channel for mobile app feedback
Privacy policies
Release notes
Terms of use
App version information
 

Users can explore the Help Center for more information, providing a seamless and enriched user experience. The release notes provide users with information on enhancements, optimizations, and introduced features. This ensures users are well-acquainted with the app's evolving capabilities.

ULTRA View: Create Message privilege improvement – 3900.82

We've made some improvements to the privilege for creating messages in courses and organizations. This change improves the experience for system administrators and other users who are not enrolled in the course.

Now administrators and other privileged users can
• Access and use the message tab to communicate with course users
Course users will not be able to send messages to the administrator or respond to the administrator's messages.
• Make changes to the Course Tools - Messages and Messaging Options

ULTRA View: Unused files management tool – 3900.82

File management is important to many institutions that want to be cognizant of their digital footprint. To help instructors understand the usage of files in their course, we've created the Unused Files tool. This tool helps instructors find and delete course files that are not in use. Instructors can locate the Unused Files tool in the three-dot menu on the Course Content page.

There are two views available: unused files (default view) or all files. The file name, upload date, and file size display along with an option to download a copy of the local file. Instructors can easily delete unused files.

Course roles will need “Course/Organization >Files Manage Files” privileges to access the Unused Files tool.

ULTRA View: Multi-Factor Authentication for the default authentication method – 3900.82

Related topics: Identification and Authorization, Quick start for Blackboard App

Some institutions enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to fulfill security policies and best practices. To better support these institutions, we now offer a second authentication factor for the internal authentication method (where a user provides a username and password).

When the administrator enables MFA, users start the MFA registration process after providing a correct username and password. Users can use an authenticator app of their preference or the one suggested by their institution.

Users are asked for a code generated by the authentication app on their trusted device(s) each time they log in.

If a user loses access to their trusted device, they can request a reset of their MFA (via normal institution-defined support channels). This allows the user to start the registration process of a new device.

MFA is compatible with the Account Locking feature. To protect accounts from unauthorized access, we recommend enabling the Account Locking feature. To confirm the current configuration, go to the Administrator Tool Panel -> Account Lock Settings -> Enable Account -> Locking.

For audit and monitoring purposes, events related to MFA log in and reset can be found in Administrator Tool Panel -> Tools and Utilities -> Logs -> Authentication Logs.

ORIGINAL View: Converting Building Block content to LTI: Panopto Course Content – 3900.82

Related topic: Converting Building Block Content to LTI

The Panopto integration makes it easy for users to create, share, and view videos. Users can embed these videos in Blackboard Learn courses.

Panopto provided a Building Block for customers using Original Course View. To ensure a smooth transition we have updated the conversion tool so that users can convert Panopto content from Building Block to LTI content.

This conversion supports the following Building Block content:

• Course tools content
• Mashup links within the content editor

This tool only converts links created through the building block. Also, it validates the standalone links within the course to change the way those are processed. This will prevent standalone links from breaking after the building block deactivates.

Administrators can select from a drop-down menu the building block for configuration:

• Echo360
• Kaltura
• Panopto

Administrators can configure the required IDs and custom parameters for the conversion details. For Panopto, we have added the following custom parameters:

• Instancename: The administrator must modify the instance name if it has been changed in the general configuration of the Panopto Building Block.
• folderid: This is a Panopto identifier for the courses in the different folders; this custom parameter does not need to be modified.

Building block mappings are displayed. Administrators can edit, delete, or turn off the building block for the conversion tool.

Once configurations are set, administrators can manage the placements. They have the option to choose the courses for which they want to initiate the content link conversion for a specific Building Block.

Finally, at Migration Run Status, users can monitor the status of the conversion process for each course.

ULTRA View: Attempt logs for enhanced assessment integrity – 3900.82

Assessment integrity is a paramount concern for educational institutions. We empower instructors with valuable insights into students' progress for native assessments. The Attempt Logs prove to be an indispensable tool for validating issues students may encounter during an assessment. The logs also help instructors identify signs of academic dishonesty.

For tests, the logs provide the following:

• Detailed information, including the date and time of the start and answers to each question
• Question-specific details, such as question number, a preview of the question, and estimated time spent on each question
• Submission receipt number, final grade, and attempt grade
• Easy toggling between all in-progress and submitted attempts for comprehensive assessment tracking

For Assignments, the logs offer:

• Start and submission date and time
• Submission receipt number
• Seamless toggling between different attempts for a holistic view

Instructors can access the Attempt Logs from two primary areas:

• Context Menu on Submission Page - exclusive to individual
• Grades Tab under Student Overview Page - available for both group and individual assessments

For anonymous assessments, the report becomes active after grades are posted, and the anonymity is lifted. This ensures that the Attempt Logs report is a robust tool even in scenarios where student identities are initially concealed.

ORIGINAL View: Updated options display when sending email from Grade Center – 3900.82

Instructors can send emails to students in places like the Grade Center and Retention Center. Previously, the option to include student names in the sender copy was misleading. The checkbox seemed to apply to both sending a copy of the message and including recipient names. We’ve improved the presentation to clarify the expected behavior. A copy is always sent to the sender. The sender can opt-in to including recipient names in their copy of the email.

ULTRA View: Category Information on the Gradable Items Page – 3900.82

To provide greater efficiency and clarity in the gradable items view, we have added a Category column. This column, along with the grading item icon, helps instructors more readily identify to which category, if any, an item belongs. Instructors can sort this column ascending or descending alphabetically.

ULTRA View: Total & Weighted Calculations – 3900.82

Instructors need a gradebook that supports diverse grading scenarios. The gradebook supports the creation of calculated columns and an overall course grade. We are expanding gradebook functionality to also support total and weighted calculated columns. These types of calculations are helpful for specific events or periods, such as midterms or finals.

Total calculated columns can be point-based or weighted calculations. Like setting up the Overall Grade, instructors may link/unlink items in a category in the calculation. They may also choose to exclude categories from the calculation. For an included category, instructors may edit the calculation rule. The calculation rule allows instructors to drop scores or to include only the lowest or highest score in the category.

Instructors may wish to define a total calculated column for their own use. In this case, they can choose to hide from students. If desired, instructors can include a total calculated column in the overall grade calculation.

ULTRA View: Enhanced Grid View – 3900.82

To improve usability and maximize the screen real estate of the gradebook grid view, we have made several enhancements:

Improved row visibility and display more rows:

• We reduced the size of the column icons and the spacing around them.
• We removed group names and highlighting on group assessments.
• The course name moves up and hides when vertically scrolling.

Improved student identification:

• When hovering over a truncated student name, the full name displays in a tooltip.
• Student IDs display beneath student names to aid in distinguishing between students with similar names.

ULTRA View: Sorting controls in Students view for assessments graded anonymously – 3900.82

We are adding sorting controls to assessments graded anonymously. Now instructors can apply these sorting options:

• Submission date (oldest - newest) of latest attempt
• Submission date (newest - oldest) of latest attempt

The grading interface stores the most recently used sorting option. If an instructor stops grading an assessment and resumes grading later, the last sorting option is applied.

ULTRA VIEW: Improved attempt display in Flexible Grading – 3900.82

Multiple-attempt assessments result in more submissions, which can increase the complexity of grading.

In the past, when an instructor selected a student in the list the most recent attempt displayed. Now, the attempt selected for display is based on the grading status and attempt aggregation model selected.

ULTRA VIEW: Delegated Grading improvements – 3900.82

Instructors sometimes distribute the grading workload for an assessment to multiple graders. This is a popular practice in larger classes. Instructors can assign graders to groups of students with the new delegated grading option. Each grader only sees the submissions made by students in the group(s) assigned to them.

Now instructors can also use delegated grading in combination with anonymous submissions and tests.

ULTRA View: Grade visible to students in Gradebook when item is hidden by release conditions – 3900.82

Release conditions provide options for custom learning paths through course content. When instructors set release conditions, content is unavailable until students meet those conditions. An option to 'Hide' selected content from students is available. This setting also hides the grade from the student view of the gradebook.

Now, instructors can set release conditions without concern of hiding grades. Regardless of the setting in "When will content appear?", students can see the grade. All other functionality of release conditions is unchanged.

ULTRA View: AI Design Assistant - Generate Rubric Improvements – 3900.82

The AI Design Assistant helps instructors create rubrics for assessments. We've streamlined a time-intensive task and created efficiency for instructors with rubric creation. Being careful to consider user feedback, we have made some improvements to rubric generation. The improvements improve column and row labels . We also improved the distribution of percentages/points for criteria.

ULTRA View: AI Design Assistant - Authentic Assignment prompt generation – 3900.82

AI plagiarism is a growing concern among academics. Research indicates a variety of issues with a reliance on AI detection. Detection models cannot keep up with advancements in AI technologies. Our approach to combating AI plagiarism is different. We empower instructors to lean into the effective practice of authentic assessment.

Learn more with our academic paper AI, Academic Integrity, and Authentic Assessment.

Now instructors can generate assignment prompts that encourage students to:

• engage in higher-order thinking,
• apply their learned knowledge,
• produce authentic submissions that are evidenced, and
• emulate real-world situations.

To ensure the instructor is in control, the generation process allows instructors to:

• enter an assignment description,
• select a desired cognitive process based on Bloom's Taxonomy,
• set the complexity, and
• generate an assignment title.

The instructor can review the generated prompts and select one to add to the assignment. After adding the prompt, the instructor can edit or further refine the prompt as appropriate.