Page Comparison

Communication & Engagement

AI Conversations

The AI Conversation is a Socratic questioning exercise guided by AI, encouraging students explore their thoughts on a topic. The AI Conversation is configured by the instructor by a topic, AI persona (name, avatar, and personality trait) and complexity of responses. Additionally, a reflection question asks the student to share their thoughts on the activity and lets the student flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of Anthology’s Trustworthy AI Approach. Instructors can 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.

Grading

Overview Page

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.

Grading

Updated Feedback Page for Students

Ultra intoduces a new student-facing submission review page for assignments. The new page makes all instructor feedback on a submission more accessible.

Students can access all feedback on their submission, even if the assignment is hidden by a release condition.

Course Management

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. 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 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 

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

Content Management

Content Designer (Enhanced Ultra Documents)

Instructors can create appealing layouts by dragging and dropping visual elements into columns and rows. The Content Designer is fully responsive and mobile friendly, accessible using a mouse, trackpad, or the keyboard.

The first set of block types include:

• Content block: Add content via the content editor.

• HTML block: Add content via HTML or CSS in the Document.

• File upload block: Browse for files on the local machine to upload to the Document.

• 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).

All block types can be resized. Within the new Content Designer for Ultra Docs, instructors can use a menu bar to edit, add blocks, undo/redo, cancel, or save the page.

LIMITATIONS: AI generated questions are no longer available from Ultra Docs with the enhanced editing tools. Additionally, third-party embedded tools using the Content Market may break. The HTML block is a good alternative for providing this type of content to students.

Content Management

Image generation improvements

AI generated images will use DALL-E 3 to generate higher quality, higher resolution images for learning modules, documents, announcements, assessment questions, and journal prompts.

Content Management

Multiple rules for release conditions

Instructors can now create multiple rules for release conditions based on multiple criteria – date, time, grade range performance criteria. You can also create rules for specific individual learners, groups, or for all members.

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

Assessments

New Assignment Interface

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.

NOTE: 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. 

Assessments

Anonymous setting for Forms

Instructors can now collect anonymous submissions in Forms. Please note: Anonymous forms cannot be administered to Groups and class conversations are not supported. Additionally, exceptions, exemptions, and accommodations are not supported to ensure anonymity.

Communication

Follow discussions

Users can follow select discussions and receive notifications for new contributions from peers or instructors. Follow discussions replaces the subscribe to discussions in Original courses.

In August, the first release of Follow Discussions, notifications are delivered through the Activity Stream. 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 

Communication

Send messages to groups from Group Spaces

Students can now send a group message from the members page of a group space to encourage collaboration on content that they have been assigned. 

Assessments

Convert underplayed tests to question banks

When an Original course is converted, underplayed tests will now be converted to question banks. This will help to declutter both the course content page and the gradebook, making it easier for instructors to manage their course materials. 

NOTE: 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.

Assessments

IP Address Filtering

Instructors can 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. Select the Location restriction. No restriction is the default value.

NOTE: Locations must be created by Blackboard system admins. At this time, UMBC is evaluating this functionality, pending additional settings to support accessibility and accommodations.

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

Assessment

Printer-friendly assessments with answer key

Instructors can now print an answer key for their assessments. A printed answer key is helpful for grading any printed assessment. The print option is available in Forms, Tests, and Assignments with questions.

Printing is not yet available for question pools and mobile.

Communication

Send copy to email when scheduling announcements

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.

Grading

Needs Grading improvements

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.

Grading

Audio & video feedback per question

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.

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

AI Course Design Assistant Tools

Output Language Selector

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.

Assessment

Printer-friendly 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. Support for question pools and answer keys is in development.

Grading

Show or Hide Graded Responses

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. 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.

Grading

Private grading notes

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.

Grading

Improved visibility of new grades & feedback to students

To ensure that students are aware of any new grades in the course, Ultra 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.  

Additionally late assessments are marked with a "(Late)" label to reduce stress rather than a red label.

Course Management

Redesigned Courses landing page

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

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.

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

Content Management

Release Conditions: Multiple Performance Criteria

With this update, instructors can set more than one performance criteria per content item as a condition for releasing content (e.g., at least 80% on two specific tests).

Assessment & Grading

Add question feedback when grading

When grading an assessment by question, instructors can provide contextual feedback according to the individual question regardless of the question type.

Assessment & Grading

Improved Gradebook Navigation

Anthology 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.

Assessment & Grading

Weighted Grade Calculation Improvements

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. 

Additionally, Ultra will now display the instructor's chosen weighting option in the calculation rules panel.

Accessibility

Reduced motion setting

Ultra courses have animated elements such as panels opening and closing. Some users may prefer or need to reduce animations and motion. Many devices and operating systems have settings to reduce non-essential motion. Ultra now has added support for the “prefers-reduced-motion” feature to select animated panels. Panels will snap into place when users have configured reduce motion instead of a swiping motion.

• iOS: Accessibility > Motion > Reduce motion (on)

• Android: Settings > Accessibility > Remove Animations (on)

• Windows: Settings > Accessibility > Visual effects > Animation effects (off)

• Mac OS: System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Reduce motion (on)

Content Management

Converting to Ultra

When converting an Original course to Ultra, the course menu’s Content Areas will convert to Ultra Learning Modules instead of folders. This applies to Original courses as well as courses migrating from Canvas, Brightspace, and Moodle.

Content Management

Course Copy Workflow

Users can no longer push a copy from an Original course to an Ultra course to reduce the likelihood of an Ultra course becoming corrupted.

For Ultra courses, instructors should always start a copy process from the Ultra course and PULL content from Original.

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

AI Course Design Assistant Tools

Context picker for learning modules, assignments, discussions, journals

Instructors can now select specific course items to help define how the AI tools assist with generating content in an appropriate context. This includes learning modules for course organization and authentic prompts for assignments, journals, and discussions.

When Ultra documents are selected as context, file attachments on the Ultra document will also be included as context for all context pickers.

Assessment & Grading

Default point value changed to 1 for test questions

Based on client feedback, Blackboard is changing the default point value from 10 to 1 for test questions. Any newly created questions will have a default point value of 1 instead of 10, which reduces the need for manual adjustments.

Assessment & Grading

Individual question feedback

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.

Once students have submitted their tests and scores are posted, students can access both overall feedback and question-specific feedback.

Assessment & Grading

Visible feedback for Students

In the past, when an instructor selected the option to hide content, students could view associated grades but not the feedback. With this update, students will always see feedback regardless of the instructor’s release conditions settings.

Assessment & Grading

Creating duplicate questions in assessments, forms and question banks

If an instructor wants to have a question repeated with the same answer options but a different question, the new "Duplicate" option will 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.

Communiction & Engagement

Anonymous posts in Discussions

A new setting enables instructors to allow anonymous posts in ungraded discussions. Instructors can toggle anonymity on or off as the discussion progresses. Any existing anonymous posts keep their anonymity if the setting is turned off.

Content Management

Batch Edit individual due dates & availability

Updating availability and due dates after a course copy, import, or a conversion can take time. Now instructors have the option to change the due date and availability (Show On and Hide After) for any item using the Batch Edit tools.

Content Management

Sticky Navigation for Learning Modules

To improve students' navigation in a learning module, Blackboard updated the navigation bar. Now the navigation bar 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.

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

AI Course Design Assistant Tools

Context picker for test question generation

Instructors can now select specific course items to help define test questions when using the AI Course Design Assistant to generate test questions. This option improves the alignment of generated questions to course content.

Assessment & Grading

Gradebook item statistics

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

The number of submissions requiring grading and the distribution of grades also displays.

Assessment & Grading

No Due Date option for assessments

There is no a “No due date” option for Tests and Assignments to support self-paced learning.

In the event a “No due date” selection conflicts with the Assessment Results settings, the instructor is prompted to review the settings.

Communication & Engagement

Announcement indicator

Users will now see a number indicator next to the announcement tab in the course to signal the number of unread announcements available.

Communication & Engagement

Mark Announcements Read / Unread

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.

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

Assessment & Grading

Forms

Instructors can now create surveys in their courses – these are called Forms in Ultra. Question types include essay, multiple choice, true/false, and Likert. You can also add text, upload a file, and create page breaks. By default, a Form is not graded since questions do not have a right or wrong answer. Form data may be downloaded from the gradebook or submission page as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file.

Surveys from Original courses will be converted to Forms in Ultra. Only questions and options that are supported in Ultra will be converted.

The next phase of Forms will support anonymous submissions - at this time, Forms are associated to the learner who submits the survey in the course where the Form is created.

Assessment & Grading

Send Reminder from Gradebook

The Send Reminder scenarios are refined to ensure 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.

Assessment & Grading

Send Reminder for LTI Third Party Tools

The Send Reminder option is now also available for LTI and 3rd party tools with assessments in the gradebook. This functionality is only available for tools that are LTI Advantage as the tool can inform Blackboard when a student has submitted, even if they haven’t yet received a grade.

NOTE: If the third party 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 experience.

Assessment & Grading

Feedback to learners for override and automatic zero grades

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.

Assessment & Grading

Upload feedback for imported grades

Instructors can now upload feedback for students as part of the offline grading process. This means when you download your gradebook for manually created columns or offline assignments, you can enter grades and add feedback in the Feedback to Learner column, which will now show to students.

Content Management

Import Moodle packages

Instructors can now import Moodle packages into Ultra and Original view courses. Learn more about importing courses from Moodle for more directions. Blackboard also has a guide to help you understand the differences in terminology.

Functional Category

Feature

About

Ultra Course

Original Course

AI Course Design Assistant Tools

Authentic Assignment Prompt Generation

The latest update to the AI tools in Ultra allows instructors to generate assignment prompts that encourage students to engage in higher-order thinking, apply learned knowledge, justify or challenge their beliefs and ideas and emulate real-world situations.

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.

Assessment & Grading

Enhancements to gradebook grid view

The Ultra gradebook's grid view features several enhancements to improve usability and maximize the screen real estate including improved row visibility, reduced icon size and spacing, and improved student identification such as student IDs.

Assessment & Grading

Total and weighted calculations

Expanding gradebook functionality will now support total and weighted calculated columns that can be point-based or weighted calculations. Instructors may link/unlink items in a category in the calculation or exclude categories and drop scores from the calculation. 

If instructors wish to define a total calculated column for their own use, they can choose to hide from students. Total calculated columns can also be used in the overall grade calculation.

Assessment & Grading

Release conditions for grade visibility

When instructors set release conditions, such as hiding an assessment, the grades are unavailable to students. With this update, instructors can set release conditions without concern of hiding grades. Regardless of the settings, students will be able to see their grades. All other functionality of release conditions is unchanged.

Assessment & Grading

Assessment attempt logs for tests and assignments 

Test attempt logs provide detailed information, including the date and time of the start and answers to each question and question specific details such as a preview of the question and estimated time spent on each question. The instructor will also see the submission receipt number, final grade, and attempt grade. For assignments, the attempt logs will provide the start and submission date and time, submission receipt number. Instructors can access the Attempt Logs from the submission page or the Grades Tab under the Student Overview Page for both group and individual assessments

Assessment & Grading

Improved attempt display in Flexible Grading

If multiple attempts are permitted for an assessment, the grading interface will display the attempt that reflects the grading status and attempt aggregation. For example, if the attempt aggregation is set to Attempt with Highest Grade, when all attempts are graded, the attempt with the highest grade will display. If any ungraded attempts exist, then the most recent ungraded attempt will display for the instructor.

Content Management

Unused files tool

To help instructors understand the usage of files in their course, the Unused Files tool can 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. Instructors can download a copy of the file before deleting.

Content Management

Batch edit date and 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.

Note: Batch edit of dates/time only works with items that have pre-existing date and time values. Items without a date or time value will not have one applied.