August 8, 2024 (v3900.98)
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:
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. |
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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. |
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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:
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Assessments | New Assignment Interface | To create a better experience, the new Assignment page includes these improvements:
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. |
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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. |
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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:
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for August
Instructors will find a Next Student and Previous Student buttons added to the Students tab in Flexible Grading. Instructors can now quickly navigate between students when grading assessments.
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.
The response time when creating a math formula in the text editor is reduced to help instructors can process formula requests more efficiently.
July 4, 2024 (v3900.95)
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for July include:
Students can view overall and attempt-level feedback from the gradebook.
Anthology made several improvements to Group Submissions page to address overall performance and reduce the load time. Performance tested scenarios in a course with 5000 students enrollments and 1000 groups:
Loading the Group Submissions page from the content item: Load time reduced from 260s (about 4.5 minutes) to 34s (87% performance improvement)
Loading the Group Submissions page from the Gradable Items gradebook view: Load time reduced from 260s (about 4.5 minutes) to 29s (88% performance improvement)
Opening a Group Submissions from the Gradebook Grades view: Load time reduced from 276s (about 4.5 minutes) to 15s (95% performance improvement)
June 6, 2024 (v3900.93)
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. |
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Assessment | Printer-friendly assessments | Instructors can now print assessments. Printing provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases:
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for June include:
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.
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.
Instructors can now post announcements as part of the drafting and editing processes. This makes the process of creating and posting announcements simpler.
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.
The member list is relocated to the selected group page rather than a separate panel. Here, users can search for members and sort them alphabetically.
May 2, 2024 (v3900.91)
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). |
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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. |
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Assessment & Grading | Improved Gradebook Navigation | Anthology replaced the grid and list view buttons with text links. The options are now:
The Gradebook will remember the last view you used in each course. |
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for May include:
Instructors can assign a Form to a Group and permit multiple attempts.
Instructors can reuse questions on Forms when editing or creating a Form. Once a question is reused, it can be edited as needed.
Instructors can align goals to questions within a question pool to ensure that assessment items measure the desired learning outcomes. Goals are set up by Bb admins.
April 4, 2024 (v3900.89)
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for April include:
The attempt selector was relocated in the flexible grading interface to improve visibility and efficiency. Placed in the upper right corner of the grading page, a single grade pill provides a more intuitive grading workflow and prevents accidental grade overrides. This also allows instructors to switch between a student's attempts during grading. Moreover, overriding the final grade is now an explicit grading option. The overflow menu (…) is also used to clear a grade.
Instructors can create Likert scale questions with 4 or 6 answer options to allow 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.
The Attempt Log will indicate whether a student’s submission is manual or automatic. This indicator provides instructors with deeper insights into student behaviors and allows instructors to better track student progress.
The software library used to perform calculations in calculated columns and the overall course grade changed to BigFraction. When calculating an average of three assessments, BigFraction will properly calculate whereas the former software library, BigDecimal, would round down. Learn more.
Instructors can choose to include the Overall Grade for students when downloading the Ultra course gradebook.
Gradebook categories for Partner Cloud content & tools (e.g., Cengage) can be edited from the Gradebook.
March 7, 2024 (v3900.86)
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. |
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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:
The number of submissions requiring grading and the distribution of grades also displays. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for March:
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.
February 1, 2024 (v3900.84)
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. |
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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:
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for February:
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.
To ensure easy and clear access to the Audio/Video Recording Feedback tool, 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.
Feedback for all attempts on a test or assignment is visible to learners in a peek panel. Students can view override feedback after grades are posted.
Instructors can view the number of missed due dates for students in the Course Activity Report. Students who trigger the missed due dates alert appear in the Course Activity report table and chart and in the downloaded report. Instructors can customize the missed due date alert in the Alert Settings. The default is set to 4 due dates. New courses need at least 2 weeks of activity to start triggering these notifications. Alerts are triggered every day in case there are new students with alerts in a course.
January 4, 2024 (v3900.82)
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Additional updates for January:
A category column is added to the Gradebook list view to provide clarity for those items to be graded. The category column can be sorted in ascending or descending order alphabetically.
Instructors can use delegated grading for anonymous assessments. Sorting controls are available for submission date (old to new or new to old).