Ultra: What's new in the Ultra Experience?

UMBC's Blackboard receives monthly updates as part of Blackboard's continuous delivery model. As a software industry standard practice, continuous delivery updates are small, may include maintenance, enhancements and/or new features, and are delivered on a more frequent and consistent basis. Read the latest news about Ultra updates at myUMBC.

This page lists the monthly updates. If you are looking for specific features, please see: What tools are available in an Ultra course? or Is Ultra right for me?

UMBC is committed to providing a consistent learning experience for everyone. The last day we will support Blackboard Original is December 31, 2024. Please check out our training and support: umbc.edu/go/ultra

The most recent updates are posted to the top of this page.

1 August 8, 2024 (v3900.98)
2 July 4, 2024 (v3900.95)
3 June 6, 2024 (v3900.93)
4 May 2, 2024 (v3900.91)
5 April 4, 2024 (v3900.89)
6 March 7, 2024 (v3900.86)
7 February 1, 2024 (v3900.84)
8 January 4, 2024 (v3900.82)

View previous updates to the Ultra Experience.

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: 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.

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.
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.

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.
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.

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).
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.

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.
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.

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.
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.

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)

January 4, 2024 (v3900.82)

View previous updates to the Ultra Experience.