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?
The most recent updates are posted at the top of this page.
April 2, 2026 (v4000.12)
Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
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Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
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Communication & Engagement | Multiple Due Dates | When instructors create a discussion with two due dates and participation requirements, both sets of requirements appear on the Course Content page, Discussion pages, the Gradebook student and instructor views, and the instructor’s Discussion analysis panel. Students can track expectations throughout the workflow without navigating back to the discussion itself. | |
Communication & Engagement | AI Conversation Message Limits | Instructors can now guide the length of AI‑supported conversations, including Socratic Questioning, by setting message limits. These controls help students understand when to complete an interaction and keep conversations focused on the intended learning activity. | |
Communication & Engagement | Improved Images in Announcements | Announcement emails now show images, which gives users a clearer preview of announcement content. When users select a thumbnail, the system opens the original announcement so they can read it with full context. | NA |
Communication & Engagement | Discussion Analysis Labels | Student posts and replies now have Substantive Content and Non-substantive Content labels in the instructor discussion analysis page. Green highlights include a Substantive Content label. Red highlights include a Non‑substantive Content label. The labels appear consistently across the analysis panel and meet accessibility requirements. | Create Discussions (Instructor) View Discussion Performance and Analytics |
Assessments | Specify assignment submission type | When creating or editing an assignment, instructors can define the expected submission type to guide how students submit their work. Selecting a specific submission type streamlines the student experience and reduces ambiguity about what is required. Instructors can select one or more expected submission types when configuring an assignment:
By default, File upload and Text entry are both selected. The selected submission type is visible in assignment settings and student‑facing details. Instructors can change the selected submission type until students have started submitting attempts. Students are informed of the expected submission type and see a submission workflow optimized for that format. | |
Gradebook | Ajust grades for individual student attempts within grade submissions | Instructors can override a group attempt score for individual group members directly from the grading interface. The interface clearly indicates when grades differ across group members, and adjustments can be removed by restoring a student’s grade to match the group attempt score. | NA |
Additional updates in April include:
Blackboard improved how student names appear in Flexible Grading. The name display format is now linked to the selected sort order. By default, student names are now shown as Surname, First Name to help instructors quickly locate students. When sorting by First Name (ascending or descending), names display as First Name Surname.
Based on instructor feedback, Blackboard made several improvements to multiple-choice and mulitple answer questions:
For the multiple-choice question, the default number of answer options a student can select is modified from 4 to 1.
When creating or editing a multiple-choice or multiple-answer question, instructors can change the number of answer options that a student can select.
Multiple choice answer options alphabetical labels (A, B, C, D) have also been restored.
Blackboard increased the SafeAssign file size limit to 25 MB for DirectSubmit submissions. This change supports larger documents that include images, tables, and complex formatting, reducing submission issues for students.
Automations now copy when courses are copied, restored, or imported. Automations are always copied in an inactive state and must be reviewed and activated in the destination course.
The Learning Object Repository (LOR) will support the Institutional Hierarchy, allowing UMBC to create dedicated content with delegated ownership, clearer governance, and granular control for colleges and departments. Objects can be filtered by type (e.g., documents or files). Any objects created or uploaded to the LOR are scanned by Ally for accessibility. With this structure in place, UMBC will begin exploring how best to deploy this functionality to the campus.
System admins can now retain activity data for Assignments during the Bulk Copy and Convert conversion process from Original to Ultra. This enhancement allows students to access their historical assignment submissions and instructor feedback in converted Ultra courses.
March 5, 2026 (v4000.10)
Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
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Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|
Content Creation & Management | Generate Knowledge Checks with AI | Instructors can now generate multiple choice Knowledge Checks in Documents using AI. Questions are created based on document content and selected course items, and instructors can choose and edit the generated options. Existing manual Knowledge Check workflows remain unchanged. | Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable |
Communication & Engagement | Add 2nd participation requirement & due date in discussions | Instructors can now set two separate due dates with distinct participation requirements for Discussions, offering clearer expectations and more structured engagement. Students benefit from transparent progress tracking and updated indicators as they complete requirements across both due dates. | Create Discussions (Instructor) Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable |
Assessments | Partial Credit Update | Partial credit values for answer options no longer need to total 100%. Instructors can assign values freely within the allowed range, and the system continues to provide warnings without blocking setup. Existing behaviors for negative marking and regrading remain supported. | Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable |
Grading | Anonymous Grading by Question | Flexible Grading now supports anonymous grading in Question View. Student names, avatars, and IDs are replaced with anonymous identifiers while grading. All actions available in non‑anonymous Question View remain available in anonymous mode. | NA Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable |
Assessments | SafeAssign File Increase | SafeAssign now supports submissions up to 25 MB, reducing failures caused by the previous size restriction and better accommodating larger documents with complex formatting. Support for the same 25 MB limit in Direct Submit is planned for April. | Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable |
Assessments | SafeAssign Metadata | SafeAssign now includes a new metadata analysis layer within the Originality Report. In addition to traditional text matching, instructors can access contextual insights in the new Document Properties section in the report summary. | Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable |
Additional updates in March include:
Course Messages now automatically organizes new messages into existing conversations or creates a new one when needed. Learn more.
The Question Title field now appears only when the metadata option is enabled when creating a Test. This update reduces accidental use of the title field when instructors only intend to enter question text. The workflow remains consistent with other optional metadata fields.
February 13, 2026 (v4000.8)
Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
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Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|
Course Content | Stack blocks vertically in Ultra Documents | Instructors can stack blocks in a single column in Documents to create cleaner layouts and reduce whitespace. A new toggle in the block toolbar allows switching between column-level and block-level editing. In column mode, actions apply to the entire column. In block mode, instructors can resize, move, or delete individual blocks. Columns can also be dropped into another block’s area for more flexible layouts. These changes work with existing features such as undo/redo, printing, and AI layout generation. This enhancement also includes accessibility improvements for screen readers. | N/A Idea Exchange ID: LEARNU-I-5104 |
Engagement | Automations remind students to check their feedback | Instructors can create automations that send a message to students who have unread feedback after an instructor-defined number of days. This feature saves time by automatically encouraging students to review their feedback, promoting student engagement. | For more information, check: Automations Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable |
Additional updates in February include:
For students, the Achievements tab displays a count of unread badges, and the New pill will consistently show in the Earned and To Earn sections.
Screen readers will provide clearer descriptions for buttons and image previews. Aria-labels and alt-text are consistent across views. Tooltips were added to buttons for better context. Decorative images are marked correctly, and fallback alt-text is provided for custom images.
Additional updates to Blackboard provide functionality for System Admins.
January 8, 2026 (v4000.6)
Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
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Functional Area | Feature | About | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|
Course Management | Redesigned course navigation |
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Course Design | Usability improvements for Ultra Doc layouts | Blackboard restructured the menu for document block layout, organizing by type of change (row, size, and position). Selecting the edit icon for a block prompts a menu with three options: Change row, Change [block/column] size, and Change [block/column] position. Each of these options have a sub-menu, with the related actions.
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Assessment
| Expanded question options for true/false | Blackboard expanded the display options for true/false questions to include:
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Additional updates in January include:
To reduce setup time when creating a multiple choice question, Blackboard changed the default number of answer options from three to four. Instructors can add or remove answer options.
Instructors can now define the number of answer selections that a student can make for each multiple choice question. When the student takes the assessment, the system enforces the instructor’s selection limit.
Blackboard optimized rendering of MCQ and True/False questions, significantly improving load times for large tests. For example, a 200-question test now loads in ~5 seconds, down from ~25 seconds, which equates to an 80% improvement.
Instructors can now access an activity log for each automation in their courses. The activity log lists the action date and time the automation was triggered and identifies the student and item that triggered it. This feature gives all instructors in the course visibility into when automations occur and which students receive automated messages.
View previous updates to the Ultra Experience.