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 at the top of this page.
October 3, 2024 (3900.102)
Functional Category | Feature | About | Ultra Course | Original Course |
Engagement | Course Badges (Achivements) | Achievements is a new capability for Ultra courses to help keep students motivated and congratulate them for their participation in a course. With Achievements: Instructors can create course badges and set criteria for students to earn the badges. | ||
Grading & Gradebook | Mastery tab in 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 byUMBC, the tab displays the mastery of each alignment (e.g., Distinguished, Proficient, Foundational, etc.). The Mastery tab enables instructors to view the level of mastery per alignment for each student and how each student is performing against those alignments. Students can drill down on the Goals tab to individual content items to see how goals align with their mastery progress. | ||
AI Course Design Assistant | Generate question banks | Instructors can now generate test questions in a question bank using the AI Course Design Assistant. To generate a question bank, select the Auto-generate option from the (+) on the Question Banks page. Instructors can select content items to provide context for the questions and further refine the questions they ask by entering a description of the learning objectives or topic. | ||
Course Design | Usability improvements to Ultra Documents | Blackboard made several usability improvements to Ultra Documents:
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Grading | Enhancements to student submission review page | The student submission review page makes it easier for students to access instructor feedback on their submissions: When an instructor selects student preview, they can now access the student submission review page. | ||
Grading | Needs Reconciling added to Overview Page | A Needs reconciling section now appears on the gradebook Overview tab. In this section, reconcilers can easily access all items ready for reconciliation. | ||
Communication & Engavement | Email notifications for Followed Discussions | To encourage participation in discussions, Blackboard expanded notifications to include email. Emails are sent when users opt for Email me right away notifications. |
Additional updates for October include:
Blackboard 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); and viewing the rubric (instructors and students). For larger classes with more than 2000 enrollments, the Flexible Grading page loads 25% faster.
September 5, 2024 (3900.100)
August 8, 2024 (v3900.98)
July 4, 2024 (v3900.95)
June 6, 2024 (v3900.93)
May 2, 2024 (v3900.91)
April 4, 2024 (v3900.89)
March 7, 2024 (v3900.86)
February 1, 2024 (v3900.84)
January 4, 2024 (v3900.82)