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.
September 5, 2024 (3900.100)
Functional Category | Feature | About | Ultra Course | Original Course |
Content Management | Redesigned Course Content page | The Course Content page is redesigned to focus content on the left and course actions on the right. Additional differentiation clarifies learning modules, folders, and content items to improve course navigation. Example of new course content layout | ||
Content Management | Knowledge check questions blocks | Ultra Documents now includes a Knowledge Check block to enhance the learning experience. Knowledge checks allow students to engage with content and receive immediate feedback. Only multiple choice and multiple answer questions are supported. The knowledge check includes pre-populated, but editable, correct/incorrect answer feedback. Students can respond to the knowledge check as often as they like. Faculty can access metrics to show the number fo students participating, and various data about attempts, but this data is not granular to show which students and the data does not go to the gradebook. | ||
Communiction & 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:
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Additional updates for September include:
The Wiris engine and equation editor is updated to the latest versions to improve the rendering of subscript and superscript formulas and provide a better experience for STEM courses.
Ultra added a new option to help instructors remove submissions from the grading workflow without having to delete them. When grading a student, you can now select Exclude Attempt to remove it from the Needs Grading workflow.
When enabled, the Automatic Zeros gradebook setting gives a zero score to students who haven’t made a submission by the due date. To help instructors find and grade late assessment submissions, they are now indicated as Needs Grading on the Grades and Gradable Items gradebook pages.
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)