PortalInstructors:
- prohibit late submissions and new attempts after a due date
- granular course copy in an Ultra course now includes content from Original courses
Instructors and students:
- add text guidance and a short audio clip for name pronunciation
Blackboard releases updates on a monthly basis. Each release contains new features or feature enhancements as well as maintenance items/bug fixes. Additional maintenance releases occur more frequently. For a full list of feature releases and bug fixes, visit Blackboard's Release Notes for Learn SaaS.
Instructors:
Instructors and students:
Instructors:
Instructors and students:
Students:
Instructors:
Instructors and students:
Instructors will be able to configure weighted overall grades that include empty grade categories. An option to auto-balance weights and lock values has also been added.
This release adds the functionality to "undo" and "redo" within BB Annotate. The "undo" and "redo" does not apply to comments.
When a user is idle for over three hours the session end and must login again to continue. Users will receive a warning before the session times out.
Students may complete questions they know first and skip harder ones. They can filter to quickly return to skipped questions.They can also use the filter to find essay questions. If a student submits a test with unanswered questions, a warning will alert the student.
Both items and categories can have weight int he overall grade calculation. This allows instructors to weight individual assessment items as well as categories.
Instructors can now provide multiple attempts in group assessments allowing for iterative feedback.
In this release, instructors can calculate the overall grade as earned points divided by possible points. This calculation is not a running total.
Instructors can set the behavior for attachments including: view and download, view only, download only. View and download will be the default. The view option renders the file directly in the web browser without the need for native applications(s).
In the rich text editor, the "LTI item" option has been changed to "Content Market" for greater clarity.
Institutions can set a maximum upload size of files for both instructors and students.
Permission checks have been corrected to function as expected.
The overall grade now supports a points-based calculation to give instructors greater flexibility and supports varied evaluation practices. Instructors can choose to select points or weighted calculation for the overall grade.
Instructors can download the grade history as a tab or comma separated file (.xls or .csv) to their device or the Content Collection. This grade history includes any changes to grades in a course.
Instructors can now change the points a student earns on an individual assessment question. The point field supports negative and positive values with up to two decimal points.
Instructors can now copy question banks from one course to another.
Original Course View blank pages will now convert to Documents in the Ultra Course View. This conversion will help ensure a smoother transition from Original to Ultra.
Journals and discussions are now able to be recategorized to a custom category.
The text "Choose at least one correct answer" was removed from the multiple choice question.
Instructors can display the overall grade as points and students can see the overall grade as points.
Instructors can now prevent backtracking, allowing them to force a sequence through questions in an assessment. Once the student answers the question and continues to the next, the student cannot go back. If a student skips a question, an alert informs the student that they cannot go back to the question.
Files will now render inline in Course Content, folders, and learning modules. Instructors can set the behavior of these files for users to view and download (default), view only, or download only.
Math formulas will now render as images in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. This allows users to zoom in or enlarge formula images without losing quality. This change also improves accessibility for users with low vision.
In the past, when a group assessment grade was overridden, the feedback was hidden. The feedback now shows as expected for any posted grade that has been overridden.
Improvements to the filter options include:
Users will author and view messages on a large panel, supplying a better user experience on all devices.
With this enhancement, instructors will be able to:
Instructors may now configure an advanced calculation for the overall grade.
Instructors now have a choice when existing student preview to save the preview student and data or to delete the preview student and data. The delete option removes the preview user and data from the roster, gradebook, messages, discussions, journals, and conversations.
Instructors can now create group sets and add group members by importing a CSV file. This feature also supplies the ability to export group sets and members to a CSV file.
When an instructor adds more than one recipient to a message, the interface makes clear how the message is sent: group message or private message. In a future release, instructors will be able to make this choice for themselves.
All linked questions from a copied assessment now copy as expected. Additionally, instructors will now have access to the status of all the course tasks that they start including copy, convert to Ultra, archive, export, import, and restore.
New status columns have been added to the submission view: student status and grading/participation status.
The Blackboard App and the Blackboard Instructor App are consolidating into a single app for both instructors and students.
The user experience in the Ultra Course View is now the same between the Blackboard mobile app and a web browser.
Instructors can now create a Microsoft OneDrive collaborative document in both the Ultra and Original Course View. Supported file types include: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Microsoft Teams Meetings now seamlessly integrate into Ultra courses. With this integration, instructors will be able to:
Instructors and students can now create LaTeX equations in the content editor. LaTeX equations display as text in the content editor. When users save the test, the equations render as images.
Instructions may now accommodate special circumstances by allowing due date exceptions. Due date exceptions support is for individual tests and assignments only.
Instructors can now send messages from within a course when it is marked private. Students can access the messages from the email address associated with their Blackboard account. This does not change the access to the course when the course is private. This change allows students to receive messages from the instructor via email when the course is private.
Administrators now have the choice to force an email copy to recipients for all messages sent.
Instructors can copy rubrics between courses to save time and reduce the need to recreate items within courses.
Instructors can use sorting controls within the question bank window to navigate through the banks. Instructors can sort based on the name, number of questions in a bank, or the last edited date.
Grading discussions and taking part of discussions are no longer on separate pages. Instructors can now reply to posts from the individual student grading page.
The grade history report now includes a log of changes to non-posted grades.
Instructors can edit the maximun point value when using any display type.
When copying content from the same course, instructors will not be able to inadvertently copy the full course into the same course.
A side panel will now summarize all comments in a list. Selecting a comment will navigate the instructor or student to the exact location of that comment in the document.
Timer notifications will appear throughout an assessment at timed intervoles to reduce stress for students.
Students can still access feedback if an instructor has overridden a grade.
Users can choose to diplay their preferred or additional name.
Anthology Ally for LMS now includes a new alternative formate: Microsoft Immersive Reader. Microsoft Immersive Reader helps students improve their reading, comprehension, and grammar skills.
This release added an on-hover underling to the course name and the content item to make it clear where the user is navigating.
In the Grid View of the gradebook, when an instructor selects a students an overview of the student's performance on assessments is displayed. The change provides improved access to the student grades overview.
Instructors can now see the progress that students indicate for the following content types: documents, SCORM packages, uploaded files, links, cloud documents, LTI content, learning modules, and folders. The new report allows instructors to select a piece of content and view:
When converting from Original to Ultra, the forced sequence setting will be preserved.
Instructors and students can now use screen readers to access math formulas when creating, editing and viewing content.
Student responses entered in the content editor will auto save two seconds after the student stops typing. The "last saved" time is displayed at the bottom of the assessment.
New settings categories and mobile-specific categories have been added. A new design of the settings section provides simplified toggles for configurating settings.
In the Grades section of the base navigation, the space used on course tiles is reduces for courses without grades. Reducing this space for courses without grades gives users with multiple courses a better browsing experience.
The course name is now added to the browser tab to help users find the right tab. Users will see the name of the course and the area within the course they are in.
The course activity page is now located under the Analytics tab. The course activity page allows instructors to identify struggling students based on their grade and time spent in a course.
The grade history feature has a new interface that makes it easier to access and search the log of changes to students.
The Gradebook will now save the last selected view from the instructor, saving time and a click.
The Student Grades Overview has been enhanced by surfacing the last access, username, and accommodations, adding the Student Activity report, and surfacing accommodations.
In the gradebook, tool tips have been added for the following icons: search by submission receipt number, upload gradebook, download gradebook, and settings.
Instructors may now include content from the Content Collection within Ultra Documents.
The "needs grading" navigation has been corrected and an instructor can now navigate student journals student by student as expected.
Course images are now visible by default during a course upgrade.
Hotspot question is now available in Ultra Course View. Hotspot questions present an image without any answer options for students to choose. Students must mark certain area of the image that is within the area the instructor defined as correct.
Page breaks can be added to tests and assignments to allow for easy creation of sections within an assessment, group related questions together, and allow students to easily navigate from page to page.
Instructors can now give robust feedback that includes formatted text, links, lists, attachments, and media.
Administrators can now link LTI tools to appropriate icons so students and faculty can easily identify them.
There is now an unread message indicator for courses and organizations on the Messages tab in Ultra Base Navigation to direct a users attention to the message.
If a connection is lost during an assessment, students will be informed with a message. After 20 seconds, the warning disappears. If the connection is not restored, another warning informs the student that their most recent progress is not saved.
If a user is not enrolled in the course, the message tab does not appear.
Instructors can now add descriptions to question banks. A search bar has also been added to help instructors search for and locate a specific bank.
Instructors can now select how to grade assignments with various attempts.
The drag-and-drop navigation has been greatly improved, increasing efficiency. Instructors can grab items more quickly. When moving an item, it's clearer to instructors where it will go when dropped.
Course links provide access to content without excessive scrolling and reduce clicking. Instructors can insert a link at the desired location on the Course Content page.
A newly created single student progress report is now available. This report focuses on the path each student is taking on the course. Instructors can view the content they have created for their students, the progress the students have made with relevant date/time stamps, and the current visibility status of each item.
When exiting Student Preview, only the two choices are displayed as actions with no default selected.
In this release, the following items have been changed:
Unsupported font colors have been removed during a content copy or course conversion from an Original course.
Unique icons can be displayed for each third-party content type. These icons can be set by the tool provider or by the institution administrator. When an icon is not set, third-party contents show a generic icon.