Monthly Feature Releases 2023

Release Notes

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. Visit Monthly Release Notes 2022 to see features and updates in older versions.

• January 5, 2023 (v3900.56.0)

  Instructors

  See and edit grades for anonymous submissions prior to posting

  Now instructors can view grades on the Submission page before they post grades. Instructors can edit grades before posting with student anonymity still preserved.

  Essay Question Model Answer

  Now instructors can include a model answer for essay questions. Instructors and graders can see this when grading. Students can see the model answer when reviewing their results if the test is configured to show correct answers. Students do not see the model answer when they take a test.

  Non-posted grades included in Grade History

  The grade history now includes non-posted grades. Including non-posted grades supplies greater insight into grade changes in the course.

  Test Question and Page Randomization

  Now instructors can enable randomization when the test has text blocks, files, or images. The non-question elements are locked in place. The test randomizes questions between those non-question elements. Instructors can also randomize questions in a test that contains page breaks. Questions will randomize within their assigned page. Instructors can also randomize page order.

  Progress Tracking: Status and filters for group submissions

  The group submission page now shows student status and grading status.

  User Interface Improvement-Microsoft OneDrive Integration

  The workflow user interface for embedding OneDrive files into a course has been updated. Instructors can choose to embed a document or embed a collaborative document.

  Course Upgrading: Convert Test Passwords to Passcodes

  When converting an Original Test to Ultra, a generated password will replace the password instead of losing the password completely.

  Course Upgrading: Remove Unsupported Text Colors

  During conversion, Ultra removes unsupported text colors from an Original course. The text becomes black.

  Course Upgrading: Preserve Text Sizes

  In text copied from Original to Ultra, the text sizes are preserved during the conversion process.

  Base Navigation: Activity Stream New Submission link improvement

  The Activity Stream new submission links now direct the instructor to the Submission List View with the "Needs Grading" filter already applied. This improved grading efficiency.

  Bb Annotate: Create categories inside the content library

  When using Bb Annotate, instructors can use the content library to store comments across courses. Now instructors can also organize comments into categories. Categories helps instructors find the comments they want to use.

  Assist banner update

  The Assist banner has been updated with the following changes:

  • Remove Space Dog Banner banner image
  • Remove "Blackboard" from the title
  • Modified the Assist page to have greater visual consistency with other aspects of the base navigation

  Instructors and Students

  Show icons for Third-Party app content (LTI) in Gradebook and Grades

  Third-party app icons will display in the following areas:

  • Grade book grid view
  • Grade book list view
  • Gradable items view
  • Students Grades Overview
  • Grades tab on Base Navigation

  Third-party app icons need to be added by the system administrator.

  Discussions - No Activity After Due Date

  Instructors may lock the discussion after the due date has passed. When selected, students can't create, reply to, or edit posts after the due date.

  Improvements to Messages recipient types by course role

  Students can now only send messages to all instructors or selected course members. Instructors can now send messages to all course members, all instructors, all students, or selected course members.

  All users

  Expand and Collapse Course Faculty, Details & Actions, and Course Content sections

  Users can now collapse these sections on a mobile device, making it easier and faster to access course content.

• February 2, 2023 (v3900.58.0)

  Instructors

  Technical Preview: Improved attempts switching when grading student submissions with multiple attempts

  Instructors can now easily navigate directly between a student's attempts within the submission window. If a student has multiple attempts for an assessment, an instructor will see an option to switch attempts. The most recent submitted attempt will be loaded first.

  Gradebook List View - Gradable items sorting

  Instructors can sort assessment items in the Gradable Items view by any of the column headings.

  Progress Tracking: visibility filters for the Student Progress tab

  Instructors can now change the Student Progress view to see a student's progress against everything on the Course Content page. This helps instructors better understand students' progress considering all course content.

  Instructors and students

  Exemptions

  Instructors can now provide exemptions for students from assessments or activities in the course. A student will not be expected to complete an exempted task. When exempted, a student's overall grade calculation will adjust for them.

  Extra credit questions in assessments

  Now instructors can assign one or more questions as extra credit in an assessment. A correct answer results in adding the extra credit points to the points earned for the assessment. Students are not penalized for incorrect answers to an extra credit questions.

  Hot spot question types - polygon shapes

  Two enhancements to the current hot spot question type:

  • A new polygon shape selector can be used to draw more complicated shapes.
  • Improved keyboard controls. Instructors can now create and place new hotspot shapes on the image canvas directly via the keyboard.

  Show Course Group Members

  Users can now see group memberships. From the Course Groups page, users may expand a group set to see a list of groups. Each group has a "Show Members" options. Students see only the groups and members for the groups where they have membership.

  Progress Tracking: Ally alternative format views count towards progress

  Any Ally alternative format accessed by a student will reflect in their presented course progress. Instructors will see the progress made by each one of their students based on access to the original file or an alternative format.

  Students

  Student Gradebook record sorting

  Students can now sort any column in their Grade book view to locate information more efficiently.

  All users

  Mobile App: User Profile Card

  When viewing the user profile, users will be able to view their information to the full extent, see the profile card, and play name pronunciation.

• March 2, 2023 (v3900.60.0)

  Instructors

  Improved attempt switching when grading student submissions with multiple attempts

  Instructors can now easily navigate directly between a student's attempts within the submission window. If a student has multiple attempts for an assessment, an instructor will see an option to switch attempts. The most recent submitted attempt will be loaded first

  Sorting Controls on the Anonymous Submissions Page

  Instructors can now sort students by grade to identify submissions at a grade boundary to provide a more efficient grade review experience. Any sorting applied yields a temporary change to the sort order of all columns on the Anonymous Submissions page.

  Sorting on Overall Grade in the Gradebook Student List View

  Instructors can now sort the Gradebook Students list view on the Overall Grade column.

  Course Activity Report Table Enhancements

  The following improvements have been made:

  • New Table - Updated to be more consistent with other features.
  • New Days of Inactivity Column - the number of days since a student last accessed your course.
  • Access Student Overview - click or tap a student's name to see their grade, progress, and activity over the weeks.
  • More Student Information. Accommodations, name pronunciation, and pronouns are now visible.

  Support for concurrent course copies

  The limit has increased to allow a total of 8 copies to process at any given time. Increasing the limit reduces the wait time associated with copies.

  Preserve empty content areas

  In the past, empty content areas were not brought over during copy, import, or conversion process. We not preserve empty content areas during the copy, import, and conversion process.

  Preserve font families

  In the past, all fonts would be set to Arial during the conversion process. We now preserve font families during the conversion process using the following logic:

  • If font family is Arial in Original Course View, set to Arial in the Ultra Course View.
  • If font family is Comic Sans MS in Original Course View, set to Comic Sans MS in the Ultra Course View.
  • If font family is Courier New in Original Course View, set to Courier New in the Ultra Course View.
  • If font family is Times New Roman in Original Course View, set to Times New Roman in the Ultra Course View.
  • If font family is Verdana in Original Course View, set to Verdana in the Ultra Course View.
  • If font family is anything else or not defined in the Original Course View, set to Open Sans in the Ultra Course View.

  Reschedule announcements

  Instructors can now reschedule announcements without having to recreate them. They can do this by changing the show on and hid after fields to a future date. When users first enter a course, the rescheduled announcement will trigger a pop-up.

  Instructors and Students

  LTI Tool Content Icons on Calendar

  LTI content icons used in the course now appear on the calendar on the base navigation and in the course. The icons helps users identify and distinguish between content types.

  Manage Roster

  Institutions can now manage Roster visibility. Admins can define the Roster visibility at the institution level for courses and organizations. When permitted, instructors can define the Roster visibility settings at the course/organization level.

  Discussions - deactivate post activity

  Instructors now have a checkbox option in the Discussion Settings panel. When checked, participants cannot edit or delete posts in a discussion.

  All Users

  PDF version of the SafeAssign Originality Report

  Users can now open matched sources from the downloaded PDF report. The report also contains usability improvements such as text alignment and font adjustments.

  Improvements to the user profile

  The profile page experience on the mobile app now corresponds with the desktop experience.

• April 6, 2023 (v3900.62.0)

  Instructors

  Multiple Grading Schemas: Add, Edit, Copy

  Now instructors can add, copy, and edit up to 100 grading schemas per course. Instructors can choose the best grading schema for each assessment in the course.

  Submission page sorting controls

  Instructors can now grade in a more efficient manner but sorting the records listed on the submission page.

  Gradable Items View usability improvements

  Instructors can now sort any column on the gradable items page to help find desired information more easily. For example, instructors may sort on Grading Status to locate assessments that need grading.

  Discussion navigation improvements

  To improve navigation and increase visibility, a new tab navigation has been added to discussions. This navigation allows instructors to review various aspects of the discussion such as student activity and grades and participation.

  Deactivated students no longer show in student progress reports

  This report now excludes deactivated students. This includes students who have dropped the course. The numbers in the report are aligned with the actual number of active students in the course.

  New access points to Student Overview

  Now instructors can access the Student Overview page in 3 locations: roster, messages, and discussions. These additional access points provide instructors with convenient access to student information.

  Course Activity Report accessibility improvements

  The Course Activity Report is now enhanced to better support users using assistive technology such as screen readers.

  Instructors and Students

  Hotspot question: Circle shape and Usability Improvements

  Instructors may now use a circle-shape selector to draw a circle to mark the hotspot. The polygon shape selector and selected pins also have improved color contrast.

  Bb Annotate: Enhanced comments

  Instructors can now include richer formatting in comments including font colors, bold, underline and hyperlinks. They can also edit already placed comments.

  All Users

  Course Content Title Search

  Users can now search course content titles to find those items on the course content page. The course search icon is easy to find at the top of the course content page.

  Course Upgrading: Remove HTML for plain text fields

  HTML that is no longer supported is removed during conversion to Ultra. Conversion preserves the text-based content within the HTML tags.

• May 4, 2023 (v3900.65.0)

  Instructors

  Grading attempt selector improvements

  To help with the complexity of multiple attempts, instructors can now select a specific attempt on the grading page. By default, the grading page displays the most appropriate attempt based on the “grade attempts” setting.

  Question Banks - Reuse Questions option

  Instructors can now copy questions between question banks and from existing assessments directly into their question banks.

  Add Exemptions via the gradebook grid view

  Instructors can now also access the option to exempt students from the grade book grid view. The exempted item is not factored into the Overall Grade calculation, not marked late for students who did not submit, and students will not receive an automatic zero.

  Rubrics improvements

  Performance level descriptions are not hidden by default. Instructors can choose to display the performance descriptions if needed. It's now also possible to deselect a performance level if choosing another level of performance. Keyboard navigation is also improved.

  Send Messages from the Submission page

  Instructors can now send messages to students from the Submissions page. Multiple students will be on BCC.

  Remove category assignment requirement when editing LTI items via the gradebook

  Now instructors can edit grade book columns for LTI-based activities without assigning them to a category. This change streamlines the process without forcing category selection.

  Hotspot question zoom in/out

  Zoom in-out and full-screen view features have been added to this question type. These controls enable instructors to define hotspots more precisely.

  Drag and drop desktop folders to upload to the Course Content page

  Drag and drop support has been added for uploading folders with files to the course content page. Instructors may drag and drop a folder from their computer to the course content page.

  Instructor's Notes on Student Overview

  A dedicated space for instructors to take notes about a student in each course has been added. These notes are private. The Notes tab can be accessed from the Student Overview page.

  Improved conversion for Discussion Forums and Threads

  The conversion process of discussion forums and threads from Original Course View to Ultra Course View has been updated. Now, when the "allow members to create new threads" setting is selected, the forum converts to a discussion in the ultra Course View. If this setting is not selected, the forum will become a folder in the Ultra Course View.

  Instructors and Students

  Prevent backtracking in tests with page breaks

  Now instructors may prevent backtracking in paged tests. This option ensures that students progress through the pages of an assessment in a predetermined sequence. Instructors can activate this setting in assessments that contain questions.

  Control where Web Links open

  Instructors can now specify where linked content should open - in a panel in the Ultra course or a new window. This options gives instructors greater flexibility in designing their course content.

• June 1, 2023 (v3900.67.0)

  Instructors

  Add Exemptions for Anonymous Assessments

  Instructors can not set exemptions for anonymously graded assessments. They can access the exemptions option for an anonymous assessment from the Student Overview page. This will make it easier for instructors to manage exemptions and ensure a fair and accurate grading process for all students.

  Add Exceptions from Gradebook Grid View and Student Overview page

  Exceptions are not available even if the assessment is hidden from other students. Until now, exceptions were only accessible from the submissions page. Now, instructors can access the exceptions workflow from the grade book grid view and Student overview page.

  Base calculation on points earned out of total graded points' support for Custom Calculations

  To offer greater flexibility in grade book calculations, instructors can now opt to use the 'Base calculation on points earned out of total graded points' option for any grade book calculation, regardless of whether it contains operators with functions and variables.

  Upload questions from a file to tests

  Now instructors can author questions offline in a text file. Instructors can upload the file into a test for a more streamlines test building workflow.

  Support for anonymous grading of tests

  Until now, anonymous grading was only available for assignments. Instructors can now turn on anonymous grading on tests. This adds an additional layer of fairness and impartiality to the grading process.

  Journals Grades & Participation list filters

  To help instructors manage journal entries and provide effective feedback to students, a new Student and Grading Status filter has been added to the Grades & Participation view in Journals. These filters allow instructors to view student journal entries based on their status. This can help streamline the grading and feedback process.

  Instructors and Students

  Course Links improvements

  Instructors now have the option to add course links to folders and learning modules. The option to add course links to folders and learning modules is hidden for nested content containers. A series of other improvements have been made for this feature.

  Announcements in the top navigation

  To provide a better user experience, Announcements has been moved from the Details & Actions menu to the top navigation bar. This reduces the number of items within the Details & Actions menu. This change also improves visibility and prominence of Announcements.

  All Users

  Additional Level of Content Nesting

  The option has been added to use one additional level of content nesting. Ultra now supports up to four levels of hierarchy for content nesting on the course content page.

• July 6, 2023 (v3900.69.0

  Instructors

  Partial and negative credit improvements for the Multiple Choice / Multiple Select question type

  Now instructors can turn on partial and negative credit. This options allows instructors to define a positive percentage value to award credit for a correct answer(s), enter a negative percentage value to subtract for an incorrect answer(s), and allow a negative overall score for the question.

  Tab navigation for Assessments

  Assessment navigation has been simplified. Instructors now have convenient access to different sections using tabs: Content and Settings, Submissions, Student Activity, and Question Analysis. This improvement is designed to optimize instructor efficiency. It provides a more streamlined assessment management experience for instructors.

  Add exceptions for anonymously graded assessments

  Instructors can now grant student exemptions for anonymously graded assessments. Instructors can access the exceptions options for all assessments from the Student Overview page in the gradebook.

  Exceptions panel updates

  This panel has been updated to display more information. The exceptions panel now features course, assessment, and student names. This improvement helps instructors to ensure the accuracy of the exception.

  Delete Grade Schema

  In the past, instructors could only create and edit grade schemas. Now, instructors can also delete grade schemas that are not used in the course. The option to delete helps instructors maintain the grade schema list.

  File deletion in the course also removes the file from the Content Collection

  Now, when a file is deleted from the course, it is also deleted from the Content Collection when it is not used in other courses or another place in the same course. This workflow simplifies file management and helps with responsible use of storage space.

  Manage Course Duration in Course Settings Panel

  In the past, only administrators could manage the course duration settings for Ultra courses. Even when instructors had the correct privileges, they couldn’t manage this themselves. Now, course users with the correct privileges can modify the course duration settings for their Ultra courses.

  Import Instructure Canvas course packages

  Now instructors and administrators can import Canvas packages directly in Learn courses. This can save significant time preparing a course for teaching in Learn. Canvas packages can be imported into either Learn Original or Learn Ultra courses by users with course import privileges.

  Improved flattening logic

  Improved flattening logic (hyperlink: https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Administrator/SaaS/Release_Notes#3900.69.0-22) When converting content to Ultra, the logic has been updated. Learning Modules are always brought to the highest level on the Course Content page. Folders are now brought to the highest level necessary to ensure that child items don't move.

  Instructors and Students

  Formative label and Gradebook

  Instructors can now apply a formative assessment label to assessments. This label serves as an indicator and appears to instructors throughout the course.

  Complete/incomplete grade schema

  The complete/incomplete grade schema is now available for the Ultra Course View. This grade schema helps to shift the focus from points earned to student effort and completion of tasks. It offers a more holistic approach to assessing student progress.

  Send reminders to non-submitters for anonymously graded assessments

  A Send Reminder option has been introduced. This allows instructors to send reminders to students who have yet to make a submission for an anonymously graded assessment.

  Students

  Start, Continue, and View Assessment options and file submission updates

  To increase clarity for students before they begin an assessment, changes have been made to the user interface. In the past, when a student selected an assessment, the Details & Information panel included an option labeled View assessment. Now this option is labeled as Start attempt. Additionally, the button displays different states based on the student's progress.

  Progress Tracking and Start / Continue / Completed options for Learning Modules

  In the past, students would need to expand the module to view progress for the contents of a learning module. To save time and provide greater clarity, a progress summary for learning lodules is now displayed at the top level.

  All Users

  Resizing media

  Now media items have handles in each corner. Users can resize the media by dragging a corner handle. Users can also resize media via keyboard navigation. Media types available for resizing include images, videos, and media inserted via URL.

  Improvements to the Grades landing page - mobile app

  Mobile app users can now select the sorting criteria for their grades. Users can sort grades as follows: course order, last activity (most recent grade posted), due date (latest or oldest first). These sort options allow users to customize the Grades landing page to suit their preferences.

• August 3, 2023 (v3900.71.0)

  Instructors

  Flexible Grading

  Flexible Grading is a new, efficien assessment grading experience. Capabilities include:

  • Grade by question or student
  • Filter on grading status of choice
  • Navigate between students and multiple submission attempts
  • Keep track of your grading process
  • View both the attempt and the final grade for each assessment
  • Provide meaningful feedback with or without a rubric
  • Grade inline using Blackboard Annotate
  • Collapse side panels to view more of the student submission
  • Post all grades when ready

  Gradebook: New default cell status in grid view

  The "Grade Now" cell has been changed to "-". This change reduces the cognitive load on users working in the gradebook. This change also makes new submissions more obvious.

  Increased visibility of Gradebook ‘Move Item’ icon

  The option to move an item in the gradebook list view is always visible as opposed to an instructor having to hover over the option for it to become visible.

  Bulk download of anonymous submissions

  Now, the Download Submissions option is available for anonymously graded assessments. Download submissions from the item's menu in the gradebook grid view.

  Rubrics: Editing improvements

  Instructors can edit any rubric not yet used for grading. In the past, selecting outside of an editable area would save edits and automatically exit out of edit mode. This made selecting text and editing rubrics difficult. Now, if users select text inside the rubric edit box and drag out of the edit box, the edit mode does not close.

  Course Banner image improvements

  The image setting workflow has been improved to provide a better user experience.

  Learning Module image

  To enhance the visual aesthetics of a course and to aid in content identification, there is now support for the option to add images to Learning Modules.

  Replace files in course content

  Before, when an instructor replaced a file in the course, the system created a new file version. Now, the system replaces the file. The system no longer creates new versions, freeing up storage space.

  Students with alert flags in the Course Activity report

  A flag now appears for students with alerts in the Course Activity Report. Instructors can customize their course alerts based on the following:

  • Number of days a student is inactive in the course
  • A student’s overall grade in the course is below a specific percentage

  Ultra Accessibility Checker

  To help instructors create accessible content, instructors can now use the Ultra Accessibility Checker (Powered by Ally). The Ultra Accessibility Checker scans content in the content editor for Ultra Documents. This helps instructors identify and fix accessibility issues.

  Instructors and Students

  Assessment Submission Receipt improvements

  Additional, detailed information has been added to the existing submission receipts.

  Groups in the top navigation bar and Group Spaces

  Groups have been moved from the Details & Actions menu to the top navigation bar for improved visibility and prominence of Groups. This release also introduces a new feature for Groups: Group Spaces. This first milestone of Group Spaces provides a list of all assessments by group.

  Unread Message indicator

  The Message tab on the Base Navigation now displays courses with unread messages first. We removed the terms feature from the Message tab because users often missed messages from other terms. This experience is more aligned with how other messaging applications work. Users can now clearly identify courses with unread messages

  Group Messaging improvements

  An instructor can now send a message to any group or group set. Instructors can also select more than one group as recipients of a message. Students can select their groups as message recipients.

  Google Integration: Google Workspace files

  Blackboard has partnered with Google to create a new LTI integration for Google Workspace tools in Learn. This new intuitive workflow allows instructors to add Google Workspace files to: the course content area, learning Modules, and Folders.

  All Users

  Removal of Welcome guidance for first-time login and attendance user experience pop-ups

  The Welcome guidance is being removed for first-time logins. The guidance is no longer applicable. Its removal provides immediate access to the base navigation after users log in. Additional updates will be made over a series of releases.

  Course status indicators

  The course list on Blackboard Learn mobile app has been enhanced with status indicators for each course. Course status indicators include: private, open, and complete.

  Active Session Termination

  Security measures have been updated to enforce user re-authentication, enhancing data security. Users are now required to log in again during their session, regardless of activity. After a time specified by the administrator, the session expires, logging out the user. Before the session ends, users receive a warning and have the option to save their work

• September 7, 2023 (v3900.74.0)

  Instructors

  Course structure suggestions

  Learning Module image integration options

  Rubric generation

  Test question generation

  Question Bank generation from Ultra Documents

  Course banner images from Unsplash

  Auto-captioning for video and audio feedback

  Batch Edit support for recursive actions

  Copying Announcements

  Flexible Grading support for tablets and other improvements

  TurnItIn support for Ultra Assignments (limited release)

  Turn off/on Class Collaborate per course

  Instructors and students

  Reminder improvements for anonymous grading

  Improved progress tracking for graded LTI content

  Updated wording for course alerts in the Activity Stream

  Google Workspace – Cloud File Collaboration

  Mobile App – Grades landing page improvement

  
  
• October 5, 2023 (v3900.76.0)

  Instructors

  SafeAssign Direct Submit

  Delegated grading distribution by group membership

  Partial credit auto-distribution for correct answers for Multiple Choice questions

  Sorting controls for manually added gradable Items

  Last access course alert default set to 15 days

  Student Activity report for Assessments enhancements for small devices and the Mobile app

  Edit Settings for Partner Cloud Content Items

  Canvas conversion improvements: Removed unnecessary Content Item/Document

  Canvas conversion improvements: Preserving videos

  Instructors and students

  Send Reminder from Gradebook list and grid views

  Anonymous comments in Bb Annotate

  Copying grading schemas from course to course

  Students

  Deselect answer choice for Multiple Choice question

  Messages tool availability settings respected in Mobile App

  All users

  Set allowed number of concurrent sessions

  Inactive session termination warning in Mobile App

  
  
• November 2, 2023 (v3900.78.0)

  Instructors:

  Matching question updates: partial credit auto-distribution and other updates

  Tab navigation for Journals

  Anonymous grading in Flexible Grading view

  Grading optimization for file-based Assignment submissions in Flexible Grading

  Edit/Regrade in Questions view

  Sorting controls for Student Name, Overall Grade, Assessments, and Manual Columns in grid view

  Gradebook grid view performance improvements

  
  

  Instructors and students:

  Image insertion option for Ultra Documents, Journals, Discussions, Assessment attempts, and Course Messages

  
  

  Students:

  Late submission indicator in submission receipts

  
  

  All users:

  Accessibility link before and after authentication

  Self-enrollment via URL

  
  
• December 7, 2023 (v3900.80.0)

  Instructors:

  Authentic Discussion and Journal prompts

  Large rubric support

  Group assessment due date exceptions

  Goal alignment to questions in banks

  Prevent students from earning full credit when selecting all answers choices on a multi-select question with partial credit

  Sorting controls in Students and Questions tab

  Grid view sorting controls

  Automatic zero gradebook improvement

  Canvas conversion improvements: Support for Multiple Grade Schemes

  
  

  Instructors and students:

  Additional image insertion and generate options

  Mobile App: Enhancements to Grades

  
  

  All users:

  Removal of First Time User Experience pop-ups

  Improved mobile experience for Course Content page