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Monthly Feature Releases 2024
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 2023 and Monthly Release Notes 2022 to see features and updates in older versions.
Instructors
AI Design Assistant - Authentic Assessment Prompt Generation
Instructors can generate assignment prompts that encourage students to engage in higher-order thinking, apply their learned knowledge, product authentic submissions that are evidenced, and emulate real-world situations.
AI Design Assistant- Generate Rubric Improvements
Improvements include column and row labels and the distribution of percentages/points for criteria.
Delegated Grading Improvements
Instructors can now use delegated grading in combination with anonymous submissions and tests.
Improved Attempt Display in Flexible Grading
When grading an assignment with multiple attempts, the attempt selected for display is based on the grading status and attempt aggregation model selected.
Sorting Controls in Students View for Assessments Graded Anonymously
Sorting controls to assessments graded anonymously have been added. Instructors can apply sorting options: submission date (oldest-newest, newest-oldest).
Enhanced Grid View
To improve usability and maximize the screen real estate of the gradebook grid view, several enhancements have been made.
Total and Weighted Calculations
Expanded gradebook functionality to support total and weighted calculated columns.
Category Information on the Gradable Items Page
To provide greater efficiency and clarity in the gradable items view, we have added a Category column. This column, along with the grading item icon, helps instructors more readily identify which category, if any, an item belongs. Instructors can sort this column ascending or descending alphabetically.
Attempt Logs for Enhanced Assessment Integrity
The attempt logs prove to be an indispensable tool for validating issues students may encounter during an assessment. The logs also help instructors identify signs of academic dishonesty.
Unused Files Management
The unused files tool helps instructors find and deletes course files that are not in use.
Batch Edit: Change to Specific Date and/or Time
Using Batch Edit, instructors can override the existing date and/or time for selected items. Instructors can adjust the due date time for all assessments using this option. The same feature also works on show on and hide after dates and times.
Instructors and Students
Grade Visible to Students in Gradebook when Item is Hidden by Release Conditions
Hiding content/assessments from students also hides the grade from the student view. Now, instructors can set the release conditions without concern of hiding grades.
Instructors
Forms
A new forms assessment has been added. A form is not graded. Questions in a form do not have a correct or incorrect answer.
Likert Question Type
Likert questions help provide a quantitative measure of opinions and attitudes. The responses often range from strongly disagree to strongly agree. This question type is now available in the Form assessment type.
Rubric's Performance Level Descriptions: Display Choice Persists
Now, the rubric's grading interface stores the most recently used display option. This means that instructors who rely on performance level descriptions when grading don't have to turn them on each time they navigate to grade another submission. The performance level display option preference is stored on a per-user per-assessment basis.
Send Reminders from Gradebook: Improved Student Count for Instructors
Ultra has refined the scenarios that determine the students who will receive the reminder. This will make the recipient list more accurate.
Audio/Video Recording in Feedback: Usability Improvements
To ensure easy and clear access to this tool, we have exposed the Audio/Video option on the feedback toolbar. When in use, the recording window appears on the right side of the screen so that the instructor can view the student submission.
Missed Due Dates Included in the Course Activity Report
Instructors can now view the number of missed due dates for students in the Course Activity Report. Instructors can customize the missed due date alert in the Alert Settings.
Long Student Names Visibility in the Course Activity Report
Long names have been adjusted in the Course Activity Report. This change ensures that names are visible even on small devices. This helps instructors avoid confusion when viewing students with similar names.
Instructors and Students
Feedback on Override and Automatic Zero Grades for Tests and Assignments
Instructors can give feedback for overridden tests, assignment grades, and automatic zeroes. This option appears in the gradebook grid view, and the submissions list after the override or automatic zero is entered.
Instructors
AI Design Assistant - Context Picker for Test Question Generation
Instructors can now select course items to help define questions. This option improves the alignment of generated questions to course content.
Goal Alignment to Journals
Instructors can now align goals to journals to ensure that the activity measures the desired learning outcomes. This helps to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of evaluation and feedback practices.
No Due Date Assessment Setting
To make the option for not having a due date more evident, a "No Due Date" option has been added to tests and assignments.
Last Used View State of Flexible Grading Side Panels Preserved
In flexible grading, instructors can collapse or expand the left panel and the right panel. To provide a better user experience, the last used state is now preserved in the browser.
Gradebook Item Statistics
Instructors can select a column in the gradebook to access summary statistics for any graded item. The statistics page displays key metrics such as: minimum and maximum value, range, average, median, standard deviation, variance, and the number of submissions requiring grading and the distribution of grades.
Text Grade Schema Converts to Points
In the Original course view, instructors can create text schemas that are unsupported in the Ultra course view. When converting courses, text schemas convert to a points schema. After conversion to Ultra, instructors can create and apply an alternate schema if desired.
Send Messages to Students from the Student Activity Report for Assessments on Small and Medium Devices and the Mobile App
Instructors using a small or medium device or the mobile app can send messages to students from the Student Activity report for assessments. This message option is in the ellipsis menu for each student.
Instructors and Students
Announcement Indicators and Mark as Read/Unread
There is now a number indicator next to the announcement tab in a course that signals the number of unread announcements available. Users can also mark announcements as read or unread.
Instructors
AI design assistant - context picker for learning modules, assignments, discussions, and journals
The content picker for test questions now includes learning modules, assignments, discussions, and journals when generating content with the AI Design Assistant.
default question points value changed from 10 to 1
Any newly created questions will have a default point value of 1.
duplicate questions in assessments, form, and question banks
Instructors can now select Duplicate to quickly copy an existing question within the same assessment or in a question bank. This feature eliminates the need for manual duplication and simplifies the process of creating multiple questions with the same answer options.
likert answer options expanded to include 4 and 6
Instructors can now create Likert scale questions with 4 or 6 answer options. This allows for greater granularity in student responses.
auto-submitted indicator in attempt logs
The Attempt Log now indicates whether a submission is manual or automatic. This indicator provides instructors with deeper insights into student behaviors and to better track their progress.
overall grade information added to gradebook download
Instructors can now choose to include the Overall Grade for students in the downloaded gradebook. This additional date point helps provide a comprehensive view of student performance.
edit gradebook category for partner cloud content
Instructors can now edit the category information from the gradebook for third-party content and tools.
long names visible and sorting controls for the student activity report for assessments on small devices and mobile app
Long names have been adjusted in the Student Activity report for assessments. This change ensures names are visible on a variety of devices and helps instructors avoid confusion when viewing students with similar names.
self-enrollment group improvements
The maximum number of members per group has been reduced from 2 to 1 to allow for more use cases such as sign-up sheets and booking 1:1 slots with students.
individual date adjustments from batch edit
Instructors now have the option to change the due date and availability (Show on and Hide After) for any item.
Instructors and Students
student feedback remains visible to students regardless of release condition settings
In the past, when an instructor selected the option to hide content, students could view associated grades but not the feedback. Now instructors can set release conditions without any impact to feedback to students.
anonymous posts for discussions
The option has been added for instructors to allow anonymous posts in ungraded discussions. This feature provides flexibility for instructors. They can toggle anonymity on or off as the discussion progresses.
usability improvements for flexible grading
Several enhancements to Flexible Grading have been implemented to improve usability and efficiency.
add question feedback when grading by student in flexible grading
Instructors can now provide contextual feedback by student on all question types.
Students
persistent navigation for learning modules
The navigation bar is now sticky and remains visible as students vertically scroll through content within a learning module. Students no longer need to scroll back up to the top of content to access the navigation tools.
Instructors
supporting multiple performance criteria in release conditions
Instructors can now set more than one performance criteria per content item.
Reuse questions in Forms
Instructors can now select Reuse Questions when editing or creating a Form to streamline the creation process and save time and effort. Instructors can filter questions from existing Forms within the course.
Multiple attempts for Forms assigned to groups
Instructors can now assign a Form to a group and allow multiple attempts. When assigning forms to groups, enabling multiple attempts promotes dynamic, iterative learning experiences. Groups can now submit the Form, receive feedback, and submit another response.
Improved Gradebook navigation
To create a more intuitive navigation, we replaced the grid and list view buttons with text links. The options are now: gradable items, grades (gride view) and students.
Instructors and Students
add question feedback when grading a test by question
When grading by student or by question, instructors can provide contextual feedback. Instructors can add feedback to all question types. Question-level feedback promotes deeper understanding and personal growth among students. Question-level feedback also enhances overall submission feedback and automated feedback for auto-graded questions.
weighted calculation improvements
Instructors can now assign equal weights to items in the same category. The chose calculation method, whether proportional or equal, applies to all categories. In the past, weighted items in the same category had proportional weights that were based on possible points of each item.
landing page enhancements for blackboard learn mobile app
The landing pages (grades, messages, courses, organization) are now designed in a card layout. These enhancements are a part of a larger redesign of the Blackboard Learn mobile app landing pages to ensure uniform design, optimized user experience, and natural user flow across various devices and screen sizes.
Instructors
AI Design Assistant - output language selector
To support multi-language use cases, the AI Design Assistant now includes a language selector. Instructors may use the language selector to set the desired language for generated content.
Printing for assessments
Instructors can now print assessments which provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases. The print option is available in Forms, Tests, and Assignments with questions. Printing also provides the option to save as a PDF.
Streamlined point value editing for questions
When editing a question, instructions can now access and edit the point value field with just two clicks. This small change leaders to a smoother workflow and enhances the overall teaching and learning experience.
Post immediately when creating announcements
Instructors can now post announcements as part of the drafting and editing processes. This makes the process of creating and posting announcements simpler.
Prevent auto-assigning members within self-enrollment groups
Currently, at the end of the enrollment period, unassigned students are always distributed into groups. To improve the use of self-enrollment groups for optional activities, instructors can now opt-out of this behavior. Instructors can deselect the option, which does not enroll students who do not self-enroll by the end of the enrollment to any group. This option gives instructors more flexibility when managing self-enrollment groups.
Group members list available in the selected group
To improve and centralize member information, we have relocated the members list to the selected group page. This will now display as a member’s tab rather than a separate panel.
Filter out graded responses when grading by question
The Needs Grading filter now filters out graded student responses by default. Filtering this way helps instructors to focus on any remaining ungraded responses for a given question.
Grader Notes on student grades
Instructors can now add private grading notes to student grades. After a score is assigned, the new Feedback & Notes menu option is available. Grader notes form an important part of the academic record. These notes may serve as documentation for a grading decision or grade adjustment. Grader notes are private to graders and not visible to students.
Weighted calculation usability improvements
Responding to client feedback, Blackboard made two improvements for gradebook weighting:
- The label “0% per item” appeared for categories excluded from weighting. This caused confusion so it was removed.
- Blackboard updated the calculation rules panel to make it easier to understand the selected settings.
Instructors and Students
Landing page enhancements for Blackboard Learn Mobile app
To enhance usability and streamline user interaction in the mobile app, we added filters to the following landing pages: Courses, Organizations, and Grades.
Students
Improved visibility of new grades and feedback in the student gradebook
To ensure that students are aware of new grades in the course, an indicator has been added to the Gradebook tab. When there are new grades, the number of new grades appears on the tab.
Return a true/false question to an unanswered state
Students can now return a true/false question to an unanswered state after choosing an answer. This helps students better manage their time during a test
Instructors
Print answer key for assessments
Instructors can now print an answer key for their assessments to help grading for any printed assessments.
Improvements to prevent printing a question across pages
The print functionality for assessments has been enhanced to ensure a more user-friendly experience. Questions now print so that a question is not separated incorrectly on the physical or digital paper page break.
Needs Grading improvements for assessments allowing multiple attempts
There is now an easy way for instructors to see which attempt(s) display as Needs Grading.
Send a copy to email when scheduling announcements
Instructors can schedule an announcement for a future date and select that it will send an email copy. The announcement tool will send the email copy on the day and time the announcements are posted.
Improvements to the Group Submissions page
To improve the user experience, several improvements were made to the Group Submissions feature to reduce the load time and overall performance.
Needs Grading improvements for Students and Questions tabs
The Needs Grading filter for Student and Questions tabs reflect the 'Attempt to grade' assessment setting. The Needs Grading filter on the Student tab will now only display students with ungraded attempts that count towards Needs Grading. The Needs Grading filter on the Questions tab will now only display questions with ungraded responses from attempts that count towards Needs Grading.
Recording audio and video when adding per question feedback
When grading by student or question, instructors can now provide contextual feedback as recorded audio and video. Instructors can add recorded feedback to all question types. Question level feedback promotes deeper understanding and personal growth among students. Question level feedback enhances overall submission feedback and automated feedback for auto-graded questions.
Students
Improved navigation when accessing feedback
Some instructors choose to add feedback on a student’s overall submission and individual attempts. We've improved students' access to this valuable feedback. Now students can view overall and attempt-level feedback from the gradebook.
Instructors
Content Designer: Enhanced Documents
Significant enhancements have been made to Documents to provide new and robust options for content design. Instructors can now design Documents by selecting a variety of block types: content, HTML, file upload, Cloud upload, Content Collection, and convert a file. Instructors can create appealing layouts by resizing and dragging/dropping blocks into columns and rows.
Improved navigation between students in Flexible Grading
'Next Student' and 'Previous Student' buttons have been added to the Students tab in Flexible Grading. Instructors can now quickly navigate between students when grading assessments.
Hide unenrolled students from the gradebook
Instructors now have the option to hide or show unenrolled students from the gradebook.
Status information removed from the gradebook download file
The status information associated with grades has been removed from the download file. Removing this information makes it easier to perform statistical analysis or calculations. Instructors can also download the gradebook for completed courses.
Image Generation Improvements
Instructors have the ability to generate images using the AI Design Assistant. The technology has been updated in the image generation process from DALL-E 2 to DALL-E 3. This update allows instructors to generate higher quality, higher resolution images.
Instructors and Students
Anonymous student responses for Forms
Instructors can now collect anonymous submissions in Forms. This feature encourages honest and candid feedback from students and helps participants feel safe and secure knowing their identities are protected.
Improvements to creating assignments
The new Assignment page includes these improvements:
- A new Instructions box where instructors can use the full content editor to craft assignment instructions.
- There are no options to add questions to an assignment.
- The Settings panel now includes only options relevant to assignments.
- Blank attempts are no longer created when students view assignment instructions. The system only creates an attempt when students add content to the file drop zone/content editor.
Multiple rules for release conditions
Instructors can now create multiple rules for release conditions. Users can create rules for release conditions based on these criteria: date, time, and grade range performance criteria. Users can also create rules for specific individual learners, groups, or for all members.
All Users
Ability to 'Follow' Discussions for Enhanced Engagement Assessment
Users can follow select discussions and receive notifications for new contributions from peers or instructors.
Send a message to a group from Group Spaces
Users can now send a group message from the members page of a group space.
Math formula enhancement
The response time in the text editor when creating a formula has been reduced. Instructors can process formula requests more efficiently.
Instructors
Student Activity Log
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.
View items that need grading and posting in the new Overview tab
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.
View late submissions that need grading
To help instructors to find and grade late assessment submissions, they are now indicated as Needs Grading on the Grades and Gradable Items gradebook pages
Instructors and Students
Content Designer: Knowledge Check in enhanced Documents
The Content Designer for Documents now includes a Knowledge Check block. The Knowledge Check enhances the learning experience. Knowledge checks allow students to engage with content and receive immediate feedback
AI Conversations
To better serve instructors who want to use AI with students, we're launching a new activity called AI Conversation. This is a Socratic questioning exercise guided by AI. AI Conversation lets students explore their thoughts on a topic.
There are two elements to the activity:
- AI Conversation
- This lets students think critically about the topic that the instructor designs.
- Reflection question
- This asks the student to share their thoughts on the activity. The reflection question also lets the student flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of our Trustworthy AI Approach. Reflection helps students understand the responsible use of AI services.
Exclude attempt when grading
We 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.
Students
Review instructor feedback on the student submission review page
We are introducing a new student-facing submission review page for assignments. The new page makes all instructor feedback on a submission more accessible. We are planning to add this same feature for tests in a future release.
Access assignment feedback hidden by release conditions
Now students can access all feedback on their submission, even if the assignment is hidden by a release condition. We are planning to ensure that students have access to all feedback on tests, discussions and journals in future releases.
- AI Conversation
Instructors
Usability improvements for Documents
- For uploaded files, we've restored the default of View and Download in the Edit File Options.
- If there isn’t enough space when resizing blocks with keyboard navigation, the option to expand right is hidden.
- The Redo button now continues to display and function after removing an HTML block.
- The cursor function works as expected when dragging a block.
- We've restored the Content Collection option in the Insert content + in the Content block.
- For institutions that have not enabled support for the Content Designer for Documents, we've restored the option to generate a question bank directly from a Document.
Usability improvements for Knowledge Checks
We modified the default for the Difficulty metric to display as "--" until there is at least one attempt. We also updated the answer instruction text for instructors to align with the instructions given in a test. It now reads "Choose one or more correct answers."
Generate question banks
Creating questions is time consuming. Instructors now have the option to generate questions in a question bank. Generating question banks from course materials provides inspiration and saves time.
Quickly access items that need grade reconciliations
A Needs reconciling section now appears on the gradebook Overview tab. In this section, reconcilers can easily access all items ready for reconciliation.
Show unavailable students in the gradebook
In direct response to user feedback, we’ve made changes to how unavailable students appear in the gradebook. Now unavailable students appear in the gradebook for their enrolled courses, but their avatar has a strikethrough to indicate the unavailable status.
Instructors and Students
Award Course Badges with Achievements
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.
- Instructors can view which students earned a course badge.
- Students can review the requirements to earn a course badge.
- Students can view both earned and unearned course badges.
- Leaders can use achievements in Ultra organizations.
Enhancements to student submission review page
We made several enhancements to this page:
- When an instructor selects student preview, they can now access the student submission review page.
- Students can now access offline submissions from this page.
- Students now have a Read more option for overall and attempt feedback.
Flexible Grading performance improvements
For larger classes with more than 2000 enrollments, the Flexible Grading page loads 25% faster!
Email notification for followed discussions
To encourage participation in discussions, we expanded notifications to include email. Emails are sent when users opt for Email me right away notifications.
Instructors
Role play option for AI Conversation
We expanded our AI Conversation feature to include a role play option. Role play can enhance learning by providing active learning opportunities. Role play also encourages critical thinking. It also provides an opportunity for students to apply knowledge in a simulated environment.
Improvement to resizing blocks in Documents
To help with resizing blocks that are vertically tall, we modified the resize handle. Now, instructors can resize a block by selecting the vertical edge of a block. It is not necessary to place the mouse directly over the handle.
Empty state indicator for Documents
We added an empty state indicator to content blocks in Documents. If a content block is empty, text displays to tell instructors to select the block to add content. The empty state indicator doesn’t display outside of the edit mode.
Print Tests with questions from Question Pools and other improvements
Instructors can now print tests that include questions from Question Pools. We also combined the answer key and the corresponding test. This ensures that users always have an answer key that matches the test.
Batch edit: usability improvement
"Change dates to a specific date and/or time" is the most popular option used in Batch Edit to change dates in a batch, so it is now the default option. This change simplifies the process for our users and helps instructors to prepare courses for teaching and learning even faster.
Download option for student activity log
Instructors and administrators can review the Student Activity Log to troubleshoot or resolve academic disputes. We added the option to download the Student Activity Log as a CSV. All filters applied to the log also apply to the CSV.
Instructors and Students
Indentations added to discussions
To better distinguish between responses and replies, we added indentation.
Students
Improved performance for assignment file submissions
These updates include:
- Managing Multiple File Uploads: To prevent issues when uploading multiple files, students will now be required to wait for the first upload to completely before attaching additional files.
- File Size Limit Notification: A modal will display a message if a file exceeds the permitted size limit.
- Corrupted File Alerts: In the unlikely event of a student attempts to submit a corrupted file, a modal will notify them of the issue, and the system will alert the instructor.
Instructors
AI Design Assistant rubric generation upgraded from GPT-3.5 tp GPT-4o mini
To benefit from updated AI model improvements, the AI Design Assistant rubrics have been upgraded from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4o mini.
Improvements to grading assignments: New labels for late submissions
To help instructors quickly identify late submissions in the attempt banner, late submissions now have a Late indicator. We also updated the wording from Submitted late
to Submitted . Grade override improvements
To increase transparency when overriding grades, we added an Override indicator to overridden grades on the Grades & Participation screen for Discussions. We implemented the Undo Override workflow on the Discussion grading interface, mimicking the Undo Override workflow in the Journal grading interface.
Instructors and Students
Discussion enhancement: new post indicator
We added a "New" indicator that displays next to posts and replies that a user has not yet accessed. This helps direct engagement by making new discussion activity easier to find and access.