These are the highlights of this month’s new and improved features in Blackboard Ultra that will be live Thursday, July 3rd. The most relevant updates are related to a few key areas:

Instructional design
Tests & Assignments
Gradebook
Learner Progression & Personalized Experience

Instructional Design

Add Captions to Image Blocks in Blackboard Ultra Documents

Instructors can now add captions above or below image blocks in Documents, and can be added through the settings of the image as shown in the screenshot below:

Edit File Options page offers fields for Display Name, Image caption, and choices for Caption position

Captions provide context and support understanding, helping students engage more deeply with visual content, and will look like this in your documents once added:

A tabby cat, with a caption above saying 'Tabby is one of the most common fur patterns in cats.'

Allow instructors to switch between folders and learning modules

Anthology has streamlined the course editing experience by allowing instructors to change folders to learning modules and vice versa.

Tests & Assignments

Support QTI question import in banks

To enhance interoperability and streamline assessment creation, Anthology now supports the import of questions from QTI packages into banks. Instructors and instructional designers often use different tools to create assessments, and ensuring a smooth transfer of questions between platforms is critical. With this update, users can import QTI v2.1 formatted questions into banks efficiently, maintaining compatibility with industry standards. Questions that are supported include:

True/False
Multiple Choice
Multiple Answer
Fill-in-the-blank
Essay

During the import process, users will receive notifications indicating the upload progress, success, or failure. If any individual questions cannot be converted due to unsupported types or behaviors, the system will provide clear feedback, ensuring instructors are informed of limitations. This improvement allows institutions to leverage QTI-based assessment content more effectively, making course transitions and content management more seamless.

Gradebook

Apply the No Category option to Gradebook Items

Managing graded items is now more flexible with the addition of the No Category option in the Grade Category dropdown menu by Anthology. This change allows instructors to remove an item from a category without needing to assign it elsewhere. By selecting No Category, no category data is stored, keeping grading workflows simple while maintaining consistency.

The No Category option appears in the Grade Category dropdown menu for all items, making it easy to keep grading structures clean and organized. Selecting No Category ensures that the item is not linked to any grading category, and no data is stored for it in the system, allowing instructors to tailor grade organization more precisely to fit their course needs.

$Instructors can select No Category in the Grade Category dropdown in the gradebook$

Enhanced pop-out rubric

Anthology has made several enhancements to the pop-out rubric in the Gradebook.

Attempting to close the pop-out rubric without saving your changes prompts a warning, reminding you to save your changes, which appears as shown in the screenshot below:

Attempting to close out of pop-out rubric without saving changes prompts a warning

Selecting Save no longer closes the pop-out rubric.
We improved keyboard navigation, specifically arrow key and tab interaction, for the grid table.

Navigate with previous and next functionality in Group Submissions

Reviewing and grading group submissions is now more efficient with the addition of Previous and Next navigation controls. Instructors can efficiently move between group submissions using header bar controls, creating a smoother grading experience with fewer clicks.

Learner Progression & Personalized Experience

Review student engagement with announcements

Instructors can now verify which students have marked an announcement as viewed. By selecting the viewer count on the main Announcements page, instructors can open a list showing who has and hasn’t acknowledged the message. From this list, instructors can send a message to follow up with students who haven’t viewed the announcement or confirm that key information was received. This helps instructors understand how effectively their announcements are reaching students.

In this screenshot, you can see the number of viewers under the announcements tab:

The Viewers column is on the far right, next to Status

And you can also see the list of viewers by clicking on the Viewer count:

The Viewers page, showing two students with the read status and one unread.

Integrations

Render mathematical formulas with MathJax

Anthology has enhanced the formula rendering experience in the Content Editor by implementing MathJax, a powerful tool for displaying mathematical notation. This update improves the visual accuracy and consistency of LaTeX-based formulas, aligning them more closely with scientific and academic standards.

MathJax offers a more precise rendering style preferred by many STEM instructors. When activated, MathJax will automatically render LaTeX code entered directly in the Content Editor across supported areas of Blackboard. Wiris is still available as the default to render formulas for the Content Editor. If MathJax is not activated, Wiris will render formulas.

For more information, please read more at Anthology’s Blackboard website here!

Need support? Contact the Innovative Learning Support Centre. We are here to help!

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Improved Features in Blackboard Ultra - July 2025