These are the highlights of this month’s new and improved features in Blackboard Ultra that will be live Thursday, November 7. The most relevant updates are related to four key areas:

1. Instructional Design
2. Tests and Assignments
3. Communication and Collaboration
4. Learner progression and personalized experience

Review the full details of this month's updates

Instructional Design

Improvement to Resizing Blocks in Documents

To help with resizing blocks in the Content Designer in an Ultra document, Anthology has modified the resize handle so that instructors can resize a block by selecting the vertical edge of a block. This is what this looks like in the Content Designer:

Empty State Indicator for Documents

Anthology has added an empty state indicator to content blocks in Documents. If a content block is empty, some text displays to tell instructors to select the block to add content. The empty state indicator doesn’t display outside of the edit mode.

Tests & Assignments

Print Tests with questions from Question Pools and other improvements

Instructors can now print tests that include questions from Question Pools. Blackboard will generate a different version of the answer key and test each time a test is printed when the test:

• uses randomized questions or answer options
• includes Question Pools

Instructors can also use the print option to save the answer key and test as a PDF.

Improved performance for assignment file submissions for Students

Working on assignments can be a stressful experience for students. When submitting their work, students need assurance that their files have been successfully attached, received, and stored by Blackboard. They also need to be informed if there is an issue with their submission. In this release, Blackboard has made architectural improvements to mitigate against file corruption and to ensure files are correctly attached during uploads. 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.

Communication & Collaboration

Indentations Added to Discussions

To better distinguish between responses and replies, Anthology has added indentation, which looks like the following:

Learner Progression & Personalized Experience

Download Option for Student Activity Log

Instructors and administrators can review the Student Activity Log to review a student's activity in the course, including logging into a course, replying to discussions, submitting assessments, and many others. Anthology has added the option to download the Student Activity Log as a CSV, which appears in the screenshot below:

Blackboard mobile app rebranding

To reflect Anthology Inc.’s rebranding efforts, the Blackboard Learn App will now be known simply as the Blackboard App. The change aligns the app with Anthology, Inc.’s rebranding efforts. The Blackboard App has an updated:

• Splash screen
• App icon
• Name
• App description

These changes reflect Anthology’s vision, which is grounded in dedication to customer-centered innovation to inspire student success and institutional growth.

The full list of November updates is available on the Blackboard Help Center website.

Need additional support? The Innovative Learning Support Centre is here to help!