Blackboard Original and Ultra Feature Comparison
This document is intended to capture some of the primary differences between Blackboard Ultra and Original Course view. It is focused on features that have historically be available to Syracuse instructors in original course view but might not be ready or planned for ultra course view.
New Tools
Embedded Insights
Grade Center Filter and Search
Changed Tools
Some feature in Ultra Course View are worth noting as significantly different than those in Original Course View. This list is not exhaustive but highlights some key differences between Ultra and Original Courses.
- Text editor — the text editor is newly built and no longer relies on a third-party as in Original Course view. Instructors should expect differences in the tools they find they and a new user interface. As it's being developed, there may be features that are currently missing that will be added.
- Accommodations — there are new tools in ultra courses to give accommodations at the level of the student rather than at the level of the test or assignment
- Folder nesting depth —
- Unsubmitted work — Unsubmitted work counts as zero in ultra courses
Common Tools
These are tools commonly used by Syracuse University instructors that are not yet available in ultra courses. For some of them Blackboard is planning to eventually add them to ultra course view while other features will no longer be available in ultra courses by design.
Planned for Inclusion in Ultra Courses
Course Builder role
Course Links
Course Survey
Grade Exemptions
Question Types — Ultra does not yet support the full array question types that original courses do. The currently available question types are:
- Essay
- Fill in the Blank
- Matching
- Multiple choice (single and
multiple correct) - True/False
- Calculated Formula
Not Planned for Inclusion in Ultra Courses
HTML Editing including embeds — Ultra courses included more tools for natively embedding content from other websites but it is no longer possible to edit the page code to insert <iframe> code.
Flickr Embedding
Slideshare Embedding
Lesser-used Tools
Planned for Inclusion in Ultra Courses
Not Planned for Inclusion in Ultra Courses
Glossary
Lesson Plans
Tasks
Wikis