Recent Updates

This page provides recent updated features  in key areas for meeting instructor needs in Blackboard. Below are the categories of updates. The latest updates are closest to the top of each category:

  1. Rubrics - in this month performance level descriptions or the grading rubric is visible whilst grading each submission.

Image showing rubric display in Student section within Gradebook.

  1. Communications - in this month, instructors can now send reminders to students. Reminders can only be sent to students who did not submit work, have not received an automatic zero, don’t have a posted score that was manually overridden, and is enrolled in the course.

Image shows pop-up dialog box titled Send Reminder with a Cancel button and a black Send button.

  1. Flexible Grading - in this month instructors can now do a video record, thus providing learners with an audio feedback. There is an audio only option if visuals are not desirable.

Image showing red arrow pointing toward video audio recording icon that is also in red circle outlined.Image showing recording window that appears after video audio recording icon is clicked.

  1. Gradebook - feedback is now available for overridden tests, assignment grades, and automatic zeros. This option is available in the Gradebook view, and the Submissions list AFTER the override or automatic zero is entered.

Image shows red arrow pointing toward Feedback tab in Gradebook view.Image shows red arrow pointing toward Feedback tab in Submissions. The three dotted ellipsis is highlighted by a red outlined box.

  1. Missed Due Dates - instructors can now customized the missed due dates alert in the Alert Settings. This allows instructors to better identify at risk students in the Course Activity Report. Instructors must set up Alert Settings since this is not a default feature.

Image showing the Alert Settings menu in the Course Activity page.

Students who trigger the missed due dates alert will appear in the Course Activity report table, chart and in the downloaded report.

Image shows the Course Activity table with flag alerts next to students' names. Image shows the chart page with student's name identified with purple dots on the chart.

Instructors with this settings will note alert activities on their Activity Stream.

Image shows instructor's Activity Stream with due dates alerts.

The missed due date alert applies when a student doesn’t submit before the due date in the following:

  • Assessments, including group and formative

  • Assessments with the “collect submissions offline” option selected - when an instructor creates an attempt and enters the submission date/time after the due date

  • Assessments with the “hide student names” option selected - alerts only after all student submissions are graded and student names are exposed

  • Discussions and journals marked for a grade

  • SCORM packages when the “Grade individual SCOs” option is selected in SCORM settings

  • Other 3rd party activities, such as LTI and Respondus.

Special considerations:

  • Students with a due date accommodation never have their work marked late. A student with due date accommodation won't have any missed due date alerts.

  • Students with a due date exception will have a missed due date alert if the excepted due date passes and there is no submission.

  • Students with an exemption never have their work marked late. A student with an exemption won't have any missed due date alerts.

  • Hidden content with a due date or content with date/time and performance release conditions are included in missed due date alerts.

  • Content with a due date and release conditions for individual course members or groups will alert only those students/groups included in the condition who miss the due date.

  • New items added to the gradebook with a due date are not included in the missed due date alerts.

Better Control over Student Alert Notifications - instructors now have access to more options for student alert notifications. Instructors can now choose amongst:

  • Student Last Access Alert

  • Student Low Overall Grade Alert

  • Students Missed Due Dates Alert

Image showing notification options for instructor's Activity Stream.

  1. Forms - forms can support: essay question, Likert question, multiple choice question, true/false question, text, local file, file from cloud storage, and page break. By default, a Form is not graded.

Grades must be manually entered on a Form via Form Submission. Instructors can view participation by Students or Question in the new grading view seen in the image below:

Image shows a Form with participation based on questions in the grading view.

Form results from the Submissions and Gradebook pages are downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file as seen below:

Image showing downloadable form from grade view.Image shows downloadable form by submissions with download all tab.

Likert Availability in Form - instructors now have access to this popular scale measurement in Forms. In Forms, instructors may select a range of 3, 5, or 7 and label the poles as desired. Instructors may also choose to include a "not applicable" option.

Image shows Likert scale with 5 scales.

Note: A Likert question in a Survey created in the Original course view converts/copies to a Form in the Ultra course view. The scale range default is 3.

End of updates for February 2024

  1. AI Design Assistant - Context picker for test question generation - The context picker does not draw context from items that are attached to an Ultra document. Only items that appear on the context picker’s menu are used by the context picker. In future releases, attached files will be included in the context picker.

Image shows Content and Settings page with Auto generate question tab from drop down list when Create is clicked.

Image shows 2 auto-generated questions with Select Course Items highlighted.

Image shows the Select Item page with one file or item selected. The Select Items black button is highlighted on the lower right of the page.

Image shows the Auto-generate Questions page with the generating icon in motion and the Generate black button highlighted.

Image shows 2 results of the generated questions where 2 items are selected or highlighted. The Add 3 to Assessment black button is highlighted indicating that 3 generated item results are selected.

  1. Journals - instructors can now align goals with Journals to ensure that the activity measures the desired learning outcomes. This helps to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of evaluation and feedback practices.

Instructors can also align goals to the following course items:

  • Assignments

  • Tests, including individual questions

  • Questions in banks

  • Discussions

  • Rubrics criterion

  • Files

  • Web links

  • Teaching tools with LTI connection

  • Documents

Image shows Journal Settings with the Goals and Standard tab on the Journal page.

  1. No Due Date Option - Due dates are an important aspect of the teaching and learning process. In some scenarios, such as self-paced learning, an instructor may not want to apply a due date. To make the option for not having a due date more evident, we've added a "No due date" option for Tests and Assignments.

Image shows the Content and Settings page with the right side Test Settings menu where the No due date tab is checked and highlighted.

There may be cases when the “No due date” selection conflicts with the Assessment Results settings. When this occurs, the instructor is prompted to review the settings.

Image shows the Content and Settings page with the right side Test Settings menu where the Due date slots (date and time) are highlighted.

Image shows highlighted warning on the Test Settings menu that reads Review Assessment Results and update After due date selections.

Image shows the Test Settings menu with reminders for 3 checked areas. These 3 checked areas are Allow students to view their submission, Show automated feedback, and Show question scores. The reminders for each is There is no due date. Please select another option.

  1. Announcement indicators mark as read/unread - Instructors, please note that unread announcements are visible to students on the Content page and via pop-up announcements (when students are first engaging with the course on Blackboard). Announcements when clicked, present a list of messages that match the unread numeric indicator on the Content page.

Image shows the Content page with the Announcements tab highlighted on the global top navigation bar. The announcement tab shows the number 1, indicating there is 1 unread announcements.

Image shows the pop-up window New Course Announcements with one announcement that is read (checked) and one that is not read (unchecked).

Image shows two announcements on the Announcements page.

The Message icon also present similar features as the Announcement as noted in the image below.

Image shows Content page with Announcement and Message tabs highlighted on the global top navigation bar.

  1. Messages Sent from Student Activity Report on Small Screens - additionally, instructors can now send messages to students from the Student Activity report for assessments while on-the-go. Small screens such as those for smartphones are now supported. The message option is in the ellipsis menu for each student.

Image showing Student Activity page with ellipsis (three horizontal dot) and message icon highlighted on a small screen.

  1. Flexible Grading with Left and Right Panels - in flexible grading, instructors can collapse or expand the left panel (student cards) and right panel (feedback and rubrics). To provide a better user experience, the last used state is now preserved in the browser. Now,  navigating between student attempts and across sessions provides a more efficient experience.

Gradebook Item Statistics from Grid View - Item statistics give insight to course members' overall performance on a graded content. Now, 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

The number of submissions requiring grading and the distribution of grades also displays.

End of updates for March 2024