SaaS Monthly Updates

Blackboard SaaS will be updated on the first Thursday of each month, unless otherwise stated. Check back here for new features and updates.

March 6, 2025

  • Ultra Courses:
    • AI Design Assistant Image Generation: When an instructor generates an AI image, the image will now be saved so that the instructor can select a previously generated image. The saved images will clear when the instructor chooses an image or exits image generation.
    • AI Design Assistant Learning Module Generation: When an instructor uses the AI Design Assistant to generate learning modules, any learning module generated without an image will show with a blank placeholder image, instead of having no image space at all. Additionally, all learning modules generated will have a refresh button in the lower right corner of the image, so the instructor can select a new image if the first one does not match the module.
    • Release Conditions Panel: When setting a release condition based on date and time, instructors will now see the due date listed under the “Access from” box, to ensure they will make the item available before the due date.
    • Anonymous Discussions: Instructors and students are now warned that when a discussion is made anonymous, system administrators can make a user’s name visible. This is to address instances where the feature is misused, such as bullying, or if comments concerning the student’s or other’s health or safety. Administrators are required to fill out a form with information on when the reveal took place, who requested it, and the reason it was requested. After refreshing the page, the student’s name will once again be hidden from the administrator.
    • Discussion Usability Improvements: Improvements have been made to the discussion topics and discussion posts for better visibility. For instructors, the participation metrics are now displayed directly on the discussion home page, and a new Edit button is available directly from the post.
    • Pop-out rubric when grading an attempt: When an instructor is grading an attempt on an assignment with a rubric, they can now pop-out the rubric into another window for easier grading while reading the assignment. Additionally, the instructor can now choose performance levels in bulk by selecting a performance level heading, selected cells are highlighted in gray, a warning will appear if the instructor has the rubric in a pop-out window and tries to leave without saving, and a warning will show if the grade was overridden, with an option to remove it and regrade with the rubric.
    • Student Submission Review for Tests: Students will now see a different review page when reviewing a graded test. The new page will show feedback, test content, submission timestamp and receipt information, and the final grade for an individual attempt or for the assignment as a whole.
    • Show/Hide Calculation Columns: Instructors can now configure visibility for calculated columns from the item management menu within the gradebook. However, the Overall Grade cannot be hidden.
    • Course Access Improvements: Improvements have been made for how courses are accessed, including: the toggle switch for opening a course has been replaced with radio buttons labeled Open and Closed; and on the courses page, the Hide Course option has been relabeled to Hide Course from Me to better clarify it is for that user only, not for students.
    • Copy Banners: Instructors can now copy a banner from one course to another. This option can now be selected when doing a granular course copy, and is included when doing a full course copy.
  • Resolved Known Issues: 
    • Embedded OneDrive read-only documents display an invalid message to students
      • When a OneDrive document has been embedded as read-only, students are presented with a message that indicates they can make changes.
    • Users are unable to log in with SSO on mobile app
      • Users may be unable to log in via the mobile app, or may be presented with a blank screen after a successful login.

February 6, 2025

  • Ultra Courses:
    • Learning Modules and Folders: Instructors can now change a folder to a learning module or a learning module to a folder when clicking on the item’s three dot menu.
    • Improved File Rendering: When viewing an uploaded document, such as a PowerPoint or Excel spreadsheet, the document will display in the original format, instead of having additional format changes.
    • Upload Images to Documents: When editing an Ultra Document, instructors now have a new Image block they can select to upload an image without needing to use the text box block.
    • Assessment access code updates: When a student is entering an exam with an access code, the access code will now be masked, similar to a password.
    • Improved Performance for Assignment File Submissions: When a student is attempting to upload a file right before the timer runs out, the file will continue and complete the upload process before the attempt is submitted. Additionally, if a file does not upload, students now have a re-upload workflow that will be presented to them.
    • Improvements to Discussion Avatar and Timestamp: When looking at a discussion board, the user’s avatar and date and time of submission are now at the top left of the submission, and are more easily recognized, instead of blending in with the submission text.
    • Enhancements to Course Groups: All groups that are created, including groups for specific assignments, will now be considered course-level groups, and can be created and viewed when creating the assignments. Additionally, instructors will now receive additional warnings if a group or group set is empty.
    • Excluded Attempts Removed from Needs Grading: When an instructor has excluded an attempt, that attempt will no longer be listed in the Needs Grading area, or included in any calculations.
    • Updates to the Assignment and Test workflows: In the August 2024 release, assignments and tests were separated out into two separate tools. During this update, all tests created prior to August 2024 that did not have any questions were converted to the Assignment tool. This does not affect any submissions, grades, calculations, or existing tests with questions.
    • Test Settings Updates: The following items were removed from the Settings panel on a test: collect submission offline, use grading rubric, maximum points, 2 grades per student, and peer review. This is to help separate the Assignment and Test settings and simplify the settings for a Test.
    • Improvements to Grading Interface: In order to optimize screen space and allow for a larger view of the student’s submission, the grading interface has been redesigned. The student’s name and the next and previous student arrows have been condensed and moved to the top bar, and the additional middle bar has been removed.
    • Improved Upload Grades Accuracy: Instructors can now upload grades and feedback for assignments, journals, and discussions, without having them stored as an override. They will now be stored as the grade for the attempt, which will remove the “New Submission” and “Override” labels, as well as remove the item from the Needs Grading list.
    • Improved Rendering in Bb Annotate: Files are now shown with the exact same formatting as they had when uploaded, instead of some files have the formatting changed or removed.
  • Resolved Known Issues:
    • Student activity report for assessment displays no activity details
      • When downloading the Student Activity Report for assessments, the file is empty and does not display any details.
    • Students cannot see rubric icon on assignments with multiple or unlimited attempts
      • When students attempt to view feedback for an assignment with multiple attempts or unlimited attempts allowed, they are unable to see the rubric icon.

January 9, 2025

  • Ultra Courses:
    • Content Block Updates in Documents: The content block no longer closes when an instructor collapses the editing menu. Additionally, the editor no longer closes when editing table settings. The undo and redo button are now available for File Uploads, and the default for an uploaded file is now “View and Download”.
    • Release Conditions Performance Options: When setting up Release Conditions on an item, there is now the option to choose “Attempt submitted” for an assignment or test as the release condition, instead of requiring a graded submission.
    • Column Management page and hiding columns in Gradebook: Instructors now have access to an item management page in their gradebook, which will allow them to show and hide columns from their view. If a column is hidden from instructors, it will still be visible to students.
    • Attempt grading and Override: When grading an assignment from the Grades or Grid View page, grades will now be stored as an attempt grade, and not as an override grade. This will remove the “New Submission” flag and remove it from the “Needs Grading” area.
    • Course Access in Course Settings: The location to make a course available or closed to students has moved to the Course Settings menu inside the course. Instructors will be able to change the course status to: Open – available to students; Closed – not available to students (previously “Private” or “Unavailable”); and Complete – course is visible to students, but no changes can be made by a student or an instructor, including grades.
  • Resolved Known Issues:
    • Error message displays randomly when accessing discussion forums
      • When an instructor accesses a discussion forum, sometimes an error message will be displayed when the forum is opened.
    • Grade override in gradebook leaves item marked as “Needs Grading”
      • In Ultra, when an instructor overrides an attempt with a grade, the attempt is still showing as “Needs Grading”, even though the overridden grade has been posted.
    • Grades not updating when viewing discussion attempts
      • When the instructor attempts to modify the grade in the user’s attempt by clicking on the view option in the gradebook, the grade reverts to its previous value after the page is refreshed.
    • Grades not visible in activity stream for discussion posts.
      • When an instructor posts a discussion board grade and the student views their Activity Stream, there is no link to view the graded discussion board on the Activity Stream page.
    • Grading journals via “# to grade” skips items
      • When an instructor attempts to grade a Journal using the “# to grade” option, once a student has been graded, the arrows to move to the next submission will become unresponsive for the first click, and the second click will move the user but skip over the next submission to the second one in the list.
    • Headings on Ultra Documents are not properly labeled in HTML code
      • When creating content on an Ultra document and using the Headers options, the header is given the incorrect heading code in the HTML code for the document. This can affect how the document is read via screen readers or other accessible devices.
    • New submission label remains after grading attempt
      • When creating an assignment with multiple attempts and setting the “Attempts to mark” option to “Last attempt”, only the last attempt should count for grading. However, if a student submits more than one attempt, and the instructor only grades the last one, the gradebook will still display a “new submission” label.
    • Questions with more than 170 characters in the question text moves the points possible pill
      • When a question has more than 170 characters in the question text, the points possible pill moves to the right in the gradebook and is inaccessible.
    • Second attempt appearance in the gradebook is delayed
      • When attempt exceptions are granted to students to submit a second attempt, the attempt will be delayed when it appears in the gradebook.
    • Sending messages through the Analytics tab fails to send email to instructor
      • When sending a message to students from the Course Activity tab within the Analytics page, the messages will be sent via email to the student, but not to the instructor.
    • Submission download breaks if file name contains “sessions”
      • When an instructor attempts to download a student’s submission file, and the file name includes the word “session” or “sessions”, the file will not download and an error occurs.
    • Unable to access discussion board rubric when grading on complete/incomplete schema
      • When instructors create a discussion board that is graded with a rubric, and the grade is set to display as complete/incomplete, the instructor is unable to access the rubric while grading.
    • Zoom meetings will not launch when accessing through the mobile app
      • When attempting to access a Zoom meeting via the Blackboard app, the Zoom meeting will not launch.

Previous Updates

Tentative Future Updates

Blackboard Inc. has released the following dates for updates to Blackboard. Please note that Towson University has no control over these dates and that they are subject to change.

March 6, 2025
April 3, 2025
May 1, 2025
June 5, 2025
July 3, 2025
August 7, 2025
September 4, 2025
October 2, 2025
November 6, 2025
December 4, 2025
January 8, 2026
February 5, 2026
March 5, 2026

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