Previous Updates to Blackboard SaaS

All updates older than 3 months are listed on this page.

August 8, 2024

  • Ultra Courses:
    • Enhanced Ultra Documents: An updated Ultra document format will allow instructors to change the layout of the document, add new block types, and resize or move blocks within the page.
    • Multiple Release Condition Rules: Instructors can now set multiple release conditions rules on an item, and apply a rule to the entire course, a small group of users, or a specific user.
    • Enhanced Assignment Tool: An updated Assignment tool will now allow instructors to add instructions when creating the assignment. Additionally, questions will no longer be available when creating an Assignment, and blank attempts will not be created when an assignment is viewed without an attempt submitted.
    • Anonymous Submissions for Forms: Instructors can now allow Form submissions to be anonymous. Anonymous Form submissions will have specific settings automatically enabled. Instructors will still be able to view submissions and add feedback or grades, but the associated student names will not be shown.
    • Ability to Follow Discussions: All users will now be able to “Follow” a discussion, which will send them notifications when a new contribution has been added to the discussion.
    • Sending Messages from Group Spaces: Users within a group can now send a message directly from the group space, instead of going to the Messages tab within the course.
    • Improvements to Flexible Grading: Instructors will now see a “Next Student” and “Previous Student” option at the top of the page when grading a test or assignment within Blackboard, to allow for easier movement between submissions.
    • Status Information Removed from Downloaded Gradebook File: When downloading the gradebook file, previously instructors would see the status before the grade, such as “Ready to Post” or “In Progress”. This status has now been removed from the downloaded file.
    • Enhancements to the Math Formula Editor: Enhancements have been made to the Math Formula Editor to allow for a quicker response time.
    • Changes to Undeployed Tests During Course Copy: When copying a test from Original to Ultra, undeployed tests will now be made into a Question Bank instead of being added as a test inside of a folder called “Undeployed tests”.
  • Resolved Known Issues:
    • Ultra Courses: Annotate tools are not saving the previous settings
      • When using the Annotate tools, some of the options will not save when moving from one assignment to another.
    • Ultra Courses: Assessments in copied learning modules or folders are still visible in the gradebook after the module or folder is deleted
      • When an instructor copies a learning module or folder from one course to another that contains a test or assignment, then deletes the folder or learning module from the new course, the corresponding column for the assessment still remains in the gradebook, even though the assessment has been deleted.
    • Ultra Courses: Calculated formula values change each time they are viewed
      • When viewing the student’s attempts in a test with a calculated formula question, the values assigned to each student change when navigating through the submissions. This does not affect the grade, but the variable’s shown values.
    • Ultra Courses: Changing the document’s display name changes the downloaded file name
      • When uploading a file to an Ultra document, if the document’s display name is changed, the downloaded file name gets modified as well.
    • Ultra Courses: Email reminders for gradable items are not sending when an item has release conditions set
      • When using the Send Reminder option on a column for an item that has release conditions set, the email does not send and an error is shown to the instructors.
    • Ultra Courses: Graded discussion feedback disappears after a second instructor saves feedback
      • When one instructor adds and saves feedback on a discussion board, then a second instructor saves additional feedback, the feedback from the first instructor disappears.
    • Ultra Courses: Group attempts fail to load when accessed through grid view
      • When an instructor attempts to access a group’s assignment submission from the grid view of the gradebook, the attempts fail to load.
    • Ultra Courses: Matching question answers cannot be changed after an attempt has been made
      • When an instructor creates a Matching question, and an attempt is already associated with the question, the instructor cannot make any additional changes to the answer pairs.
    • Ultra Courses: Message tool displays combined parent course name instead of individual child section name
      • When a student selects Messages from the Ultra Base Navigation menu, on any combined courses listed, the student will see the combined course name instead of their individual section.
    • Ultra Courses: Test or Assignment made unavailable during in-progress attempts will stop saving without warning the student
      • When a test or assignment is made unavailable, either manually or due to availability restrictions, and there are attempts in-progress, the in-progress attempts will stop saving the answer(s) entered by the student(s) with no indication to the student. When the student finishes the test, all questions answered after the test is made unavailable will not be saved at all.

July 4, 2024

  • Ultra Courses:
    • Accessing Feedback for Students: Students will now be able to view feedback from instructors easier, without needing as many clicks to view the feedback. When viewing their grade, feedback will be available once the grade panel is opened on the right side, without needing to go directly to the assignment.
    • Printing Answer Keys: In June, instructors were able to print a paper version of their test from Blackboard. Now, instructors can also print a paper answer key to their test for any assessment.
    • Printing Test Improvements: Improvements were made to the printed versions of tests from Blackboard. These improvements include not splitting questions, answer sets, lists, or tables across pages, and images will be printed on the same page as the respective questions for the image.
    • Send Email when Scheduling Announcements: Instructors can now choose to schedule an announcement for a future date, while also selecting the option to send the announcement as an email. The email will be sent the same date and time the announcement is scheduled to be posted.
    • Needs Grading Improvements: Improvements were made for assessments that allow for multiple attempts. Now, an instructor will see which attempt(s) need to be graded when looking at the Submissions page.
    • Recording Audio/Video Feedback: Instructors can now add audio and/or video feedback for students when grading tests by question, instead of on the assessment overall.
    • Flexible Grading Improvements: Updates have been made to how students will be listed on the Students and Questions panel when grading an assignment or test, including only counting attempts that need to be graded and not attempts that will not count towards the student’s grade.
    • Group Submission Page Improvements: Improvements were made to the group submission page to address page performance and reduce loading times.
  • Resolved Known Issues:
    • Ultra Base Navigation: Course filters not remaining in different browsers or devices
      • When setting a default filter on one browser or device, the filter will not stick across all devices or browsers.
    • Ultra Courses: Attachment links in messages are sent as an un-clickable token
      • When an instructor sends a message with an attachment, the attachment link is broken in the received message and cannot be clicked on.
    • Ultra Courses: Changing due date time from AM to PM causes due date to change
      • When changing the time an assignment is due from AM to PM, the due date changes to one day previous to the actual date.
    • Ultra Courses: Copied content from Original with Adaptive Release does not work
      • When content from Original courses that have Adaptive Release rules are copied into Ultra Courses, the Adaptive Release dates do not work, as they cannot be edited with Release Conditions.
    • Ultra Courses: Discussion board input area does not expand on Google Chrome
      • When editing or responding to a discussion board when using Google Chrome, the discussion input area does not expand.
    • Ultra Courses: Grading journals from submission page causes an error
      • When grading a Journal by opening a student’s submission page, an error appears and they cannot grade the Journal.
    • Ultra Courses: Using the Batch Edit menu may cause an Oops error message
      • When using the Batch Edit menu to update dates for items and clicking Save, the changes may not save and an “Oops” message may appear.

June 6, 2024

  • Courses page navigation: New updates to the Courses page have been released, including the removal of the terms from the top of the page and adding a term filter instead; courses are labeled by term on the page when no filters are selected; once a filter has been selected, the filter will stick for the next time you log in, including search terms, and removing the “Upcoming” term unless there are courses for that term.
  • Ultra Courses:
    • Printing tests: Instructors can now print a test created on Blackboard. Currently, this will only print test questions that are created inside the test, not linked questions or questions that are from a question pool.
    • Streamlined editing of point value for questions: When editing the points a question is worth, there are now less clicks needed to update the point value for an individual question.
    • Return questions to an unanswered state: Students can now revert a true/false question back to an unanswered state and clear their selected answer.
    • Post immediately for announcements: Instructors can now choose whether to post an announcement immediately when creating, or save the announcement as a draft. Previously, instructors would need to save the announcement, then click post for it to be visible to students.
    • Prevent auto-assigning members in self-enroll groups: When instructors create self-enroll groups and the self-enrollment period has ended, they can now disable the feature to automatically have Blackboard assign remaining students to groups. This allows for better control of the group membership at the instructor level.
    • Group member list available within a selected group: Instructors can now see who is part of a specific group while that group page is open. When clicking the “Show Members” option from the groups page, it will open the Group roster within the group space.
    • Grade by question filtering: When grading a test or assignment by question, instructors can now choose whether to see all answers, graded answers, or answers that still need to be graded. This functionality is similar to the grade by student filtering.
    • Grade notes for student grades: Instructors can now add private notes for themselves or other Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Graders within their course. These are private to those with grading privileges and not shown to the students. These notes are saved as part of the student record within the course.
    • Improved visibility of grades and feedback for students: When entering a course with a new grade or feedback, students will now see a circled number next to the Gradebook option on the top menu bar. Once they click on the Gradebook tab, any items with new grades or feedback will be moved to the top of their view, as well as an indicator to the left of the item name. Once the item has been reviewed, the indicator will be removed and the item will move to the correct position with the gradebook.
    • Weighted calculation updates: New updates to the weighted calculation feature have been added, including: a % per item label for categories, as well as a 0% per item label if the category is excluded, and an update to the category calculation rule if dropping grades or using only a certain number of grades per category.
  • Mobile App:
    • Updated landing page enhancements: New filters have been added to the Courses, Organizations, and Grades pages on the mobile app. These filters are similar to the features on the web version of Blackboard and will be listed when viewing the respective page on the app.
  • Resolved Known Issues:
    • Mobile App/Browser: Some LTI and web links won’t open on mobile app
      • When accessing a course using the mobile app, some LTI items and web links do not open and show an error message.
    • Ultra Courses: Anonymous grading feedback disappears
      • When adding feedback to an anonymous grading test before adding the grade, the feedback text is saved. Once the user logs out and signs back in, the feedback disappears.
    • Ultra Courses: Assignments submitted near the due date and time show error message when accessing the attempt
      • When a user posts an assignment near the due date and time, any file attachments are not saved. When the instructor tries to access the submission attachment, they receive an error message.
    • Ultra Courses: Attachments in emailed announcements are not clickable
      • When an instructor creates and sends an announcement via email and has an attachment included in the email, the attachment cannot be clicked when looking at the email.
    • Ultra Courses: Copied question banks removed alt-text from images in questions
      • When copying a Question Bank from one course to another that contains question images, any alt-text for images in the questions are wiped.
    • Ultra Courses: Granular course copy removes folder and learning module structure
      • When using the granular course copy feature, and copying folders or learning modules that contain tests or content links, the tests and content links are placed on the main content page and are removed from the folder or learning module during the course copy. All other content stays in the correct folder or module.
    • Ultra Courses: Message user interface will not open from gradebook
      • When an instructor is trying to send a message to a student through the gradebook, the message panel will not open.
    • Ultra Courses: Multiple self-enrollment group set blinks when accessing sign-up page
      • When a student goes to the self-enrollment group page to sign up for a group, the group names blink repeatedly and lead to a non-responsive page.
    • Ultra Courses: Rubric scores don’t save on first save attempt
      • When grading an assignment using a rubric, sometimes the selected criteria is not saved and appears empty.
    • Ultra Courses: Students cannot insert tables correctly in essay questions on the first try
      • When students insert a table into an essay question, the table will not be inserted, and blank spaces are created.
    • Ultra Courses: Unsaved text disappears when switching browser size
      • When creating a document, any unsaved text entered into the document will disappear if the user switches the browser window from small to large or vice versa while editing the document.

May 2, 2024

  • Ultra Courses:
    • Multiple performance criteria for release conditions: Instructors can now set multiple performance criteria (criteria based on grades for a specific item) when creating release conditions for new content in their courses.
    • Updates to Forms: Instructors now have access to the “Reuse Question” option when creating Forms. Additionally, forms can now be assigned to a group with multiple attempts for submission.
    • Question feedback when grading tests by question: Instructors can now add feedback to individual questions when they are on the “Grade by Question” screen when grading a test. Students will see the feedback on their Feedback panel when viewing the grade for the test.
    • Gradebook updates: For smoother navigation, Instructors will now see the options for “Gradable Items”, “Grades”, and “Students” when viewing the gradebook instead of the icons. Additionally, once an option is selected, the gradebook will remember the view you used the last time you viewed the gradebook.
    • Weighted Calculation Improvements: Instructors can now select whether they would like their calculation to be weighted equally or proportionally. The option is based on a calculation level and not on a category level.
  • Original Courses:
    • Course Copy updates: When copying from an Original course to an Ultra course, Instructors may receive an error message if they start the copy process in Original. All copies from Original to Ultra must now be done from the Ultra course.
  • Mobile App:
    • Landing page enhancements: When using the Blackboard Mobile App, users will now see a more streamlined look when viewing their course and organization lists. Other pages on the homepage menu, including Grades and Messages, are now designed in a similar layout.
  • Resolved Known Issues: 
    • Ultra Courses: Downloaded student activity report contains incorrect information
      • When viewing a downloaded Student Activity Report, the data for the Attempt Count column is shown in the Hours to Submission column, and the Attempt Count column is listed as empty.
    • Ultra Courses: Fill in the blank questions are marked incorrect when answer requires semicolon
      • When students require a semicolon as part of their answer to a fill in the blank question, the semicolon is converted to a comma and the answer is marked incorrect.
    • Ultra Courses: Incorrect message displayed when looking at the question analysis
      • When looking at the question analysis tab for the first time, the message displayed shows that it has insufficient data, even though it may have enough and still be processing.
    • Ultra Courses: Moving to another student’s submission in anonymous grading shows incorrect answers
      • When an instructor is grading with anonymous grading turned on, and navigates through the student submissions, the answers do not correspond to the student shown, but instead to the previous student.
    • Ultra Courses: Uploaded questions in tests show extra symbols when downloaded
      • When a file containing a multiple-choice question is uploaded to create a test, and then the results are downloaded after the test is completed, the downloaded file will show extra symbols in each of the answers.

April 4, 2024

  • Calculation changes in grading: When creating calculated columns, previously a calculation might display with .99 instead of as a whole number (i.e. 13.99 instead of 14). This has now been updated so that all calculations will display the accurate whole number on a calculated column.
  • Ultra Courses:
    • Persistent navigation bar for learning modules: When a student is looking at content in a Learning Module, they no longer need to scroll up to see the navigation bar to move to the next or previous item in the learning module.
    • Student feedback remains visible regardless of release conditions: Students will now be able to view their feedback on items regardless of whether the instructor has used release conditions to hide the item or column associated with the feedback.
    • Default question point value changed to 1: When creating a test question, the default point value for each question is now set to 1 instead of 10. Questions copied from other assessments will retain their designated point value.
    • Duplicate questions in tests or question banks: When instructors are creating tests or question banks, they can now duplicate an existing question and make changes to the new version of the question instead of having to recreate the question from scratch.
    • Likert question scale expanded: When creating a Likert scale question, instructors can now choose to have 4 or 6 answer options.
    • Auto-submit indicated added to attempt logs: When an assessment is auto-submitted for a student due to force completion or time running out, the attempt log will now indicate that the submission was auto-submitted. It will also notate if the attempt was submitted manually.
    • Anonymous Discussion posts: Instructors can now choose to make a discussion board anonymous. When submitting their post, users will still need to check the box labeled “Post anonymously”. Anonymous discussion boards cannot be graded.
    • Self-enrollment group improvements: Group sets created as self-enroll groups can now be set to have a maximum number of 1 student per group. Previously, this number was set to 2. Using 1 as the maximum number of students per group allows for a sign-up sheet functionality.
    • Flexible Grading improvements: Improvements to the flexible grading page have been made, including: the attempt selector option is now in a more visible location; only one grade pill is visible on the grading page to prevent grade overrides; creating an override is now a specific option in the grading page; and a more visible submission receipt number for each attempt.
    • Adding question feedback when grading by student: Instructors can now provide specific feedback on all question types when grading assessments.
    • Overall grade added to the gradebook download menu: Instructors can now include the Overall Grade column when downloading their gradebook to Excel.
    • Edit gradebook category for third party tools: Instructors can now change the category for gradebook columns imported from a third party tool.
    • Long Name Visibility: Students with long names would have their names cut off in the Student Activity Report pages. The display of names has now changed so that the entire name is visible when looking at these pages, even on devices with small screens.
    • Individual date adjustment in Batch Edit menu: Instructors can now use the Batch Edit menu to make date adjustments for an individual item.
  • Resolved Known Issues:
    • Original Courses: Ultra navigation page is lost when page is refreshed in Student Preview mode
      • When an instructor is in Student Preview mode and the page is refreshed, the user loses the ability to close the course and return to the Ultra Navigation homepage.
    • Mobile App/Browser: Attached files in Original courses inaccessible on Android devices
      • When using an Android mobile device, either through the browser or Blackboard app, and attempting to open an attached document in an Original course, the document will not open.
    • Mobile App/Browser: HTML Document type does not work on iPad
      • When using an iPad and attempting to use the “Add HTML” feature on an Ultra document, a white screen displays and the user cannot add content.
    • Ultra Courses: Announcements with attached images cannot be edited after course copy
      • When an instructor attaches an image file to an announcement, then copies all course content from one course into another, and makes a change to the announcement with an image, the edits will not save.
    • Ultra Courses: Calculated formula question variable range cannot be set to more than three decimal places
      • When creating a calculated formula question and editing the value range, the input values cannot have more than three decimal places and will round instead.
    • Ultra Courses: Documents are blank when copied in learning modules with force sequence turned on
      • When copying a course with learning modules that have force sequence turned on, any document in the learning module will render as blank.
    • Ultra Courses: Feedback panel shows incorrect grade to student when percentage is shown with feedback
      • When students attempt to view feedback on an assignment that is set to display the grade as percentage, the feedback panel will show a higher percentage than they’ve received, sometimes over 100%.
    • Ultra Courses: Gradable items with long names affect visibility of other items
      • When a gradebook item has a long name of over 100 characters, the gradebook filter will display the full name, making other items not visible.
    • Ultra Courses: Group set import fails when group name is the same as group set name
      • When creating group sets and using the import group function, the import will fail if the group name is the same as the group set name.
    • Ultra Courses: Overall grade column missing from download file when “select all” is used
      • When downloading the gradebook and using the “select all” option on the column selection menu, the Overall Grade column is missing from the downloaded grade file.
    • Ultra Courses: Question Analysis report miscalculates average time spent in assignment
      • If an item is not auto-graded, the Question Analysis Report miscalculates the average time spent in the assignment.
    • Ultra Courses: Screen Reader not reading learner feedback
      • When a user is using a screen reader, the screen reader will not read any feedback entered in the “Feedback to Learner” box when looking at a grade.
    • Ultra Courses: Submission page breaks after self-enrollment group name is changed
      • When an instructor creates self-enrollment groups, assign the groups to assignments, and attempts have been submitted, the submission page will break if the group name is changed after the attempt is submitted.
    • Ultra Courses: Tables created with copied text has spaces that disappear after copying
      • When an instructor creates a table within an Ultra document, copying text from outside of Blackboard clears any text that contains spaces after saving the table.
    • Ultra Courses: Text editor removes some spaces from content copied from Word
      • When copying text from a Word document into Blackboard which contains a list, the copied list will have some spaces missing between words.
    • Ultra Courses: Unable to grade journal when using rubrics
      • When an instructor attaches a rubric to a Journal assignment and attempts to grade the Journal, they will receive an error message or the grading page will not load.

March 7, 2024

  • Ultra Courses:
    • No Due Date option for Assessments: Instructors can now create a test or assignment and select “No Due Date” instead of having to enter a due date.
    • Due Date Updates: The default due date is now set to 11:59pm on the date after the assignment or test was completed. Additionally, if the due date and assessment results settings are in conflict, a banner will appear and prompt the instructor to fix the conflicts.
    • Announcement updates: Users will now see a circled number next to the Announcements option in the top menu to indicate a new, unread announcement. Additionally, users can mark announcements as read or unread.
    • Flexible Grading panels: When grading across multiple login sessions, the flexible grading panel choices (i.e. which panels are open or closed) are now preserved when moving between attempts and across grading sessions.
    • Item Statistics in Gradebook: Instructors can now view item statistics for gradebook columns. Select the column name or the three dots, then select Statistics to view statistics based on the grades assigned for that column.
  • Mobile App:
    • Send messages to students via Student Activity Report: When viewing the Student Activity Report on the mobile app or on a mobile device or small screen, instructors can now send a message to their students.
  • Resolved Known Issues:
    • Edited Fill in the Blank questions cause an error when accessing student attempts in Original Courses
      • When an instructor has edited a “fill in the blank” or “fill in the multiple blank” question, then attempts to access a student attempt, they will receive an error message.
    • Bb Annotate reloads when saving feedback in Ultra Courses
      • When grading assignments and adding feedback to an attempt, Bb Annotate will reload the page 5-6 minutes after the “Save Changes” button was clicked, causing it to look like the feedback was not saved.
    • Grade Calculating using “include all items” option is calculating backwards in Ultra Courses
      • When checking the option “include all items” in a grade calculation, to use a value of 0 for items that have no grades, those items and the respective 0’s are not included in the grade calculation.
    • Grading by question will refresh and go to the top of the list in Ultra Courses
      • When grading an assessment by question, once the instructor sets a score, the page will refresh and go back to the top of the list.
    • Hidden documents copied within force sequence modules make documents visible to students in Ultra Courses
      • When a learning module with force sequence turned on is copied to another course, the visibility of the hidden documents inside the module are set to “Visible to Students”.
    • Overall grade shows different results in grid and list view when grade displayed as letter in Ultra Courses
      • When an instructor has the Overall Grade column set up and set to display as a letter grade, the Overall Grade will display different grades in the list view and grid view.
    • Screen reader not reading discussion boards in Ultra Courses
      • When a user is using a screen reader, the screen reader will skip the “Discussion Topic” entered by the professor and the response text from participants.
    • Virtual classroom setting disappears when student access is turned off in Ultra Courses
      • When an instructor opens the Course Settings menu and turns of “Allow student access” under the Virtual Classroom header, the setting completely disappears and cannot be turned back on.
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