Staff news: This article will contain a summary of useful updates you may see in your Blackboard Ultra courses from Friday 8th August 2025.
Block Styling for Documents
Attend our Making the most of Blackboard Documents staff development session. Sign up for sessions via the Blackboard Ultra SharePoint.
Add block styling to your Blackboard Ultra Documents. The styling options feature both colour and icons. The style options include:
- Question (blue border with a question mark icon)
- Tip (yellow border with a lightbulb icon)
- Key points (Purple border with a pin icon)
- Next steps (Green border with an arrow icon)
- Highlight (Light blue shading with darker blue border, no icon).
Instructors can select styling options from a dropdown menu that appears in Edit mode on all block types.
Each style will add a colour border and an icon to the block. Blocks can be resized as usual. Selecting “Reset styling” will remove the block styling but will not delete any of your block content.
Block styling is a way of adding visual appeal to your documents, but you should not rely on the block style to convey meaning. Add headings, context and signposting to your Documents to guide students through your Blackboard course.
Student view: Table of Contents for Learning Modules
Use Student Preview to preview your Learning Modules and Blackboard Documents. Use a smaller browser window to see how your documents dynamically resize for smaller screens.
Students will now see a collapsible Table of Contents when they view content in Learning Modules. This update improves navigation, orientation, and Progress Tracking.
- The panel can be collapsed with the arrow button at the top of the Table of Contents.
- The table of contents allows for easy navigation between items included in the Learning Module.
- Manual or automatic item completion tracking from within the Learning Module (if Progress Tracking is enabled on the course).
- Next and Previous are buttons moved closer together at the top of the page for an improved experience.
- The Assessments pages within Learning Modules now appear as a full-sized panel.
Forced sequence in Learning Module: When sequencing is enforced, students must use the Next and Previous buttons to move through content in order. Students can’t jump ahead using the table of contents unless they have already completed the item they are navigating to. Skipping ahead without completing a Learning Module item is disabled in this mode.
Increased accessibility in the student Gradebook and student Overview page
The student Gradebook and Overview pages have been updated to use a semantic HTML table structure. This change replaces the previous layout, which relied on stacked <div> elements. The new structure improves screen reader support and keyboard navigation.