Staff news: This article will contain a summary of useful updates you may see in your Blackboard Ultra courses from Friday 5th December 2025.
Learning Module Table of Contents
Instructors now have access to a collapsible Table of Contents panel in Learning Modules.
This update mirrors the student experience and supports consistent navigation across roles. Instructors can quickly move between module items and access content that isn’t yet available to students—without switching to Student Preview or changing availability settings.
Release Conditions for Opened and Started Items
Blackboard have expanded release conditions to include activity on items including non-assessment content. This enhancement allows conditions to be based on whether a student has opened or started content items such as documents, media, or course links.
Items with release conditions can be hidden from students, or appear with a padlock “locked” icon:
We recommend including clear signposting in item descriptions. This will indicate to the student when items are locked and the prerequisites to unlock them.
Specify Participation Requirements for Discussions
Instructors can now make clear participation requirements to students in marked Discussions. This is the first update in a series of expected improvements for Discussions. Instructors can set requirements on the number of required posts and/or replies for a student to fulfil the requirement.
This update does not affect marking workflows; markers will need to check whether a student has met the minimum participation requirements when marking.
If specifying participation requirements, make clear to students what is expected from them. They may need additional guidance over expected word counts, and the difference between a post and a reply.
