Blackboard Ultra Updates – Future

Contents

Blackboard release monthly features updates. This article will contain a summary of things that are on the horizon.

Please see our new page for the Blackboard Ultra October release notes.

Ultra Documents: Blocks

The estimated release for University of Southampton to start using Ultra Document Blocks (with Embedded Knowledge Checks) is December 2024.

The way you add content to an Ultra document is changing. You will be able to add content as blocks.

Once you have created a block, you will be able to resize and move the content horizontally or vertically on the page. This allows side-by-side display of different blocks.

There will also be undo/redo buttons towards the top of the page, to add greater control when editing content.

Example of an ultra document with blocks. There is an image to the right of a text block, above two columns of text.

Additionally, there will also be new block types called Convert a file and Embedded Knowledge Checks.

Using the convert a file block will allow you to select a file from your computer and Blackboard will take the text and images from the file and add this directly to the Ultra document. Using this new block you can easily edit and re-build teaching content directly in Blackboard.

Block types available in August include:

Content – Add content via the content editor.
HTML – Add content via HTML or CSS in the Document.
File upload – Browse for files on the local machine to upload to the Document.
Cloud upload – Login Microsoft OneDrive and select a file to add into the Document.
Convert a file – Converts a file into the Ultra Document format. Supported file types include PDF, PowerPoint (ppt, pptx, pps), and Word (doc, docx, odt).

Ultra Documents: Knowledge Checks

This block will allow you to add simple interactive questions directly onto the page of Ultra documents.

These knowledge checks are not the same as a Ultra Test. The students can see question feedback and re-take the check at any point. Instructors will be able to see overall metrics but not individual student participation details.

Knowledge checks are a great formative tool to increase student interaction with your content.

Screenshot of student view of an Ultra document with a knowledge check. — Student view of a knowledge check.

Screenshot of Instructor view of Knowledge Check metrics — *Instructor view of Knowledge Check metrics*

What’s next for Ultra documents?

Blackboard are currently developing additional blocks for Ultra documents, suchs as broken link checking and course link blocks.

AI tools and image generation

Course instructors can currently use Unsplash to add stock images to their course conten and Learning Modules. From August you will see an additional option called Generate images, which will allow you to generate images from a prompt using Blackboard AI tools.

Screenshot of the Insert image menu. Under Image Source, three options can be selected from a drop-down menu. These are "Upload from device", "Stock images from Unsp;ash" and "Generate images".

What’s next for AI in Blackboard?

Blackboard offer a variety of AI tools called the AI Design Assistant. These tools are currently being tested and evaluated for use at the University of Southampton. They will be enabled only if it is appropriate for these tools to be used.

Achievements (Badges)

This feature is not yet available at the University of Southampton. Please raise a ServiceLine ticket for the Blackboard team if this is something you might want to use in the future.

Achievements is a new capability for Ultra courses to help keep students motivated and congratulate them for their participation in a course. With Achievements:

Instructors can create course badges and set criteria for students to earn the badges.
Instructors can view which students earned a course badge.
Students can review the requirements to earn a course badge.
Students can view both earned and unearned course badges.

Considerations:

When overall grade or a calculated column is a performance criterion, that calculation itself is not enough to earn the achievement. Students must have scores for all markable items used for the calculation. This requirement prevents a running total issuing a badge before a student completes all tasks.
When a markable item has multiple attempts, it is calculated using one of the following: last attempt, first attempt, highest score, lowest score, or average of all attempts. If you need to change this setting, we recommend doing so before marking submissions. If you change it after marking, calculation updates may not award new achievements to students. If you encounter this issue, you can update student marks again for the item.
An earned achievement isn’t revoked if an instructor changes a student’s marks.
Custom badge images aren’t currently supported.
Student preview isn’t currently supported.
Once an achievement is published, it can’t be changed. If there is a configuration error, delete the achievement and create it again.
Achievements from Original course view do not convert when copying or importing a course.
Achievements can’t be copied from one Ultra course to another. We plan to support this in a future release.

Goals and Mastery Learning

This feature is not yet available at the University of Southampton. Please raise a ServiceLine ticket for the Blackboard team if this is something you might want to use in the future.

The Mastery tab in the Gradebook allows instructors and students to see how their activities align with institutional goals. Based on the goal performance scale set by your institution, the tab displays the mastery of each alignment.

The Mastery tab enables instructors to:

View the level of mastery per alignment for each student.
View how each student is performing against those alignments.

Screenshot of the Ultra Mastery tab in the Gradebook.