Blackboard Ultra Updates – Future

Contents

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

Provide answer-level feedback for multiple choice and multiple answer questions

You can now add feedback for each answer option in multiple choice and multiple answer questions. This helps students understand why each choice is correct or incorrect after an attempt is submitted.

For answer-level feedback to display for students, enable Show correct answers in the Assessment results section of Assessment Settings.

Lock answer options in a fixed position for multiple choice and multiple answer questions

You can now lock specific answer options in a fixed position so they remain in place when other options are randomized. This is useful for answer choices such as “None of the above” or “All of the above” that should always appear at the end of the list regardless of randomization settings.

New Groups Management Experience (expected before August 2026)

Groups management has been reimagined from the ground up with a cleaner layout and more intuitive controls.

Automatic enrollment with clearer controls
More flexible ways to assign students
Sorting for group members and groups

You can now start by choosing how they want to structure groups—before managing individual members. The options include:

manual assignment
automatic assignment
self‑enrollment
import

The Groups page showing two existing groups (Festival Planning and Final Presentations). The New group set button is selected, opening a dropdown menu. The options on the dropdown menu are Manually assign, Automatically Assign, Self-enroll, and Import from CSV. The dropdown menu is highlighted with a blue box, highlighting it in the screenshot.

You can automatically assign students to groups by specifying the number of members per group.

A new group set is being created called Exam Study Groups. The option for automatic enrollment has been selected, which opens a dialog box called Automatic enrollment. With instructions saying This will randomly assign students to groups, the required number field is labeled Number of members per group. The number 4 has been entered in the number field. Below the number field is text saying This will create 3 group. At the bottom corner of the dialog box, the buttons Enroll members or Cancel appear.

Upcoming improvements
– Search within the group management screen
– Drag‑and‑drop assignment of students to groups
– Ability to create groups in bulk
– Improved sorting order when numbers are used as part of group name
– Improved handling of preview and unavailable students

Automations: Send messages to students based on rules

Instructors can soon create automations that send congratulatory or supportive messages to students based on custom rules set at the course level. Instructors define the score thresholds and write the messages. These automations help instructors deliver timely, personalized feedback throughout the course, boosting student engagement and saving time.

In the initial release, three automations are available. Instructors choose to either Send congratulatory message or Send supportive message, or reminder to students to review feedback. Congratulatory messages are sent when a student earns a high score; supportive messages are sent when a student does not achieve a specified score. Instructors select the grade item, set the score threshold as a percentage, and enter the message text.

Image 1: In the Automation trigger section, instructors set the conditions that will trigger the message to be sent.

Automation trigger page. User is setting the condition triggers.

Image 2: In the Action to be taken section, the instructor writes the message that will be sent to students when the rule is triggered.

Learning Object Repository

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 Learning Object Repository is a central location to store course materials in Ultra Documents. These documents can then be centrally updated from a single location, but appear on multiple courses.

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.

Considerations:

Goals cannot be created by a course Instructor. These must be set up by an administrator.
The Goal Performance Scale must also be created by an administrator, and is the scale used for all goals.
Gradebook columns cannot be expanded so it is difficult to view the full name and description of a goal.

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