Author: WordPress User [jbw]

Update to Blackboard Gradebook August 2026

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Monthly Update, Technical Updates Leave a comment

In just over a week’s time, the August Blackboard update will be released. This includes an overhaul of the Gradebook. Please see below for further information.

The monthly August Blackboard release has a new user interface for the Gradebook.

Given the nature of this update, we have a separate blogpost dedicated to it.

If you have any questions about the updated Gradebook or grading, please contact the Digital Education Team (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Every course has the Gradebook, which is used to manage all aspects of the administration of marks. It can be accessed via the top menu of Blackboard courses.

As part of this update, the following processes are not changing:

  • Grades, calculations, and overall grade configuration
  • Grade schemas and grading settings
  • Course-level accommodations
  • The List View
  • All existing grades and submission history

The component marks transfer process also remains unchanged.

Change 1: Default view

The default view of the Gradebook is now the grid view

You can swap between the grid view and the list view by clicking between the views:

Blackboard Gradebook screen

Change 2: To do list

The Gradebook Overview is now called the To Do List which is available in grid and list views:

To do list highlighted

From here, you can see what work there is to mark and post:

screenshot of the to do menu item which is showing needs marking and needs posting options

A reminder that marks need to be posted in order to be included in the marks transfer.

Change 3: Entering Grades

The ways to enter grades into columns has changed.

Click on the pencil icon to change and enter the grade:

screenshot of the grading icon

You can then post the marks from this screen by clicking on the post icon:

screenshot of the marks posting icon

You can also leave feedback from this view by clicking on the mark

screenshot of adding feedback item highlighted

If you want to mark and leave feedback on all Blackboard marked items, click on this icon:

screenshot of all items highlighted

This will then open the assignment mark screen.

Change 4: Updating and editing columns

Editing columns now take place via the list view.

screenshot of how to edit a column being the list view

Change 5: Filtering by merged module

It is possible to filter the gradebook using Merged Modules so that you only see the information for students on the relevant modules.

Click the filter button highlighted below and choose from the dropdown for merged courses:

settings cog highlighted

Change 6: File upload and download gradebook

The functionality for downloading and uploading to the gradebook has moved.

Click on the settings cog:

Settings cog highlighted

Choose Download marks or Upload marks depending on what you want to do.

Change 7: Checking the visibility of a column

The visibility status of columns can no longer be seen in the grid view.

To check the visibility of the column, navigate to the list view:

list view showing line through a column

You can amend the visibility of the column by clicking on the ….

We are now working to update our guidance to reflect the changes in the Gradebook.

If you need any further information or have any questions, please contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.

14th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference: Speaker Announcement: Professor Ruth Healey and Millie Leach

WordPress User [jbw] Annual Education and Student Experience Conference 2026, Conference Leave a comment

We previously announced our keynote speaker at this year’s Annual Education and Student Experience Conference: Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra.

We’re now delighted to announce our second external speakers: Professor Ruth Healey and Millie Leach.

They’ll be joining us on Day 1 of the conference with the session: From tokenistic to authentic: meaningful co-creation with students.

Please see below for their biographies:

Ruth Healey is a Professor of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, at the University of Chester.  She is a National Teaching Fellow (NTF) (2017); a Fellow of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) (2019), a Senior Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) (2024), and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) (2026). She is one of the inaugural editors of the International Journal for Students as Partners (2016-).

Millie Leach is an undergraduate BSc Cybersecurity student at the University of Chester, working alongside her degree as a Student Learning Consultant for the university’s Centre for Academic Innovation and Development. She is a recipient of Staff and Educational Development Association’s (SEDA) ‘Student Partnership Impact Award’ (2025) and recently become an editor of the International Journal for Students as Partners (2025-).

Our conference programme is now available on our webpages.

You can book your place online.

14th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference: Programme Announced

WordPress User [jbw] Annual Education and Student Experience Conference 2026, Conference, Uncategorised Leave a comment

We’re delighted to announce the programme for our 14th Education and Student Experience Conference taking place between 8 and 10 September 2026.

You can book your place online.

Tuesday 8 September will be online. Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 September will be in person.

See our webpages for the full programme.

Our keynote will be delivered by Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra who is Head of Educational Development at De Montfort University.

Dr Kaur Basra has led the Decolonising DMU project. This keynote and workshop will build on our own Race Equality Charter work. This session will be complemented by colleagues engaged in decolonising the curriculum at Aberystwyth.

We’re welcoming Professor Ruth Healey from Chester University who is an expert on students as co-creators.

UndebAber will be delivering a session on skills alongside WONKHE’s Jim Dickinson.

Colleagues from Blackboard will be joining us to highlight new accessibility initiatives with Blackboard Ally and roadmaps of new features. We’ll be presenting with the Department of Life Sciences on using achievements to record skills.

Recipients of the inaugural Education and Student Experience Awards will provide updates on their 4 projects and we’ll be launching the 2nd year of this initiative at the conference.

There are workshops and presentations across the 3 days – thank you to our colleagues and students who are contributing.

We hope to see you there and we’re looking forward to what promises to be an amazing event.

Course Creation 2026-27

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Technical Updates, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment

All courses for 2026-27 have been created and are available to staff in Blackboard. 

All AU Blackboard course sites use an agreed template with areas for core information along with agreed content for university-level policies.

The course template is agreed by the Quality and Standards Committee annually. Module Coordinators have responsibility for the organisation of materials in their courses. Staff should not delete template content.  

Consult the Required Minimum Presence for what should be included in the course.  

If you need any assistance with Blackboard courses, see Staff Blackboard Guide.

Once courses have been created, we will run a weekly feed between the Module Management System and Blackboard to reflect any updates or changes.  

Students won’t come onto courses until registration has been completed in September.   

Keynote Announcement: 14th Education and Student Experience Conference: Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra

WordPress User [jbw] Annual Education and Student Experience Conference 2026, Conference, Uncategorised Leave a comment

We are delighted to announce our keynote for our forthcoming Education and Student Experience Conference (8-10 September).

Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra will be joining us in person for a keynote presentation and a workshop.

We will get so much valuable input from Dr Basra that will really help us to enhance our education and student experience offering as well as build on the incredible work of the Race Equality Charter.

See below for Dr Basra’s biography.

Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra (PFHEA, NTF, CATE) is an Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning and Inclusive Education Lead at De Montfort University. With over two decades of experience in higher education, she is a nationally recognised leader in inclusive, anti-racist and decolonising pedagogies. Her work spans institutional strategy, curriculum transformation and academic development, with a sustained focus on improving student outcomes, belonging and equity.

Hardeep has led major institution-wide initiatives, including advancing inclusive curricula, addressing awarding gaps and shaping Access and Participation strategies. She has played a key role in sector-leading work such as Decolonising DMU, contributing to Race Equality Charter success, and designs impactful staff development programmes including the PG Cert in Empowering Education.

As a Principal Fellow of Advance HE, National Teaching Fellow and CATE award holder, she contributes to national conversations on equity, excellence and transformational change in higher education.

Our call for proposals is currently open – with submissions closing on 22 May.

Alongside this, we’ve got our second year of Education and Student Experience Awards.

Booking is also open.

We’ll be releasing further information about the event in due course.

AI Prompt Library

WordPress User [jbw] Generative AI Leave a comment

Library Academic and Digital Services have produced an AI Prompt Library.

These prompts give you some ideas about how you might want to use Generative AI in ethical and responsible ways.

Of course, there is no expectation that you do use AI – please see our recent blogpost on What if I don’t want to use AI?

Our guidance is split into the following sections:

  1. Advice for prompt design with Generative AI
  2. Prompt Library for Students and Subject Librarians
  3. Prompt Library for Staff
  4. Prompt Library for Researchers

If you use a prompt in your studies or work that you would like to share, please contact us on librarians@aber.ac.uk.  We’d love to include it in our AI Prompt Library.

Mini Conference: Neurodiversity – Materials Available

WordPress User [jbw] Conference, Mini Conference: Neurodiversity Network Conference Leave a comment

On Tuesday 14 April, Student Journey and the Department of Psychology hosted their biggest mini conference yet!

We welcomed nearly 100 attendees from across the University for an inspirational day of talks and workshops.

The mini conference examined neurodiversity. The morning started with presentations from 5 speakers.

PowerPoints and recordings from the presentations are available on our webpages.

In the afternoon, attendees had the option to attend 5 workshops.

This mini conference was funded by the Vice Chancellor’s Office.

Some photos from the event are below.

Our call for proposals and booking form is now live for our 14th Education and Student Experience Conference (8-10 September). We hope to see you there.

Course Creation 2026-27

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Technical Updates, Ultra Leave a comment
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As we start to move to the assignment period for semester 2, we start to look at creating courses ready for 2026-27.

We will create courses for 2026-27 on Monday 3 June 2026.

The courses will be available to staff as soon as we create them.

Students will not be enrolled on the courses until they complete registration in September.

As with previous years, there will be one standard template for all courses at Aberystwyth. The language of the template depends on the language of delivery in AStRA. If the course is delivered 100% through the medium of Welsh, then a Welsh template will be used. For 1-99% through the medium of Welsh, a bilingual template will be used. If the course is registered to be delivered 0% through the medium of Welsh, then an English template is used.

Our Blackboard Required Minimum Presence, E-submission, and Lecture Capture policies are in the stages of being finalised.

We will communicate these in due course.

If you have any questions about course creation, please don’t hesitate to contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.