Staff and students can now use the Pronunciation section of the Blackboard Profile page to record their name. They can also select the pronouns they use. For further information, see our FAQ.
Name pronunciation and pronouns available in Blackboard
Category: Blackboard
Welcome new staff joining Aberystwyth University, 2025-26
A warm welcome to new staff joining Aberystwyth University.
In this blogpost we aim to provide you with information related to technology in learning and teaching, our training provision, support channels, and events that we run.
All the information that you need is on our webpages.
We write a blog full of the latest updates, details on events and training sessions, and resources.
If you need to get in touch with us, you can do so using elearning@aber.ac.uk.
Introduction to E-learning Tools
Virtual Learning Environment: Blackboard
Each module has its own dedicated course in Blackboard. Students can expect to find information about the module, learning materials, and e-submission guidance, as well as links to reading lists and lecture capture.
The University has a Blackboard Required Minimum Presence policy for all modules.
Please see our staff guide for further information.
Lecture Capture: Panopto
When teaching in person, be aware that all lectures (that is, teaching where the focus is on information being transmitted from staff to students) should be recorded using Panopto, our Lecture Capture software.
See details of our Lecture Capture Policy.
E-submission: Turnitin and Blackboard Assignment
At Aberystwyth University, students must submit all text-based and word-processed work electronically as outlined in the University’s E-submission policy.
For this, we use our e-submission tools: Turnitin and Blackboard Assignment. Turnitin provides an automatic text matching functionality. We use Blackboard Tests to run online exams.
Polling tool: Vevox
Vevox is Aberystwyth University’s polling tool.
Polling can be used in learning and teaching activities as well as meetings to make the session interactive and collaborative with many different possibilities for use.
Resources and further help
We have a number of Guides and FAQs to help you use our software.
Training Provision
To support all staff with their teaching, we run a series of training sessions across the following strands:
- E-learning Essentials: designed for colleagues new to the university, teaching, or who would like to get a refresher. The aim of these sessions is to ensure that colleagues can meet the university’s digital learning and teaching policies.
- E-learning Enhanced: designed to build on the skills gained in our e-learning essentials series, colleagues will create an activity or assessment unique to their learning and teaching contexts.
- E-learning Excellence: designed to offer colleagues the opportunity to create exemplary learning and teaching opportunities – often unique and sector leading.
You can find details of our annual CPD programme and book your place to attend via Book a Course page.
Events
We run a range of events, including the Annual Learning and Teaching Conference and Mini-Conferences
All of these are great opportunities to meet people from across the university and discuss Learning and Teaching issues and developments.
We look forward to seeing you at a forthcoming event. In the meantime, feel free to get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk if you have any questions.
Blackboard Ally
Blackboard Ally continues to be a popular part of Blackboard with more staff and students making use of it during academic year 2024-25.
The number of downloads into alternative format more than doubled last year –over 62,000 documents were downloaded into alternative formats. And over 4000 users used this option.
Staff also made more use of the tools to fix accessibility issues in their courses – over 800 files were fixed last year (compared to 295 in 2024-25).
For the first time this year, the Blackboard Required Minimum Presence states that all Blackboard courses should have an Ally score of 70%. If you want to check your Ally score have a look at our blog post. You can also a book a place on one of the E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Blackboard Ally training courses in September.
What’s new in Blackboard August 2025
In the August update, we want to draw your attention to the table of contents feature being added to Learning Modules.
In addition to this, there are enhancements to documents with block styling options, and increased accessibility across student gradebook and student overview pages.
New: Adding Table of Contents to Learning Modules for students
We’ve redesigned the Learning Module experience for students by adding a collapsible Table of Contents. This update improves navigation, orientation, and progress tracking.
As part of this improvement, assessments now open in a full panel instead of a smaller panel.
Students now have a simplified way to navigate and track progress in Learning Modules. Updates include:
- A table of contents for the items in a Learning Module. Select Contents to open and collapse the table of contents
Image 1: Learning Modules now contain a Table of Contents panel to orient students within Learning Modules for their courses. The panel can be collapsed with the arrow button at the top of the Table of Contents.
- Easy navigation between items
- Manual or automatic item completion tracking from within the Learning Module
- Next and Previous buttons moved closer together at the top of the page for an improved experience.
Image 2: The navigation buttons Previous and Next now appear closer to each other in the user interface within Learning Modules to give an improved user experience.
Assessments within Learning Modules. Assessments now open in a full panel, providing a consistent and distraction-free experience.
Image 3: The Assessments pages within Learning Modules now appear as a full-sized panel.
Forced sequence in Learning Modules. 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.
Enhance Documents with block styling options
We added block styling to Documents, giving instructors new ways to enhance visual appeal and guide student attention. The styling options feature both color and icons. The style options include:
- Question
- Tip
- Key points
- Next steps
- Highlight
Image 1. Instructors can select styling options from a dropdown menu that appears in Edit mode on all block types.
Our forthcoming training session E-learning Enhanced: Become a Document Pro will explore this and other document functionality to help colleagues create dynamic content. You can book your place online.
Increased accessibility in the student gradebook
To improve accessibility, we updated the student Gradebook 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.
Increased accessibility in the student overview page
To improve accessibility, we updated the student Overview page 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.
If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk.
What’s new in Blackboard July 2025
In the July update, we are particularly excited about an improvement to mathematical notation with MathJax and a way to measure student engagement with Blackboard Announcements.
There are enhancements to navigation in Group Assignments, adding captions to images in documents, and enhancing instructor efficiency in the activity page.
Update: Render mathematical formulas with MathJax
We are delighted to see this enhancement, which is something that we have been asking for since our move to Blackboard Ultra.
Blackboard have enhanced the formula rendering experience in the Content Editor by implementing MathJax, a tool for displaying mathematical notation:
This update improves the visual accuracy and consistency of LaTeX-based formulas, aligning them more closely with scientific and academic standards.
MathJax offers a more precise rendering style preferred by many STEM instructors. When activated, MathJax will automatically render LaTeX code entered directly in the Content Editor across supported areas of Blackboard. Wiris is still available as the default to render formulas for the Content Editor. If MathJax is not activated, Wiris will render formulas.
Further information is available on the updated help page: Math Editor.
Enhancement to monitoring announcements
Instructors can now verify which students have marked an announcement as viewed. By selecting the viewer count on the main Announcements page, instructors can open a list showing who has and hasn’t acknowledged the message. From this list, instructors can send a message to follow up with students who haven’t viewed the announcement or confirm that key information was received. This helps instructors understand how effectively their announcements are reaching students.
Image 1. Each announcement comes with a Viewers column on the Announcements page.
Image 2. The list of viewers for an announcement shows that two students have read the announcement and one hasn’t.
Navigate with previous and next functionality in Group Submissions
Blackboard Assignment offers a Group Submission function. This allows for one member of the group to submit on behalf of the students in their group. For markers, this means marking one submission, with marks and feedback allocated to all members of the group.
In this month’s update, Blackboard have made reviewing and grading group submissions more efficient with the addition of Previous and Next navigation controls. Instructors can efficiently move between group submissions using header bar controls, creating a smoother grading experience with fewer clicks.
Instructors can now navigate between group submissions without needing to return to the submission list. The Previous and Next buttons appear in the header bar:
Add captions to images uploaded to Documents
Instructors can now add captions above or below image blocks in Documents.
Image 1. Instructors can go to Edit File Options to add image captions and set positions.
Image 2. The image caption appears above the image and provides more context.
Note that to use this feature, you need to upload the content as an image in the document editor.
Change to Activity Stream for Instructors
The Activity Stream for instructors has changed to include courses, announcements, and activity updates in one place.
New features on the Activity page:
- Course Section: The updated Activity page now includes a course section that outlines new activity in current, open courses since an instructor last logged into Blackboard.
Shortcuts: New shortcuts have been added to enhance instructor efficiency.
- Go to items that need grading
- Find courses with new messages
- Access the Course Activity report directly to review students with alerts
Announcements: Read important institutional announcements.
Image 1. The new Activity page has sections for announcements, courses, and the activity stream.
If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk.
E-learning Training Series: Semester 1, 2025-26
We are delighted to announce our training series for the forthcoming semester.
All training can be booked online using your Aberystwyth username and password. Our training booking system is now automated, so you will receive your calendar invitation within an hour into your calendar. Please join these sessions from your Outlook calendar.
If you have any questions, please contact us: elearning@aber.ac.uk.
As usual, our training sessions are grouped into 3 series:
- E-learning Essentials: designed for colleagues new to the university, teaching, or who would like to get a refresher. The aim of these sessions is to ensure that colleagues can meet the university’s digital learning and teaching policies.
- E-learning Enhanced: designed to build on the skills gained in our e-learning essentials series, colleagues will create an activity or assessment unique to their learning and teaching contexts.
- E-learning Excellence: designed to offer colleagues the opportunity to create exemplary learning and teaching opportunities – often unique and sector leading.
In addition to the usual offerings, we also wanted to highlight the new sessions that we have introduced for 2025-26:
New sessions for 2025
E-learning Essentials
Using Microsoft Co-pilot for Learning and Teaching Activities
This session will introduce colleagues to Generative AI and offer the opportunity to think about ways in which you can incorporate Generative AI into your learning and teaching practice.
You can book your place on all the other sessions in this E-learning Essentials series via this link.
A reminder that all Essentials sessions are strongly recommended for any new members of staff in your department.
E-learning Enhanced
Become a Blackboard Document Pro
Blackboard Documents have had a complete overhaul in Ultra. This 30-minute pro session gives an overview of the new features and allows you to give it a go in your course.
Blackboard Interactive Tools
We’ve combined our Discussions and Journals session into one. We’ll go through activity design for our interactive tools to help maximise student engagement.
Measuring and Increasing student engagement using Blackboard Tools
We will look at the analytical tools available in your Blackboard course to help monitor student engagement. We’ll use this to tailor messaging as well as creating other activities such as knowledge checks and learning module progression to help keep your students engaged with their learning.
Peer Assessment with Turnitin
One of the features of Turnitin is PeerMark which allows you to create peer assessment opportunities for your students. This is great to allow students to provide formative feedback on each other’s work.
Using the advanced features of Panopto
Want to spruce up your recordings? This session will showcase different ways in which you can use Panopto: from inserting quizzes mid recording, to give students the opportunity to get creative and use Panopto themselves. This session is great for those adopting a flipped classroom approach or who want to make use of Panopto beyond Lecture Capture.
Other sessions include the Blackboard AI Design Assistant and Advanced Vevox polling software design.
You can book your place on all the other sessions in this E-learning Enhanced series via this link.
E-learning Excellence
We’ve designed 4 new workshops for colleagues based on the 4 areas of the Exemplary Course Award. Looking at each aspect, colleagues will reflect on how their own courses can be developed.
The 4 sessions are:
Exemplary Course Design
Exemplary Assessment Design
Exemplary Interaction and Collaboration
Exemplary Learner Support
You can book your place on all the other sessions in this E-learning Excellence series via this link. Other sessions include Submitting an Exemplary Course Award.
If there are any other training topics that you’d like us to consider for Semester 2, please contact us.
Learning Object Repository Policy
In April, Blackboard introduced the Learning Object Repository [LOR] – we wrote about this in our monthly update blog. We also recently added Generative AI Assessment statements into the Repository for staff to use.
We have now written an LOR Policy for colleagues who are interested in adding content to the Repository for others to use.
The LOR allows us to create items centrally for colleagues to copy into their courses and organisations. LOR items can be updated, applying changes to content items across all courses and organisations. For more information, see the Blackboard help site.
The LOR is ideal for standardised content that is required across many courses. For example:
- Standard items to be included in courses
- Policies
- Support information
- Generative AI statements
- Skills guidance and support
If you have any questions about the LOR or the new Policy, please contact us (elearning@aber.ac.uk).
Merging Courses 2025-26
Now that the 2025-26 modules are available to teaching staff, we can link them together at the module co-ordinator’s request. This process is called merging courses (previously known as parent-childing) and works with courses in Blackboard Ultra. Linking courses together is an effective way of dealing with separate courses with the same content so you don’t have to upload materials to two or more different courses.
This process makes one course the Primary (previously parent), whilst the other course(s) becomes Secondary (previously child). There’s no limit on how many secondary courses you can make but there can only be one primary.
If you’d like to merge any courses, we invite module coordinators to contact elearning@aber.ac.uk
indicating the module codes for the primary and every secondary course in the following format:
Primary module code: secondary module code/s
Examples from Aberystwyth
Many members of staff are currently using the merge course facility across the institution. Some examples are:
- Modules are taught the same content but there’s a module available for different years.
- Modules that bring together different degree schemes and have different module IDs, e.g. dissertation modules.
Essentially, any module/course that shares the same content is ideal for Merging courses.
What do students see?
Students will see the name of the course that they are enrolled on (even if it’s the secondary course) when they log into Blackboard but they will see all the content placed in the primary course. Instructors will not be able to place content in the secondary course.
Things to consider
Now, before the start of term and whilst course content is being built, is the perfect time for linking your courses. Whilst the linking of courses does save time in the loading of materials, here are some points to consider:
- All content can be viewed as soon as the courses are merged (as long as students are enrolled on the course). In addition to PowerPoints and lecture materials, this also includes Announcements and other interactive tools on your primary course.
- Historical student interactions on a secondary course (such as using blogs or posting in discussion boards) won’t be available once the courses have been merged.
- Any submission points created on a secondary module before the merge takes place will no longer be able to be viewed. We would advise creating these again in the primary course.
How do I control content so that it is only viewable to a module cohort?
Whilst all content is automatically visible once the courses are merged, you can use groups and adaptive release if you only want the content to be visible to a specific module cohort. This might be useful, for example, if you have merged a 2nd year and 3rd year course but your students on the different courses have separate assignments. You can use groups – 1 for the 2nd year students and one for 3rd year students and limit who can see the assignment information and submission point. See our guidance on Creating Groups and Release Conditions (previously ‘adaptive relesease’ in Blackboard Original).
Merging Courses and the Grade Book
Once the merging takes place, all students will appear in the Grade Book of the primary course. You can, however, determine whether they are enrolled on the parent course as this information displays against the student in the Grade Book columns.
If you’d like further information on this process or have any questions, please contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.
Generative AI guidance and advice: Update
Library and Learning Services, Academic Registry, and UndebAber are collaborating on Generative AI guidance and advice.
Following approval at the recent Education and Student Experience Committee, we are pleased to share these resources with you ready for next academic year.
This statement outlines the principles and approach that AU intends to use for Generative AI across all its operations.
This document provides guidance and advice to students on how they might want to use Generative AI as a study tool. This document uses a traffic light system approach to alert students to the amount of caution they might want to apply in its use.
A statement has been added to the Blackboard course template for 2025-26 Courses providing advice and guidance for students on acceptable use of Generative AI and where to get support and help.
You can copy Generative AI assessment statements into your Blackboard course to communicate to students the acceptable use of Generative AI on the assessment. See our blogpost for further information on how to do this.
Designed by the Department of Law and Criminology, and already being used by some departments, this amended Tool Use statement allows students to outline how they have used Generative AI in their assessments. Students fill out the form and insert the tool use statement into their word document before submission.
The tool use statement can be downloaded from our webpage and uploaded to Blackboard.
There is a dedicated webpage for Generative AI advice and guidance where we place our support materials and advice.
We have consulted widely with colleagues and students on this matter, and we’d like to thank those who have helped shape this guidance.
Please direct staff enquiries to elearning@aber.ac.uk or contact your subject librarian.
What’s new in Blackboard June 2025
In the June update, we are particularly excited about a new question type: jumbled sentence.
There are enhancements to Discussions, Knowledge Checks (Documents), and Student Activity Logs that we would like to draw your attention to.
New: Question type: Jumbled Sentence
This question type has been highly requested since our move to Blackboard Ultra, so we are pleased to see it available.
Jumbled Sentence is now an option in the Question Type dropdown. This question type is also available for the AI Design Assistant as well.
To create a jumbled sentence question:
- Select Add Jumbled Sentence question in the question creation canvas:
- Enter your question text putting the gap and correct answer in square brackets:
- Enter distractors which also appear in the dropdown for students to complete the question:
- Save your question and deploy your test as usual.
The above question will display to students like this:
With students clicking on the dropdown to select the correct work which includes all correct answers and any distractors you might have added:
Enhance student engagement with unread discussion activity indicator
Blackboard improved the discussion experience by adding another indicator of activity. This addition encourages student engagement and makes it easier for instructors to track student activity.
- Unread Discussion Posts: The Discussions page now shows the number of unread discussion posts from anywhere in a course.
Image 1. From the Course Content page, the link to the Discussions page now has a number beside it that indicates the number of new discussion posts.
Enhanced overall appearance and usability of Knowledge Checks in Documents
Last September’s release saw the introduction of Knowledge Checks to Documents.
These are a great way to assess students’ knowledge and understanding, whilst also acting as a way to maintain engagement with their Virtual Learning Environment.
The changes include:
Instructors and students
- Answer Choices: The letters of answer choices now display at the top of each answer option, rather than in the middle.
- Answer Labels: Correct and incorrect answer labels have been moved from the side of an answer option to the top.
- Question Text Padding: Padding on the right side of question text that extended past the answer text has been removed.
- Small Screen Adjustments: On very small screens, the “Correct answer” label is now shortened to “Correct.”
Instructors
- Answer Metrics: Answer metrics now appear at the top of answer text alongside the correct and incorrect answer labels.
- Visual Indicators: Instead of highlighting questions with red and green to indicate the correctness of the answer, a bar now appears at the top of a question.
- Result Labels: Result labels are now displayed in lowercase instead of all capital letters.
- Small Screen Padding: Padding to the left and right of the Knowledge Check results has been removed for smaller screens.
- Participation Count: The number of students who participated is no longer shown as a fraction. Instead, students are described as part of a number. For example, “2 of 8 students participated.”
Image 1. The instructor view of Knowledge Check results in 3900.116.
Image 2. The instructor view of Knowledge Check results in 3900.118.
Students
We made several changes to enhance the mobile and small screen experience for students.
- Submit Button: The Submit button now occupies the entire space at the bottom of a question, rather than just partial space on the right.
- Feedback Layout: For correct answers, the checkmark indicator, correct answer feedback, and Reset button now stack vertically instead of being on a single row. This change also applies to incorrect answer feedback and the Try again button.
- Answer Selection Indicator: On all screens, the answer a student selects now has a purple line to indicate it has been chosen.
Image 3. The student view of an incorrect answer in a Knowledge Check in 3900.116.
Image 4. The student view of an incorrect answer in a Knowledge Check in 3900.118.
Student Activity Log
Blackboard added two new features to the Student Activity Log to enhance tracking and reviewing student engagement. These updates streamline the evaluation process and provide more comprehensive data for instructors.
- Content Access Filter: The Student Activity Log now includes a filter for content access, recording information not available elsewhere, such as Kaltura content. This allows instructors to easily review students’ access without needing to download and manually filter CSV files, saving time and simplifying the process.
- Enhanced LTI Access Filter: The LTI access filter now includes all types of LTI items, including LTI placeholders. This provides instructors with more detailed insights into how students interact with LTI elements in their courses.
Image 1. The Content Access and LTI Access filters are in the Event menu.
If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk.