Category: Blackboard

What’s new in Blackboard July 2025

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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: Picture

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.Edit File Options page offers fields for Display Name, Image caption, and choices for Caption position

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

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Blackboard Discussion Boards, Blackboard Journals, Blackboard Tests, E-submission, Exemplary Course Award, Interactive Tools, Panopto, Training and Support, Turnitin, Vevox Leave a comment

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

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Policies and Information

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

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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:

  1. Modules are taught the same content but there’s a module available for different years.
  2. 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

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, E-submission, Generative AI, Ultra, Ultra Leave a comment
Accessibility icons showing 3 images: a checklist, a computer workstation, an image

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. 

  1. A Statement on the use of Generative AI

This statement outlines the principles and approach that AU intends to use for Generative AI across all its operations. 

  1. Guidance for students on using Generative AI

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.

  1. Generative AI e-submission template statement

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.

  1. Generative AI Assessment Learning Object Repository Statements

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.

  1. A Generative AI Tool Use Statement

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

WordPress User [ksg2] Blackboard, Blackboard Tests, Monthly Update, Ultra Leave a comment

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:

  1. Select Add Jumbled Sentence question in the question creation canvas:
image showing Jumbled Sentence question

  • Enter your question text putting the gap and correct answer in square brackets:
image showing Jumbled Sentence editor window

  • Enter distractors which also appear in the dropdown for students to complete the question:
image showing distractor options

  • Save your question and deploy your test as usual.

The above question will display to students like this:

image of the Jumbled Sentence question from a students’ perspective

With students clicking on the dropdown to select the correct work which includes all correct answers and any distractors you might have added:

image showing Jumbled Sentence options from dropdown menu

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.

Generative AI assessment statements available in Blackboard Learning Object Repository

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Generative AI, Technical Updates Leave a comment
Image of Blackboard content area with a Generative AI tool use statement added

We’re pleased to announce that Generative AI Assessment Statements are now available in the Blackboard Learning Object Repository.

This is part of the work that Library and Learning Services are undertaking in collaboration with UndebAber and Academic Registry.

The aim of this work is to make it clear to students the expectations regarding their engagement and use of Generative AI in learning and teaching.

There are three statements available in the Learning Object Repository:

  • No Generative AI Tool use for this assessment
  • Some Generative AI Tool use for this assessment
  • Generative AI Tool use expected for this assessment

Each of the statements gives advice and signposts students to additional support.

Colleagues can copy these statements into the relevant area of the course. As acceptable levels of use of Generative AI vary between individual assessments, it’s recommended that the statements are copied into the relevant assessment folder.

For further information see: How do I add an item from Blackboard’s Learning Object Repository to my course?

In addition to the Generative AI Assessment Statements, a Generative AI Tool Use Statement is also available. This statement has been developed by colleagues in the Department of Law and Criminology and gives students the opportunity to outline how they have used Generative AI in their assignments.

If you have any questions about using the Learning Object Repository, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Course Creation 2025-26

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All courses for 2025-26 have been created and are available to staff in Blackboard. 

This year’s course template will include some new items which we hope will help both staff and students:  

  • An item about Panopto recording and captions (see our caption blog post for more information)  
  • A link to the AberSkills web pages  
  • Information about AI and Unacceptable Academic Practice  

Putting this information into the course template means that all students see the same information. It also means that staff don’t have to include the information when setting up their courses for the new academic year.   

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.  We have made some changes to course roles this year, and more details are available on our blog post.  

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

E-learning Policies Review (2025-26)

WordPress User [kaw] Accessibility, Blackboard, E-submission, Panopto, Training and Support, Turnitin, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment

We revisit and revise all the policies relating to e-learning tools annually. All the changes are approved by the Quality and Standards Committee. The new policies are now available, and here are the details of the main changes. If you have any questions about the new policies, please get in touch with us using elearning@aber.ac.uk

Blackboard Required Minimum Presence (RMP)

The RMP outlines to staff and students the minimum standards for a Blackboard Course.

Two of the changes in the RMP are designed to improve the accessibility of course materials:

  • All courses should have an Ally score of 70% or above (see the Ally Score information)
  • Requirement for materials to be uploaded 1 working day in advance of the session (see the Uploading Material in Advance information)

To help staff managing courses:

E-submission Policy

The E-submission Policy outlines that all text-based word-processed work is submitted, marked, and has feedback released electronically.

To improve student access to marks and feedback:

To improve the consistency of e-submission across the university:

  • Requirement for research postgraduate work being submitted electronically include Graduate School Research Training assignments.

For staff who want to use SafeAssign as part of their Blackboard Assignments:

  • Addition of information about SafeAssign

Lecture Capture Policy

The Lecture Capture Policy outlines that all transmission style presentations are recorded electronically for students to access.

The most significant change in the Lecture Capture policy is designed to improve the accessibility of recordings:

  • Automatic captioning will be turned on for all recordings made after 1st September 2025 (see our blog post)
  • Recommendation that summaries are made for sessions that are not recorded

To help staff managing courses:

  • The Blackboard template will include centrally provided information about Panopto, including a statement that recording will take place, information about what is and isn’t recording, and information about the quality of captions (see our Course Creation information).

Organisation Policy

All departments make use of their Organisations to provide access to key administrative information. To make sure that materials are accessible and up to date, we have developed an Organisation RMP, based on the Blackboard RMP. This does not apply to staff Practice Courses.

All other Organisations should include:

  • Contact Information.
  • Information about the purpose of the Organisation and how participants are expected to use it.
  • Content is organised clearly, and all materials are named clearly and consistently.
  • Content is up to date.
  • Clear instructions for participants on what to do with materials 
  • All materials must be as accessible as possible.

Ally Score

For the first time, our Blackboard Required Minimum Presence includes an Ally score. This recognises and builds on the work that staff have already done to make sure that teaching materials are as accessible as possible.  

The RMP sets an Ally score of 70% – the good news for both staff and students is that 87% of all 2024-25 courses have a score of 70%. And overall, the Ally score for 2024-25 is 72.5% which is 3% higher than last year. 

Making Blackboard content as accessible as possible benefits all our students.  Having materials in a format that students can use easily means that they can focus on their learning rather than struggling with inaccessible formats. The choices that staff make to design accessible materials, as well as the Ally Alternative Formative tools, help us to make sure that all students can engage with their studies. 

It’s particularly important here at AU, as the latest HERA data show that over 28% of our students have a declared disability (compared to 16.7% nationally).  

To check your course Ally score, have a look at the guidance on the Blackboard help pages.  And you can find out more about designing accessible materials with our online training materials.  

Ally will give you help and guidance to address common issues. One of the most common issues at AU is handwritten documents that have been scanned. We’ve written some guidance to help staff who do use this type of material. And if you wanted to use scanned articles in your course, contact the Digitisation Service.

Uploading Materials in Advance

Giving access to teaching materials in advance of a session makes them more accessible for students. It gives students a chance to prepare before attending so that they can concentrate on the content of the lecture when they attend. For sessions that include discussion or group work it can allow students to consider how they may engage with these activities. A research paper from Oxford Brookes provides information about the value of making materials available in advance,

Feedback from students over the last few years has asked for this change, and the issue was discussed at Academic Board in summer 2024. And it’s standard in a number of other universities, for example at Edinburgh University and Oxford Brookes.

AU has decided that teaching materials should be released at least one working day before the event takes place:

  • For a session taking place on Thursday, materials should be available by Wednesday morning
  • For a session taking place on Monday, materials should be available by the previous Friday morning

You can use the Blackboard release conditions to make sure that materials are available at the right time. If you already make all your materials available at the start of term, you are welcome to continue with this.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day

WordPress User [kaw] Accessibility, Blackboard, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment

Providing accessible learning materials helps everyone to learn. Using some basic tools and making some small changes to your documents can make a big difference to students with disabilities.

Today (15th May) is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, so it’s a good day to see what you can do to improve the accessibility of materials in Blackboard.

You can access tools in both Blackboard and Microsoft Office to help you create accessible documents:

If you have 5 minutes today, look at the Ally Course Accessibility Report in one of your Blackboard courses. The section on content with the easiest issues to fix is a good place to start. This will guide you through some quick changes you can make straightaway.

Or you may find some things that you want to improve over the summer, as part of the annual course creation process.  One of the biggest issues we see in Blackboard courses is non-OCR scanned documents. A good way to make sure that scanned documents are accessible is to speak to our Digitisation Team who can advise on scanning book chapters and journal articles.

Here at AU nearly 30% of our student population has a declared disability, so any improvements you make to the accessibility of your content will make a big impact on how students engage with them.

Find out more about Global Accessibility Awareness Day (this is an external site and not available in Welsh).