What’s New in Blackboard Learn Ultra – June 2024

Printing for Assessments (Tests)

Instructors can now print assessments. Printing provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases: 

  • Accommodating students with specific needs or limited technology access 
  • Providing a printed assessment for testing in designated locations 
  • Backup and record keeping 
  • Conducting offline assessment 
  • Documentation and compliance 
  • Maintaining security and integrity 

The print option is available in Forms, Tests, and Assignments with questions. Printing also provides the option to save as PDF. 

To print an assessment, from Content and Settings, select Print

Note: Blackboard plan to support printing answer keys and question pools in upcoming releases. 

Image below: Print option from a test 

Print option from a test 

Image below: Select desired print options 

Select desired print options 

Filter out graded responses when grading by question 

The Needs Grading filter now filters out graded student responses by default. Filtering this way helps instructors to focus on any remaining ungraded responses for a given question. It also provides instructors with an improved view of their outstanding grading workload. If instructors want to include graded responses, they can select Show graded responses. This selection preference is now stored per course and it persists across assessments in each course. 

Image below: Grading by question option with the grading status of Needs Grading filter selected 

Grading by question option with the grading status of Needs Grading filter selected 

Image below: Grading by question view with the grading status filter of Needs Grading and Show graded responses options selected 

Grading by question view with the grading status filter of Needs Grading and Show graded responses options selected 

Post immediately when creating announcements 

Instructors can now post announcements as part of the drafting and editing processes. This makes the process of creating and posting announcements simpler.  

Instructors can still post from the announcements page.  

Image below: When creating or editing an announcement, there is now an option to post 

What’s New in Blackboard Learn Ultra May 2024 

Please find below some of the latest enhancements from the May update of Blackboard Learn Ultra that the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit would like to highlight to Instructors. 

Supporting multiple performance criteria in release conditions

Release conditions determine when students can view course content. Release conditions are on the content’s visibility setting on the course content page. Currently, you can set:

  • Which course members or groups have access;
  • When the course content is accessible, visible, and hidden;
  • When student performance is necessary for completing an assignment or scoring.

Instructors can now set more than one performance criteria per content item. 

Image below: Release condition panel with additional performance criteria selected.

Release condition panel with additional performance criteria selected.

Add question feedback when grading a test by question

When grading by student or by question, Instructors can now provide contextual feedback and can add this feedback to all question types. Question level feedback promotes deeper understanding and personal growth among students while also enhancing both overall submission feedback and automated feedback for auto-graded questions.

Image below: Instructor view of adding per-question feedback when grading by question.

Instructor view of adding per-question feedback when grading by question.

Image below: Instructor view of question with saved feedback.

 Instructor view of question with saved feedback.

After scores are posted, students can access their feedback in the Gradebook. Students can access both overall feedback and question-specific feedback.

Image below: Student view of feedback added to an essay question.

Student view of feedback added to an essay question.

Improved Gradebook navigation

To create a more intuitive navigation, Blackboard have replaced the grid and list view buttons with text links. The options are now: 

  • Gradable Items
  • Grades (grid view)
  • Students

The Gradebook will remember the last view you used in each course.

Image below: Instructor view of the new gradebook navigation menu

Instructor view of the new gradebook navigation menu

Proportionally and Equally weighted column calculations

Instructors have diverse grade calculation needs. Some instructors use weighted calculations to help with aggregating calculations like midterm or final grades.

Now instructors can assign equal weights to items in the same categories. The chosen calculation method, whether proportional or equal, applies to all categories. In the past, weighted items in the same category had proportional weights. These weighted items were based on the possible points of each item.

To better understand student performance, some instructors use drop rules to remove outliers. Because it’s important to know the weighting method when managing these settings, Blackboard now displays the instructor’s chosen weighting option in the calculation rules panel.

Image below: Instructor view of the new Proportionally weighted calculation options.

Instructor view of the new Proportionally weighted calculation options.

Image below: Instructor view of the new proportional weighted calculation option. Instructors can see what percentage each item in the category contributes to the overall category weighting.

 Instructor view of the new proportional weighted calculation option. Instructors can see what percentage each item in the category contributes to the overall category weighting.

Image below: Instructor view of the equally weighted calculation option; Instructors are informed of the equal percentage that items count towards the overall category weighting.

 Instructor view of the equally weighted calculation option; Instructors are informed of the equal percentage that items count towards the overall category weighting.

Image below. Instructor view of the updated Edit calculation rule panel confirming the selected category weighting option.

Instructor view of the updated Edit calculation rule panel confirming the selected category weighting option.