A warm welcome to new students joining us and those who are returning to study at Aberystwyth University.
In this blogpost, we will outline the changes that have been made to your digital learning environment, Blackboard, ready for the start of the academic year 2024-25.
If you need help using Blackboard, see our Student Guide which contains all kinds of useful information.
We’ve also got FAQs available for the other tools that we support, including Turnitin for e-submission and Panoptofor lecture capture.
Updated Template
All courses have been created this year using a slightly different template.
Module Information and Assessment and Feedback have been replaced with Learning Modules. Learning Modules are a more visual way to organise and arrange content.
In Module Information you can expect to find items relating to the administration of the course.
In Assessment and Feedback you can expect to find your submission points, assignment briefs, and marking criteria.
You might find that your lecturers have also used Learning Modules for your Learning Materials.
Progress Tracker
Another change is that Progress Tracker has been turned on by default on all content on your course. This allows you to track your progress through the course by marking tasks as complete. Blackboard’s guidance provides further information.
Blackboard Ally
A reminder that we have Blackboard Ally enabled on all your courses. Blackboard Ally allows you to download content into different formats. This includes .mp3 files, immersive readers, and electronic Braille. For help, look at Ally guidance.
Blackboard Assignment
We will be running a series of pilots with some courses across the University using Blackboard Assignment. For those of you used to submitting via Turnitin, Blackboard Assignment offers similar functionality. We have a dedicated student FAQ on how to submit using Blackboard Assignment.If you have any difficulties submitting please contact Information Services (is@aber.ac.uk) and your academic department.
Departmental Organisation
Lastly, the final stage of our Ultra project was to move Departmental Organisations onto Ultra. Organisations are similar to Courses but they are not modules that you can take. Organisations are used to provide you with useful information about your Department. They are also used for training and test purposes, such as the Referencing and Plagiarism quiz. You can access your Organisations from the left-hand menu in Blackboard.
If you have any questions about using Blackboard, please contact Information Services (is@aber.ac.uk).
The August Blackboard Learn Ultra update includes enhancements to Ultra Documents, Forms, Release Conditions and Discussions.
Enhancements to Blackboard Learn Ultra Documents
The Blackboard Learn Ultra August update included enhancements to the creating and editing functionality of Blackboard Learn Ultra Documents.
For those unfamiliar with Documents, they are an easy way to create content in Ultra, ensuring compatibility with mobile devices and Blackboard Ally. As this update to Documents is a significant change to content organisation, we have written a separate blog post which can be found here.
Anonymous student responses for Forms
Anonymous responses in forms encourage honest and candid feedback from students and help participants feel safe and secure knowing their identities are protected. Anonymity leads to more genuine responses that convey the respondents’ true opinions and experiences. Additionally, it increases participation rates and the overall quality of the results.
Instructors can now collect anonymous submissions in Forms. The new Anonymous submissions option appears in the Grading & Submissions section of Form Settings.
Image 1. Anonymous submissions option
When you select Anonymous submissions, these settings are enabled by default:
Due date
Prohibit late submissions
Prohibit new attempts after due date
Complete/incomplete is selected as the grading schema for non-graded forms
When grading, the submission earns the points assigned; you can’t edit or override the points earned
Additional important details to note:
Anonymous forms cannot be administered to groups.
Class conversations are not supported when Anonymous submissions is selected.
To ensure anonymity, student activity, exceptions, exemptions and accommodations are not supported.
To ensure anonymity, student progress/statistics are not captured.
Modifications to form questions and settings are not permitted if the form has submissions and the due date has passed.
From the Submissions tab for a form, you can view an anonymized list of students participants along with this information and options:
Student submission status
Grading status and grade – At submission, the grading status is set to Complete and the grade is marked (for example., 5/5)
Post — Graded forms post automatically
Download all – You can download all form submissions
To view responses, select an anonymous student from the list. You can enter overall feedback for their submission.
For ungraded forms, the text “Submitted” or “Not submitted”
For graded forms, the grade
From the Gradebook, before the due date for an anonymous form, “Anonymous” appears in the cell for each student. After the due date, the cells display:
From the Grades tab, you can select Download Gradebook to download responses to forms with anonymous submissions.
Blackboard has taken care to ensure students know when their submission to a form is anonymous. The Anonymous icon and label appears on:
the Content Page
the Form panel where they start the attempt and view their submission
the Details & Information section that appears while responding to the form
Image 2. The Student view of the Anonymous label and icon for a form
Improvements to creating assignments (not Turnitin)
Instructors need robust, easy to use tools when creating their assessments.
To create a better experience, the new Assignment page includes these improvements:
A new Instructions box where instructors can use the full content editor to craft assignment instructions.
There are no options to add questions to an assignment.
The Settings panel now includes only options relevant to assignments.
Blank attempts are no longer created when students view assignment instructions. The system only creates an attempt when students add content to the file drop zone / content editor. Note: Group or timed and proctored assignments continue to create attempts when students view the instructions.
Image 1. Instructor view of the New Assignment page with the new Instructions box
Image 2. Instructor view of adding instructions to an assignment
Image 3. Students view of the new Assignment Information panel and the View Instructions option
Image 4. Student view of the assignment instructions
Multiple rules for release conditions
Instructors need to release course content based on performance criteria to sequence students on learning paths correctly. Sometimes they also need to release content to different groups using different criteria. To support this needed flexibility, instructors can now create multiple rules for release conditions.
You can create rules for release conditions based on these criteria: date, time, and grade range performance criteria. You can also create rules for specific individual learners, groups, or for all members.
Image 1. The new Release Conditions page
Ability to ‘Follow’ Discussions for Enhanced Engagement
Discussions are an important part of the course experience, allowing for easy collaboration between all course members. The ability to engage and re-engage with discussions ensures that collaboration is active and lively. Users can re-engage when they know there are new posts by following the discussion.
Key Enhancements:
Follow Discussions: Users can follow select discussions and receive notifications for new contributions from peers or instructors.
User Notification Settings: New notification options for the Activity Stream settings allow users to manage notification types for discussions:
Activity on my responses
Activity on responses I have replied to
Responses from instructors
Responses for followed discussions
Replies for followed discussions
Image 1. New ‘Follow’ option inside a discussion
Image 2. New user notification options for the Activity Stream
Image 3. Notifications being delivered to the Activity Stream
We are looking for volunteers to evaluate an alternative to Turnitin for text-matching and marking. This alternative is called SafeAssign. SafeAssign is part of Blackboard.
Training will be provided, and support will be available during the semester from e-learning support staff. We will ask everyone taking part in the evaluation to complete a short online survey before and after the trial. We will also invite you to a meeting at the end of the semester to share your experiences.
Please read the information below about this evaluation which will help you decide whether you would like to take part. If you want more information or would like to volunteer, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk
What is SafeAssign?
SafeAssign is a text-matching tool provided by Blackboard. It is included in our main Blackboard licence. SafeAssign is an alternative to Turnitin.
Why are we evaluating it?
AU used SafeAssign before we started using Turnitin. As part of our commitment to making sure that we are using the best tools available, we would like to evaluate whether SafeAssign would be appropriate for text-matching. This evaluation has been approved by the Academic Enhancement Committee (May 2024).
What will be different if I use SafeAssign instead of Turnitin?
Some aspects of marking and submission will be changed:
New submission, marking and text-matching tools
A different database of assignments and sources for text-matching. This database won’t include previous years’ submissions from AU.
You’ll see some new features:
Text highlighting
Welsh language interface for submission and marking
View and retrieve previous student submissions
And some features will not be available:
You will need to post marks manually rather setting a release date and time. However, this will give you a little more control over when marks are made available to students.
Submit on behalf of students
Switch off anonymous marking for individual students
Rubrics and quick marks can’t be exported from Turnitin, although similar tools are available in Blackboard.
Full details of the features of both Turnitin and SafeAssign are available.
Welsh language
All elements of this evaluation will be available in both Welsh and English. This includes help guides, training, support, and evaluation. SafeAssign itself is translated as part of Anthology’s commitment to Welsh. Welsh language text is including in the text-matching service.
What will I have to do if I volunteer?
We strongly recommend that modules included in the evaluation use SafeAssign use the tool for all e-submissions during the duration of the module. This helps both staff and students become familiar with SafeAssign rather than swapping between multiple submission and marking tools.
All staff involved in the submission, marking and moderation for the module will have to use SafeAssign (note that this includes external examiners). If you volunteer a module that has multiple staff marking on it, please make sure that they are all aware, and have all received appropriate training (see below). We will provide all external examiners with information about the evaluation.
We strongly recommend that you provide a practice submission for your students before their first assignment. This will make sure that they know how to use SafeAssign correctly. We will provide guides and FAQs for students which you can link to from the Assessment and Feedback area of your Blackboard course.
What training and support will be available?
We will publish guides and FAQs for staff and students on the LTEU website. We will also run training sessions on how to create submission points and how to mark. Full support will be available to staff and students throughout the term.
How will it impact my students?
Submission will be different for students; one advantage of using SafeAssign is that students will get an email receipt. Students will also see their feedback in a slightly different way. We will provide full support for students.
Can I talk to someone about this?
Contact elearning@aber.ac.uk for information and to discuss whether SafeAssign is appropriate for your module.
The Blackboard Learn Ultra August update included enhancements to the creating and editing functionality of Blackboard Learn Ultra Documents.
For those unfamiliar with Documents, they are an easy way to create content in Ultra, ensuring compatibility with mobile devices and Blackboard Ally. As this update to Documents is a significant change to content organisation, we are producing this separate blogpost. You can read about other enhancements in the August update blogpost.
The latest update gives instructors more power and control over how content appears. It functions as a webpage, with a variety of block types that can be used to create and organise content. These blocks can be moved around to give instructors more options over the layout of their content.
In summary:
Images can be brought in-line with text
Bilingual content can be arranged more easily
Headings can be used to aid with navigation
Files can be uploaded and converted into an Ultra Document, retaining the original formatting
An example of a Document created using the new content editor can be seen below:
For all instructors, the biggest change is that the content creator appears at the top of the page. You can still use the + icon to create content which will then give you the menu that you see below:
The convert a file option is new functionality that allows you to upload a file. This will convert it into an Ultra Document retaining the formatting of the original file.
Selecting Content will take you to the usual content editor.
Blackboard Ally is available to everyone who uses Blackboard.
Any student can download course content in alternative formats for free. If you want to know more have a look at Which format should I use table on the Ally website.
All staff can check the accessibility of their course and get help fixing any issues.
Since September 2023, when AU started using Blackboard Ally, staff and students have been making use of it.
Alternative Formats
3579 individual users download an alternative format
22,912 documents converted
Alternative formats used in 1100 courses
The most downloaded alternative format is the Tagged PDF. Tagged PDF is useful for reading on the go, or for students who like to read information to search, print, or take notes. It can also be good for anyone who uses screen readers or text-to-speech with speed adjustment.
Course Accessibility
Staff have also been using Ally to make content more accessible for students:
282 fixes to content
66 courses have had content fixed
AU accessibility score improved from 65.7% to 69.5%
To find out more about using Ally have a look at our Staff and Student FAQs.
Now that the 2024-25 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.
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.
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
Image below: 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
Image below: 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
Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Creation for 2024-25 will take place on Monday 3 June this year. After this date instructors will be able to add content and customise their new courses.
Courses will contain the default template which includes leaning modules for Module Information, Assessment and Feedback and External Examiners. Content from previous years will not be copied over automatically.
We have made some improvements to the default course template based upon staff and student feedback and also enabled the AI Design Assistant.
Instructors can access their 2024-25 courses by using the Terms filter dropdown menu on the Courses page and selecting Cyrsiau 2024-25 Courses. Courses under 2024-25 will move to the default Courses page on 1 September.
Learning Modules
The Module Information, Assessment and Feedback and External Examiners areas remain, but are now learning modules rather than folders. Learning modules have all the functionality of folders in terms of how content is added and accessed but are more visually appealing and are easier to navigate, especially from a student’s perspective.
Learning modules each have a default image, but we encourage instructors to choose a more relevant and meaningful image for their learning modules. Adding an image to a learning module provides a visual identity to a course and helps students locate the learning module. Instructions on how to customise learning modules appearance can be found in this section of the Blackboard help page for Learning Modules.
Content can be added to learning modules in the same way as folders; by expanding them and clicking the plus symbol. Create, Copy Content and Upload options remain unchanged.
All the usual hidden/visible and release conditions settings are also available.
Instructors can continue to use folders if they wish, or they may wish to create additional learning modules and copy existing content into them from folders. The options to add additional learning modules and folders can be found by clicking the plus symbol and Create.
Please note that Learning Modules can only be added to the landing page of Content and not within folders.
The class register is now hidden from students. They can still see staff on the course under Course Staff, but they can no longer see the other students of the course. You are welcome to make the Class Register visible again if you like.
Progress Tracking
Progress tracking is now enabled by default for students. Progress tracking gives students an easy wat to keep track of what they have done in the course.
Additionally, on the Student Overview page Instructors can access the Progress tab for each Student which tracks progress in a course. You can see completed and uncompleted tasks for each Student. For more information see the Blackboard help page on Progress Tracking.
AI Design Assistant
Context and Guidance Principles
Anthology, the vendor of Blackboard Learn, have added AI tools to Blackboard as part of their ‘AI Design Assistant’. Anthology’s approach is to empower staff to use AI to “promote authentic assessment, engaging learning experiences and academic integrity, while also providing efficiency for educators and improved outcomes for students as a result.”
Reliability: Taking measures to ensure the output of AI systems is valid and reliable.
Humans in Control: Ensuring humans ultimately make decisions that have legal or otherwise significant impact.
Transparency and Explainability: Explaining to users when AI systems are used, how the AI systems work, and help users interpret and appropriately use the output of the AI systems.
Privacy, Security and Safety: AI systems should be secure, safe, and privacy friendly.
Value alignment: AI systems should be aligned to human values, in particular those of our clients and users.
Accountability: Ensuring there is clear accountability regarding the trustworthy use of AI systems within Anthology as well as between Anthology, its clients, and its providers of AI systems.
If Instructors opt to make use of the AI Design Assistant, we recommend:
1. Generating and checking content
AI-generated content is never automatically added to a course. It will not be released to students without instructors making that decision. Instructors will always need to approve content before it is made available to students.
Instructors can always review and change AI-generated content. For example, if an instructor generates Test questions, it is likely some will not be useful. The instructor should choose what they would like to use and edit them as needed. It is important for instructors to ensure everything generated by AI is checked before it is added to a course and made available to students.
2. Consider adding a Use of Artificial Intelligence statement to a course
In line with University artificial intelligence guidance, if content is substantially generated using an AI tool, this should be declared clearly to the students. A statement on the use of artificial intelligence in a Blackboard Learn course can be added in the Module Information learning module area using the Document feature.
AI Design Assistant Tools
The following tools are available to Instructors on courses.
Generate Learning Modules
This feature allows a course structure to be created using learning modules based on the name of the course and any additional information that has been provided. Learning modules are akin to folders.
This feature generates test questions and question banks based on the content that is included in the course. Instructors can specify the level and the types of questions that are asked. The complexity and question type can be adjusted. For further information see the section on test question generation on the AI Design Assistant help page.
Generate Keywords for Unsplash
Unsplash is a copyright free image library accessible from within Blackboard. The AI tool will generate relevant keywords based upon the course name and content with which to search Unsplash.
The assignment generator will create prompts for assignments, using Bloom’s taxonomy to include different levels of complexity. This complexity can be adjusted. This only applies to the inbuilt Blackboard assignment tool and not Turnitin. For further information see the section on assignment prompt generation on the AI Design Assistant Help Page.
Note: The Blackboard AI Design Assistant does have a Rubric generator and an AI image Generator which we have not enabled.
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.
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.
Image below: 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Image below. Instructor view of the updated Edit calculation rule panel confirming the selected category weighting option.
The April update to Blackboard Learn Ultra includes a much-requested feature; Anonymous posts for discussions. Additionally, there are improvements to feedback and Gradebook calculations.
Anonymous posts for Discussions
Discussions play a pivotal role in nurturing peer-to-peer interaction and critical thinking. Students need to feel free to express their ideas and opinions without fear of judgement. To support this, Blackboard have added an option for instructors to allow anonymous posts in ungraded discussions. This feature provides flexibility for instructors. They can toggle anonymity on or off as the discussion progresses. Any existing anonymous posts keep their anonymity.
Image below: Setting to turn on anonymous posts
Note: When intending to post anonymously a student must tick Post anonymously.
Image below: A student making an anonymous post with Post anonymously ticked (highlighted)
Image below: An anonymous post in a discussion
Add question feedback when grading by student
Instructors can now provide contextual feedback by student on all question types. Question level feedback promotes deeper understanding and personal growth among students. Question level feedback complements the existing capabilities of overall submission feedback and automated feedback for auto-graded questions.
Note: Blackboard are targeting the May release for per-question feedback when grading tests by questions rather than by student.
Image below: Instructor view of adding per question feedback
Image below: Instructor view of question with saved feedback
Once students have submitted their tests and scores are posted, students can access the feedback. Students can access both overall feedback and question-specific feedback.
Image below: Student view of feedback added to an essay question
Student feedback remains visible to students regardless of release condition settings
Instructors may want to control access to course content using release conditions. This is helpful for providing custom learning paths through course content. The release conditions include an option to show or hide content to/from students before they meet release conditions. Blackboard have modified how these settings impact the students’ view of feedback from instructors. Now instructors can set release conditions without any impact to feedback to students.
In the past, when an instructor selected the option to hide content, students could view associated grades but not the feedback. Blackboard have corrected this to ensure that students can always review feedback.
Image below: Instructor view of release conditions settings with date/time release condition set in combination with Hide state in “When will content appear?”
Image below: Student gradebook view with display of student’s feedback and grade regardless of the release condition setting in the above image.
Persistent navigation for Learning Modules
To improve students’ navigation in a learning module, Blackboard have updated the navigation bar. Now the navigation bar is sticky and remains visible as students vertically scroll through content. Students no longer need to scroll back up to the top of content to access the navigation tools.
Image below: The navigation bar is always visible
Calculations changed from using BigDecimal to BigFraction
Instructors need a gradebook that supports diverse grading scenarios. Blackboard are changing the software library used to perform calculations in calculated columns and the overall course grade.
Example: A course contains 3 assignments worth 22 points each. The student scores 13/22 on the first assignment, 14/22 on the second assignment, and 15/22 on the third assignment. An instructor creates a calculated column to calculate the average of these assignments.
Using the new software library, BigFraction, the average will calculate as 14/22.
With the former software library, BigDecimal, the average would incorrectly calculate to 13.99/22. The new software library ensures calculations compute as expected.
