What’s new in Blackboard April 2025

In the April update, we are particularly excited about a new feature called the Learning Object Repository. There is now the ability to print Blackboard Documents, and updates to the grading and feedback workflow for staff and students.

New: Learning Object Repository

The new Learning Object Repository is an institutional repository designed to centralise resources across courses and organisations.

We can upload items to the Learning Object Repository for instructors to copy into their courses. Note that items copied into courses cannot be edited.

This feature is available for Blackboard Documents at this stage but there are plans to develop options to include files in the future. We have also requested a folder level structure be developed so that we can organise content items for instructors to find.

Over the next couple of months, we will be working on developing the process for colleagues to request for items to be added to the Learning Object Repository. We aim to have this in place ready for your 2025-26 courses.

Some initial ideas from us include links to generic skills resources, generative AI policies, and optional health and safety statements.

If you have any ideas about how we might use the Learning Object Repository, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Content Designer: Print Document

We have seen some significant changes to the Documents feature in Blackboard over the past 6 months. Now colleagues and students can print these Documents or save to PDF so that they can review content offline.

The print function retains the Document layout. Note that for instructors, knowledge check blocks print with all the question and answer options. All other blocks print as displayed outside of editing mode.

Image 1. The new Print button for Documents is now available for students.

Grading and Feedback

There are some minor enhancements to Grading and Feedback this month.

Indicator to see if a student has reviewed their feedback

In the Gradebook, instructors now have enhanced ability to monitor student engagement with assessment feedback. An indicator on the individual student’s Overview page now displays whether a student has reviewed the feedback for a given assessment.

When a grade is posted, the indicator includes a label of Not reviewed with the existing Completed label in the Status column. When the student reviews the feedback, the status updates to Reviewed with a review timestamp.

If the new grade indicator is reset for the assessment, such as when a grade is updated or if the assessment has multiple attempts, the timestamp updates when the student reviews the feedback again. If all attempts are deleted, the Not reviewed or Reviewed label is removed.

Image 1: Instructor Gradebook view has Reviewed and Not Reviewed labels in the Status column.

To see whether a student has viewed their feedback:

  1. Navigate to the Course
  2. Select View everyone on your course and search for the individual student
  3. Under the Mark screen you will see whether the student has reviewed their feedback

Enhanced grading experience for group submissions

Blackboard Assignment can manage group submissions where a student in a group submits a file, and marks and feedback can be allocated for all students.

In this month’s update the grading interface for group submissions has been updated to match that of individual submissions.

Replace Feedback column with actionable Results column in student Gradebook

The students’ Gradebook has changed to include:

  • A new Results column replaces the Feedback column
  • A View button in the new Results column replaces the Feedback column’s purple feedback icon

When a grade is posted and the new grade indicator (purple circle) is turned on, the View button displays for the assessment.

When students select the View button, the new grade indicator turns off, and students are redirected to their submission. If no submission is made, the side panels with feedback opens. The View button remains unless the instructor deletes the graded submission and all attempts.

Image 1: Previous view of the student Gradebook included Feedback column with feedback icon and new grade indicator when feedback is available for review.

Image 2: New view of the student Gradebook includes an actionable Results column, with the new grade indicator turning off after the student views the feedback.

Ideas Exchange:

This section aims to keep you updated on progress of enhancements requested on the Blackboard Ideas Exchange.

We are pleased to see the Feedback Indicator included in this month’s release. This is a feature that we requested and was important in our recent SafeAssign Pilot survey.

Greek has also been added as an output language for the AI Design Assistant. This was requested by a colleague in Lifelong Learning.

If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Mini Conference: Programme Announcement

We are pleased to announce the programme for our forthcoming online Mini Conference: Employability and the Inclusive Curriculum.

Taking place between 09:15 and 13:00 on 8 April, in collaboration with colleagues in the Careers Service, places can be booked online.

We will start the conference with a welcome from Professor Anwen Jones at 09:15 before moving onto Dr Aranee Manoharan’s keynote. Dr Manoharan is joining us from King’s College, London. You can read further information on Dr Manoharan’s pioneering work on our blog.

Psychology’s Dr Saffron Passam will be leading an interactive workshop on Future-Proofing Graduates: Embedding Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion as a Core Employability Skill between 10:20 and 10:50.

Theatre, Film and Television Studies’ Dr Louise Ritchie will be leading a session on Staging Success: Integrating Employability in the Drama and Theatre Curriculum (Part 2) between 10:50 and 11:20.

Following a break, School of Education’s Annabel Latham will be joining us for their session Professional Partnerships in HE: a discussion around the co-creation of assessment to embed employability in the curriculum between 11:35 and 12:05.

The event will close with Careers’ Service’s Bev Herring and Jo Hiatt, who will showcase collaborative efforts and plans to enhance employability integration at Aberystwyth University.

We hope that you can make this special event.

Full programme and session abstracts are available on the webpage.

Weekly Resource Roundup – 18/3/2025

Weekly Resource Roundup, Dr Mary Jacob, Lecturer - Learning and Teaching, Aberystwyth University

As leader of our PGCTHE programme, I keep an eye out for resources to help staff teach effectively. These include webinars, podcasts, online toolkits, publications and more. Topics include active learning, online/blended teaching, accessibility/inclusion, and effective learning design based on cognitive science. Below I’ve listed items that came to my attention in the past week. In the interest of clarity, our policy is to show the titles and descriptions in the language of delivery. 

Online events and webinars

March

April

May

June

July

Resources and publications

Other

  • Call for proposals (open dates) Unfiltered by EmpowerED: A Podcast Series where educators share unedited stories of inspiration and challenge
  • Call for proposals (open dates) Future Teacher Webinars
  • Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.

Please see the Staff Training booking page for training offered by the LTEU and other Aberystwyth University staff. I hope you find this weekly resource roundup useful. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact our team at lteu@aber.ac.uk. Social media: X.com, BSky.

Blackboard Achievements

Screenshot of the Achievements tab and associated badges in a Blackboard course

We have enabled a new feature on Blackboard called Achievements.

Achievements allow instructors to link student achievement to badges to help recognise their accomplishment or proficiency.

See Blackboard Help for an overview of achievements. The help site will give you advice on the types of activities they can be used for as well as how to set them up.

To create a badge, you need to associate it with a Gradebook column – such as a test, assignment, or Turnitin. You can specify a certain level that needs to be attained to generate the badge. 

Students can then view their achievements on the course or organisation from the Achievements tab. We’d welcome working with colleagues to explore how achievements could be used at a scheme or department level.

Annual Learning and Teaching Conference: Registration now open

Registration for the thirteenth annual Learning and Teaching conference is now open.

This year’s Learning and Teaching conference has the theme Innovative Pathways to Empowering Learners: Adapting, Engaging, and Thriving and will be taking place between Tuesday 8 and Thursday 10 July 2025.

You can register for the conference online.

Creating an inclusive approach to learning and teaching during Ramadan

As Ramadan starts, we wanted to highlight a guide for educators that has been led by Oxford Brookes’ Professor Louise Taylor (along with several other collaborators).

During this time, those observing Ramadan, will abstain from food and drink during daylight hours.

The full guide can be accessed and downloaded from this webpage.

The guide outlines the potential impact of Ramadan on students’ learning and offers some adaptions that may want to be considered. Oxford Brookes have produced a 7-minute video of students sharing their experience of Ramadan. The guide draws on surveys from HE professionals to provide an evidence-based approach and offers 6 ways in which we could adopt more inclusive learning:

  1. Acknowledge Ramadan
  2. Avoid assumptions and ask
  3. Adjust assessment timings
  4. Offer asynchronous learning
  5. Raise awareness and celebrate
  6. Be inclusive and make sustainable change

The guide concludes that its key message places importance on initiating discussions with Muslim students.

As a community, we hope to build on this work for next year, using this guidance as a starting point.

We are passionate about inclusive education practices and would love to showcase them at the forthcoming Annual Learning and Teaching Conference. If you adopt inclusive practices in your teaching, then do consider submitting a proposal for the conference.

What’s new in Blackboard – January 2025

In the January update, Blackboard has improved the AI Design Assistant by adding more languages and enhancing the Auto-generation features. Additionally, there are new features for Creating Documents and Release Conditions.

AI Design Assistant Outputs

Blackboard have improved the auto-generation features within the AI Design Assistant to have faster and more complex outputs. When auto-generating Learning Modules for example, all you need is a few sentences to describe the Modules, and the AI Design Assistant creates longer descriptions and deeper focus on the topic:

Image 1: Auto-generated Learning modules with latest improvements (see right) for comparison.

As well as learning modules, they include improvements for auto-generating: Assignments, Discussions, Journals, Test questions and AI Conversation avatars. See our webpages for further information on the AI Design Assistant and training sessions are also available to book here.

More languages in AI Design Assistant

The AI Design Assistant now includes expanded language outputs. AI workflows now work in Greek, Catalan, Croatian, Irish, and Slovenian. For a complete list of languages available for AI outputs, see Blackboard’s AI Design Assistant for Instructors page. See below for how to change the language:

Image 2. Changing the output language is available as an advanced option in the AI Design Assistant.

Direct grade entry from the Grid view

Instructors can now enter assignment grades directly in the Grid view (selected by choosing the Marks tab in the Gradebook) with improved accuracy and consistency.

Image 3: Screenshot of the Marks tab in the Gradebook.

Previously, grades entered in these views were stored at the override level, which caused confusion as underlying attempts remained ungraded and continued to display the Needs Grading and New Submission flags. This latest update ensures that grades entered this way are properly mapped to the underlying attempt or submission when applicable.

NOTE: This feature is only applicable in the Marks view, grades continue to be shown as override if you are in the Markable Items view. Also, grades entered via file upload continue to be stored as override grades.

Content blocks for designing Documents

Blackboard have improved the content designer when creating documents which makes it much easier to use. When instructors create or edit a document, the content block no longer closes when you collapse the menu in the editor. Also, the editor no longer closes when editing table setting

For more information on documents see: Blackboard Learn Ultra: Enhancements to Documents.

File uploads for Documents

This latest update has updated the default file option when instructors upload files to documents. The default file option is now View and Download file. Also, it is now possible to use the Undo and Redo functions for file uploads. This is very useful if you’ve uploaded an incorrect file to your document, you can just click the ‘undo’ feature.

Image 4: New ‘Undo’ and ‘Redo’ functions highlighted below.

Submission attempts for Release Conditions

You can now use item submission status for a release condition. For example, an instructor who wants students to access a document only after submitting a quiz would use a release condition. Students can access content items without needing to wait for a grade to be posted.

Image 5: The new Attempt submitted option is in the dropdown menu for a gradable item in the Release Conditions panel.

What’s New in Blackboard October 2024 

The October Blackboard Update includes generating question banks from course materials and more  customisation options for email notifications. 

Generate question banks from course materials 

Related Blackboard Guidance Topic: Question Banks 

Creating questions is time consuming. Instructors now have the option to generate questions in a question bank. Generating question banks from course materials provides inspiration and saves time.  

To generate a question bank, select the Auto-generate option from the + on the Question Banks page.  

Image 1. Auto-generate a question bank 

Question bank main screen with the dropdown selected and Auto-generated appearing

From the menu, instructors can select content items. These content items provide context for the questions. Instructors can further refine the questions they ask by entering a description of the learning objectives or topic.  

Image 2. The context picker for creating new questions 

Selecting items with the context picker 

Instructors can select the type of question to generate, such as multiple choice or fill in the blank. The complexity of the questions can also be adjusted. Instructors choose which questions to include in the question bank.  

Image 3. The Auto-Generate Question Bank page

Question bank generation page, showing options on the left and questions on the right 

Email notifications for followed discussions 

Related Blackboard Guidance Topic: Discussions  

To encourage participation in discussions, Blackboard have expanded notifications to include email. Emails are sent when users opt for Email me right away notifications.  

Key Enhancements: 

User Notification Settings: New notification options allow users to manage their emails for discussions they follow. To help with consistency, these settings align with the user’s settings for their activity stream.  

  • Activity on my responses  
  • Activity on responses I have replied to  
  • Responses from instructors  
  • Responses for followed discussions  
  • Replies for followed discussions  

How to access your Email notification settings: 

  • In Blackboard go into your Profile 
The Blackboard navigation menu with the user profile highlighted  
  • Under Global Notification Settings click on Email notifications  
Email notifications highlighted under Global Notification settings 

Email notifications highlighted under Global Notification settings 

  • Adjust your settings as you prefer 
Notification settings for emails 

Image 2. An example of an email for discussion activity 

Example email notification of discussion activity