{"id":10312,"date":"2026-06-05T10:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/?p=10312"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:44:37","slug":"whats-new-in-blackboard-june-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/2026\/06\/05\/whats-new-in-blackboard-june-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s new in Blackboard June 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the June update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Grading with rubric<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Student engagement with announcements<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Changes to grading with rubric<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To improve rubric usability, instructors can now edit the rubric grade directly. Changes to the rubric component grades will also update the overall grade immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Image 1: Improved rubric usability when adding or adjusting grades.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"276\" height=\"357\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/files\/2026\/06\/Image-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10310\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the past, instructors would have been blocked from changing the overall grade via the rubric. Now, the locking mechanism that previously prevented instructors from using the rubric to override a grade has been removed. Otherwise, grades entered into the rubric grade components will update the overall grade immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The update also includes some changes in wording, such as updating the rubric score box label from \u201cSubmission\u201d to \u201cRubric Score\u201d, in order to improve consistency with the Flexible Grading page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Student engagement with announcements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instructors can now check which announcements a student has read or not read on the new \u2018Announcements\u2019 tab of the Student Overview page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To access this feature, instructors should go to the \u2018Class register\u2019 under the \u2018Details &amp; Actions\u2019 items on the right-hand side of a course landing page. After selecting a student, a log of whether or not a student has accessed an announcement will be visible for instructors under the new \u2018Announcements\u2019 tab of the Student Overview page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Image 2: The Announcements tab on the Student Overview page shows when an Announcement was posted and when it was read.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1430\" height=\"607\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/files\/2026\/06\/Image-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10311\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via <a href=\"mailto:elearning@aber.ac.uk\">elearning@aber.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the June update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements: Changes to grading with rubric To improve rubric usability, instructors can now edit the rubric grade directly. Changes to the rubric component grades will also update the overall grade immediately. Image 1: Improved rubric usability when adding or adjusting grades. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94,1198],"tags":[1408,59,1259,1240,1358,102,1267],"class_list":["post-10312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blackboard","category-montly-update","tag-announcements","tag-blackboard","tag-grades","tag-monthly-updates","tag-qualitative-rubric","tag-student-engagement","tag-ultra-en"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XLJV-2Gk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10312"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10316,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10312\/revisions\/10316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}