What's new in the Ultra Experience?

In this release, drag-and-drop has been greatly improved, increasing efficiency. Instructors can grab items more quickly. When moving an item, it’s clearer to instructors where it will go when dropped. Instructors can also use keyboard commands to reorder the content:

• tab to navigate to an item
• enter to select an item
• up/down arrows to move an item
• enter to drop the item

NOTE: This feature may not be immediately available our site is updated – please allow up to 2 days for the feature to appear.

Instructors may need to reference information contained in other sections of the course. For example, an instructor may want students to revisit an earlier activity to reinforce their learning. Course links provide access to content without excessive scrolling and reduce clicking. This new feature allows instructors to:

• Insert a link at the desired location on the Course Content page
• Browse the elements of a course to select an item
• Rename the link that will appear on the Course Content page
• Move a link on the Course Content page independent of the target item

Exceptions:

• You cannot create course links using the Content Editor.
• You cannot create Course Links for Folders, Learning Modules, Discussions, and Web Links.
• You cannot create Course Links with Learning Modules where force sequence is enabled. This is because links could allow users access to something they should not yet access. If a Course Link exists in a Learning Module, it will not be possible to enable forced sequence.
• You cannot copy Course Links for Documents and third-party content (LTI).
• When copying or converting from an Original course, the copy process will exclude Course Links for Folders, Learning Modules, and Web Links.

Instructors often desire insight into the progress students are making in their course. This information helps instructors to engage early with students or adjust the course content. We have created a new single student progress report. This report focuses on the path each student is taking on the course. In this new report instructors can view:

• The content they have created for their students
• The progress the student has made with relevant date/time stamps
• The current visibility status of each item

Instructors can access this new report:

• By selecting a single student from the Student Progress report on a content item
• By selecting a single student from the gradebook list view, Students tab, Student Progress tab
• By selecting a single student from the gradebook grid view, Student Progress tab

NOTE: This report is only available when progress tracking is turned on in the course.

With this update, instructors will find significant enhancements to the Ultra course copy tool:

• A larger item selection page shows selected items and items that can be selected at the same time. In the past, instructors would need to switch between two views.
• Tabs now separate courses and organizations. This makes it easier for instructors to find the correct source location.
• Breadcrumbs make navigation easier. Using breadcrumb links, instructors can return to a higher level of the course or organization structure. This prevents instructors from having to start again from the top level.
• The course and organization lists are displayed in alphabetical order. This makes it easier for instructors to find the correct one.

Instructors can now add descriptions to question banks, which are displayed with the question bank title on the Question Banks page.

To help instructors search for and locate a specific bank in the course, we added a search bar. The search functionality queries both the bank title and description.

When the instructor selects “first attempt with a grade” or “last attempt with a grade” sometimes the "needs grading" count was inaccurate or confusing. Blackboard updated the way that the "needs grading" count increments when more than one attempt is allowed. The "grade attempts" selection is honored for the following:

• last attempt with a grade - when the instructor grades the last attempt, previous attempts do not increase the "needs grading" count
• last attempt with a grade - if the student makes a new attempt after the instructor grades, that attempt does increase the "needs grading" count
• first attempt with a grade - when the instructor grades the first attempt, attempts that follow do not increase the "needs grading" count

Instructors often want to view the assessments and performance of an individual student. This is a common task, so it should be easy and accessible from the gradebook. Blackboard enhanced the Student Grades Overview by:

• surfacing the last access, username, and accommodations;
• adding the Student Activity report; and 
• surfacing accommodations.

Instructors may want to assess a student’s knowledge of visual content. With the hot spot question type, students must mark a certain area of the image that is within the area the instructor defined as correct.

Page breaks are helpful in assessments for a few reasons. Page breaks allow for easy creation of sections within an assessment. Page breaks also make it easy to group related questions. Students can easily navigate from page to page. If the instructor activates ‘Display one question at a time’ or ‘Question randomization’ all pages will be merged.

New user interface allowing instructors to 

• Select which gradebook items to include in the download,
• Include deleted items, and
• Select timeframes to optimize the amount of information downloaded.

The download file report will include additional information:

• Student username
• Grade category
• Submission receipt: The submission receipt number
• Submission attempt: The number of the submitted attempt

These changes make it easier to access and search the log of changes to student grades.

Blackboard further improved how students are informed about connectivity issues. Assessments will detect if a connection is lost. If this happens, students are warned. If the connection is not restored, another warning informs the student that their most recent progress is not saved. When the connection is restored, the system alerts the student and confirms that progress is saved.

Student feedback is a crucially important part of instruction. To better support instructors, Blackboard expanded the content editor options for manually added columns. Now instructors can give robust feedback that includes formatted text, lists, links, attachments, and media.

Many faculty enjoy using the Content Collection so that they can easily reuse content across courses. In the past, instructors could only add content from the Content Collection on the Course Content page. Now instructors may include content from the Content Collection in Ultra Documents.

Instructors identify struggling students based on their performance and engagement within a course. The course activity page allows instructors to:

• Identify struggling students based on their grade and hours spent in the course. This data is a snapshot taken weekly that allows instructors to compare.
• Act by messaging students who have a low grade and/or have not logged in recently.
• Focus on a student to see how their engagement and performance has changed each week.
• Receive alerts when a student has not accessed their course in a while or if their grade has dropped.
• Notify students when their course activity or grade in the course is below average.

The Course Activity page is located under the Analytics tab in courses. 

In the past it was difficult for users to know which courses and organizations contained unread messages. Now there is an unread messages indicator for courses and organizations on the Messages tab in the Ultra Base Navigation. This indicator helps users know where to direct their attention.

Instructors need to know how their students engage with course content, which may help them take important actions, such as improving course content or reaching out to idle students. A new report allows instructors to select a piece of content and view:

• Students who have not yet opened content;
• Students who have opened or started viewing content; and
• Students who have marked the content as complete.

The report includes the date and time an action occurred (e.g., when a student started viewing content). Instructors may sort by student name or progress status. Instructors can then send an individual or bulk message with a blind copy to each student.

The following content types are tracked:

• Learning Modules & Folders
• Ultra Documents
• Uploaded files
• Links
• LTI content with no associated grade

The list of students will also include pronunciation and, when enabled by UMBC, pronoun information.

An overview of a student's performance is helpful to instructors when working in the gradebook. In the List View of the Gradebook, when an instructor selects a student card an overview of the student’s assessment performance displays.

This experience is now replicated when an instructor selects a student from the Grid View of the Gradebook. 

Student responses entered in the content editor will be auto saved two seconds after the student stops typing. The "last saved" time is displayed at the bottom of the assessment and auto updates. If there is a disruption in connectivity, students will receive a "Connection lost" warning. This warning informs students that action is needed to re-establish the connection so that their work is saved.

Auto saving is independent of any browser undo function. When the undo action is used, contents will change according to browser behavior. That content will then be saved automatically.

Instructors and students can use screen readers to access math formulas when creating, editing and viewing content. This update helps people who use a screen reader independently access math formulas. This new functionality also supports easier content creation since no added effort is needed to make the math formulas accessible.

Key considerations:

• Users should confirm that their device and Learn Ultra course have the same language configuration.
• Languages supported depends on WIRIS library. As of October 2022, WIRIS supports Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Norwegian, Portuguese and Spanish.
• If the Learn Ultra course is configured to use a language not supported by WIRIS, math formulas are read in English.
• Math formulas can be added in content editors using the math editor or by typing LaTeX equations. Both formats are accessible with screen readers.
• LaTeX equations display as text in the content editor. When users save the text, the LaTeX equations render as images. The screen reader reads the equations as text in the content editor and reads the math formulas when rendered as images.
• Content editors that have the math editor option also render LaTeX equations.
• LaTeX equations are not rendered inside code snippets because LaTeX equations are treated as part of the code format.

The course name is added to the browser tab. When a user is in the following areas of a course, they will see the name of the area and the name of the course: Analytics, Calendar, Content, Discussion, Gradebook, or Messages.

Save time and easily copy rubrics between your Ultra courses. Use the Copy Content tool and select only the Rubrics folder to copy all rubrics, or click the Rubrics folder to select one or more specific rubrics to copy into your course.

With this update, you can sort question banks by name, number of questions, or last edited date.

Instructors can now post a reply to student discussions within the context of the grading interface.

When creating a manual grade column, instructors can edit the maximum point value regardless of how the grade is displayed to students.

It's important for students to be aware of how much time they have when taking a test, but sometimes this can be stressful. Ultra now provides multiple options, which can be reviewed in this FAQ.

Students will have access to grade feedback, regardless of how an instructor grades, including grade overrides

A new side panel is available when providing inline feedback for student assignments. This panel summarizes all comments in one list, making it easier to view feedback in a student's submission.

Note: This functionality will be rolled out over time, separately from the main updates in September.

Ally now features a new alternative format to download. Microsoft Immersive Reader helps students improve their reading, comprehension, and grammar skills.

Instructors can send messages to students enrolled in private and unavailable courses. When a course is private, instructors will see a banner in the course inbox or when drafting a message. The banner states that students cannot access the messages in the course when the course is private but will receive an email copy instead.

Students will receive an email copy of any message sent. They will be able to access the message from within their course once the instructor opens the course.

Copying content within a course is an important feature to quickly deploy reusable structures. Ultra now includes functionality to help prevent accidental copying of an entire course within a course.

With this enhancement, instructors will be able to:

• Create new, empty question banks in their Ultra courses,
• View and search for questions within a question bank, and
• Add, edit, and delete all aspects of a question within new and existing question banks

Currently, instructors can add additional attempts or change an item's visibility. With this update, you can allow due date exceptions for a student per assignment. 

Key considerations:

• Due date exceptions support is for individual tests and assignments only.
• If an assignment or test does not have a due date, an exception cannot be set.
• If an instructor wishes to remove the due date on an assignment or test, the instructor must first remove all due date exceptions.
• To find students with the due date exception, instructors may access the submission list view page. Students with the clock icon next to their name have the due date exception.
• Instructors may grant due date exceptions in combination with other exception types.
• Automatic zeros respect due date exceptions. Automatic zeros are only applied if students with the due date exception do not submit on time.
• The “prohibit late submission” and “prohibit new attempts” options respect due date exceptions. These settings only apply if students with the due date exception do not submit on time.

Instructors can create group sets and add group members by importing a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file. This feature also supplies the ability to export group sets and members to a CSV file.

Instructors need clear information about the status of student progress in a course. The submission page for an assignment presents information in two columns now: Submission status and grade status. This change provides instructors with greater clarity while grading and supporting students. A new filter also provides additional ways to sort and view what needs to be graded or what has already been graded on the page.

This update applies to tests, assignments, and discussions. It does not apply to anonymous grading, journals, or group assessments/tests.

In addition to points and weighted options for calculating the Overall Grade in your Ultra gradebook, you can also use a bespoke formula to create a customized column for greater flexibility and evaluation needs.

Collaborative documents provide students opportunities to engage with one another and course content. Instructors can now create a Microsoft OneDrive collaborative document in the Ultra and Original Course Views. Supported file types including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. 

Instructors can select an existing document or create a new file for collaboration. All student members of the course will be able to access the file. The students may select Edit Document to begin collaborating on the file.

NOTE: Users may need to sign into Microsoft OneDrive / Office 365 to use this feature.

Instructors have a choice when exiting student preview:

• save the preview student and data
• delete the preview student and data

The delete option removes the preview user and data from the roster, gradebook, messages, discussions, journals, and conversations. A new exit icon appears instead of the (...) icon.

Instructors and students can create and edit LaTeX equations in the content editor. LaTeX equations display as text in the content editor. Users can edit the equation using the Math formula option. When users save the text, the LaTeX equations render as images. 

Special notes:

• Essay questions and the "Additional Content" section in Assessments do not have a save option in the text editor. In these areas, LaTeX equations will render as images after submission. Students can verify that the formula will render by opening the equation using the Math editor option.
• Formatting such as italics or bold must be in the LaTeX code. Users can add the code formats in text or when editing using the Math editor. If a user chooses the bold format in the content editor, the image will render without that format. Example:
  • Code without format: $$axˆ2+bx+c=0$$
  • Code with format: $$\style{font-size:72px}{axˆ2+bx+c=0}$$
• LaTeX equations are not rendered when they are inside code snippets because LaTeX equations are treated as part of the code format.

Instructors can send messages to students enrolled in private and unavailable courses. When a course is private, instructors will see a banner in the course inbox or when drafting a message. The banner states that students cannot access the messages in the course when the course is private but will receive an email copy instead.

Students will receive an email copy of any message sent. They will be able to access the message from within their course once the instructor opens the course.

Content reuse is an important aspect of building out and updating courses. Instructors will now have access to the status of all the course tasks that they start including copy, Ultra course conversion, archive, export, import, and restore.

Logs are available for all course tasks. Instructors will be able to view the conversion report, view/filter, and download logs. These logs will help instructors triage any issues that may arise.

Blackboard consolidated the mobile app for both instructors and students rather than have separate apps. The user experience will change based on the user’s role within a course. Instructors can use the updated Blackboard app for both Original and Ultra courses.

The user experience in the Ultra Course View will be the same between the Blackboard mobile app and a web browser. This new Blackboard mobile app will be available August 8, 2022, from the iOS and Android app stores. Students using the current Blackboard app should simply update. Instructors, assistants, and graders should remove the Blackboard Instructor app and download the Blackboard app.

NOTE: Support for the Blackboard Instructor iOS and Android apps ends in September 2022. Instructors, Assistants, and Graders should download the Blackboard app for iOS or Android.

Some instructors prefer to define the overall grade calculation based on points. Now the Overall Grade supports a points-based calculation. This new calculation gives instructors greater flexibility and supports varied evaluation practices. The setup wizard guides the instructor to select points or weighted calculation, and includes examples of each calculation type.

The instructor may choose to display the overall grade as points. This display option supports the new points-based calculation for the overall grade. With the points display option, instructors and students see the overall grade as a fraction. For example, 745/800.

Instructors spend a great amount of time building and refining assessment questions. Reusing these questions across courses is of utmost importance. Now instructors can copy question banks from Original and Ultra courses. This saves time and provides greater efficiency.

From the Copy Content menu, instructors may select the Question Banks folder from the desired course. To copy all banks the instructor may select the checkbox for the Question Bank folder and select the checkbox for each bank to copy. Copied Question Banks appear in the Question Banks area under the Details and Actions menu of the course.

Robust assessment settings are key for supporting a range of instructional scenarios. Building on the one-question-at-a-time feature, instructors can now prevent backtracking. This option allows instructors to force a sequence through questions in an assessment. A sequence is important when upcoming questions provide hints or reveal answers to earlier questions.

Once the student answers the question and continues to the next, the student cannot go back. If a student skips a question, an alert informs the student that they cannot go back to the question.

Instructors and administrators need a record of changes to grades in a course. These records are important for addressing quickly student questions and grade challenges. Instructors can download the grade history from an Ultra course as a tab or comma separated file (.xls or .csv).

Instructors can now change the points a student earns on an assessment question. The points field supports negative and positive values with up to two decimal points. The grade on an assessment may change when:

• an assessment posts grades automatically, but then the instructor changes the points earned on a question
• the instructor removes an overridden grade so that changes to points earned reflect on the assessment grade

Students will receive a grade change notification if an assessment grade changes based on their notification preferences. 

When a student applies a filter, a corresponding filter chip appears below the test header. A student may quickly remove any applied filter from this area by selecting the X on the filter chip. When a student applies a filter, a filter button appears. If a student selects the filter button, the question filter options menu opens below.

Recategorizing assessments is important to instructors who assign weight to categories in the overall grade calculation. An instructor may select a category that does not match the assessment tool used. For example, an instructor may wish to include an Assignment in the Test category. There is now a 'Grade category' selector in the settings panel for graded discussions and journals. The category options include both default and custom categories.

Various files will now render inline in Course Content, folders, and learning modules. Instructors can set the behavior of these files for users:

• view and download (default)
• view only
• download only

Please review supported file types. For the file types: .xlsx, .xls, .xlst, .csv, and .tsv, inline viewing is only supported for files up to 10 Mb in size. Files over 10 Mb are downloadable only.

NOTES:

• Non-supported file types will always be downloadable for users.
• Some image, video, and audio file types will now open in a large panel. Users can view or play back media in the browser
• Inline rendering applies to new and existing files in the course. Existing files will be set to ‘view inline and download’ by default. Instructors can change the files to 'view only' or 'download only' if preferred.
• We convert supported content types to PDF on demand when a user accesses them. This conversion provides an improved user experience. We cache these files for 30 days. Files converted to PDF as part of this feature do not count towards your storage quota.
• Hyperlinks in files are disabled.

When Original courses are converted to Ultra courses, Blank Pages will be converted to Ultra Documents. This conversion will help ensure a smoother transition from Original to Ultra Course View.

Instructors and students often use math formulas in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses. In the past, formulas might render slowly or lose quality when zoomed. Now we will render math formulas as images in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. This allows users to zoom in or enlarge formula images without losing quality. This change also improves accessibility for users with low vision.

Users can create math formulas using the text editor. Some content types include a description. The description appears on the Course Content page. Some notifications on the Activity Stream also display the description. When a description for a discussion or journal includes a math formula, Ultra replaces the formula image with '[Math formula].' When the user selects the content or notification, the math formulas will render as images.

Messages will use a larger panel for viewing and composing messages rather than the smaller panel. Two option are moved above the rich content editor:

• Allow replies to this message
• Send an email copy to recipients

Institutions can allow users to express their personal pronouns. This fosters greater respect among students and with faculty.

Institutions can also enable name pronunciation. Users can add text guidance to describe the pronunciation of their names for other users. Users can record the pronunciation of their names. The recording tool counts down to when the recording begins. The recording may be up to 20 seconds long. For accessibility reasons, text guidance must be allowed if name recording is enabled. Recordings are compressed and included in storage use calculations.

In the past, instructors could only weight gradebook items or grade categories. Now, in the release, both items and categories can have weight in the overall grade calculation. This allows instructors to weight high stakes assessments while also weighting categories.

Instructors may unlink items from categories to assign weight at the item level. Unlinked items appear ahead of the related category. An instructor may specify the weight and lock it to prevent further changes to the weight. Locking is helpful because the weights auto-adjust to ensure that the weighted calculation sums to 100%.

Some instructors prefer to use category weights to calculate the overall grade. Currently, instructors are unable to assign weight to any empty grade category. This restriction requires each category to have at least one assessment. This is not always practical, especially at the beginning of an academic term. Now instructors can configure a weighted overall grade that includes empty grade categories. This will give the instructor greater flexibility for configuring the calculation.

Blackboard also added options to auto-balance weights and lock values you do not want to change. Currently, there is a warning when the weights do not sum to 100%, but the actual sum is missing. Now categories will auto-balance as the instructor sets the weights. Instructors can lock the weight for any category. A locked category is excluded from the calculation as other category weights are set.

Instructors may enable this setting from the Test Settings panel. This option also appears in Assignment Settings when the assignment includes questions.

Watch a video about displaying one question at a time on Ultra tests.

This integration allows instructors to add OneDrive files to the Course Content area, Learning Modules, and Folders. The instructor may need to sign into a Microsoft account to view and select files. After adding the OneDrive file, the instructor may rename the file in the course. The instructor may also set student visibility. To edit the content of the file, the instructor may enter full screen. A new browser tab opens, and the file is now editable.

The student has a read-only view of the file in the course.

This feature requires that the third-party tool uses LTI Advantage.

Updated behavior for tools

• Ultra Course View: We now default to auto-post grades for LTI Advantage tools. Instructors will not have to remember to post grades. One exception exists when a tool indicates that grades should not post to students.
• Original Course View: The behavior for LTI Advantage tools remains unchanged. Grades auto-release when the tool sends scores. One exception exists when the Grade Center column is not visible.

New capability for tools

• Ultra Course View: If a tool sets that grades should not auto-post, scores sent to the Learn Gradebook only display to instructors. Instructors can choose to post grades for students, or the tool can auto-release grades later.
• Original Course View: If a tool sets that grades should not auto-post, scores sent to the Learn Grade Center appear behind a “Needs Grading” status indicator. Students and instructors see that students have submitted work but not the result. When the tool releases grades, all students will see their scores.

Two new assessment settings are now available to give instructors more control over due dates and time limits.

• "Prohibit late submissions" - Select this setting to enforce a hard deadline and disallow a late submission. In-progress and saved attempts will auto-submit at the due date. Students will receive a submission receipt via email. Specified accommodations are still honored.
  
  
• "Prohibit new attempts after due date" - Select this setting to prevent students from beginning a new attempt after the due date.

Selecting "Prohibit late submissions" auto-enables "Prohibit new attempts after due date." However, an instructor can enable the "Prohibit new attempts after due date" option on its own to allow students to resume any attempt saved before the due date passes in the event there is a technical disruption during the assessment. Students who submit an attempt after the due date will have their submission marked as late.

All users can add text guidance and an audio recording of their name to their user profile. Users can use the text guidance to describe the pronunciation of their names for other users. Users can record the pronunciation of their name. The recording tool counts down to when the recording begins. The recording may be up to 20 seconds long.