Category: Blackboard

Ultra Update – July 2025

Posted on by jamie.gilder

One of the advantages of our move to Blackboard Ultra is the ongoing potential for new feature releases and updates. New releases take place on the first Thursday of every month, which is much more frequently than for Blackboard Original. We will communicate about new features and changes via this blog. If you want to be kept up to date with the latest information, we recommend subscribing to the blog. 

This release has new or updated features in the following areas:   

  • Instructional design; 
  • Tests and assignments; 
  • Gradebook; 
  • Learner progression and personalised experience; 
  • Blackboard Core. 

These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Below you’ll find our highlights, and more detail on the most relevant updates.

Highlights

Add captions to image blocks in Documents

Instructors can now add captions to image blocks in Documents. Added above or below an image, captions can provide context and aid understanding.

Screenshot showing the Edit File Options menu. The menu has Display Name and Image caption fields, and a caption position option. The above image position is selected.
Image 1. Instructors can use the Edit File Options menu to choose the position of the caption.
An image of a tabby cat with a caption above that reads 'Tabby is one of the most common fur patterns in cats'.
Image 2. An example of an image with a caption above.

Expanded activity page for instructors

The Activity page now has a courses section which shows new activity in current, open courses since an instructor last logged into Blackboard. The courses section includes shortcuts. These are numbered indicators for each course which instructors can select to view:

  • Items that need marking 
  • Messages
  • Students with alerts
A screenshot showing the activity page. The activity stream is on the right hand side, and the courses section is in the middle of the page. The top of the courses section reads 'Current courses' and there are four courses, with an image for each, displayed below it. On several of the courses, numbered purple indicator icons are shown.
Image 1. The new Activity page has a courses section as well as the activity stream.

Please see the Release Notes for further information.

Render mathematical formulas with MathJax

The formula rendering experience in the Content Editor has been enhanced through the implementation of MathJax, a powerful tool for displaying mathematical notation. This update improves the visual accuracy and consistency of LaTeX-based formulas, aligning them more closely with scientific and academic standards. 

MathJax offers a more precise rendering style preferred by many STEM instructors. When activated, MathJax will automatically render LaTeX code entered directly in the Content Editor across supported areas of Blackboard. 

Other updates include:

Please see the Release notes for further information on these updates and others in this release.

Further help and support

For more guidance on using Blackboard Ultra, please explore Ultra Essential Guidance. 

Students can view an Ultra orientation and advice on using Ultra from their Help for Students sections (or equivalent) in your Blackboard course. 

Improved Navigation in Mark Approval Tool LTi (formerly Grade Approval Tool)

Posted on by Cleo Benedetto-Rea

The Mark Approval Tool in Blackboard is now paginated, giving users greater flexibility when viewing student data.

Users with the Marks Extractor role can now choose to display 10, 50, or 100 items per page.

  • Displaying 10 items per page helps avoid long scrolls.

  • Choosing 50 or 100 items reduces the need to click through multiple pages.

You can tailor the display to suit your workflow and preferences, which is especially useful when working with larger cohorts.

This improvement makes it easier to locate and select marks before extracting them to eVision/SITS, helping to streamline the process overall.

Reminder: Always drill down until you can see your students’ names and the Mark Column name to ensure you’re viewing the correct data.

Ultra Update – June 2025

Posted on by jamie.gilder

One of the advantages of our move to Blackboard Ultra is the ongoing potential for new feature releases and updates. New releases take place on the first Thursday of every month, which is much more frequently than for Blackboard Original. We will communicate about new features and changes via this blog. If you want to be kept up to date with the latest information, we recommend subscribing to the blog.

This release has new or updated features in the following areas:

  • Instructional design;
  • Communication and collaboration;
  • Tests and assignments;
  • Learner progression and personalised experience;
  • Gradebook;
  • Blackboard Core.

These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Below you’ll find our highlights, and more detail on the most relevant updates.

Highlights

Add dividers to documents

Instructors can now add divider blocks to Documents. Dividers provide a clear way to structure a Document into sections. They can be resized to span up to four columns.

Screenshot of the Document block creation screen: Divider is shown as a block type and highlighted with a blue square.
Image 1. Dividers are now included as a block type.
Screenshot of a Document with several columns: text stating learning outcomes and an image of three people kayaking. The divider at the bottom has been expanded across multiple columns.
Image 2. Dividers can span multiple columns in a Document.

Create jumbled sentence questions

Instructors can now create jumbled sentence questions for tests. This question type lets instructors define one or more paragraphs with blanks for students to complete. Additionally, instructors can:

  • Add distractors
  • Add automated feedback for correct and incorrect answers
  • Designate questions as extra credit
  • Use accessibility tools, such as keyboard-only workflows, to create this question type. 

To create a Jumbled Sentence question, enter the question text and define the blanks by enclosing the correct answers in square brackets (see image below).

Screenshot of creating a jumbled sentence question. The question text reads: Single water molecules are held together by [covalent] bonds and multiple water molecules are held together by [hydrogen] bonds. The kind of bond where atoms are sharing electrons but are not sharing them equally is [polar covalent bond].
Image 3. Creating a jumbled sentence question.

Please see the Release Notes for further information.

Unread discussion post indicator

An indicator has been added to the Discussions tab which shows the number of unread discussion posts from anywhere in a course.

A screenshot showing an 'Introduction to Humanities' course. The course has one unread discussion post which is indicated by a purple 1 next to the discussions tab.
Image 4. New unread discussion post indicator.

Other updates include:

Please see the Release Notes for full details on other updates in this release.

Further help and support

For more guidance on using Blackboard Ultra, please explore Ultra Essential Guidance. 

Students can view an Ultra orientation and advice on using Ultra from their Help for Students sections (or equivalent) in your Blackboard course.

[RESOLVED] Jumbled Sentence questions incorrectly copying from Blackboard Original to Ultra

Posted on by digitaleducation

Issue  

Currently, Jumbled Sentence questions are incorrectly copying from Blackboard Original to Blackboard Ultra courses.  

This question type is due to be released in Blackboard Ultra on June 6, but currently Jumbled Sentence questions are not supported, and a partial copy is being produced when any attempt is made to copy them (for example, as part of a larger pool or test with multiple questions). These partial copies contain the written element of the question but are not functional.  

Actions needed 

Until June 6, tests or question pools/banks with Jumbled Sentence questions should be not be copied between Blackboard Original and Ultra courses. After June 6, these can be copied with full functionality expected.  

Jumbled Sentence questions that have already been copied will need to be deleted and then re-added after June 6.  

 

Resolved: 06/06/25

Following an update to Blackboard, Jumbled Sentence Questions can now be created in Ultra courses and can be copied from Original courses to Ultra courses without issue.

[Open] Gradebook will sometimes not display Turnitin submission statuses

Posted on by digitaleducation

Turnitin has informed us of an intermittent known issue causing the Blackboard Gradebook to fail to sync with Turnitin. More information can be found on Turnitin’s known issues log.

In the meantime, instructors can continue marking as usual via Turnitin’s Assignment Inbox by entering marks there, and also manually in the Gradebook column for affected students. We also recommend using Turnitin’s Assignment Inbox to check for non-submissions, rather than relying on the Gradebook.

We will provide an update as soon as we have one.

[CLOSED] Marks extract from Blackboard issue

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

Update: This issue was resolved at around 5 pm on 29 April.

You may be experiencing an issue with extracting marks from Blackboard to SITS/eVision, which we believe is being caused by the current IT Services issue with a range of web-hosted applications (noted under “Exam Timetables Down” on the IT Service Status page). We are investigating this and will provide updates here as we have them. In the meantime, it may be necessary to manually enter any marks that are needed in eVision urgently.

Please accept our apologies for this disruption.

2025/26 Blackboard courses now available

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

The annual creation of Blackboard unit courses has been carried out, and the 2025/26 Blackboard courses are available to access. We are now working on building “parent” courses, where these are needed.

This year, all courses are Ultra courses, using the new Ultra templates created with the faculties. You can find your courses in the usual way, by logging in to Blackboard.

Instructor enrolments are copied from the previous year’s courses, where these exist; instructors will need to be manually enrolled onto all new courses. Please contact your school office if you need to be added to any new Blackboard courses.

Information on training and support for Blackboard Ultra is available on the Blackboard Ultra move project site.

Please note that, because of the early creation of courses, some tools that link to other University services outside Blackboard – such as Re/Play and Talis Aspire Resource Lists – will not be fully functional until those services have carried out their annual switch-over. For Re/Play, links to Collections won’t work until mid-July. For resource lists, links can be added to your 2025-26 lists from Thursday 29 May; please contact lib-resource-lists@bristol.ac.uk or your Subject Librarian if you require any support with this.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

[Open] Blackboard annotate intermittent issue

Posted on by digitaleducation

Blackboard is continuing to investigate an intermittent issue with document rendering in the Annotate tool, which is affecting users globally.

When this happens, students submitting assignments with attachments might see an error message asking them to try again later. Please note that this does not stop the submission, but it can be confusing as students cannot view the document’s content during the upload process. However, students can confirm that their submission has been successful by looking at their digital receipt.

Blackboard developers are collaborating with their partners to fix it, and a solution will be included in a future update.

If you have any questions or encounter this issue and need support, please email us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

[Closed] Blackboard Annotate: intermittent document rendering issue

Posted on by digitaleducation

Blackboard is currently investigating an intermittent document rendering issue affecting the Annotate tool. Instructors using Blackboard assignments and attempting to annotate papers via the online interface may be affected.

The supplier is actively working to restore the service to optimal performance, and we are closely monitoring the situation. We will provide updates as we have them.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.