As part of regular updates and improvements, Blackboard will be receiving a refreshed and improved course navigation interface from late evening on Thursday, 8 January 2026. 

Course content, course tools, and how to navigate within each course are not affected by this update. Access to assessment and other tools will remain unchanged for both you and your students.  

What will be changing?

1. Courses will appear in a full screen 

When you enter a course, it will now fill the screen rather than layer on top of the Blackboard Home page. This reduces the clutter on the screen significantly, making better use of the space.

2. Use the “Home” button to leave a course 

The pink “X” button to leave a course has been replaced with a “Home” button, which takes you back to the Blackboard home page. This reduces the risk of closing courses unintentionally. 

3. Course menu repositioned 

Within a course, the horizontal course menu is now located directly above the course banner, prioritising the course content in your field of view. 

4. Course titles overlayed on top of the course banner 

The banner image for your course now stretches across the breadth of the screen, and the name of your course is overlayed on top of this image. To improve contrast and ensure the name is legible for all users, a gradual vertical fade has been introduced to the image. 

5. New Course Switcher 

To make it easier to move quickly between courses without having to return to the Home page, a Course Switcher has been added to the top of the screen in each course. This shows the most recent courses you’ve visited by default, with an option to “View all” if the course you are looking for isn’t immediately available. 

 

6. Streamlined Home page menu 

The left-hand menu on the Blackboard Home page has been slightly redesigned. Now, your profile image will appear at the top of the list, and the option to sign-out has been placed at the bottom of the menu, separated from the other options. 

 

Do I need to do anything?

1. Review course banner  

Now that course names are overlayed on top of course banners, some images may lead to problematically reduced contrast, making the title hard to read for some users. If you find your image is no longer suitable, you can change this quickly and easily by following the instructions provided by Blackboard. If your course banner has been set by your faculty, you should refer to them for further support. If you need any help with changing course banners, contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk, with the subject line “changing course banner”.  

2. Students needing support or guidance 

We’ve provided a student-facing version of this update. Please use this link to disseminate this information to your students if you think they would find it helpful, or to answer any queries from students.

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 evening 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:   

• Communication and collaboration; 
• Gradebook;
• Learner progression and personalised experience;
• Integrations;
• Blackboard Core.

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

Highlights

Release conditions expanded to include activity on items, including non-assessment content

Release conditions can now be based on whether a student has opened or started content items. This includes non-assessment items such as documents, media, and course links. An example usage is setting release conditions which require students to open a reading or watch a video before an assessment becomes available.

This update has led to some changes in the release conditions interface, with the term Performance now replaced with Activity. While this change in terminology should be noted, existing functionality for assessment-based release condition rules remains the same.

Improved handling of group membership changes

The Flexible Grading and Submissions pages have been updated to show changes in group membership more clearly. 

On the Submissions page, if all members are removed from a group: 

• The group avatar displays a ? icon. 
• A No members label appears. 
• The group name becomes non-selectable.

For active groups, the Flexible Grading interface always shows the current group members for each attempt.

Additional supported delimiters in MathJax

MathJax support in the Content Editor now includes additional LaTeX delimiters for rendering mathematical formulas. Instructors and students can now use: 

• \(…\) for inline equations 

• \[…\] for display equations 

These options are in addition to the existing $ delimiters. 

Other updates in this release include:

• Learning Module table of contents – instructor view

Please see the full Release notes for information on other updates in this release.

Further help and support   

For more guidance on using Blackboard Ultra, please explore the Digital Education Development blog. 

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

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 evening 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;
• Blackboard Core.

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

Highlights

Option to include hidden items in Gradebook downloads

Instructors now have more flexibility when downloading the Gradebook for offline use. Previously, downloads included only the columns visible to instructors.

A new Include Hidden Items option appears when selecting Full Gradebook in Download Options. When selected, the download will contain all Gradebook columns, including those hidden from instructor view.

Updated Gradebook column navigation

Some changes have been made to column navigation in the Marks view of the Gradebook. Changes include:

For Assignments, Tests, Forms, Discussions, and Journals:

• The Edit option has been replaced with a View Submissions option.
• When selecting a cell, the View option now reads View Submission.

For Manual Items, Calculations, and Total Calculations:

• A View option has been added to the column header that routes to the submission page.

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.

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 evening 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; 
• Communication and collaboration. 

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

Highlights

Consistent Save and Cancel options in Assignment Settings

Save and Cancel buttons now appear more consistently in Assignment Settings. Changes include:

• Timer settings: Removed the X icon and added Save and Cancel buttons.
• Access code settings: Replaced Close and Continue with Cancel and Save.

Improved student experience for Fill in the Blank questions

Fill in the blank questions now display blanks in line with the surrounding text, whether the question is presented as a sentence, paragraph, or table. Blanks also now have hidden ARIA labels to improve screen reader accessibility.

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

Further 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.

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 evening 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; 
• Communication and collaboration; 
• Gradebook. 

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

Highlights

Block styling options for Documents

Block styling has been added to Documents, giving instructors new ways to add visual appeal and guide student attention. Each styling option adds colour and an icon to a block. The options are:

• Question Mark 
• Tip
• Key points
• Next steps

Please see the Release Notes for further information and best practice guidance for using block styling.

Question titles in tests, forms and banks

Instructors can now add question titles when working on questions in tests, forms, and banks. Question titles are optional, they are not visible to students and they are non-unique. Question titles are recommended. They can help with the organisation of questions and to quickly identify questions that have presented issues during an assessment.

Question titles appear when: 

• Creating or editing questions in tests, forms and banks 
• Adding questions to pools (Add Question Pool workflow) 
• Viewing questions in a pool (View Questions workflow) 

Titles do not appear when the instructor views or marks submissions for the test or form. Students do not see the question titles when they take a test or review their submission.

Other updates in this release include:

• ‘See more’ functionality when creating question pools
• Improved accessibility for the submissions list in the Gradebook
• Simplified announcement creation interface

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.

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 evening 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; 
• 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

Table of contents and full-width assessment panel in Learning Modules

Several user interface and navigation improvements have been made to Learning Modules. Learning Modules now include a collapsible table of contents and assessment items appear in a full-sized panel.

With the Force sequence option on, students must use the Next and Previous buttons to move through content in order. Students can’t use the table of contents to jump ahead unless they have already completed the item they are navigating to.

Please see the Release Notes for further information.

Other updates include:

• Course-level group conversion 
• Improved accessibility in the student Gradebook 
• Improved accessibility for the student overview page 

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.

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.

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

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. MathJax in Ultra is currently only working with $$…$$ delimiters, not \(…\) or \[…\], but it will work for creating inline maths with the $$…$$ delimiters, not just standalone formulae. Please see this MathJax support page for information on Tex and LaTex support.

Other updates include:

• Apply No Category option to Gradebook items
• View student engagement with announcements
• Pop-out rubric enhancements

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. 

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.

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).

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.

Other updates include:

• Perform bulk category changes in item management
• Enhanced overall appearance and usability of knowledge checks.

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.