Unlock the full potential of Blackboard Ultra as our university's Learning Management System (LMS) to enhance course organization, create engaging content, streamline assessments, foster communication and collaboration, and track student progress. Explore the resources and best practices provided here to optimize your use of Blackboard Ultra and create a dynamic and effective online learning environment.
One of the first differences you’ll notice upon entering an Ultra course is the visual layout. Blackboard Original courses included a single navigation menu, located in the sidebar. This menu was highly customizable in that you could add or remove items, rename them, and re-order them according to your preference.
Blackboard Ultra courses have a navigation menu across the top of the course and an additional section in the sidebar. The advantage of this layout is that it makes more efficient use of space than that of Blackboard Original. It does not, however, support the same degree of customization.
Navigation menu
This menu cannot be customized at this time. Items cannot be added, nor can they be removed, renamed, or reordered.
- Content
- Calendar
- Announcements
- Discussions
- Gradebook
- Messages
- Analytics
- Groups
Sidebar section
This section allows very little customization. The only optional item is the addition of a course schedule (for class meeting times). Some items can be enabled or disabled, but they will always remain visible.
- Course Faculty
- Details & Actions
- Roster
- Progress Tracking (can turn on and off but always visible)
- Class Collaborate (can disable or “close” but always visible)
- Attendance
- Books & Tools
- Question Banks (visible in instructor view only)
- Course Schedule (this is the only optional item)
Setting "fixed value” points for a test
In Blackboard Original, it was possible to override the total points possible for a test or quiz via the Grade Center and assign a fixed value to the test. There were several use cases this feature supported:
- Allowing students to only answer some of the test questions for full credit (e.g. answer 3 of the 5 questions).
- Making a test worth a specific number of points upon completion, regardless of how many questions are in the test, how many points each question is worth, or how many a student got correct (e.g. pre-tests or knowledge checks).
In Blackboard Ultra, the total value of a test is calculated exclusively by adding up the point values of each individual question. Possible workarounds, depending on the desired outcome, include:
- Tweaking the individual point values of questions so they add up to your desired total. In some cases, this might require making one or more questions worth slightly more or slightly less than other questions to reach a whole number or terminating decimal.
- Making the value of each test question “0” and adding a final question (e.g. “True or False: I have completed this test”) worth the total value of the test.
- Using a weighted category grading schema to make the value of individual quizzes irrelevant and instead designate how much of the total course grade you want these items to collectively be worth.
Complete/Incomplete Grade Schema
Blackboard Ultra allows you to apply a "Complete/Incomplete" grade schema in the test settings. This schema will not display the points earned for the test in the gradebook, but rather a complete or an incomplete indicator. There are a few important things to keep in mind when using this schema:
- For a test to automatically award points upon completion, it cannot contain open-ended questions. If it does, you will have to manually score each submission for points to be awarded.
- If your test does consist of automatically scored open-ended questions, be aware that it will not automatically award full points upon completion. It will award the number of points the student earned based upon their correct and incorrect responses.
- If a student does not earn the full possible points due to incorrect responses, their partial score will be recorded to the gradebook and reflected in their total grade for the course. However, it will not be apparent to instructors when this has happened with "Complete/Incomplete" schema. You will only see a "Complete" indicator in the gradebook; you will not be able to see the exact points earned by the student, nor will you be able to open the test and review the correct or incorrect responses of the student. You can only access their response details if you change the schema back to "Points".
Bulk editing point values
Bulk editing the point values of multiple questions at a time is not currently possible in Blackboard Ultra. Point values must be updated, and saved, on one question at a time.
"Forms” vs. “Surveys”
“Forms” are Blackboard Ultra’s equivalent for Blackboard Original’s “Survey” tool. Both tools share several similarities. For example, in both tools, you cannot identify “correct” answers, nor can you set up automated feedback. Both tools allow you to track which students have submitted. There are, however, two key differences between the two.
|
Feature |
Surveys |
Forms |
|
Anonymity |
Results are always anonymous. |
|
|
Grading options |
Can only be ungraded. |
Can be graded (students awarded a specified number of points upon completion) or ungraded. |
Conditional Content Release
Like Blackboard Original, Blackboard Ultra allows instructors to set rules or conditions to control the release of certain content to students. This was accomplished through “adaptive release” settings in Blackboard Original. In Blackboard Ultra, these are called “Release conditions”. There are some differences between Original and Ultra in what conditions can be applied. Key differences are indicated with an asterisk in the criteria column.
|
Criteria |
Adaptive release |
Release conditions |
|
Date |
Can specify a start date and/or end date for content to be viewable. |
|
|
Membership |
Can restrict access to specific users (members) or groups. |
Can restrict access to specific users (members) or groups. |
|
Grade |
Can set a grade requirement (score or percent) on a previous item as a release condition. |
Can set a "Performance" requirement on a previous item as a release condition, or select "Attempt submitted". |
|
Attempt* |
As one of the grade criteria options, can release content once a student has made an attempt on an item (e.g. discussion, quiz, assignment). |
This is one of the options available in the "Performance" condition settings. |
|
Review status* |
Can require students to mark a previous item as “reviewed” to release content. Item does not need to be a gradeable activity. |
Bb Ultra does not include a “review status” feature.
Workarounds: Can create a one-question quiz where students acknowledge they have reviewed the specified material. Can also set up “forced sequence” indicating that by clicking “next” students are acknowledging they have reviewed the specified content. |
|
Forced sequence* |
Bb Original does not have a “forced sequence” option. |
Forces students to navigate items in a learning module in sequence (cannot skip ahead). |
|
Multiple criteria |
Multiple criteria can be applied to a single rule, and multiple rules applied to the item. |
Multiple criteria can be applied to a single rule, and multiple rules applied to the item. |
Rubric visibility
- Blackboard Original allowed the ability to apply a rubric to an assignment without making the rubric visible to students.
- Blackboard Ultra does not currently provide this option. Rubrics are always visible to students. This feature has been requested and marked as "Planning to implement", though there is no estimated release date as of yet.
Messages & Email
- In Blackboard Ultra, when sending a message via Messages, copies are not automatically sent to the recipient's email. The sender must check the box for "Send an email copy to recipients" each time they compose a message if they want a copy to be sent to the recipient's email. This option is not available on the Blackboard mobile app.
- To view the actual email address of a student, you must open the Roster, select the 3 dots to the right of a student's name, and open their "Member Information". The student's email address will appear within the "Account Information" dropdown section.
“Forms” are Blackboard Ultra’s equivalent for Blackboard Original’s “Survey” tool. Both tools share several similarities. For example, in both tools, you cannot identify “correct” answers, nor can you set up automated feedback. Both tools allow you to track which students have submitted. There are, however, two key differences between the two.
|
Feature |
Surveys |
Forms |
|
Anonymity |
Results are always anonymous. |
|
|
Grading options |
Can only be ungraded. |
Can be graded (students awarded a specified number of points upon completion) or ungraded. |
Like Blackboard Original, Blackboard Ultra allows instructors to set rules or conditions to control the release of certain content to students. This was accomplished through “adaptive release” settings in Blackboard Original. In Blackboard Ultra, these are called “Release conditions”. There are some differences between Original and Ultra in what conditions can be applied. Key differences are indicated with an asterisk in the criteria column.
|
Criteria |
Adaptive release |
Release conditions |
|
Date |
Can specify a start date and/or end date for content to be viewable. |
|
|
Membership |
Can restrict access to specific users (members) or groups. |
Can restrict access to specific users (members) or groups. |
|
Grade |
Can set a grade requirement (score or percent) on a previous item as a release condition. |
Can set a "Performance" requirement on a previous item as a release condition, or select "Attempt submitted". |
|
Attempt* |
As one of the grade criteria options, can release content once a student has made an attempt on an item (e.g. discussion, quiz, assignment). |
This is one of the options available in the "Performance" condition settings. |
|
Review status* |
Can require students to mark a previous item as “reviewed” to release content. Item does not need to be a gradeable activity. |
Bb Ultra does not include a “review status” feature.
Workarounds: Can create a one-question quiz where students acknowledge they have reviewed the specified material. Can also set up “forced sequence” indicating that by clicking “next” students are acknowledging they have reviewed the specified content. |
|
Forced sequence* |
Bb Original does not have a “forced sequence” option. |
Forces students to navigate items in a learning module in sequence (cannot skip ahead). |
|
Multiple criteria |
Multiple criteria can be applied to a single rule, and multiple rules applied to the item. |
Multiple criteria can be applied to a single rule, and multiple rules applied to the item. |
- Blackboard Original allowed the ability to apply a rubric to an assignment without making the rubric visible to students.
- Blackboard Ultra does not currently provide this option. Rubrics are always visible to students. This feature has been requested and marked as "Planning to implement", though there is no estimated release date as of yet.
- In Blackboard Ultra, when sending a message via Messages, copies are not automatically sent to the recipient's email. The sender must check the box for "Send an email copy to recipients" each time they compose a message if they want a copy to be sent to the recipient's email. This option is not available on the Blackboard mobile app.
- To view the actual email address of a student, you must open the Roster, select the 3 dots to the right of a student's name, and open their "Member Information". The student's email address will appear within the "Account Information" dropdown section.
-
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