This month's Ultra update focuses on increasing the visibility of Ally in Ultra courses. Faculty who upload files directly to the Course Content area or within folders and learning modules will see more prominent Ally accessibility meters. These tools are also available when content is embedded in Ultra assessments. Students can also access Ally's alternative file formats for content more easily.

Blackboard also enhanced self-enrollment for student groups, allowing students switch groups themselves within the instructor-specified enrollment period. This month offered a few quality improvement fixes. For example, line spacing is improved for Ultra discussion board spacing to improve the readability of posts. Additionally, students who are disabled in an Ultra course because they dropped the class will no longer appear in the participant list.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around February 11th and pushed to production in March 5th 2020. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

Managing large numbers of students and groups is an important tool in Blackboard. In the current version of Ultra, faculty had to create assignments and discussions before they could create and attach a group to the graded activity. With the December update, the Groups Set tool is enhanced to allow faculty to create groups before attaching them to assignments.

An additional enhancement to the groups tool will also allow faculty to assign students to a group if they are not already in one or move a student to a different group. This setting addresses an important need when students join a class after a group activity has started or if they do not join a self-enrolled group by an appointed deadline.

Note: Group Sets still do not have a bulk student enrollment option. We have reported this as a priority need to the Ultra developers. Self-enroll is not available for Group Sets. 

With the December update, faculty can create ungraded assignments. The existing workaround required using a zero-point test question; the upgrade to assignments now allows faculty to set the entire assignment to zero points.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around December 10th and pushed to production in early February 2020. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

As a fully redesigned system, Ultra benefits from an intentional focus on accessibility and mobile responsiveness. In addition to extensive checks to meet accessibility standards, Ultra includes support for Ally, an integrated tool that checks course content for accessibility and generates alternative formats for users.

With the November update, both the accessibility meters for faculty and the alternative formats for all users will be as visible as they are in Original courses. Accessibility scores for instructors will be available with attachments in document and tests with, appearing next to the files they are scoring. This makes it easier for instructors to see how their content scores and fix any issues. Students will be able to easily download alternative formats of files and images by selecting the alternative file icon and choosing the desired format.

Note: Accessibility scores and alternative format icons are only available with attached files. They will not be available with files and images added through the Ultra content editor. Instructors may also reference the Course Accessibility Report.

Faculty and students may also note a complete redesign of all icons throughout the Ultra system. Most notably, the updated icons are darker and will appear more prominently, particularly in Ultra courses. Additional updates in November include moving the Batch Edit tool into the overflow menu with other bulk course management tools to better align with how it's used and updating the assessment creation buttons to use Save and Cancel rather than Done. The blank Learning Module will also be removed from the Ultra course page to avoid confusion.

Finally, with the November update, Ultra Documents now have a description field that will appear on the Course Content page, which allows instructors to give high-level details about what the Ultra documents contain, reducing unnecessary clicks for students.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around November 12th and pushed to production around December 5th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

Calculating the grade on an Ultra tests becomes more flexible in the October update when the partial points feature is introduced. When creating a question in an assessment, instructors can enter values with up to two numbers after the decimal in the Points field. 

In the October update to Ultra, a quiz question can be worth 2.5 points or 0.5 points. If an assessment does not have individual questions, the overall point value can include up to two points after the decimal -- for example, an assignment can be worth 75.5 points.

When assignments require students to submit files, it's time-consuming for instructors to download each individual submission to grade it, especially in large courses. After the October update, instructors can download files from the Ultra gradebook or from the submissions list page with the Download all option. Instructors can then choose whether to download all or select specific submissions. Instructors receive an email and a course message when the ZIP file is ready to download to their computers.

Collaborate receives an updated this month as well, increasing the emoji options for non-verbal engagement and supporting video share through a Chrome browser tab. Additional Ultra updates this month include regrading question pools and the ability to remove attendance columns in the gradebook from a copied course. 

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around October 15th and pushed to production around November 7th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

Group management is an invaluable resource in a Blackboard course, especially one with large enrollments. UMBC is closely monitoring the evolution of this important tool in Ultra as we continue on a staged migration path. The September update to Ultra introduces self-enrolled group assignments, providing a useful workflow to support team activities. Faculty will be able to set self-enrollment limits for number of groups and membership size, hide student names for those who've already signed up, and create expiration dates for when students must sign up for their group assignments.

Two additional enhancements are available in September. Ultra courses will have a new Needs Grading filter to help instructors locate submissions and begin grading more quickly. Additionally, instructors can pre-schedule Collaborate sessions in their Ultra courses any time before releasing the course to students. 

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around September 10th and pushed to production around October 3rd. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

In the August update to Ultra courses, faculty can create question pools to help build assessments quickly and better support academic integrity. Instructors can add questions to from all existing tests, assignments and question banks in their courses, and those question pools will distribute different sets of questions to students.

Additionally, Ultra courses will now support a much needed feature in assessments: Hiding answers on a test while it is in progress. Faculty will be able to check a setting to show or hide the correct answers on a test. At this time, instructors must disable the setting after all students complete the test if they want students to later see the correct answers.

Organizations and communities may now adopt Ultra after the August update. Please consult the Instructional Technology office to determine whether converting or redesigning is best for your organization.

Course shells for FA2019 were created on July 28, 2019. Both Ally and the Ultra Course Preview tool are enabled in all courses, allowing faculty to review course materials for accessibility and to explore and adopt Ultra during the phased roll-out of Ultra.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around August 13th and pushed to production around September 5th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 

• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

  • Sign up for a webinar & other training 

• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

Review your course content with Ally

This month’s update to Blackboard will provide access to UMBC’s Google Drive. Faculty, staff, and students will be able to view their Google cloud storage from their Ultra courses, user profile, and the Tools page. In later versions of this new integration, users will be able to create and collaborate on Google documents -- all within the context of an Ultra course.

Additionally, Collaborate moderators will be able to share files with one or more breakout groups when that service is updated later in July. Files uploaded to a Collaborate session can be renamed within the live session and files shared in breakout rooms can be transferred back into the persistent content for the main Collab session.

Course shells for FA2019 will be created at the end of July. Both Ally and the Ultra Course Preview tool will be enabled in all courses, allowing faculty to review course materials for accessibility and to explore and adopt Ultra during the phased roll-out of Ultra.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around July 16th and pushed to production around August 8th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 

• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

• Review your course content with Ally 

The June update to Blackboard brings delegated grading to Ultra courses. Renamed “parallel marking” in Ultra, this feature is designed to minimize bias when paired with anonymous grading. Parallel marking is a valuable tool for high stakes assessments, allowing faculty to evaluate student submissions with two graders and reconcile the results for a final grade.

A new enhancement to the Courses page provides users with an option to view courses in list or grid mode. Stock images randomly display for each course card when grid mode is active. The banner image can be replaced by faculty who would prefer to personalize the course visual. While image does not yet appear in the Ultra course itself, it is an early step toward course personalization.

Other enhancements coming to Ultra on June 7 include:

• The Organizations page will provide better tools to access content including list and grid view, favorites, and filters. Leaders will be able to upload banner images to organization cards to personalize the community experience.

• During the SP2019 semester, the calendar tool was updated to allow sharing content with external services. In June, users can import external calendars, such as Google, to their Blackboard calendar.

As a separately hosted service, Collaborate will be updated about one week earlier. The June release will feature a session inactivity reminder. If attendees in a session are not active after a time, the session ends. This includes activity such as using audio, raising a hand, sharing content, and so on. Inactive attendees in the session see and hear a reminder that the session is open and will close in a minute before they are removed. Additionally, moderators will be able to share files with one or more breakout groups.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around June 11th and pushed to production around July 11th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access.

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection

• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues | About Ultra

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

A core feature in an Original Blackboard course, Student Preview is used by faculty to review the content and tool functionality in a virtual environment before releasing to students -- and it is coming to Ultra courses in May.

Instructors can also import question banks exported from Original courses and publisher-created test banks to their Ultra courses. Once imported, these questions are available for immediate use and reuse across all assessments in the Ultra course. As with any conversion from Original to Ultra, question types that are not yet supported are dropped during the processing of the imported file.

Other enhancements coming to Ultra on May 3 include:

• Instructors can leave feedback for individual group members and for the group as a whole for a graded activity

• The link to the Course Room will be renamed to Blackboard Collaborate

Initially deployed to Ultra courses in SP2019, the new accessibility tool Ally will be available to all new courses beginning with summer 2019. Ally automatically scans course content and performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Ally is one part of a broad investment to support accessibility, hybrid and online learning, and instructional technology in DoIT. Moreover, this strategic investment extends the timeline for Ultra and provides a $100 stipend to faculty to convert a course to Ultra.

While many features released each month benefit Ultra courses, all users can now share Blackboard calendars with external calendar services such as Google.

The next update will be posted to our test site around May 14th and pushed to production around June 6th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access.

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection

• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues | About Ultra

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

• Request a consult with instructional technology staff