As announced in June 2025, Blackboard will retire Original courses and organizations on December 31, 2026. Starting January 1, 2027, all Original content in courses and organizations will be placed in a read-only state by Blackboard, which can be viewed by those respective enrolled users, but not edited by instructors or leaders. 

Not sure if you have an Original organization? Original organizations currently display a banner announcing their upcoming retirement.

What this means for UMBC

The retirement of Original content means that any active organizations running on Original will be impacted. This includes both Original organizations and any remaining Original courses, whether term-based or development shells. (Original content may be copied until it is archived or converted.)

• December 31, 2026 - This is the final day to make changes to courses or organizations using the Original Course View.
• January 1, 2027 - All Original Course View courses and organizations are marked Complete. Changes are no longer possible. Original Course View courses and organizations are put into read-only mode so users can still access data, and will not be accessible via the mobile app.
• January 1, 2028 - Any remaining Original courses and organizations are converted to Ultra.

Next steps for organization leaders 

Throughout 2026, Instructional Technology has worked with Original organization leaders, providing training, resources, and personalized assistance. We will continue to provide consultation to Original organization leaders if they have questions related to

• Migration and content transfer
• Any necessary redesign of organization content
• Archiving content, especially for legacy organizations over 7 years old, in a Blackboard export package or exported file attachments

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, 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