As we gear up for the FA2026 semester, Instructional Technology is hosting Blackboard Week from August 10th to August 14th. Whether you are completely new to Blackboard or a seasoned pro looking to optimize your course, this daily webinar series is designed to help you build, organize, and manage your virtual classroom with ease.

All sessions are open to all faculty and instructional staff and will take place online via Google Meet. Here is the lineup for the week:

Organize Your Course Content & Check Accessibility

Monday, August 10th (12pm-1pm) - register online

Get guidance on copying and reusing prior course content, building Ultra modules and       folders, embedding materials/LTI tools, controlling content release, and using Ally to check accessibility. 

Create Assessments in Blackboard 

Tuesday, August 11th (10am-11am) - register online

Discover how to create and customize tests, set up assignments with Blackboard's newest features, construct question banks/pools, design rubrics, and configure secure assessment settings.

Discover What's New in Blackboard for Teaching & Learning FA2026

Wednesday, August 12th (12pm-1pm) - register online

A comprehensive look at recent spring updates and what's newly developed for FA2026, specifically covering fresh features in grading, assessments, student engagement, groups management, and content creation.

Optimize Blackboard Course Groups

Thursday, August 13th (12pm-1pm) - register online

Learn best practices for creating and organizing groups, managing group activities and assignments, enhancing student communication, and effectively grading group submissions.

Navigate the New Blackboard Gradebook

Friday, August 14th (12pm-1pm) - register online

Wrap up the week by learning how to navigate the brand-new Gradebook experience. Topics include managing assessments, creating custom grade categories, grade calculations and schemas, and more.

How to Attend & Important Details

To secure your spot, select "Sign Up" on the corresponding myUMBC event post and add it to your calendar. Registered participants will receive a calendar invitation from the host at least one week before the session.

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 Blackboard? |Known Issues
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

Blackboard course shells for Fall 2026 were created on July 15, 2026.

All Fall 2026 courses listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), regardless of designation as lecture, lab, etc, or instructor assignment, now have a Blackboard presence. RT requests are no longer needed for research, independent study, or practicum courses. As new course sections are added to the SOC by Department Scheduling Coordinators, corresponding Bb shells are automatically generated overnight. 

• If you are an instructor and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please contact your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your access to the Bb course shell will be updated automatically.

• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not have access to your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.

Course Merge Request Process

As announced by DoIT in April 2025, instructors teaching multiple sections of the same course will find a separate Blackboard course shell for each section or course component. Instructors planning to use separate shells will no longer need to submit an RT request. Cross-listed and combined courses will be merged automatically. Courses with multiple components will not be merged by default.

Course shells may be merged or removed upon request using the new Blackboard Course Merge or Removal form (UMBC login required), which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard.

NOTE: Course content should be designed in the parent shell for a merge. Please request your merge before adding course content. Courses should not be merged or split after student grade data and engagement activity is recorded, since it will be purged as part of the separation process. 

Create an Inclusive & Accessible Course Environment

Plan your accessibility and Universal Design for Learning strategy before students begin working with course materials. Ally, an accessibility tool, is enabled in all course shells. Ally automatically scans uploaded and created course content, then performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Please review the Ally FAQs for more information about the accessibility indicators on course content and alternative formats, or attend an upcoming training session.

UMBC instructors are invited to "enroll" in the self-paced, online Course Roadmap to Equity (CoRE) Foundations training, which provides practical tools to achieve the ‘Strive for 85’ digital accessibility goal -- an overall Ally course score of 85% or better by the end of 2026. 

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 Blackboard? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• UMBC Digital Accessibility| Ally FAQs | Ally Demo | Ally Report (VPN required)
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity |Keep On Teaching |Student Technology Resources