Posts

Reminder: Blackboard Courses Scheduled for Server Retirement

Courses before Fall 2023 to be retired beginning 6/1

During Summer 2026, DoIT staff and Blackboard will archive our entire instance of Blackboard, which will save individually backed-up copies of every course and organization through SU2023. Courses...

May 7, 2026 · 8:00 AM

Access in Action: 3 Minutes with Faculty Senate President Nancy Kusmaul

Identify small steps that make a big impact for students

What does digital accessibility look like in practice -- and how can busy faculty make meaningful progress without redesigning their entire course? Professor Nancy Kusmaul -- outgoing Faculty...

May 6, 2026 · 4:46 PM

Redesigned Groups, Cascading Release Conditions in the May Ultra Update

Smarter tools for course design and student support

Have you ever spent more time wrestling with Blackboard's Groups tool than actually designing the group work itself, especially in a large course? The May Ultra update delivers meaningful...

May 5, 2026 · 9:03 AM

Blackboard's Groups tool gets a major redesign that makes managing students faster and easier

Preview it on our test server before it goes live on May 20

Have you ever wrestled with Blackboard's group management -- spending too many clicks trying to organize students, waiting for pages to load in large courses, or losing track of who's assigned...

April 27, 2026 · 10:49 AM

Raise a FA26 Bb Course Ally Score by Fixing the Prior Version

"Strive for 85" with Digital Accessibility

As announced last month, UMBC is working toward a campus-wide goal of highly accessible courses by the end of 2026. To help, DoIT recommends that faculty identify accessibility gaps in prior...

April 22, 2026 · 3:23 PM

UMBC Transitions Digital Badges to Accredible

New platform enhances analytics, sharing, and value

UMBC is transitioning its digital credentialing platform from Parchment Digital Badges (formerly Canvas Credentials/Badgr) to Accredible. This move supports continued growth in microcredentials...

April 20, 2026 · 11:56 AM

SU2026 Courses Created in Blackboard on April 16, 2026

New Process To Request Merged Course Shells

Blackboard course shells for Summer 2026 were created on April 16, 2026. All Summer 2026 courses listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), regardless of designation as lecture, lab, etc, or...

April 16, 2026 · 12:37 PM

Achieve ‘Strive for 85’ DA Goal: Enroll in CoRE Foundations

Opt-in, self-paced Bb training can lead to a microcredential

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...

April 7, 2026 · 8:44 AM

Blackboard Seeks Feedback on Ally Course Accessibility Report

Short survey available to improve reporting features

Blackboard is currently working on improving the Ally Course Accessibility Report. They are collecting feedback from users in a short survey to understand how you use it, what’s working well, and...

April 3, 2026 · 1:22 PM

Set Multiple Due Dates for Discussions & Define Assignment Types in April Ultra Update

New tools for clarity, consistency, and control in your Ultr

Have you ever wanted students to see exactly what's expected of them in a discussion, without having to navigate back to the assignment details to check? Or needed to recognize that one group...

April 3, 2026 · 8:20 AM

Posts

Sort By

Filter Posts

Archived Posts

Archived Content