• Bb Annotate is not Loading for Assignment Submissions With Multiple Files- Article #89867

• HTML block repetitively loses focus and closes. Instructors cannot select the scrollbar to view the HTML code because doing so closes the block.
• Inconsistent “Needs Grading” count for late Discussions and Journal entries when auto zeros are enabled.

After the change implemented, the “Needs Grading” count for late discussions and journal entries is now consistent across all three views reflecting the number of submissions that need to be graded, including those submitted after the due date.
 

• Adding File to Discussion Board Forum Prevents Editing the Forum- Article #89837

• The answer formula is not being displayed in the Calculated Formula question for either students or instructors.
• User Manager System Role and Other Roles Receive an 'Access Denied' Error When Trying to Access Administrator Panel > Users- Article #80938
• In Ultra Courses that have the Release Condition feature enabled, when instructors finish creating an assignment, a page unresponsive popup is displayed. 

• Inline Document View Missing Once Assignments are Viewed by Students- Article #87975

• Anthology's Ultra Respondus Lockdown Browser Code Not Displaying Respondus In Books & Course Tools on SaaS System- Article #78782
• Time Zone and Daylight Savings Time in Chile Causes Date Repetition in the Ultra Calendar- Article #78604
• Some LTI's have an "+" icon that allows the instructor to add it as a hyperlink into documents, but is not working for the new layouts.
• We have backported the 'Fix files in Subfolders After Import More than Once in Ultra', so that the migration can be correctly done. 
• We have addressed any data inconsistencies that may have arisen from the launch of the multiple release conditions feature. There was a possibility that existing data could have been affected, potentially impacting the availability of content items. The script included in this release was designed to correct any such data inconsistencies.

• Download Assessment Files Page is Not Being Sent Through Email- Article #78849
• Share Stream B2 content link is not getting copied properly when migrating to LTI
• Date picker Shifts the Days in the Week One Day to Past- Article #78971
• Release Conditions for Date/Time Criteria are not Making Grade Column Available When Date/Time Conditions are met in Release 3900.98- Article #78977

• Instructional design
• Tests and assignments
• Flexible grading
• Gradebook
• Learner progression and personalized experience
• Learn core and security;  and
• Upgrade to Ultra

• Student Activity Log
• View items that need grading and posting in the new Overview tab   
• View late submissions that need grading 

• Content Designer: Knowledge Check in enhanced Documents 
• AI Conversation 
• Wiris upgrade and benefits
• Exclude attempt when grading 

• Review instructor feedback on the student submission review page 
• Access assignment feedback hidden by release conditions 

• Group attempts grade management via public REST API

• Brightspace conversion improvements

• Course content page enhancements
• Video Studio within enhanced Documents
• Calendar event management

Instructional Design 

Content Designer: Knowledge Check in Documents 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors and Students
Related Topic: Create Documents 

The Content Designer for Documents now includes a Knowledge Check block. The Knowledge Check enhances the learning experience. Knowledge checks allow students to engage with content and receive immediate feedback. Instructors are also empowered with valuable insights to tailor their teaching strategies. 

Key Features:
 

• Question Types: Multiple choice and multiple answer questions 
• Feedback: Pre-populated correct and incorrect answer feedback, which instructors can edit 
• Student Interaction: Students can select an answer and submit it. They receive immediate feedback on whether their answer is correct or incorrect. Knowledge checks allow unlimited attempts. 
• Metrics: Instructors can access detailed metrics including: 
  • Number of students participating 
  • Total number of attempts 
  • Average number of attempts to reach the correct answer 
  • Maximum number of attempts to reach the correct answer 
  • Level of difficulty metric 
  • Percentage of students selecting each answer option 

Grading for Knowledge Checks isn't supported at this time. There are also no notifications specific to Knowledge Checks. 

For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. You must enable the option on the Ultra Experience Management page in the Administrator Panel. It's called "Enable support for customizing Ultra document layouts." This setting is on by default. You can toggle this option on or off. If you turn off this option, it may affect content created with or changed by enhanced options. Note that this option will be available until December 2024. At that time, we will remove the option. Enhanced Documents will be the default.


Content Designer: Video Studio in Documents 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors, Students, Administrators 
Related Topic: Video Studio (admin page), Video Studio (instructor page)

Video Studio is a premium solution. We are offering customers a free trial until June 30, 2025. This will provide access to the full version of Video Studio as a feature flag. Video Studio is set to OFF as a default in test/stage environments. If you want to enable it in your institution’s production environment, you can do that for free until the end of June 2025. Customers will have to purchase Video Studio to continue to use it beyond this date.

Instructors have recording capabilities in Announcements and Feedback features. Now they have the ability to upload or record audio and video within Documents. The lightweight, deeply integrated Video Studio solution promotes a more engaging learning experience.

When creating a Document, a new block option is available to create audio and video files from a camera, audio recording, or from screen recordings. Additionally, it is possible to upload audio and video files.

When a user starts recording, there is a 3 second countdown before the recording begins. Users can pause, resume, retake, or end the recording as needed.

After a user ends the recording, the uploading process begins. During this time, the user can preview the result and edit the title. Users can select Save to add the audio or video into a Document. After saving the video, auto captioning for videos is available.

 

For administrators: These new video capabilities require a license for Video Studio. Also, the "Enable support for customizing Ultra document layouts." setting on the Ultra Experience Management page in the Administrator Panel must be on. The videos created using Video Studio will not count towards your existing storage entitlement. The following existing privileges are used for the Video Studio solution:
 

• Course/Organization (Content Areas) > Create Materials: To create videos. Includes all operations like save, finish, check Video upload Status. Not needed for playback.
• Course/Organization (Content Areas) > Delete Materials: To delete videos. 

• Greater visual depth 
• Improved page structure 
• Differentiation among course elements 
• An enhanced presentation of top-level and nested content
• Greater Visual Depth and Content Page Structure 

• Subtle gradients and softer edges 
• A more cohesive color palette with inviting, warmer tones 
• More intuitive navigation, which reduces cognitive load and increases focus on the content

Content presentation enhancements 

We've improved the differentiation among learning modules, folders, and content items. Currently, users sometimes find it challenging to distinguish among these elements. This can lead to confusion and inefficiency in navigating course materials. 
 

These improvements create a more organized and improved user experience. 

To learn more about the visual style changes and to access supporting resources, visit the community blog post here. 

For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.

AI Conversation 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: All users
Related Topic: AI Conversation

It's tough to have 1:1 conversations with every student, especially in large courses. Some instructors are asking students to use AI services for topic-related activities to help. But, with many services and limited instructor visibility, results can vary. 

To better serve instructors who want to use AI with students, we're launching a new activity called AI Conversation. This is a Socratic questioning exercise guided by AI. AI Conversation lets students explore their thoughts on a topic. 
 

There are two elements to the activity:
 

• AI Conversation 
  • This lets students think critically about the topic that the instructor designs.

• Reflection question 
  • This asks the student to share their thoughts on the activity. The reflection question also lets the student flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of our Trustworthy AI Approach. Reflection helps students understand the responsible use of AI services. 

Instructors have the following configuration options: 

• A topic for the AI Conversation 
• An AI persona including a name, avatar (can be uploaded or generated), and personality trait 
• Complexity level of responses 
• Edit the reflection question, guiding the student on how best to reflect on this activity 

On submission, the instructor can review the AI conversation transcript and the student's reflection. The AI Conversation is a formative assessment by default, but you’re not restricted to this option.


For administrators: In the building block, ‘AI Design Assistant and Unsplash,' a new option called ‘AI Chat Conversation’ is available. The default state is 'off.'  When this feature is ‘on,’ the privilege needs to be assigned to course roles as necessary, such as Instructor. The privilege that needs assigning is ‘Use AI features.' When that role creates an AI Conversation in a course that’s visible to students, students will be able to complete the activity. Note that toggling this feature to ‘off’ after deployment will stop the AI Conversation services. Therefore, any AI conversation activities visible to students will not operate as expected.

Tests & Assignments

Review instructor feedback on the student submission review page 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Students 

Assessment feedback gives students insights into their strengths and weaknesses. It also helps them refine their skills and knowledge.    
 

We are introducing a new student-facing submission review page for assignments. The new page makes all instructor feedback on a submission more accessible. We are planning to add this same feature for tests in a future release.   
 

Students can access the new assignment submission review page from these locations:   
 

• The gradebook feedback button for the assignment.  
• The small panel that displays when students access an assignment from the Course Content page.

If a student submits multiple attempts, they can review each on the submission review page. By default, the student sees the appropriate graded attempt. The instructor defines which attempt to grade in the assignment's final grade calculation setting.  

The new assignment submission review page displays the following information and feedback formats:
 

• Assessment content
• Student submission with inline feedback
• Submission timestamp
• Submission receipt  
• Final grade and calculation model
• Attempt grade and feedback
• Override grade and feedback (if applicable)
• Optimized display of rubrics information and criterion feedback  

Access assignment feedback hidden by release conditions 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Students 

Students must access feedback on past submissions. Feedback review is vital for their academic growth. Now students can access all feedback on their submission, even if the assignment is hidden by a release condition. We are planning to ensure that students have access to all feedback on tests, discussions and journals in future releases.

For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.

 

Flexible grading

Exclude attempt when grading 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors, Students

Allowing students to submit multiple attempts for an assessment can help them stay on track. It can improve the quality of the assessment and boost student success.  

However, there are some circumstances where an attempt doesn’t need to be graded. For example, the student may have submitted the wrong file, or their submission may be incomplete or an outlier.  

We added a new option to help instructors remove submissions from the grading workflow without having to delete them. When grading a student, you can now select Exclude Attempt to remove it from the Needs Grading workflow.  
 

If an attempt is excluded, the Excluded label appears above the attempt grade and in the attempt selector. If you need to remove the attempt exclusion, select  from the menu.  
 

Grade calculations ignore excluded attempts. Students aren’t automatically granted an additional attempt if an attempt is excluded. You can grant additional attempts to the student via the exception's workflow.  
 

You can exclude any submitted attempt by a student. If you exclude an attempt when the student has no remaining attempts, you receive a warning that their final grade can’t be calculated.  
 

When students review their submissions, a banner notification appears on excluded attempts.


For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed. 


 

View items that need grading and posting in the new Overview tab   
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors

To help instructors stay on top of their grading workload, we added an indicator to the Gradebook tab to let you know when there are new submissions to grade. The indicator displays the number that needs grading. If the count goes higher than 99, it displays as 99+.  

We also added a new gradebook Overview tab to improve task orientation and grading efficiency.  This tab contains two sections: Needs Grading and Needs Posting.

Needs Grading section  

If you face a substantial grading workload, the Needs Grading section is a useful tool for prioritizing your tasks. It allows you to see all items ready for grading and a count of the total number of outstanding grading tasks in your course.  

This section displays up to five items at a time, ordered by the oldest ungraded submission. For an item, select Grade now to quickly access the submissions you need to grade. If your course has more than five items that need grading, you can use the buttons at the bottom of section to navigate through all pending tasks.  

Needs Posting section  

The Needs Posting section increases accessibility of assessments with grades that need posting. For an item, select Post now to its grade If there are more than five items that need posting, you can use the buttons at the bottom of section to navigate through the pending tasks.  


For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed. 

 

View late submissions that need grading
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors

When enabled, the Automatic Zeros gradebook setting gives a zero score to students who haven’t made a submission by the due date.  

To help instructors to find and grade late assessment submissions, they are now indicated as Needs Grading on the Grades and Gradable Items gradebook pages.

For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.

Learner Progression & Personalized Experience 

Student Activity Log 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors 
Related Topic: Student Activity Log

Instructors often need to review student activity. Student activity helps inform decisions in academic disputes and aids in troubleshooting. You can also analyze the course participation of students at risk. 

Instructors can use student participation to support financial aid decisions. For example, requests for tuition fee reimbursements if a student hasn't participated in a course. Course participation records can also help with awarding scholarships. 

Now the Student Overview page has a student activity log. Instructors and other higher roles can use the report to check what a particular student did in a course. 
 

The Activity log can be filtered by event type and can look to the past 140 days. Any information older than that won’t be stored in this report. The following events can be found in the report: 
 

• Course Access 
• Assessment Started 
• Assessment Draft saved 
• Assessment Submitted 
• Assessment Auto-submitted 
• Discussion Access 
• Discussion Draft saved 
• Discussion Edit 
• Discussion Reply 
• Discussion Response 
• Document Access 
• Journal Access 
• LTI Item Access 
• SCORM item Access 

For administrators: A new privilege is available to control role-based access to the student activity log report. Go to Manage Privileges, choose the role you want to add the privilege to, and then select "Course/Organization > Student/Participant > Activity Log."


 

Integrations

Wiris Upgrade and Benefits
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience  
Ultra Course View, Original Course View 
Impact: Instructors, Students

We’ve upgraded the Wiris engine and equation editor to the latest versions to improve performance. Version 8.10.2 of the engine and version 7.23 of the editor improves rendering of subscript and superscript formulas. This upgrade provides a better experience for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses.

For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra and Original courses. There are no configurations needed.


 

Group Attempts Grading Management via Public REST API 
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View
Impact: Administrators 
Related Topic: Blackboard APIs
 

Group assignments are a crucial component of collaborative learning in Blackboard. Group assignments enable students to work together on projects and submit their collective efforts for evaluation. Effective management and grading of these group submissions are vital for accurately assessing group performance and providing meaningful feedback. Previously, we introduced CRUD operations for managing group assignment attempts. Now we have provided enhanced capability of the Group attempts endpoints to include comprehensive grading functionalities.
 

• Score: The numeric grade assigned to a group’s submission.
• Notes: Additional notes that an instructor can include regarding the group’s performance or submission details.
• Feedback:  Detailed feedback provided to the group, helping students understand their performance and areas for improvement.

This update ensures that instructors can efficiently grade group submissions directly through the public API, enhancing the overall workflow for managing group assessments in Blackboard.

For administrators: The required privileges for Group attempts endpoints can be validated for each endpoint in the API documentation.


 

Learn Core & Security

Calendar Event Management
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View, Original Course View 
Impact: All users

Institutions can now control which users can create events in the Base Navigation Calendar with a new system-level entitlement Calendar>Create Personal event. This update gives institutions greater control over calendar event creation within their learning environment.
 

If the Calendar>Create Personal event entitlement is not granted:
 

• Users can’t create personal events in the Base Navigation Calendar.
• Calendar tool is hidden in Base Navigation if users have no existing events in their calendars and lack this entitlement. Users don’t have permission to import Calendar events from external files (Settings).

When users possess the privilege of the Calendar>Create Personal event entitlement:
 

• Users can create personal events using the Base Navigation Calendar.
• The add calendar option is displayed.
• The Calendar tool appears in Base Navigation.
• Users can import Calendar events from external files (Settings).

For administrators: This feature is available for all System role users including None. There are no configurations needed. 

 

Upgrade to Ultra

Brightspace Conversion Improvements 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience and/or Original Experience 
Ultra Course View and/or Original Course View 
Impact: Instructors and Administrators 
Related Topic: Migrate from D2L Brightspace
 

• Embedded Multimedia for Assignments and Discussions 
• Embedded Multimedia via Media Library Now Supported 
• Arithmetic and Significant Figures Question Types 

Embedded Multimedia for Assignments and Discussions 

We’ve updated the conversion process from Brightspace to Blackboard for Assignments and Discussions. Images embedded in Assignments and Discussions will now convert. Instructors will no longer need to reupload images or multimedia after converting from Brightspace

Embedded Multimedia via Media Library Now Supported 

Previously, multimedia added to the Rich Content Editor in Brightspace using the Media Library did not convert properly. Images and multimedia would fail to load, requiring users to reupload them after converting their courses. This issue has been resolved, and multimedia added from the Media Library will convert. 

Arithmetic and Significant Figures Question Types 

We’ve improved the way we convert Arithmetic and Significant Figure Questions from Brightspace to Blackboard. We preserve more information related to the questions and questions can now be edited to resolve issues that can't be resolved during conversion. 
 

When converting Arithmetic and Significant Figure Question Types from Brightspace to Blackboard, it's important to carefully review all converted questions to ensure accuracy and functionality. Equations constructed using plain text in Brightspace may not accurately transfer to Blackboard, leading to potential errors or formatting issues. These discrepancies can impact the clarity and correctness of the questions, which affects the assessment's validity. 
 

We advise instructors to thoroughly examine each converted question and verify the accuracy of the equations. In some cases, it may be necessary to rebuild the equations partially or entirely to align with Blackboard's formatting and calculation standards. Ensuring the precision of these questions is essential before making the test available to students. Taking the time to review and correct any issues will help maintain the integrity of the assessment and provide a fair testing experience for all students.

For administrators: These features and improvements are available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.

Maintenance Fixes

You can view maintenance items for 3900.100 on the new Support Portal. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. Here are highlights of issues fixed in this release:
 

• Editing a Learning Module Takes More Time Than Expected- Article #78406
• Calculated Formula Question Answer Range Rounds to the Thousandth- Article #78630
• In Ultra Submissions Fail to Load Inline on Annotate Viewer- Article #78111
• Incorrect Student Information Displayed Upon Returning from Attempts View- Article #78033
• Inconsistent Sorting of Gradebook Results from API Causes Results to be Duplicated/not Returned- Article #77651
• Unavailable Student's Grades Not Visible in Activity Submission Tabs Without an Available Student- Article #78818
• When a Primary Grade is Set to Display as Text in the Original Course View it Turns Blank or Empty Upon Conversion to Ultra- Article #78792
• Recipients List on the Achievements Page Does not List Students Names When Instructors Use French Language Pack- Article #78458
• Changing Superscript to Subscript in the WIRIS Editor Creates Invalid MathML Tags That Cause Equation Errors- Article #77533
• Ultra Gradebook Shows Items as all Graded when Grading Status Should Show as 'Complete' if an Enrollment is Set to Unavailable- Article #78405
• The 'Select All' Button in the Grade Center of Ultra Courses Does Not Work as Expected- Article #78314
• Inconsistency in Displaying Additional Names in Course Messages and Gradebook Grid View- Article #78265
• Instructors Cannot Access 'Course Activity Related To Grades' Through the Ultra Base Navigation Grades Area- Article #78112
• Trash Icon Disappears When an Item With More Than 35 Characters is Selected in Performance Release Condition Page- Article #78769
• Copying One Course Into Another Makes the Overall Grade Column not Visible- Article #78562
• The 'Grade Next Item Option' Throws a 414 Request URI Too Large Message When There are Many Enrolments in a Course- Article #77488
• Instructors Are Not Able to Delete Re-used Test Questions in Ultra- Article #78532