Información: Update to client Test/Stage environments (Published May 7, 2024):
An updated version of 3900.93.0 (full release number: 3900.93.0-rel.4+2922547) is being applied to client Test servers on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.


The June 2024 - 3900.93 release is robust with features in 9 areas:
 

• Instructional design;
• Tests and assignments;
• Communication and collaboration;
• Flexible grading;
• Gradebook;
• Learner progression and personalized experience;
• Integrations;
• Learn core and security; and
• Mobile App

These improvements impact instructors, students, observers, administrators, and all users. Some features do require administrative action.


Instructors:

• AI Design Assistant – output language selector
• Printing for assessments
• Streamlined point value editing for questions
• Post immediately when creating announcements
• Prevent auto-assigning members within self-enrollment groups
• Group members list available in the selected group
• Filter out graded responses when grading by question
• Grader Notes on student grades
• Weighted calculation usability improvements

Instructors and Students:

• Landing page enhancements for Blackboard Learn Mobile app

Students:

• Improved visibility of new grades and feedback in the student gradebook
• Return a true/false question to an unanswered state

Administrators:

• Announcements API enhancements – additional filtering options

Observers:

• Student's overall grade visible to Observers

Everyone:

• Base Navigation – Course and Organization filters and personalization

 

Instructional Design

AI Design Assistant – Language Selector 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors 
Related Topic: AI Design Assistant

To support multi-language use cases, the AI Design Assistant now includes a language selector. Instructors may use the language selector to set the desired language for generated content. This feature is especially beneficial for courses with multi-language requirements. 

The language selector is included in all existing AI Design Assistant workflows. A list of supported languages in the language selector is available. 

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

 

Printing for Assessments
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience   
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors, users who have privileges to edit an assessment

Instructors can now print assessments. Printing provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases:

• Accommodating students with specific needs or limited technology access
• Providing a printed assessment for testing in designated centers
• Backup and record keeping
• Conducting offline assessment
• Documentation and compliance
• Maintaining security and integrity

The print option is available in Forms, Tests, and Assignments with questions. Printing also provides the option to save as PDF.

To print an assessment, from Content and Settings, select Print.

Note: We plan to support printing answer keys and question pools and printing from the mobile app in upcoming releases.

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

 

Streamlined point value editing for questions 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience   
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors
Related topics: Edit Tests and Questions
 

When editing a question, instructors can now access and edit the point value field with just two clicks. Reducing the number of clicks needed to edit the point value of a question saves instructors time and effort. This small change leads to a smoother workflow and enhances the overall teaching and learning experience.

Note: Editing the point values for matching questions requires three clicks. 

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

 

Return a true/false question to an unanswered state 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience   
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Students

Students can now return a true/false question to an unanswered state after choosing an answer. Students clear their choice by selecting the same option again. Students may need to clear their answer selection for a test question. For questions that use negative scoring, if a student is uncertain about their answer, their score may be better if they leave it unanswered. In this case, clearing a response makes it easy for them to come back later using the unanswered question filter. This helps students better manage their time during a test.

In the past, a student could only change their answer to a true/false question to a different value.

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


 

Communication & Collaboration 

Post immediately when creating announcements
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors 
Related Topic: Announcements

Instructors can now post announcements as part of the drafting and editing processes. This makes the process of creating and posting announcements simpler. 

Instructors can still post from the announcements page. 

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


 

Prevent auto-assigning members in self-enrollment groups 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors 
Related Topic: Create and Manage Groups

Instructors use self-enrollment groups to provide agency to students on group activities. Currently, at the end of the enrollment period, unassigned students are always distributed into groups. To improve the use of self-enrollment groups for optional activities, instructors can now opt-out of this behavior. Instructors can deselect the option, which does not enroll students who do not self-enroll by the end of the enrollment to any group. This option gives instructors more flexibility when managing self-enrollment groups. 

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

 

Group members list available within the selected group 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors, Students
Related topic: Create and Manage Groups
 

Groups and group work form an important part of the learning experience. To improve and centralize member information, we have relocated the members list to the selected group page. This will now display as a member’s tab rather than a separate panel. Here, users can search for members and sort them alphabetically. This change enhances the visibility of the selected groups page and provides the groundwork for adding more features in future releases. 

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

 

Gradebook

Grader Notes on student grades 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience   
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors
Related topics: Grade Tests with Flexible Grading, Grade Assignments with Flexible Grading

Instructors can now add private grading notes to student grades. After a score is assigned, the new Feedback & Notes menu option is available. Grader notes form an important part of the academic record. These notes may serve as documentation for a grading decision or grade adjustment.  Grader notes are private to graders and not visible to students.

Those with grading privileges can access Feedback & Notes from two places: 
 

• The Grades tab in the Gradebook by selecting a specific score.
• The Submissions list page for an assessment, select the More menu for a student

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

 

Improved visibility of new grades and feedback in the student gradebook 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience   
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Students

To ensure that students are aware of any new grades in the course we have added an indicator to the Gradebook tab. When there are new grades, the number of new grades appears on the tab.

After selecting the tab, items with new or updated grades appear at the top of the student gradebook and display a purple indicator. The purple indicator disappears and the count on the tab reduces when the student selects the item or reviews their submission.  

We also reviewed the use of color in the gradebook based on student feedback. Now, we mark late assessments with a "(Late)" label to reduce stress sometimes associated with the use of the color red. In the past, late submissions appeared with a red assessment icon and label.

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

 

Weighted calculation usability improvements 
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience   
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Instructors
Related topics: Calculate Grades

Responding to client feedback, we have made two improvements for gradebook weighting:
 

• The label “0% per item” appeared for categories excluded from weighting. This caused confusion so we removed it.
• We updated the calculation rules panel to make it easier to understand the selected settings.

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

 

Learner Progression & Personalized Experience 

Student's overall grade visible to Observers
Blackboard Learn SaaS 
Ultra Experience 
Ultra Course View 
Impact: Observers 
Related Topic: Observer Role

Observers are users who can only view the progress and performance of specified students. We now display the overall grade in the Grades tab along with other grades. This improves student monitoring for observers. If an instructor sets the overall grade to be visible to students, it will be visible to observers. 

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

 

Announcements API enhancements - additional filtering options 
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience, Original Experience 
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Administrators
Related Topic: Learn APIs

Announcements play a crucial role in course communication. They ensure that students stay informed about important deadlines and course materials. Administrators and developers now have additional REST API capabilities to streamline integrations and save time. New announcements filtering options allow administrators and integrated tools to retrieve data more efficiently. This optimizes audit and search processes, reducing query volume and data processing after retrieval.
 

 New filter options:
 

• Creation Date: Retrieve announcements based on their specific creation date
• Modified Date: Retrieve announcements based on their last modification date
• Availability: Filter announcements based on their availability status

For administrators: The required privileges for Announcements API remain unchanged. 

 

Learn Core & Security

Base Navigation - Course and Organization filters and personalization 
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience, Original Experience 
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: All

The courses and organizations tabs in Base Navigation are some of the most accessed places in Blackboard Learn. We received feedback in numerous focus groups and were inspired by client ideas posted in the Idea Exchange. We heard the pages should fit more institutions’ situations and give users more options to customize. This release includes the following improvements:

We removed the carousel for navigating between terms. There is now a term selector and filter you can use on its own or with other filters.

You can set filters, make term choices, and add text searches. All of these are clearly displayed below the search box. Remove these search settings or filters to see more courses or organizations. Remove them by selecting the close icon “x” on each.

Your selections and filters are remembered automatically even if you log out or switch devices. Set up the pages the way you like, and we’ll keep it that way until you change it.

The terms selector has specific logical behaviors to help users:
 

• “Current Courses” and “Current Organizations” are the default term selections. If terms aren’t used or all your courses/organizations are open or use continuous duration, you’ll default to the “All Terms” selection option instead.
• You can now choose to view “All Terms” to see everything regardless of term.
• The “Upcoming Courses” and “Upcoming Organizations” term options will only display if you have upcoming courses/organizations.

For administrators: This feature is available for all environments with Base Navigation enabled. There are no configurations needed. 

 

Mobile App 

Landing Page Enhancements for Blackboard Learn Mobile App
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra and Original Experience 
Ultra and Original Course View 
Impact: Instructors, Students

To enhance usability and streamline user interaction in the mobile app, we added filters to the following landing pages:
 

• Courses
• Organizations
• Grades 

Users now can use filters at the top of each landing page, allowing them to refine their search results.

When a user applies a filter, its tag appears at the top of the landing page. Users can remove filters by unselecting the respective tag.


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

 

Aspectos destacados:

Maintenance Fixes

You can view maintenance items for 3900.93 on Behind the Blackboard.  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:
 

• Users Cannot Change Availability From Edit Menu With Custom Role- Article #78517
• When Converting Building Block Content to LTI Course Search Does Not Work- Article #78553
• Text is not Being Displayed to the Correct Language for Course Progress Tracking in Organizations- Article #76172
• Reset Password Link not Working in the First Attempt With Mobile Browser- Article #78503
• Multiple Self -Enrollment Group Sets Blink as if They Change Places- Article #78273
• Anonymous Grading Feedback Disappearing- Article #78199
• LTI Web Links will not Open in the Blackboard App- Article #75758
• Incorrect ARIA Attributes in Language Option List- Article #77830
• In Ultra the aria-label is Overriding the Accessible Name for the Items in the List- Article #77828
• Japanese and Korean Characters are Garbled in Activity Stream Notification Tooltip- Article #78391
• Default Language Pack Changes Double Quotes to HTML Encoded Equivalents &#34- Article #77876
• Incorrect Pop-up is Displayed When Marking Attendance in a Completed Course- Article #77535
• Enterprise Survey Question Pop-up Numbering Incorrect- Article #78413
• Unexpected Font Change to Arial in Content Editor When HTML Tags <em> and/or <sub> are Utilized- Article #78296
• Students Receive a Permission Error when Launching LTI Items from the Activity Stream if the Corresponding Grading Column for the LTI Item is Hidden- Article #78185
• When Courses are Created via the REST API the Instructors Choice Mode Behaves Inconsistently- Article #77805
• Unsaved Text Disappears When Switching Browser Window Resolution Between Small and Large Screen Layouts in Ultra- Article #77807
• When Ultra Question Banks are Copied From an Ultra Course to Another Alt-text is Removed From Question Images- Article #78546
• The Roster and Gradebook User List is Empty in Child Ultra View Courses- Article #78200
• Granular Course Copy of Ultra Courses with Linked Content in Folders Removes the Content from the Folders- Article #78387
• Ultra Courses' Documents with Embedded Iframe HTML Contents Do not Delete- Article #78448
• Calendar Change Occurrence Count Led to Errors- Article #78219
• The Group Name Listed in the Feedback Panel in Ultra is not Correct- Article #78511
• In Ultra Courses Assignment Files Submitted Near due Time are not Moving to Permanent Storage- Article #78338
• Students Cannot Insert Tables Correctly in Essay Questions in the First Try- Article #78082
• Respondus Lockdown Browser Appears on the Settings After Being Added and Cannot be Removed- Article #78599
• Erroneous Message Failed to Retroactively Update Course for Progress Tracking When Copying Course Content- Article #78422
• Converting Building Block Content to LTI Tool Fails to Convert Panopto Content Due to Static Handle- Article #78573