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Blackboard Learn 9.1 3900.0

Date Published: Apr 11,2025


CategoryProduct:Blackboard Learn MH,System Infrastructure,Blackboard Learn Software; Version:Older_Release
Article No.: 000074930
Product:
Learn SaaS

Information:

Blackboard is pleased to announce the General Availability of Blackboard Learn™, Release 9.1 3900.0 (Build: 3900.0.0-rel.42+47a7c9a). This notification contains important details of this release, so please review the entire message.

Starting with this Learn 9.1 release, the name will shift from using the quarter/year as the name to a version number to align with the SaaS release model. There is also a new monthly release cadence for Learn 9.1 that will include bug fixes and feature improvements. These monthly releases will replace Cumulative Updates which will no longer be issued for 3900.0. You can choose any monthly 9.1 release and take improvements and bug fixes at any time. You do not have to wait until the next big twice-yearly release (Q2/Q4) to get an improvement you've been waiting for.  For more details behind this change, please see this blog post on the Community Site: https://community.blackboard.com/blogs/8/477.


With the Original Experience (Learn 9.1), there are six categories that are a key focus for development: Enhancements through platform features, Iterative feature improvements, Mobile optimization and responsiveness, Data access and insights, Standards and interoperability, and Quality and maintenance. The 9.1 3900.0 release focuses on 4 of these areas:

  • Enhancements through platform features. Enhancements are delivered in the Original Experience through enhancements to platform features, capabilities not specific to the Original Experience. In some cases, these features can also be enhanced without requiring a Learn release upgrade. These features sometimes have differing timelines for global availability due to regional requirements for data storage and handling.
  • Iterative feature improvements. Enhancements to existing features in the Original Experience or are implemented as part of work for the Ultra Experience.
  • Standards and Interoperability. As a leader in openness, Blackboard continues to invest in expanding support for standards and interoperability within Learn in order to give institutions increasing options for expanding and defining their unique EdTech platforms. 
  • Quality and Maintenance. Blackboard continues to make changes to technologies and processes to further improve quality. This includes improvements to security frameworks and processes to achieve various security certifications, performance improvements, changes to address compliance with ever-evolving global regulations, and updating technologies and libraries used within the application.
                               Six Development Focus Areas


For more details, please see the full release notes on our Help site under Release Notes for Learn Self- and Managed Hosting.

Highlights:

Highlights of New Features and Enhancements

Platform Features

Updated Inline Assignment Grading- Bb Annotate has successfully been released to all clients who were previously using New Box View and is included in this release. 


Iterative Feature Improvements

Enhanced Content Editor - This release introduces big changes to the Content Editor in the Original Course View including numerous simplifications and improvements:
  • The Power of Plus - One easy menu for adding content from your computer, cloud storage, or integrated tool. The Content Editor will automatically recognize the kinds of files you add.
  • Better for All Devices - The editor is better suited for all devices—small screen or big. Pop-ups are gone for a better mobile experience.
  • Improved Accessibility - The editor is more accessible, and a new accessibility checker helps authors make content more accessible. Ally not required. Compliments Ally use.
  • Better Copy and Paste - Pasting content from Word, Excel, and websites is even better. You can choose to remove extra HTML but retain basic formatting.
  • Simple Embed - When pasting links to websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion, the videos are automatically embedded for inline playback. Similar to social media sites or collaborative services like Slack and Yammer, website links that express a meta description will display a summary preview card.
  • Display Computer Code - Authors can now share formatted computer code snippets, super handy for computer science classes and coding clubs.
  • Easy Text Wrapping - Flow text next to images by selecting an image and choosing left or right justification. Text will wrap next to the image using the float style which is both mobile responsive and accessible.
An overview is outlined in the following blog post and includes change management guides:  https://community.blackboard.com/blogs/8/445  

To Do Module - Due Week Segmentation - Different global regions have different calendar conventions, including which day displays as the first day of the week. With this release, not only will calendars display based on this convention as it has previously, but week segmentation is handled in the To Do module. Upcoming due dates are properly categorized into today, tomorrow, this week, and the future beyond this week based on the user's locale.

Read-only Messages for Students - Administrators can now choose whether students are able to create and reply to messages or simply make them read-only.  Messages can thus be used for one-way communications only.

Updated Email Announcements - Course email announcements have been updated to include the title and course name in the email subject making it easier to setup rules to organize class emails. 

Discussion Forum Manager Icon - The manager icon for course and system level Discussion has been updated.  Users will now see a new green rosette icon symbolizing the manager status of the forum. This replaces a badge icon that was used previously.
Clients on previous releases can update to the new icon as well.  See article #54982

Link Tab Handling for Authenticated Sites - For a more seamless experience, this release now supports the ability for admins in a Link Tab to force the rendering of web pages in an iframe.  If there’s a webpage whose x-frame-options will only send a DENY if the user isn’t authenticated but will allow an authenticated user to view in an iframe, admins can configure a tab link to enforce that behavior and create a more integrated experience for their users.

Warning When Grading with Complex Schemas - When grading schemas are complex and use smaller points possible values that aren’t whole, results can be unexpected since numbers are not rounded and explicitly use 5 decimals.  The warning message is meant to help users understand they should review the results. 

Passes in Content Collection 360-View - Users can more easily see all passes, permissions and expiries, as well as see the pass creators' usernames. When looking at the 360 view, not only will passes be listed under the passes header, but the permissions box will clearly outline existing passes and who created them.

Updated Achievements Text-on-Page -  The text on page has been updated within the Achievements tool and within the Admin Panel to indicate badge publishing now uses Badgr Backpack.

Archive and Restore Improvements - The archive and restore process has been enhanced to include user data for dropped students.  This allows for a more comprehensive picture of user activity in restored courses for permanent records and future reviews. 


Standards and interoperability

Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) 
  • LTI tools can now be limited by Institutional Hierarchy Nodes
  • The setup workflows for LTI Advantage and LTI 1.3 tools
  • The LTI configuration page has been improved to better distinguish between the LTI 1.1 and 1.3 setup.
  • This release provides support for a new LTI Test User role for Student Preview users

New or Updated APIs
  • List and filter assessment attempts based on when the attempt was created, modified, or submitted
  • Search and sort on course membership modification timestamp
  • Redesigned Groups API, including separated Groups and GroupSets
  • Access and manage user avatars
  • Institutional Hierarchy management and associations
  • Assignment APIs support SafeAssign options
  • Course Copy APIs
  • Read active user sessions through APIs
  • Gradebook API Improvements
  • Institutions and partners can now provide students direct, deep links to specific Learn course content from their own portal or tool
For more information on these, please visit https://developer.blackboard.com 

Quality and Maintenance

Performance Improvements
  • Institutions with very large courses will see improved system performance and stability.
  • Under LDAP Advanced Settings, a configurable Read Timeout setting has been added. The timeout limit will terminate requests that take too long getting a response from the LDAP server.
  • When deleting courses, the system now uses a queued task and provides an indicator in the Admin Panel Course list during the process. 
  • To improve notification performance, users who have over 100 unread discussion forum messages will now see '100+ unread messages' listed in the What's New module.
Blogs and Journals: In very large classes, performance is one of our top concerns. We’ve received feedback that including all students in the blog and journal view filter created slow loading times. To improve this performance, we’ve changed the view filter to display only those course members who have completed participation in the blog or journal activity. Non-participants are not displayed. For graded blogs or journals, instructors can display non-participants in the Grade Center.


Other Improvements and changes

Additional changes and improvements found in this release: 
  • The YouTube logo has been updated.
  • Security Improvements - 
    • PBKDF2 encryption method has been removed  
    • Password data excluded from SIS settings export - See article #59413 for more details. 
  • 'Search for Textbook' has been removed from the Textbook Building Block
  • The Visualization and Admin Console Building Blocks have been removed in this release. 


Bug Fixes

There are over 300 client-reported issues fixed in the release. The top 50 resolved issues list is available for review in Learn 9.1, 3900.0 Release - Top 50 Bugs Fixed, Article #74932 . To see the complete list on Behind the Blackboard, go to Self Service > Known Issues and then under Planned First Fix search by Learn 9.1, 3900.0 Release. The list can be printed or exported to PDF or Excel.

Upgrade Paths:

Upgrade Paths for Clients Already on Blackboard Learn, 9.1

Existing Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1 clients can upgrade from the following versions to 9.1 3900.0 (Build: 3900.0.0-rel.42+47a7c9a):
  • Blackboard Learn, 9.1 Q2 2019 (Build: 3700.0)
  • Blackboard Learn, 9.1 Q4 2019 (Build: 3800.0)
If you are a self-hosted client on a Blackboard Learn 9.1 release prior to 9.1 Q2 2019, you will need to upgrade to at least 9.1 Q2 2019 before you can upgrade to Learn 9.1 3900.0.
 

Upgrade Paths for Clients New to Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1

If you are upgrading from one of the releases listed below, please refer to Install or Upgrade Learn for information to help you plan for this move. There are planning, training, and communication materials available to make this upgrade as smooth as possible. Please reference next steps based on your current release. For those migrating from Blackboard Learn, Release 9.0 or Blackboard Academic Suite, Release 8.0, please ensure you include migrating to a 64-bit environment in your upgrade plans.
  • Blackboard Learn, Release 9.0: The following paths are supported when upgrading from Blackboard Learn, Release 9.0, Service Pack 7 (Build: 9.0.692.0)
    • Release 9.1, Service Pack 9 (Build: 9.1.90132.0) > Service Pack 12 (Build: 9.1.120113.0) > April 2014 (9.1.201404.160205) > Q4 2015 (Build:9.1.201510) > Q4 2016 (Build:3100.0) > Q4 2017 (Build:3300.0) > Q4 2018 (Build: 3500.0) > Q4 2019 > 9.1 3900.0
  • Blackboard Academic Suite, Release 8.0 or lower:The following paths are supported when upgrading from Release 8.0, Service Pack 7 Hotfix 2 (Build: 8.0.494.35) without needing to upgrade to Release 9.0 first.
    • Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1, Service Pack 9 (Build: 9.1.90132.0) > Service Pack 12 (Build: 9.1.120113.0) > April 2014 (9.1.201404.160205) > Q4 2015 (Build:9.1.201510) > Q4 2016 (Build:3100.0) > Q4 2017 (3300.0) > Q4 2018 (Build: 3500.0) > Q4 2019 > 9.1 3900.0
  • Blackboard Learning System CE 8.0 and Vista 8.0 Licenses: You must be on Service Pack 6 (Build: 18.0.6.116) to effectively use course conversion capabilities.
  • Blackboard Learn, ANGEL Edition: You must be on any ANGEL 8.0 or ANGEL 7.4 release to effectively use course conversion capabilities.
If you are a self-hosted client on a release that is earlier than Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 6, and you also use Oracle, there is a pre-upgrade utility that will minimize your downtime during this upgrade. Please consult the 9.1 Service Pack 6 Release Notes and the Readme for the Pre-Upgrade Utility for Oracle for more information on this utility.

Upgrade Paths for Clients Already on Blackboard Learn, 9.1

Existing Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1 clients can upgrade from the following versions to 9.1 3900.0 (Build: 3900.0.0-rel.42+47a7c9a):
  • Blackboard Learn, 9.1 Q2 2019 (Build: 3700.0)
  • Blackboard Learn, 9.1 Q4 2019 (Build: 3800.0)
If you are a self-hosted client on a Blackboard Learn 9.1 release prior to 9.1 Q2 2019, you will need to upgrade to at least 9.1 Q2 2019 before you can upgrade to Learn 9.1 3900.0.
 

Upgrade Paths for Clients New to Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1

If you are upgrading from one of the releases listed below, please refer to Install or Upgrade Learn for information to help you plan for this move. There are planning, training, and communication materials available to make this upgrade as smooth as possible. Please reference next steps based on your current release. For those migrating from Blackboard Learn, Release 9.0 or Blackboard Academic Suite, Release 8.0, please ensure you include migrating to a 64-bit environment in your upgrade plans.
  • Blackboard Learn, Release 9.0: The following paths are supported when upgrading from Blackboard Learn, Release 9.0, Service Pack 7 (Build: 9.0.692.0)
    • Release 9.1, Service Pack 9 (Build: 9.1.90132.0) > Service Pack 12 (Build: 9.1.120113.0) > April 2014 (9.1.201404.160205) > Q4 2015 (Build:9.1.201510) > Q4 2016 (Build:3100.0) > Q4 2017 (Build:3300.0) > Q4 2018 (Build: 3500.0) > Q4 2019 > 9.1 3900.0
  • Blackboard Academic Suite, Release 8.0 or lower:The following paths are supported when upgrading from Release 8.0, Service Pack 7 Hotfix 2 (Build: 8.0.494.35) without needing to upgrade to Release 9.0 first.
    • Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1, Service Pack 9 (Build: 9.1.90132.0) > Service Pack 12 (Build: 9.1.120113.0) > April 2014 (9.1.201404.160205) > Q4 2015 (Build:9.1.201510) > Q4 2016 (Build:3100.0) > Q4 2017 (3300.0) > Q4 2018 (Build: 3500.0) > Q4 2019 > 9.1 3900.0
  • Blackboard Learning System CE 8.0 and Vista 8.0 Licenses: You must be on Service Pack 6 (Build: 18.0.6.116) to effectively use course conversion capabilities.
  • Blackboard Learn, ANGEL Edition: You must be on any ANGEL 8.0 or ANGEL 7.4 release to effectively use course conversion capabilities.
If you are a self-hosted client on a release that is earlier than Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 6, and you also use Oracle, there is a pre-upgrade utility that will minimize your downtime during this upgrade. Please consult the 9.1 Service Pack 6 Release Notes and the Readme for the Pre-Upgrade Utility for Oracle for more information on this utility.

Accessing the Build:

Change Management Resources

Self-hosted clients may download the latest build on the Download Files page. Managed Hosting clients may submit a case on Behind the Blackboard to schedule implementation of this release.

For a more detailed explanation of the changes and new features of this release, please reference the Release Notes and the Download Files page.

Download Files          Release Notes         Supported Technologies        Browser Support

Top Issues

Article Number Component Service Pack(s) Description Target Fix Release Patch Available
000063355 Blackboard Learn MH, Content Management, Course Tools, Blackboard Learn Software Older_Release A "URL decoder Illegal charactersin escape (%) pattern" error will occur when attaching a file to an assignment submission with special characters in the file name. Future Reference No
000063385 Blackboard Learn MH, Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn Software SaaS, Older_Release Using percentages for RGB color values causes error. Future Reference No
000076398 Blackboard Learn SaaS Older_Release When a user make changes to the notification settings, the changes are reverted.  Learn 9.1, 3900.60.0 Release <p>SaaS - Fixed (v3900.60.0) </p>
000055430 Blackboard Learn MH, Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn Software SaaS, Older_Release When running the User Statistics report, missing data or a &#39;0&#39; appears for the days in the Average Users per Month section. Future Reference No
000076217 Blackboard Learn SaaS Older_Release <span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #080707;">The Approver workflow is not functioning as it is supposed to be. This happens when trying to send out the reminders to approvers and approvers mapping to the students based on their company/entity. The approvers fetch based on the company/entity is causing this issue.</span></span></span></span></span><br>  Future Reference
000076520 Blackboard Learn MH, Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn Software SaaS, Older_Release <p>Whenever the Recycle bins feature is disabled, users can still create a Recycle bin using WebDAV. If they try to enable the feature from the User interface, an error is thrown &quot;Individual recycle bin enabled operation failed. No activation change was made: Course recycle bin&quot;</p> Learn 9.1, 3900.65.0 Release <p>SaaS - Fixed (v3900.65.0) </p>
000075760 Blackboard Learn SaaS Older_Release Users that try to delete a group discussion board thread reply causes an error to be thrown about a link with content that cannot be found.<br><br>An error will be displayed to the end user and the Post is not deleted as expected. Learn 9.1, 3900.74.0 Release <p>SaaS - Fixed (v3900.74.0) </p>
000075756 Blackboard Learn MH, User & Role Management, Course Tools, Blackboard Learn Software Older_Release <p>Users with custom instructor roles get an &quot;Oops! Something went wrong.&quot; error when trying to edit and upload files into an existing document that already has files uploaded via both the VTBE and direct upload from Computer. This issue affects any custom role created from the default Instructor role, even an exact copy of the role.</p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.44.0) No
000059428 Blackboard Learn MH, Course Tools, Blackboard Learn Software Older_Release Users with visual impairments use the browser zoom function which makes exams difficult to navigate due to the Save/Submit buttons overlapping most of the page Will Not Fix
000076165 Blackboard Learn MH, Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn Software SaaS, Older_Release When adding special characters such as &quot;&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;&quot; in the comment feedback on journals, an HTML error is produced and is reflected in the posted comment. <br><br>  Learn 9.1, 3900.62.0 Release <p>SaaS - Fixed (v3900.62.0) </p>

Resolved Issues

Article Number Component Version: Description Target Fix Release
000076606 Blackboard Learn SaaS Ultra <p>After the release of version 3900.41, users are unable to download the custom login page in Ultra branding.</p> <p>In 3900.39 it was possible to download it by going to Admin &gt; Brands &gt; Pick a brand &gt; Under Login Page, there was a &#39;...&#39; (elipsis) icon which allowed to download the already customized login page. That is not longer available, just a trash bin icon.</p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.44.0)
000078571 Blackboard Learn SaaS Ultra Some users are experiencing frequent logouts from the Blackboard Mobile App while trying to log in. SaaS-Fixed
000075756 Blackboard Learn MH, User & Role Management, Course Tools, Blackboard Learn Software Older_Release <p>Users with custom instructor roles get an &quot;Oops! Something went wrong.&quot; error when trying to edit and upload files into an existing document that already has files uploaded via both the VTBE and direct upload from Computer. This issue affects any custom role created from the default Instructor role, even an exact copy of the role.</p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.44.0)
000059682 Blackboard Learn SaaS Discussion board groups cannot be edited by users using the Portugese (Brasil) Language Pack. They can create them initially, but the controls to edit them afterward are not present. SaaS - Fixed (v3800.7.0)
000076588 Blackboard Learn SaaS Ultra When an instructor tries to view a submission inline with attachments by selecting &quot;View only&quot;, the render inline does not work preventing the file from being viewable. <br>  SaaS-Fixed (v3900.44.0)

The information contained in the Knowledge Base was written and/or verified by Blackboard Support. It is approved for client use. Nothing in the Knowledge Base shall be deemed to modify your license in any way to any Blackboard product. If you have comments, questions, or concerns, please send an email to kb@blackboard.com. © 2025 Blackboard Inc. All rights reserved