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Blackboard Learn 3900.62 Release

Date Published: Apr 11,2025


CategoryPlanned First Fix Release:3900.62.0 Release; Product:Blackboard Learn SaaS
Article No.: 000077421
Product:
Learn SaaS

Information:

Blackboard is pleased to announce the release of the 3900.62.0 (March 7, 2023) update of Learn SaaS for test and stage environments (full release number: 3900.60.0-rel.13+0eff026). This update will replace the previous v.3900.60.0 release.

The April 2023 - 3900.62 release is robust with features in five areas:
  • Assessment and grading;
  • Richer course and content;
  • Data and analytics;
  • Integration, extension, and management; and
  • Course upgrading
These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Some features do require administrative action.

Instructors:
  • Multiple Grading Schemas: Add, Edit, Copy
  • Submission page sorting controls
  • Gradable Items View usability improvements
  • Discussion navigation improvements
  • Deactivated students no longer show in student progress reports
  • New access points to Student Overview
  • Course Activity Report accessibility improvements
Instructors and students:
  • Hotspot question: Circle Shape and Usability Improvements
  • Bb Annotate: Enhanced comments
  • Cloud document “Refresh” button improvement
All users:
  • Course Content Title Search
  • Primary Instructor improvements
  • Course Upgrading: Remove HTML for plain text fields
Administrators:
  • Sort Courses and Organizations by Course View
  • View Enrollment Data Source Key
  • LTI Tool Content: Standardize default icons
  • Configure decimal and group separators in locale



Assessment and Grading

Hotspot question: Circle Shape and Usability Improvements
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors, Students

Instructors may want to assess a student’s knowledge of visual content. The hotspot question type is popular for this type of assessment. This question type is also good for reducing the potential of cueing or guessing.

Hotspot questions present an image without any answer options for students to choose. Students must mark a certain area of the image that is within the area the instructor defined as correct.

We continue to improve this question type:
  • Instructors may now use a circle-shape selector to draw a circle to mark the hotspot.
  • Now when students select the image, a pin is automatically placed on the selection.
  • The polygon shape selector and selected pins have improved color contrast.
For administrators:The feature flag for this feature has been removed. Hotspot questions are now always available.


Multiple Grading Schemas: Add, Edit, Copy
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors

In the past, Ultra courses allowed only one grading schema per course. Now instructors can add, copy, and edit up to 100 grading schemas per course. Items copied from other courses will keep their grading schemas. When copying, any configured schemas copy even if not aligned to gradable items.

Instructors can now choose the best grading schema for each assessment in a course.

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


Submission page sorting controls
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors

Record sorting provides a more efficient grade review experience. Instructors may wish to sort students by grade to identify submissions at a grade boundary. This helps instructors make any changes necessary before posting grades.

Any sorting applied yields a temporary change to the sort order of all columns on the Submissions page.

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


Gradable Items View usability improvements
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors

It is important for the gradebook to support efficient workflows. We have made several improvements to improve the Gradable Items View:
  • Instructors can now sort the records of any column on this page. Sorting helps instructors more easily find the desired information. For example, instructors may sort on Grading Status to locate assessments that need grading.
  • Selecting the assessment name now navigates the instructor to the selected assessment.
  • Selecting '# to grade’ now navigates to a Needs Grading  filtered Submissions page. This provides instructors with quick entry into the grading process.
  • The new Post column provides instructors with status information for an assessment. This also simplifies the action to post all grades for the assessment.

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


Bb Annotate: Enhanced comments 
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Instructors, Students

It is important for instructors to provide rich and meaningful feedback for students. We have improved formatting and editing options for instructors.
  • Instructors can now include richer formatting in comments. This includes font colors, bold, underline, and hyperlinks.
  • Instructors can now edit already placed comments.

For administrators:This feature might not be available at the same time the release takes place. The deployment information will be updated on status.blackboard.com.


Course Content Title Search
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: All users

It is sometimes difficult to remember the location of a course item. In the past, locating an item was a time-intensive task and unintuitive. Searching for the item would involve opening every folder or learning module to find the item.

You can now search course content titles to find these items on the course content page. The course search icon, a magnifying glass, is easy to find at the top of the course content page. When a user types a few letters, the course search function displays a list of matching items by title. A user may expand the search results to view more information related to the course item(s).

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


Discussion navigation improvements
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors

Instructors often review various aspects of course discussions to assess and engage students. To improve navigation and increase visibility, we have introduced a new tab navigation:
  • Discussion
  • Student Activity
  • Grading & Participation

The Grading & Participation appears only when the discussion is marked for grading.

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


Data & Analytics

Deactivated students no longer show in the student progress reports
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors

Instructors want to know their students’ engagement with course material. The per item progress report offers the information needed, such as if a student has started or if an item is unopened. Now this report excludes deactivated students. This may happen when a student drops the course. The numbers in the report are aligned with the actual number of active students in the course. Students who cannot access the course but are not deactivated will continue to display. These students who cannot access are identified in the report.

For administrators: You must enable progress tracking to see this report. A deactivated student is one where the Student Information System sets the row status of either the user or enrollment record to the disabled state.


New access points to Student Overview
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors

Quick access to student information is helpful during the grading and feedback process. The Student Overview page provides the most important information for each student.

Now instructors can access the Student Overview page in 3 locations:
  • Roster
  • Messages
  • Discussions
These additional access points provide instructors with convenient access to this student information. As before, instructors can continue to reach this page by selecting a student in the Gradebook.

Most of the time when closing the Student Overview, the instructor will return to the point of access. However, if navigating deeply and opening many panels, there may be times when navigation varies. An instructor may return to the student list in the Gradebook when closing the Student Overview. This navigation is designed to avoid circular referencing.

For administrators: This feature is available for all courses and organizations. There are no configurations needed to allow instructors to use these access points to the Student Overview. To view the Progress tracking tab in the Student Overview progress tracking should be enabled.


Course Activity Report accessibility improvements
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Instructors

We commit to providing accessible and inclusive solutions for all users. Many users navigate Ultra using assistive technologies. To better support instructors using assistive technology, we have made several accessibility improvements to the Course Activity Report:
  • The description of the Course Activity Report includes a “Learn more” link. Now the screen reader states this link, directing the instructor to the related Help documentation.
  • Instructors can sort data on any column. Now screen readers indicate if column sorting is in ascending or descending order.
  • Instructors can select many students to send messages. Now screen readers state the number of students selected.
  • Screen readers now state when an instructor selects or deselects all students.
  • In medium and small screens some options of the Course Activity Report combine in a single drop-down menu. Now screen readers state that the 3-dot menu contains more options.

For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed. To experience these improvements, users need to turn on a screen reader tool using the assistive technology installed on their personal devices.
 


Integration, Extension, and Management

Cloud document “Refresh” button improvement 
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors, Students

User experience in Ultra is of utmost importance to us. To help users better focus on interacting with Microsoft OneDrive Cloud Documents, we removed a banner.

We retained the "Refresh" button for student and instructor users.

We made this change to both embedded cloud documents and cloud collaborations.

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


Sort Courses and Organizations by Course View
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Impact: Administrators

Administrators often search for courses and organizations in the administrator panel. The search results show the course or organization view as Ultra, Original, Undecided, or Preview. Now administrators can sort search results on this column. Sorting helps administrators better find the desired courses or organizations. Sorting may also help administrators better understand adoption of the Ultra Course View.

A course designated as Undecided is in the Original Course View, but an instructor may change it to Ultra Course View. A course designated as Preview uses the Ultra Course View, but an instructor can revert to Original Course View.

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


View Enrollment Data Source Keys
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Impact: Administrators

Data source keys allow administrators to segment data sets. They help to limit changes to records except by an appropriate data authority. To change some aspects of a record, you must know the data source key. In the past, administrators could view the data source key for user, course, organization, and term records. Data source keys for course and organizations enrollments were not displayed in the administrator panel.

If an administrator needed to update aspects of an enrollment record, they had to know the data source key because it was not displayed. Now the courses and organizations enrollments list pages, display the data source key for each enrollment. Administrators can also sort by the Data Source Key column.

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


LTI Tool Content: Standardize default icons
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Administrators

Content icons are an important aspect of identifying content types in the course. In the past, when LTI tool icons were not defined the iconography was inconsistent. Now, all LTI tool icons that are not defined will display the default rocket icon.

These icons appear in these locations in the base navigation and Ultra course:
  • Content Outline
  • Gradebook grid view
  • Gradebook list view
  • Gradable Items tab
  • Students Grades Overview
  • Grades tab on Base Navigation
  • Course Calendar Day Schedule
  • Course Calendar Day Due Dates
  • Base Nav Calendar Day Schedule
  • Base Nav Calendar Day Due Dates
  • Books & Tools
  • Base Nav Calendar
  • Overall Calculations

For administrators: We recommend administrators review LTI placement configurations. When the tool provider manages their icons, those are always used and cannot be changed. When the tool provider does not supply an icon, the administrator can add one. When no icon is defined, a default icon is used.


Configure decimal and number separators in locale
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Administrators

People use different number formatting around the world. Larger numbers are grouped in different ways, and different punctuations are used for decimals. In Learn, these behaviors are included in the locale settings, so this is done automatically. A number would appear as 1,095.5 in the United States and 1.095,5 in Germany.

For some language selections, however, there can be variance from one country to another. In Spanish-speaking countries, for example, the decimal point is used in Mexico, but the decimal comma is used in Colombia.

Previously, custom configurations could be applied for Original courses. Now, these same custom settings will also apply to Ultra courses.

In Ultra courses, there are two places that will still display decimal point when the locale uses decimal commas:
  • Numeric questions
  • The Overall Grade configuration. Final calculations are not affected.
We plan to fix these in an upcoming release.

The Attendance tool always uses decimal points regardless of locale.

For administrators: The improvement in this release is limited to left-to-right languages. Action is only necessary if your local number handling doesn’t match what is coded into your selected locale. To change the number handling:
  • Export the appropriate language pack
  • Manually edit the locale settings
  • Upload the language pack and make it available
 
 

Course Upgrading

Remove HTML for plain text fields 
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: All users

Sometimes users may add HTML to fields in the Original Course View to change styling. For example, users cannot change the color of web link objects like they can for other items. Users worked-around this by adding HTML into the text field to change the color of the web link.

When converted to the Ultra course view, the same fields no longer support HTML, and the HTML becomes exposed. Users then must rename the objects and remove the exposed HTML.

Now we remove any HTML that is no longer supported during conversion. Conversion preserves the text-based content within the HTML tags.

For administrators: There are no administrative configurations required.

Highlights:

Maintenance Fixes

You can view maintenance items for 3900.62 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: 
  • Delegated Grading API Call Not Working as Expected- Article #76760
  • Adding Custom HTML/CSS Content Block in Institution Page Blocked for EMEA Region Users- Article #77162
  • Ally Allows Content to be Less Than 100%- Article #76724
  • Course Files Cannot be Downloaded Where Course_ID Value is "1"- Article #75753
  • Calculated Formula Questions Require a Specific Number of Digits- Article #75970
  • Using Special Characters in the Comment Feedback on Students' Journals Features Error- Article #76165
  • Content Library Copy to Clipboard Function Does Not Work in Google Chrome- Article #75988
  • In Original View Deleting a Group Set From the "All groups" Page Deletes Only one Group- Article #76832
  • Course Menu not Shown When Weblink is the Entry Point for Guest User- Article #76784
  • DB Error on Quick Enroll When the Account was Disabled- Article #75835
  • Error Observed on Deleting Grade Center Categories for Original View Courses- Article #77317
  • Discussion Board Link in Performance Dashboard Results in Blank Page if Thread was Anonymously Authored- Article #76993
  • Incorrect Translation of Email Group Set Option in Dutch- Article #77088
  • Enterprise Surveys HTML Coding Showing on Reports- Article #75962
  • Error when SIS-Deleting a Node-User Association that was created via GUI- Article #76393
  • Error When Associating Courses/Users to Hierarchy Nodes- Article #76248
  • When Changing Passwords a Field Label is Incorrectly Translated in the Polski Language Pack- Article #77085
  • Custom Grading Schemas Range from 0 to a Value Lower Than 100- Article #75777
  • Group Code Becomes Null If Name Contains Multibyte Characters and Corresponding Group Exports from Original Courses Fails- Article #76044
  • Ally Scores are Downrated for the Math Editor Images Generated Inside Course Messages' VTBE- Article #76434
  • When a Student Submits an Assignment an Inconsistent Submission Confirmation ID Displays Depending on the Location- Article #76639
  • The Displayed Course Status and the Actual One Do Not Match Under Disk Usage Report- Article #76243
  • In Learn the Links in the Organization Overview Report Downloaded to Excel Produces an Access Denied Error- Article #76686
  • Non-Descriptive Error Received While Trying to Sync LTI 1.1 Placements- Article #76513
  • Override Grades Without Attempts Do Not Get Archived And Restored- Article #77060
  • All Grades Marked as Zero Cannot get Reconciled at Once- Article #75967
  • Term Data Source Records Cannot Be Purged Using GUI Data Integration- Article #76105
  • Text Font is not Altered if Style is Bold or Italic- Article #76938
  • Course Navigation Panel Does not Convey Whether it is Expanded or Collapsed to Assistive Technology Tools- Article #77010
  • Collapsed Links in Global Navigation Menu are Missing aria-expanded Attribute- Article #77003
  • Course and Organization Roles Made Unavailable are Available for Enrollments- Article #76545
  • Courses Cannot be Copied Into Other Courses Created Through SIS Integration- Article #76963
  • Users Automatically Logged in When the "Enable Automatic SSO" Option is Unchecked- Article #75488
  • The system.lmsintegration.user.role.MODIFY Privilege Does Not Stay Permitted on Custom Roles- Article #76692
  • Viewing Earned Achievement Throws an Access Denied Error if 'Visible to students before receiving' Option is Set to No- Article #76220
  • Ampersand Unencoded in Querystring When Launched in Current Window- Article #76781
  • Short Answer Question Not Rendering Correctly- Article #77242
  • Grade Center Scroll Bar is not Visible on Windows 10 When Changing to High Contrast Mode in Chrome and Microsoft Edge - Article #77284
  • Calculation Columns' value is not possible to be validated in Courses with enforced Arabic Language Pack- Article # 77189
  • Course Roster in Ultra Shows User Information Titles Even If There is No Information- Article #76377
  • Courses Show as Unavailable in Nodes When Term Availability and Duration are Defined- Article #77049
  • Disabled Students are Showing in Student Progress for Assignment Items- Article #77092
  • Unable to Change the Current Enrollments Page in the Overall Grade List- Article #77133
  • After Ultra Course Conversion Exception Messages for Embedded Links With & Characters are Displayed- Article #76457
  • Issues Adding Two-Decimal-Point Values to Assessment Questions When Enforcing the Arabic Language Pack- Article #77066
  • Custom LTI Tool Icon Image is not Being Shown in Course Content Items- Article #77018
  • Page Numbering Remains Unchanged in Base Navigation Upcoming Courses Page- Article #76306
  • Pronunciation is Not Honored in User Profile Privacy Settings- Article #77032
  • SoundCloud Media Cannot Get Inserted Into the Content Editor- Article #77183
  • Gradebook Hangs on Purple Spinning Circle When a Customized Facilitator Role User Access the Students List View- Article #77104
  • Broken Grade Schema Default After Update- Article #76864
  • Videos Embedded Using HTML are not Allowed to Play in Full Screen- Article #77038
  • Ultra Peer Review Assignment Grade Columns Not Visible to Unenrolled Administrators- Article #76966
  • In Ultra Last Enabled Student's Names do not Show in Roster List if a Student is Disabled- Article #76890
  • Institution Page Module Image Links Hardcoded- Article #76897
  • Notification Email Address' Email Included in Ultra Course Messages- Article #76484
  • In Ultra Base Navigation the Spanish Translation for Course Catalog is Incorrect - Article #77296
  • The Overall Grade Column is not Calculating Items Correctly - Article #77341


Top Issues

Article Number Component Service Pack(s) Description Target Fix Release Patch Available
000090472 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.110.0, 3900.112.0, 3900.114.0, 3900.116.0 <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">The ‘Send Message’ feature in Ultra Analytics (Retention Center) might time out when attempting to contact all students with alerts, especially with a big user list (2,000+).</span></p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000089943 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.102.0, 3900.104.0, 3900.106.0 <p>In Ultra View mode, users utilizing the JAWS screen reader encounter accessibility issues. When navigating courses, pressing the down arrow key after selecting a course title causes JAWS to announce a disabled button. This unexpected behavior diverts users from the intended navigation list.</p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000090664 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.116.0, 3900.118.0 <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">The Annotate feature becomes unusable when the browser zoom level is increased. Specifically, if the zoom is set to 150% or higher, annotation tools may no longer respond or function correctly, preventing users from making annotations. </span></p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000090111 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.100.0, 3900.102.0, 3900.104.0, 3900.106.0, 3900.108.0 <p>In Ultra view mode, when an instructor creates a test and applies a release condition, the course builder encounters a permission error upon logging in for the first time.</p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000090605 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.112.0, 3900.114.0, 3900.116.0 <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">When attempting to alter Overall Grades for students, the Grade Pill cannot be edited in the Grid View of the Gradebook when multiple Grade Notations exist in Ultra View courses.  </span></p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000090491 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.106.0, 3900.108.0, 3900.110.0, 3900.112.0, 3900.114.0, 3900.116.0 <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">When opening a deep link LTI request, the peek panel scroll bars obstruct content and the submit button. </span></p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000090323 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.108.0, 3900.110.0, 3900.112.0 <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">The Adaptive Release setting is also copied when copying from Original to Ultra. This is not a problem unless it is &#39;Off&#39; in the Original course. When this happens, the Release Condition in the Ultra course is ignored. </span></p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000090492 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.112.0, 3900.114.0, 3900.116.0 <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">When an Assignment in an Ultra Course is generated through the REST API, instructions can be retrieved  by making a GET request to the corresponding Course Contents endpoints. However,  if the assignment was created using Learn&#39;s frontend, the instructions will not be available in the API responses. Additionally, if an assignment was initially created via the API but subsequently modified through the graphical user interface (GUI), the API calls will reflect the outdated instruction data instead of the most recent updates. </span></p> <p> </p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000089999 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.104.0, 3900.106.0 <p>When a group assignment&#39;s gradebook column is used in calculations, it incorrectly includes all students, regardless of their group membership. This means that students who aren&#39;t part of any group are still having their grades included in the calculation, which is inaccurate. </p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)
000090706 Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.114.0, 3900.116.0, 3900.118.0, 3900.121.0 <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">Content created or added through Video Studio counts toward the course’s overall quota and may cause it to exceed its limit.</span></p> SaaS-Fixed (v3900.121.0)


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