Blackboard has tripled their development team, so the rate of new features is accelerating rapidly! Many exciting features and updates are coming soon to Blackboard Ally as well as the Original and Ultra course views. Here are some highlights of what is coming for each.
Ally
In the next few months, Ally is adding instructor feedback on accessibility of content created using the text editor in both Original and Ultra Course View. Similar to the feedback available now for files uploaded to your course, this new tool will provide feedback on the accessibility of the text you add to Blackboard in a wide variety of areas such as Announcements, Items (Original Course View), Documents (Ultra Course View), Assignments, Tests, and more!
You will see a live score while editing and any accessibility issues will be highlighted within the text editor. You will also be able to apply quick fixes and batch remediation for several instances of the same issue in the text.
Original Course View
In the next few months, the Original Course View will have a session time-out warning. This will be helpful for students who may start a test and then
Further out, 6 months or more away, Blackboard is working on a way to populate zeroes for students who didn’t submit an assignment in bulk, to assign the same score to all students for a grading column, and updating force completion on tests so that students who are kicked out of the exam (such as due to connectivity issues or a browser/computer crash) are able to continue the test but are unable to access anything else in the Blackboard course until the test is submitted.
Ultra Course View
Most of the development in the next 6 months or more is focused on the Ultra Course View. There are so many exciting updates coming!
April 2022
April updates include some frequently-requested updates for tests as well as helpful enhancements to copying materials. This update should be available on April 7, 2022.
Tests
- Calculated numeric question type added (requires a numerical answer)
- Display questions 1 question at a time
- Feedback display controls to prevent students from accessing their test submission (current controls limit whether students see answers or feedback; this will prevent them from seeing the questions)
- Download test results as Excel or CSV
Assignments
- Instructor view of submission receipts for validation purposes
Copying Content and Assessments
- Copy/duplicate items within an Ultra course (e.g., create a template module then copy it for each week of the course)
- Copy individual items within a learning module
Text Editor
- Code snippets for the text editor, to display formatted programming code
May 2022
Updates for May and beyond are subject to change based on development timelines, but here are the anticipated updates. The May update should be available on May 5, 2022.
Inline View of PDFs and Microsoft Office Attachments
The most significant update is to how content is displayed in your course. This update is expected to add an inline file rendering option for PDF and Microsoft Office attachments on Documents and Assignments. You will be able to specify whether the file can be viewed inline (e.g., embedded within the Document), downloaded (current behavior), or both. For now this is only available for attachments to Documents and Assignments, but there are plans to add the inline view to files uploaded directly to a folder.
Other key updates in May 2022
- Gradebook: Choose whether or not to calculate the overall grade as a running total. When running total is enabled, empty columns are excluded from the calculation, so the grade represents student achievement thus far. When running total is disabled, empty columns are treated as zeroes in the calculation, so the grade represents students’ final grades if they did no further work in the course (i.e., their grade starts at 0 and increases with each assessment).
- Group assignments: option to enable multiple attempts when group submission is enabled.
June 2022
These updates are targeted for availability in June, but that may shift to July or August.
- Prevent backtracking on Tests with questions displayed 1 at a time
- Instructor visibility into student progress such as more detailed information on students’ assignment progress and new filtering capabilities for assignment submissions based on students’ progress (e.g., view only students who have accessed, submitted, need to be graded, or with grades that need to be posted)
- Deeper integration with Microsoft Teams
July, August, and Beyond
There are many more updates currently in development. Some of them may be released later in the summer; others may be released during the fall semester. We will continue to provide updates as timelines are announced!
Content
- Additional layer of folder depth (3 levels of folders instead of 2)
- Internal course links: Ability to create shortcuts to other course items (e.g., learning module, folder, document, test, assignment, discussion, journal) within a Document
Tests
- Per question point changes, including modifying the points a student earned for a single test question, awarding partial credit, assigning negative scores, and marking questions as extra credit
- Question bank enhancements, including creating new question banks, editing questions in question banks, search/copy existing questions from other banks, and copy banks between courses
- Advanced question display in Tests: Anticipated in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023, Blackboard is working on options to create page breaks on tests to cluster related questions
Due Date Exceptions
- Ability to set different due dates for specific students on an individual assignment
Gradebook
- Three calculation options for overall grade (regular, weighted, and advanced calculations)
- Point-based display option for overall grade
- Ability to send reminders to students without submissions
- View grade history
In addition to the items listed here, many more updates and features are coming to Blackboard in the future, including improved integrations with Microsoft Teams and OneDrive. Stay tuned for more information and updates as they become available!
