07/26/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/26/2024 14:34
The Blackboard team at Anthology has been especially inspired this month when it comes to new features and updates. The Blackboard 3900.98 release scheduled for August is an exciting one, with feature improvements in the areas of Instructional Design, Test and Assignments, Mastery Learning and Learning Pathways, Communication and Collaboration, Flexible Grading, and more. These improvements impact administrators, instructors, and students. Read on to discover highlights from the upcoming Blackboard release!
Note: The below updates pertain to customers using the Ultra interface. For complete release notes, visit the Blackboard help site.
Content design is key to creating an engaging course that supports learner needs. The Document feature is a useful option for creating and presenting a variety of visual elements. We have made significant enhancements to Documents to provide new and robust options for content design. Instructors will be delighted that all enhancements work beautifully using a mouse, trackpad, or the keyboard. All enhancements are mobile friendly for instructors and students as well.
We've removed the option to generate questions from Documents. Generating questions from within a test using the context picker in the AI Design Assistant is the preferred method.
Enhanced Document with diverse content laid out in rows and columns
Empty Document with block options
Instructors can now design Documents by selecting from a variety of block types:
In this release, the option to convert a file is only available in the main authoring space. In the Add Content panel (the + menu), the option to convert a file doesn't appear. We'll correct this in an upcoming release.
Instructors can also open the left panel by selecting the + and choosing the desired block.
Empty Document with the blocks panel opened
Document menu bar:
To provide greater efficiency when designing content, we added a menu bar to Documents. The menu bar remains in view as the instructor scrolls the Document to view, add, or edit content. The menu bar contains the Edit option when in the view state. After selecting Edit, the menu bar displays the following options:
Add blocks from the left panel or select the purple + to add a block as a row
Resizing and moving blocks:
Instructors can create appealing layouts by resizing and dragging/dropping blocks into columns and rows.
Move, expand, and shrink options via keyboard controls
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. A new configuration option is on the Ultra configuration page in the Administrator Panel: "Enable support for customizing Ultra document layouts." The default state is on. This option will be available until December 2024. At that time, we will remove the configuration option and enhanced Documents will be default.
This option can be toggled on or off. Be mindful of potential impacts to content created with or modified by enhanced options if you turn this option off.
Video Studio is targeted to be available in Test/Stage environments on August 8, 2024.
Instructors have recording capabilities in Announcements and Feedback features. Now they have the ability to upload or record audio and videos directly within enhanced Documents. The lightweight, deeply integrated Video Studio solution promotes a more engaging learning experience.
When creating an enhanced 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.
New Audio/Video block in an enhanced Document
Recording and uploading options available in Audio/Video block for an enhanced Document
When a user starts recording, there is a three second countdown before the recording begins. Users can pause, resume, retake, or end the recording as needed.
Start recording process
After a user ends the recording, the uploading process begins. During this time, the user can preview the result, edit the title, and add a description. Users can select Save to add the audio or video into an enhanced Document. After saving the video, auto captioning for videos is available.
Add video details, preview, and save options
Automatic captioning for videos is available
For administrators: These new video capabilities require a license for Video Studio. 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:
Instructors need robust, easy-to-use tools when creating their assessments.
To create a better experience, the new Assignment page includes these improvements:
Assignments created before this release will continue to create blank attempts when students view the instructions. We'll address this issue in a future release.
The New Test page remains unchanged. Instructors can access all the same question types and settings options. Attempts are still automatically created when students view the test questions.
Instructor view of the New Assignment page with the new Instructions box
Instructor view of adding instructions to an assignment
Students view of the new Assignment Information panel and the View Instructions option
Student view of the assignment instructions
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.
Instructors need to release course content based on performance criteria to sequence students on learning paths correctly. Sometimes they also need to release content to different groups using different criteria. For example, graduate students may be required to perform additional activities or perform at a higher level than other students. To support this needed flexibility, instructors can now create multiple rules for release conditions.
You can create rules for release conditions based on these criteria: date, time, and grade range performance criteria. You can also create rules for specific individual learners, groups, or for all members.
Release Conditions page
This release also improves copying content from Original courses. Rules and criteria now copy from Original adaptive release settings. The supported criterion types are date, time, grade range, and memberships (individual or groups). Only supported criteria types are copied from Original to Ultra courses. These criteria types are removed automatically during a copy:
As before, we recommend reviewing settings after copying content from Original courses.
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed. For Test/Stage environments, availability will be on July 24.
Anonymous responses in forms encourage honest and candid feedback from students and help participants feel safe and secure knowing their identities are protected. Anonymity leads to more genuine responses that convey the respondents' true opinions and experiences. Additionally, it increases participation rates and the overall quality of the results.
Instructors can now collect anonymous submissions in Forms. The new Anonymous submissions option appears in the Grading & Submissions section of Form Settings.
Anonymous submissions option
When you select Anonymous submissions, these settings are enabled by default:
Additional important details to note:
From the Submissions tab for a form, you can view an anonymized list of student participants along with the following information and options:
To view responses, select an anonymous student from the list. You can enter overall feedback for their submission.
From the Gradebook, before the due date for an anonymous form, "Anonymous" appears in the cell for each student. After the due date, the cells display:
From the Grades tab, you can select Download Gradebook to download responses to forms with anonymous submissions.
When converting Original courses containing surveys to Ultra courses, surveys convert to anonymous forms by default.
We've taken care to ensure students know when their submission to a form is anonymous. The Anonymous icon and label appears on:
Student view - Anonymous label and icon for a form
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.
Explore these updates and more in the full Blackboard 3900.98 release notes.