What if your discussion assignments could set clear expectations up front? Could your students benefit if your course could respond to their questions before you checked your inbox?

The December Ultra update closes out the year with enhancements that bring clarity, efficiency, and a touch of automation to your teaching. From AI-powered responses to customizable release conditions and upgraded discussion tools, these features help faculty support learners more effectively without adding to their workload.

To help set clearer expectations for student interaction, instructors can now add participation requirements to discussions. You can specify the number of posts and/or replies required, in addition to setting due dates. These requirements are visible to students and encourage more intentional and timely engagement. This is especially helpful in courses where discussions are graded or tied to reflection, collaboration, or community-building goals, and it allows students to better understand what “participation” looks like in your course.

Image 1: Instructors set participation requirements in discussion settings.

Image 2: AVA responding to a student’s message.

Ultra’s Learning Module Table of Contents is now available to instructors, providing a collapsible navigation panel that mirrors the student experience. You can quickly jump between content items and preview materials that are not yet released -- without switching to Student Preview or changing availability settings. This consistent view across roles improves usability during course design and review, making it easier to check flow, spot gaps, or make edits while keeping future content hidden from students.

Image 3: Instructor view of a Learning Module with the Table of Contents panel open.

Ultra now supports improved audio and video feedback directly within the feedback editor. Whether you’re working in Flexible Grading or providing overall feedback on an assignment, you can record your audio, video, and desktop, generate captions and transcripts, and use simple editing tools to polish your message. This upgrade makes it easier to deliver accessible, personalized feedback in multimedia format, enhancing your teaching presence and giving students a richer understanding of your comments. Note: Feedback videos are associated to the student's assessment and stay archived with the course.

Image 4: Video Studio recording embedded in the instructor feedback panel.

Finally, Instructors can now set release conditions based on whether a student has simply opened a previous item. This lightweight prerequisite option -- "Unopened" or "Opened or Started" -- lets you guide students through your course in a structured sequence without requiring them to complete a graded task. It's especially useful in module-based courses where students need to engage with foundational materials before progressing to more advanced topics, activities, or discussions.

Additional updates for December include:

• Originality Reporting option has been removed from the settings panel for AI Conversations because the activity involves interaction with an AI persona and does not generate a meaningful report.

• Blackboard updated the grade pill display for the Complete/Incomplete grade schema to improve clarity for instructors and students. Grade pills for incomplete items now appear in gray, making them visually distinct from graded submissions.

• MathJax support in the Content Editor now includes additional LaTeX delimiters (e.g., \(...\) for inline and display equations) for rendering mathematical formulas to improve compatibility with standard STEM workflows and simplify uploading exam content without changing source files. These options are in addition to the existing $ delimiters.

When you can expect the update

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around December 4-5, 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on December 9, 2025; release notes are posted to the What's New in Ultra that same week. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. Please watch the FAQs, including the What's New with Ultra page, and myUMBC for additional information about Ultra.

The September Ultra release introduces improvements to assessment creation, content formatting and an optional AI-powered virtual assistant. These enhancements are designed to help instructors save time on repetitive tasks, organize course materials more clearly, and provide students with a better learning experience. Whether you’re building out fall assessments or fine-tuning existing content, this month’s features offer small but meaningful ways to streamline your teaching and enhance course design.

This fall, UMBC faculty will have early access to Anthology Virtual Assistant (AVA), a new suite of optional AI-powered tools designed to support common teaching tasks. The first AVA feature, Feedback Assistant, launches in September with two helpful options for instructors using rubrics in Flexible Grading. 

• The AI Feedback Summary can generate an overall comment based on rubric selections and performance level descriptions, giving instructors a solid starting point for crafting meaningful, criteria-based feedback. Instructors can edit, reject, or regenerate the suggestion as needed. 
• The Feedback Revision feature allows instructors to rewrite their own comments with AI assistance once they’ve entered at least 30 characters, providing a fast way to turn quick notes into polished, student-friendly feedback. 

Image 1: Instructors can generate feedback using the rubric criteria.

The content styling feature in Ultra Documents allows instructors to add visual structure and emphasis to course materials using block styles like “question,” “tip,” “key points,” and “next steps.” These styles include color and icon cues, and can be applied from a simple dropdown in Edit mode. Used purposefully, styling helps students scan and interpret content more effectively -- whether you’re prompting reflection, offering guidance, reinforcing essential facts, or outlining next steps. To maximize clarity and accessibility, use styles consistently, explain their purpose to students, and keep each block focused and concise. This small design enhancement can reduce cognitive load, support learner autonomy, and make content feel more interactive and well-organized.

Image 2. Instructors can select styling options from a dropdown menu that appears in Edit mode on all block types.

A new enhancement to assessment workflows allows instructors to add, edit, and manage question titles in tests, forms, and question banks. These titles are visible only to instructors and are not shown to students during test-taking or review. This feature supports better organization within complex assessments by allowing instructors to label and track individual questions, which can be especially helpful when reusing or editing items across multiple courses or semesters.

Image 3: Instructors can enter or edit the question title in tests, forms, and question banks.

Additional updates for September include:

• Instructors can export question banks in QTI v2.1 format, which is widely used by publishers and learning tools. 
• Instructors can use the pop-out rubric when grading group submissions in Flexible Grading. 
• Students can view per-question feedback on group test submissions.
• Blackboard improved how time limits and extra time are communicated in Assessments to ensure that all users understand exactly how much time is available, including any accommodations or overrides. 
• Blackboard streamlined the New Announcement page by removing the unnecessary Recipients dropdown. 

When you can expect the update

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around September 4-5 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on September 9, 2025; release notes are posted to the What's New in Ultra that same week. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. Please watch the FAQs, including the What's New with Ultra page, and myUMBC for additional information about Ultra.