Blackboard is preparing to launch a completely redesigned gradebook this summer, including a faster, cleaner, and significantly easier-to-use experience for faculty. To ensure the update meets the needs of instructors and their courses, Blackboard developers are inviting faculty members to participate in an upcoming technical preview program from April 20 - May 1, 2026. 

During a technical preview, faculty typically get access to a sandbox course with new features enabled. In the upcoming preview window, participants will get exclusive access to the new gradebook for Ultra courses. Key usability improvements include streamlined direct grade entry for quicker updates and flexible name display options, allowing instructors to customize how student names appear. Additional context panels provide quick insights into grading and essential action items.

Ongoing development of the new gradebook has been shaped by faculty feedback from a variety of clients throughout higher education over the past eight to twelve months. Earlier this semester, UMBC's participation in the new gradebook development process began when Blackboard staff visited campus to meet with faculty in small group sessions. The goal was twofold: To gather specific feedback on faculty gradebook priorities and to showcase early previews of the new interface. 

UMBC faculty who are interested in trying out the new gradebook features and providing feedback are encouraged to sign up for the technical preview.

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What's new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources

Thumbnail-image: Ultra news update

The May 2025 Ultra release delivers several meaningful updates that improve how faculty assess student work, support engagement, and manage course tools. From expanded rubric options to accessible grading workflows, these changes are designed to align with effective teaching practices and support a more inclusive, student-centered experience.

Qualitative, No-Points Rubrics

Instructors can now create and use no-points rubrics in Ultra, a powerful option for qualitative evaluation. These rubrics allow instructors to provide rich, criterion-based feedback without assigning numerical values -- perfect for assignments focused on reflection, creativity, process, or formative assessment. In addition, faculty can leverage the AI assistant to generate descriptive evaluation criteria for no-points rubrics.

Image 1: Example of no-points rubric creation screen

Text-Based Columns in the Gradebook

A new Gradebook feature allows instructors to create text-based columns (up to 32 characters). These flexible columns are not restricted to text-only input and can include a description for context. Instructors can control student visibility, sort values in Grid view, and download the data. This update is especially useful for organizing students, tracking informal feedback, or adding flexibility to the Gradebook without tying everything to a numeric score.

Image 2: Inserting a text-based column in the gradable items tab

Test Submission Review – View Once

A new test setting, “View submission one time,” allows students to review their test responses and feedback just once after submission. Instructors must first enable the “Allow students to view their submission” setting, after which this option becomes available. This strikes a balance between transparency and academic integrity, offering students a chance to learn from their errors while reducing the risk of content sharing.

Image 3: Selecting the one-time view submission assessment setting

Enhanced AI Conversation Tool

The AI Conversation tool has been upgraded to optionally generate three key elements: a conversation title, a persona, and a reflection question. Instructors can further refine the suggestions by adjusting complexity, providing additional context, or pulling from course materials. This makes it easier to create rich dialogue prompts that encourage critical thinking and metacognition.

Gradebook Accessibility Enhancements

The Gradable Items view in the Gradebook has been redesigned to improve accessibility and navigation for users relying on screen readers or keyboard-only navigation. The new table-based layout provides more intuitive movement across cells using arrow keys and includes proper header and row announcements. These enhancements help ensure all instructors and teaching assistants, regardless of ability, can manage course grading with greater ease.

Discussion Board Improvements

Several updates make Ultra Discussions more intuitive and user-friendly. Terminology has been streamlined, replacing “responses” with “posts” for clarity, and the input field now prompts users to “Post a response to the discussion.” Instructor posts are clearly labeled, reply boxes are directly below the topic for better flow, and unnecessary interface elements, such as avatars and large banners, have been removed or simplified. These changes reduce cognitive load, improve mobile usability, and create a smoother, more accessible discussion experience for both students and faculty.

When you can expect the update

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around May 1-2 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on May 6, 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.

Curious about the all latest features in Ultra? Join our What's New in Ultra Courses for Teaching & Learning SU2025 webinar on May 12, 2025.

The April release introduce several new features aimed at improving content management, grading flexibility, and student feedback tracking. 

Instructors and students can now print Ultra Documents or save them as PDFs. This feature facilitates offline content review, sharing with peers, or creating physical copies. Note that if knowledge checks are included and already completed, they will display selected answers and instructor feedback when printed.

Image 1: Example of new print Ultra Document feature

A major addition this month is the Learning Object Repository (LOR), designed to centralize resources across courses and organizations. Instructors can copy objects from the LOR while maintaining control over settings such as availability. Updates made to objects in the LOR are automatically reflected across associated courses, making it easier to manage institutional content like policy documents.

Content Creation & Management

• When performing a whole course copy, achievements are now automatically included, allowing instructors to maintain consistent recognition across course iterations. However, achievements are not included in granular content copies.
• Instructors can now access Achievements through the Student Preview.

Assessments & Grading

• Flexible Grading is introduced for group assignments and tests. Though some features (like per-question feedback on group tests) are not yet available, this update is part of ongoing improvements to group grading.
• A new feedback indicator on the student Overview page now shows whether students have reviewed their feedback. The indicator updates from “Not reviewed” to “Reviewed” with a timestamp, giving instructors greater insight into student engagement with their feedback.
• A new “Results” column in the Gradebook replaces the “Feedback” column, making it more intuitive for students to view their grades and feedback.

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around April 4-5 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on April 8, 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.

Curious about the all latest features in Ultra? Join our What's New in Ultra Courses for Teaching & Learning SU2025 webinar on May 12, 2025.

In March, Ultra's update includes two new course reports, an exciting rubric enhancement requested by faculty, and improvements to the AI Course Design Assistant.

Located on the Analytics page, the two new course reports focus on goals. The Course Goal Coverage Report provides a comprehensive view of goal coverage in the course, including a detailed breakdown of course items aligned with goals. The Course Goal Performance Report evaluates how a course meets selected goals, including a detailed breakdown for individual students and goals. These reports do not include third-party tools and uses snapshot data that is up to 24 hours old.

Instructors will be able to pop out the grading rubric into a separate window when grading an assignment. Formatted in a grid view, the pop-out rubric is a separate, movable window. Popping out a rubric allows an instructor to view a student's submission and the rubric side-by-side for a more efficient grading experience. However, the expand icon for popping out a rubric will only appear if the primary browser window is sufficiently large enough to display enough of the course page. Instructors will be able to print a blank or completed rubric using their browser's print function.

Image 1: Example of new pop-out rubric

Content Creation & Management

• When setting or updating release conditions, due dates for content items are now included with the release condition settings, reducing the need to navigate back to the item to check deadlines.
• Instructors can now copy banners between courses.

AI Course Design Assistant

• When using the AI Course Design Assistant, if no image is generated, a placeholder will maintain a consistent layout. A refresh button allows instructors to generate a new image easily.
• The AI Course Design Assistant now generates one image at a time instead of four, reducing energy and processing power. If an instructor regenerates an image, previous images are saved for comparison.

Assessments & Grading

• If an instructor hides an assessment while students are actively taking it, those with the test open can continue without disruption.
• Instructors can configure the visibility of calculated columns from Items Management, streamlining the gradebook view. (Note: The Overall Grade column remains visible at all times.)
• The layout for the Test Submission Page for students now mirrors the assignment submission page update from September 2024, ensuring feedback is clearly presented.

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around March 6-7, 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on March 11, 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 February update for Ultra features enhancements to support content creation, improved file rendering, assessment security, and grading workflows. Additionally, updates to the AI Course Design Assistant provides increases flexibility for test question and learning module generation. Let's explore this month's update!

Content Creation & Management

• With a simple click, instructors can now change a top level folder to a learning module, and quickly enjoy all the benefits of using learning modules. This includes thumbnail images, navigation, sequencing, and progress bars -- a very popular feature reported by UMBC students!
• Instructors can use the new image block in Ultra Documents to upload their own images, use the AI Design Assistant to generate images, or select images from Unsplash.
• Files uploaded by instructors to Blackboard now retain their original formatting and characteristics wherever instructors can upload files. Student files will also display with the exact same formatting as when they were submitted. 

Image 1: Example of the new option to change a folder to a learning module in the dropdown menu.

AI Course Design Assistant

• Instructors can now set the number of questions generated for tests and question banks to a maximum of 20, which reduces the chance that similar questions will be generated. 
• Instructors can exclude descriptions from learning modules when generating these elements.

Reporting

• IP addresses are now in the student activity log for assessment submissions and drafts.

Image 2: Example of the new IP address column that’s included in the student activity log.

Assessments

• Assignments will be converted to the new interface, which was launched in August 2024. An assignment is an assessment without individual questions (e.g., multiple choice, essay, etc.). Tests will NOT be converted.
• The Tests Settings panel was updated to remove assignment specific options (e.g., collect submissions offline, peer review, grading rubric). 
• Instructors must add at least one question to a test to make it visible to students or to add release conditions.
• When an instructor or exam proctor enters an access code for an assessment on a student's computer, the code is masked (*******) to ensure enhanced security. 
• Students can now be confident that their files are successfully attached, received, and stored for assessments. They will be notified immediately if there are any issues with their file submissions including timed assessments.

Grading & the Gradebook

• The Grading interface is updated to provide more space to instructors.
• Instructors can enter discussion and journal grades directly in the Grid view or Grades & Participation page with improved accuracy and consistency.
• Grades and feedback for assignments, journals, and discussions are mapped to the corresponding attempt or submission whenever possible.
• Instructors can choose to exclude attempts that they do not intend to grade. Excluded attempts are removed from the Needs Grading workflow and any gradebook calculations.

Image 3: Example of the newly designed grading interface

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around February 6-7, 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on February 11, 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.

In early January, the Ultra updates features improvements to course settings, content management, grading, and the AI Course Design Assistant, providing increased flexibility for faculty in managing their courses.

Course availability moves away from the Details and Actions side menu to the Course Settings, in the top right corner. Available course statuses include 

• Open: Content is available to students.
• Closed: Content is not available. Students can see the course listed, but they cannot access it. (previously called Private)
• Complete: Read-only content. No changes can be made by students OR instructors. Use with caution.

At the top of a course, there is now an indicator that displays whether a course is Open, Closed, or Complete. Instructors can access Course Settings from the Courses page. 

Image 1: Example of course availability indicator at the top right of an Ultra course.

Learning pathways are structured, personalized sequences of activities or content that guide students through a course based on their progress, performance, or choices. For example, an instructor might release resources only after a student completes specific assignments, or offer different content tracks based on quiz results to address varying levels of mastery. Ultra can now support releasing content based on submission attempt in addition to date/time, grade, and user/group membership.

Image 2: The new Attempt submitted option is in the dropdown menu for a gradable item in the Release condition panel.

• Direct Grade Entry: When grades are entered directly from the Grid view or Submissions page, Ultra will no longer display "Needs Grading" to instructors when grades were already completed.
• Show/Hide Gradebook Columns: Instructors now have the ability to show or hide columns in the gradebook. While hidden columns offer a more organized workspace, these do not apply to the student view since that visibility is controlled by the assessment settings.
• Automatic Zero Defaults: The default setting for automatic zeros is now set to off, giving instructors the flexibility to decide whether or not to enable this feature based on their grading policies. (This applies to newly created courses in the system after Jan 10.)

Additional improvements in January include:

• The AI Course Design Assistant will work faster and generate more complex outputs for assignments, discussions, test questions, learning modules, and AI Conversation avatars.
• Instructors can generate more realistic images faster with the AI Course Design Assistant and the resulting image files require less storage space. 
• The output languages available for AI workflows now include Greek, Catalan, Croatian, Irish, and Slovenian. For a list of all languages available for AI outputs, refer to AI Design Assistant for Instructors. 
• The Achievements tab is now hidden from students until the instructor creates and posts Achievements for students to earn. 
• With the new Mastery Gradebook, instructors can align goals to assessments and view how learners are performing in the course. Moreover, they can also control whether they want students to see their own performance.

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around January 9-10, 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on January 14, 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.

Curious about the all latest features in Ultra? Join our What's New in Ultra Courses for Teaching & Learning SP2025 webinar on January 17, 2025.