Improve Course Accessibility with Image Captions & MathJax Formulas in July's Ultra Update
Track who's reading your announcements and more
How do you know if students actually read that important course announcement? What if you could make your content more accessible by adding image captions or rendering complex math more clearly for your STEM students?
The July 2025 release brings features designed to improve visibility into student engagement, better accessibility for images and equations, and tools that streamline how you monitor activity and manage grading. Whether you’re preparing for fall or refining your summer courses, these enhancements make it easier to connect with students and deliver content that works for everyone.
Add Captions to Images for Context and Accessibility
Instructors can now add captions above or below image blocks in Ultra Documents, providing valuable context to visual content embedded in course materials. This simple but impactful change helps students interpret images more effectively, improves comprehension for visual learners, and enhances digital accessibility by supporting screen reader users and reinforcing meaning beyond alternative text.
Image 1. Instructors can go to Edit File Options to add image captions and set positions.
Render Math with Clarity Using MathJax
MathJax will automatically render LaTeX equations when used in the Content Editor, offering a more precise and visually clean presentation of mathematical expressions across supported areas of Ultra. Especially helpful for STEM faculty, this update gives instructors more control over how complex formulas appear and improves the accessibility and readability of math-based content for students.
Image 2: Example of a formula formatted in LaTeX
Track Student Engagement with Announcements
The Announcements page now includes a viewer count, allowing instructors to quickly see which students have opened an announcement and which have not. Clicking the count reveals a list of viewers and non-viewers, with the ability to message students who haven’t read the post. This feature supports more effective communication by helping faculty ensure that important updates, reminders, and instructions are actually reaching students.
Image 3. The list of viewers for an announcement shows that two students have read the announcement and one hasn’t.
Additional updates include:
- Instructors can now import QTI v2.1 formatted questions directly into question banks.
- A new “No Category” option is now available in the Gradebook, allowing instructors to remove items from a grading category without needing to assign them to another one.
- The instructor Activity Page has been redesigned to show new course activity at a glance, including recent updates, grading needs, new messages, and alerts tied to student performance.
- Improvements to the pop-out rubric in the Gradebook include a save warning prompt when closing unsaved work and enhanced keyboard navigation using arrow keys and tab controls.
- Instructors grading group assignments can navigate through submissions with new Previous and Next buttons in the group header bar.
When you can expect the update
Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around July 3-4 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on July 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.
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As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
Jumbled Sentence Question Type
Ultra now supports jumbled sentence questions for tests and quizzes, allowing instructors to assess syntax, sequencing, and conceptual structure in a dynamic, interactive way. Distractors can be added to increase challenge, and variables can include letters, numbers, and special characters. Answer options are randomized to ensure fairness, and instructors can optionally use AI assistance to generate question formats.
Image 1: Instructor creates a jumbled sentence question type.
Bulk Category Changes in the Gradebook
Instructors can now bulk update the category associations for gradebook columns via the Item Management page. This streamlines gradebook setup and maintenance, especially in large courses.
Image 2: Instructor is bulk changing the category for multiple selected gradebook items.
Additional updates include:
- A new unread post indicator appears at the top of the Ultra course on the Discussions tab to show how many posts are unread.
- The Student Activity Log now features a Content Access Filter, making it easier to identify whether and when students accessed specific materials, third-party tools, and LTIs that were previously difficult to track.
- Ultra Documents now support resizable divider blocks, which can span up to four columns. These visual elements improve the structure of course content and help chunk information into digestible sections.
- Blackboard improved the appearance and responsiveness of Knowledge Checks, making them more visually engaging and easier to interact with across different screen sizes.
- The Gradebook supports smoother navigation using arrow keys and enhanced compatibility with screen readers.
When you can expect the update
Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around June 5-6 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on June 10, 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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
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.
Accessibility
- Ally's document conversion process is upgraded to include the first version of support for Office Math found in Microsoft Word documents. Students downloading the HTML and BeeLine Reader Alternative Formats will now see the math equations rendered as MathML via MathJax in their browser.
Communication & Engagement
- To improve communication within large courses, the Course Activity Report now includes clear labels when sending messages: All students, selected students, selected students with alerts, or selected students without alerts. This improvement helps instructors better manage communication, especially when addressing students with specific needs.
- The color of the activity indicator for discussions, journals, and conversations is changed from blue to purple to better unify the color scheme in Ultra.
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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
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
AI Course Design Assistant
Communication & Engagement
- Long discussion posts are now fully visible without scrolling.
- Posts have a gray background for better contrast.
- The number of posts and replies now appears on the discussion home page, replacing the total response counter.
- The Edit button is now directly accessible from each post.
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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
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
Communication & Engagement
- Groups can only be created at the Groups tab -- however, groups can still be assigned to activities and assessments once created.
- Instructors will also receive warnings if groups are empty to help make informed decisions and avoid disruptions in group management.
Reporting
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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
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.
Three updates to the Ultra gradebook enhance instructor efficiency when entering and managing grades.
- 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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
This month's update to Ultra provides new and updates indicators for core functionality in Ultra courses including discussions, grading, and reports.
Two improvements to Ultra focus on the AI Course Design Assistant and the Blackboard mobile app:
- The AI Course Design Assistant is optimized for complex rubric outputs. Instructors can expect better rubrics, even for complicated assessments. The AI Course Design Assistant should also work faster.
- UMBC can define the maximum length of time a user can access the Blackboard mobile app before they are required to login again, which will be about 2 weeks if the session hasn't expired. This should address a student concern that the mobile app was frequently logging students out.
Additional improvements in December include:
- A "new" indicator will display next to discussion posts and replies that a user has not accessed yet, making it easier to find.
- Late submissions will have a "late" indicator within the Flexible Grading interface.
- Instructors will see "Override" for discussion grades that meet this criteria with a new Undo Override workflow.
- Instructors can go directly to an attempt log for any test or assignment from the activity log for any student in an Ultra course.
- Blackboard improved performance so saving groups is now 80%-90% quicker.
- For easier navigation, students can now select arrows to the left and right of LTI or SCORM items to move through learning modules.
Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around December 5-6, 2024. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on December 10, 2024; 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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Thumbnail-image: New to Ultra [decorative]
In February, a new tool will be available in Ultra courses, designed to make information gathering simple and efficient for instructors:
Forms. Whether assigning students to clinical experiences or seeking to understand their interests and opinions through surveys, Forms will streamline these processes. The
Forms tool supports several question types including essay, multiple choice, true/false, and Likert. Instructors can view student responses or question responses. Instructors can mark a Form as complete/incomplete or optionally award points.
Image 1: Example of the Form creation page. The first phase of Forms will not be anonymous. Export Form data to CSV or Excel.
Sending reminders about missed work can encourage students to stay on track. Faculty can
send reminders to students through the assessment submission page or the Ultra gradebook, including third-party tools. Updates to the workflow ensures all students will be included as long as they have not received an automatic zero or a manual override grade.
Grading workflows are improved in the February release including
the ability to provide feedback for automatic zeroes and override grades. Additionally, instructors can upload feedback for manually created grade columns using a CSV file.
Additional Updates
- Feedback for all attempts on a test or assignment is visible to learners in a peek panel. Students can view override feedback after grades are posted.
- Rubrics grading interface will store the most recently used display option. This means that instructors who rely on performance level descriptions when grading don't have to turn them on each time they navigate to grade another submission.
- To ensure easy and clear access to the Audio/Video Recording Feedback tool, the recording window appears on the right side of the screen so that the instructor can view the student submission.
- Instructors can view the number of missed due dates for students in the Course Activity Report. Instructors can customize the missed due date alert in the Alert Settings via the Gradebook.
- Instructors can now import Moodle packages into Ultra and Original view courses. Blackboard has a guide to explain the differences in terminology.
Faculty should see the latest updates in Ultra courses around February 1-2, 2024. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on February 6, 2024; 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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
Expanding the functionality for the gradebook and assessments has been a central theme for the past year of Ultra development. When the winter term starts in 2024, Ultra courses will feature additional enhancements for the gradebook, grading interface, and test logs for learner attempts as developers continue to refine features based on institutional and instructor feedback.
The gradebook is a key tool for instructors in an Ultra course. With this update, instructors will be able to create total and weighted calculated columns that are point or percentage based with options to include or exclude categories and dropping scores. Moreover, these new total calculated columns can be used toward the overall grade calculation, allowing greater flexibility.
Image 1: Example of the improved gradebook with option to add a new Total Calculation
Grading & Gradebook Improvements
- The grid view of the Ultra gradebook features usability improvements that reduces spacing around icons and improves row visibility.
- The gradebook will now provide the student ID next to each learner's name to improve identification. When hovering over a truncated name in the gradebook, a tooltip will reveal the full name.
- A sortable category column is added to the gradebook list view to provide clarity for those items to be graded.
- Students will be able to see their grades for an assessment even if it is hidden. In a future update, feedback will be also visible.
- Instructors can use delegated grading for anonymous assessments. Sorting controls are available for submission date.
The test assessment log has been a frequent request for Ultra courses. Unlike Original courses, the Ultra version of this functionality provides information for tests and assignments. The test log will provide detailed information including date and time for starting the test, answers to each question, a preview of the question itself, and the estimated time spent on each question. The assignment log provides the start and submission date and time as well as the submission receipt number.
Image 2: Instructors can access the Assessment Submission Log from the individual assessment
Content Creation & Management
The latest update to the AI Course Design Assistant Tools in Ultra courses allows instructors to generate assignment prompts aligned to a selected Bloom's cognitive process. As with all AI functionality, instructors are in complete control and can choose when and how to they want to use the tools.
Image 3: Instructors can add additional context through a description, select the desired cognitive level and complexity, and then generate prompts
Additional updates to Content Management include:
- The Batch Edit tool now allows instructors to manage the date and/or time for selected items that have a pre-existing date/time -- for example, assessment due dates or visibility.
- Instructors can use the unused files tool to find and remove course files that are not in use in a course. Instructors can download a file before deleting it.
Faculty should see the latest updates in Ultra courses around January 4-5, 2024. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on January 9, 2024; 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.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
