At 6:40 PM on September 22nd, Blackboard reported a system performance issue affecting clients in the US East region. This disruption may prevent users from accessing the Blackboard platform. Users who are able to log in may experience degraded performance and difficulty accessing course content and assessments. 

As of 11:00 PM, system performance issues remain unresolved.

Blackboard engineers are working to address the issue as quickly as possible. Instructional Technology staff opened a ticket with Blackboard Support and are continuing to monitor the service disruption.

Update: 

As of 3:15 am on September 23, Blackboard reports that this incident has been resolved. Please open an RT request for any continuing concerns related to system performance.

This post will be updated with additional information as we receive it.

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• Open a ticket via RT
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The latest release of Ultra enhancements comes two weeks into the fall 24 semester, bringing formative knowledge checks to Ultra Documents, a redesigned course landing page, and a new learner engagement tool called AI Conversations. 

In the August release, the Ultra Document saw significant improvements to support robust flexible layouts that are mobile friendly and responsible. With this update, instructors can now create formative knowledge checks to enhance the learning experience, allowing students to engage with content and receive immediate feedback. Instructors can provide correct/incorrect feedback and access simple metrics about attempts. Knowledge checks are formative and do not pass to the gradebook at this time.

Image 1: Example of knowledge check question (animated)

As previously announced, Anthology will update the Ultra course landing page to focus content on the left and course actions on the right. Additionally, it will be easier to distinguish between content containers (e.g., folders, learning modules, other content types) to help improve course navigation for all users. Moreover, functional improvements with this redesign provide clearer options to create content throughout the course. 

Image 2: Comparison of old Ultra course page (left) and new Ultra course page (right)

The AI Conversation is a new engagement tool guided by AI, encouraging students explore their thoughts on an assigned topic. Currently available as a Socratic questioning exercise, the AI Conversation's persona is configured by the instructor (name, avatar, and personality trait) with options to test and preview for reliability. Additionally, a customizable reflection question allows students to share their thoughts on the activity and, if prompted by the reflection and instructor, lets them flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of Anthology’s Trustworthy AI Approach. On submission, the instructor can review the AI conversation transcript and the student's reflection. Future updates to this engagement activity in late FA2024 will include roleplaying and debate options.

Image 3: Example of student participating in an AI Conversation

Finally, a new activity log is available to instructors in the Ultra course, helping with decisions in academic disputes and aiding in troubleshooting. Events include course access, assessment start/save/submitted, discussion access/save/edit/reply, document access, LTI (tool) access, and journal access. The Activity log can be filtered by event type and can look to the past 140 days.

Additional updates for September include:  

• Instructors will find a new gradebook Overview tab to improve task orientation and grading efficiency.  This tab contains two sections: Needs Grading and Needs Posting.
• To help instructors stay on top of their grading workload, there will be a number in the Gradebook tab to indicate when there are new submissions to grade. 
• Ultra introduces a new student-facing submission review page for assignments that makes all instructor feedback on a submission more visible, even if the assignment is hidden by a release condition.
• The Wiris engine and equation editor is updated to improve the rendering of subscript and superscript formulas, providing a better experience for STEM courses.
• Ultra added a new option to help instructors remove submissions from the grading workflow without having to delete them. When grading a student, you can now select Exclude Attempt to remove it from the Needs Grading workflow.
• When enabled, the Automatic Zeros gradebook setting gives a zero score to students who haven’t made a submission by the due date. To help instructors find and grade late assessment submissions, they are now indicated as Needs Grading on the Grades and Gradable Items gradebook pages.  

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around September 5-6, 2024. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on September 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.

Anthology has announced that in early September, the Ultra course landing page will be redesigned to focus content on the left and course actions on the right. This change emphasizes Anthology’s continued investment in a learner-centered design for Ultra courses, ensuring that students easily find and engage with course content while deemphasizing the menu associated with instructor-specific activities. Further enhancements to the page include clearer differentiation between content containers -- folders, learning modules, etc. -- to help improve course navigation for all users.

What does this mean for faculty and students? Per the examples below, when classes start on August 28, the Course Content page will display the menu on the left with your course materials, folders, etc. on the right. However, on September 6, the update to Ultra will flip the layout so the course materials, folders, etc. appear on the left while the menu shifts to the right. 

Here is a side-by-side view of old (left) and new (right) course layouts.

Image 1: Comparison of old Ultra course page (left) and new Ultra course page (right)

We realize this redesign may be a bit of a shift in the second week of the semester, but we believe the updated layout will not be too disruptive as the content itself does not change, only the focus of its placement (right instead of left). In preparation for this update, Instructional Technology will display this post as part of an internal outreach in Blackboard to remind faculty and students. 

For faculty, functional improvements with this redesign are the clear indications that distinguish between containers (folders or learning modules) and more contextual creation indicators so it's easier to place new content throughout your course. In the second screenshot, you can see the contextual Create (+) and its placement in each version of the course. In the updated course, the (+) will appear on the left) wherever you want to place content while in the current Ultra course, you have to hover to find the (+) and its placement is not as easy to identify within the container.

Image 2: Comparison of creating new content on old Ultra course page (left) and new Ultra course page (right)

From the student perspective, functionality changes are minimal with new visual indicators (e.g., lines) to connect content in learning modules. Additionally, for all users, when you hover over content, Ultra will highlight that content a light blue so you know exactly what you are accessing.

Image 3: Example of student view of forced learning module sequence with highlighted content selected

Throughout the spring and summer, Ultra courses were updated with new features and enhancements to improve assessment, grading, content creation, and learner engagement. Many of these features are welcome changes that strengthen the platform, providing opportunities for faculty to customize courses and leverage Ultra in new ways. Although the redesigned course landing page comes at an unexpected time, the additional improvements provide increased focus for student learning and improve faculty course preparation with easier navigation.

After many years of use, UMBC’s license for Class Collaborate (formerly Blackboard Collaborate) will end on July 31, 2025.

As one of our longest licensed tools, Collaborate provided synchronous support for Blackboard courses, serving more than 300,000 sessions over the last ten years. However, since it was acquired by Class Technologies in 2022, it is unclear if and how Collaborate will be supported and developed over the long term, given the company’s priority of its own synchronous platform based on Zoom. 

In Spring 24, we announced that we would standardize one version of Blackboard (Ultra) starting this fall. Ideally, we would also simplify the synchronous video conference platform used by courses; however, we recognize that students will likely use a variety of tools in their working lives after graduation. Therefore it is essential to expand access to licensed synchronous tools while we also still have Collaborate for another academic year. 

DoIT offers three synchronous meeting tools with robust functionality:

• Google Meet 
• Microsoft Teams
• Webex

To learn more about these synchronous platforms, please explore pedagogical and technical use cases in this comparison chart. If you have a specific use case not listed, please open an RT ticket for a consult.

Attendance Tracking 

While these synchronous platforms offer Blackboard integrations at varying levels, none support 1) attendance synchronization to the Blackboard gradebook and 2) groups synchronization between breakouts and Blackboard. All platforms, however, do provide attendance reports, which will be important for faculty who need to track student attendance as well as proposed regulatory changes for attendance in 100% online courses.

We welcome faculty feedback via this brief survey about synchronous platforms and attendance. 

Preparing for the Transition

Starting this fall, Instructional Technology will offer training sessions to familiarize faculty and staff with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Webex training is available upon request. These sessions will focus on both the technical aspects of using the tools and pedagogical strategies to enhance student engagement.

Users who wish to save Collaborate recordings will need to migrate them to Panopto by May 25, 2025. 

1. Download Collaborate recordings to your computer. 
2. Create a new folder in Panopto for Collaborate recordings in My Folder.
3. Upload Collaborate recordings to your new Panopto folder.

Collaborate recordings made before July 1, 2024 will be retired by October 1, 2024.

NOTE: Due to FERPA restrictions, the reuse of any recordings (Collaborate, Webex, etc.) is not permitted if those recordings feature audio or video of students without their express permission.

Key Dates to Remember

May 25, 2025 - Faculty and student access to Collaborate via Blackboard ends

June 15, 2025 - Access to Collaborate sessions outside Blackboard ends

July 31, 2025 - End of support for Collaborate, including DoIT access to the Collaborate system

“You are a university-level instructor working to ensure images in your online course materials conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at Level Double A. You need to accommodate for disabilities and impairments such as blindness, low vision and color vision deficiency to ensure equitable access to module content for all students. 

"You will be provided with an image. Please return a succinct title, alternative text (alt text), and a long description. You will also separately list verbatim all words that appear in the image.

"The alt text should be no more than two sentences and should briefly describe the meaning conveyed by the image.

"The detailed description may be one or more paragraphs and must describe the image in great detail so that anyone who does not see it can gain a full understanding of everything in the image. Please format the detailed description such that it will be easily scannable. Use headings, paragraph breaks, and lists as appropriate. Use active voice.”

Prompt created by Purdue University and adapted by Matthew Deeprose (Southampton University)