Blackboard course shells for FA2024 were created on May 13, 2024 per our previous announcement to support faculty preparation for Ultra in advance of the fall semester. Ultra will be the default in Blackboard with nearly 70 percent of all UMBC courses using Ultra since spring 2024.

If faculty wish to “roll back” their Fall 2024 Ultra shells to Original, they can do so by RT ticket for this semester only; the last day we will support Blackboard Original is December 31, 2024. DoIT strongly recommends faculty request a roll back before the first day of classes to ensure sufficient time for course preparation. Please review the conditions for requesting a roll back.

Training & Support for Ultra

• Attend an Ultra Boot Camp or 30-minute Ultra Quick Start session. Additional training will be posted throughout the summer and into early fall.
• Request a consult from our staff Ultra “office hours” or download our  8-step migration guide.
• Explore our Panopto folder for a wide variety of recorded webinars on various instructional technologies available at UMBC.
• Have a question about Ultra? Ask an Ultra Ambassador!

Plan your accessibility and Universal Design for Learning strategy before students begin working with course materials. Ally, an accessibility tool, is enabled in all course shells. Ally automatically scans uploaded and created course content, then performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Please review the Ally FAQs for more information about the accessibility indicators on course content and alternative formats, or attend a training session.

• If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically. 
• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not see your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.
• If you need a Bb shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.

Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course will find those enrollments merged into one Bb course shell. These sections may be split upon request by an RT ticket, which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard. NOTE: Courses should not be split after student grade data and engagement activity is recorded since it will be purged as part of the separation process.

Student enrollment in Bb mirrors the official registration in SA and updates hourly. However, courses are not accessible to students by default until the instructor of record makes them available.

Connect with Instructional Technology

In consultation with the Deans as well as the Faculty Senate Computer Policy Committee (CPC), DoIT will make Ultra the default version of Blackboard for all Fall 2024 course shells that are auto-created and auto-enrolled before every semester. However, faculty who still wish to “roll back” their Ultra shells to Original, can do so by using this Request Tracker (RT) form before the 1st day of classes on August 28, 2024.

Why is DoIT Doing This?

Currently, unless a course is part of a department’s, school’s or college’s switch to Ultra, Original is the default version of all auto-created Bb course shells, and faculty who wish to use Ultra must convert the course to Ultra themselves before using it. However, with nearly 70 percent of all UMBC courses using Ultra now, DoIT feels the change in default course shell version is justified, and supports the broader plan to complete the Ultra migration by the end of Fall 2024. In addition, 50 percent of Blackboard’s clients are now using Ultra, there is little to no new development or fixes of Original, and it is expected that Anthology (the company that bought Blackboard in 2021) will announce the end of life for Original sooner than later.

“I know we’ve been migrating to Ultra for several years now, due in part to the maturing product but also the ‘all hands on deck’ support the pandemic pivot to online learning required,” says John Fritz, Associate VP, Instructional Technology. “I want to personally thank all faculty for their patience, those who’ve been using Ultra already and now won’t have to manually convert their courses from our Original template, but also those still waiting for the right time to switch. As we head into our last semester supporting both versions, I want to assure all faculty that DoIT is ready, willing and able to help in whatever way we can. Yes, we’ll make Ultra the default for Fall 24, but if you intend to use Original, please just let us know as soon as possible by completing our ‘roll back’ request form in RT.”

What Does This Mean for Me?

If you are using Ultra now, your Fall 2024 course shells will be auto-created with Ultra. Since you do not have to convert anything, you can get started right away with Ultra

However, to also help faculty not yet using Ultra, Bb course shells listed in the Schedule of Classes (SOC) will be auto-created by May 15, 2024, without student enrollments. This helps for a few reasons:

• Faculty not yet using Ultra can start with a new shell for Fall 2024, a practice DoIT recommends when using it for the first time. Early access to your course provides more than 12 weeks of prep time before the semester begins.
• Faculty can also review their Fall 2023 Original courses that DoIT converted to Ultra before the start of that semester (DoIT notified these faculty by myUMBC personal post).

When Do Students Get Enrolled?

Students will be added to your Fall courses by Friday, August 2, when auto-enrollments initiate. Enrollments will continue to pass from PeopleSoft to Blackboard as students add/drop and refresh completely overnight. As always, faculty also still control availability of the course to students.

How Can I Use Original?

If faculty wish to “roll back” their Fall 2024 Ultra shells to Original, they can do so by RT ticket. DoIT strongly recommends faculty request a roll back before the first day of classes to ensure sufficient time for course preparation. For example, the following conditions apply:

• If a roll back is requested in August, it will require a complete refresh of the course enrollment which takes up to 24 hours to process. 
• Since a roll back requires deletion and recreation of a course in Blackboard, we will not roll back a course if there is learner activity (e.g., grades, assessment submissions, discussions) to preserve this critical data.
• Courses will not be rolled back to Original after September 11, 2024, the last day to add/drop a course.
• The rollback request option does not apply to CAHSS courses as CAHSS agreed to migrate all courses by the start of Fall 2024.

Again, DoIT recommends starting fresh in Ultra to take full advantage of the platform's new features and design capabilities as this approach allows for copying content from Original or rebuilding courses from the ground up to ensure an optimal experience for both faculty and students.

• DoIT will provide weekly Ultra “office hour” consults, including one evening a week and one Saturday a month to support adjuncts throughout the Summer and Fall 2024 terms. 
• Instructional Technology offers an 8-step migration guide with resources and checklist that can be printed and checked as faculty prepare to migrate from Original to Ultra. [click here to make your own copy]
• A wide range of training and support options is available to fit faculty needs including custom solutions and consults. Departments can schedule customized training, including evening sessions for adjuncts or dedicated sessions for teaching assistants, teaching fellows, and grad assistants. Recordings are also available.

Although UMBC has offered Ultra since 2019, faculty who have not yet migrated have identified time to learn a new system as the primary variable in their deferment. Despite these constraints, continued feedback from UMBC faculty points to readiness to engage with Ultra with ongoing support from Instructional Technology when aligned with their time availability. Feature parity was not identified as a factor in the last mile survey; Ultra now supports more than 200 enhancements to the gradebook, content creation, and assessments and continued development is prioritized by client feedback through the open Idea Exchange.

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

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UMBC is committed to providing a consistent learning experience for everyone. The last day we will support Blackboard Original is December 31, 2024. Please check out our training and support: umbc.edu/go/ultra

Thumbnail-image: Ultra news update