News

Breakout groups are a powerful engagement tool for active learning in a synchronous session, providing private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat for small group...

In a survey of 608 students taking Ultra courses during the SP2021 semester, 86% indicated satisfaction with Ultra, marking a 14% increase compared to the last survey in FA2019. Students again...

A whiteboard is an important pedagogical tool to support handwritten expression and annotation, especially in a virtual classroom. Over the last year, Blackboard has been redesigning the...

This upcoming FA2021 semester features new development in the Ultra gradebook, starting with gradebook filters. This function allows faculty to view data and content in the gradebook by multiple...

The groups tool in Ultra has been redesigned for the July update to improve overall performance, particularly for large courses. This redesign includes functionality to make it easier to find...

6/5 update: The June release is delayed. As soon as we have more information, we will post it. 7/1 update: The June release was rolled into the July update. Rubrics can be an essential tool for...

When Ultra was first introduced at UMBC in SP2018, four adventurous faculty opted to use a newly redesigned Blackboard course interface in their courses. Ultra represented a new phase of...

UPDATE: Following the introduction of gallery view to faculty in April 2021, we are pleased to announce that students and participants will also have access to 25 videos per page with the May...

An easier way to drop multiple grades from a category in the final grade calculation has been a frequent request from Ultra faculty for the Ultra course gradebook. With the May release, just in...

In early April, a frequently requested feature finally comes to Ultra courses. Conditional release of content to groups or individual students allows faculty to create remedial paths to certain...