Updates and System Changes
Updates and System Changes
With the transition to Blackboard Ultra Course View there has been an increase in the frequency that significant improvements are being made to the system. This page represents an attempt to summarize the most relevant changes for Syracuse University users.
The updates listed here are not exhaustive, however; for full details users can visit Blackboard's Release Notes . For more information about these or any features, please contact Online Learning Services by emailing help@syr.edu or calling 315-443-2677.
May 2026
Improved search and navigation in Course Switcher
Use the Course Switcher search box to quickly find courses by name or ID and navigate to them directly.
Visualize release conditions inherited by items in learning modules and folders
The Release Conditions panel now displays inherited rules from parent containers alongside direct item conditions, providing a complete view of all access requirements in one place. To keep these rules easy to identify, use descriptive names for your module or folder conditions so they are clearly labeled in the inherited conditions pane.
April 2026
AI Conversation: Use Message Limits
Instructors can now set message limits for AI-supported conversations to notify students when to complete an activity.
March 2026
Add a second participation requirement and due date in Discussions
Instructors can set how many posts and replies that students must complete across two due dates.
Grade discussion must be selected to add a due date and participation requirement. Enter a time and date under Due Date and specify participation requirements. Selecting ‘Second Due Date’ lets you add another due date, with its own required number of posts and replies.
Anonymous grading by question
Instructors can now grade anonymously by question, in addition to anonymous grading by student.
February 2026
Stack blocks vertically in documents
Instructors can now create more flexible layouts by stacking blocks in a single column in Blackboard Documents to create cleaner layouts to reduce white space. Switch between column-level and block-level editing: column level edits apply actions to the entire column, while block level edits allow resizing, moving, or deleting individual blocks.
Columns can also be dropped into other block areas for more dynamic and customizable layouts. These updates work with existing features like undo/redo, printing, and AI layout generation, and include accessibility improvements for screen readers.
January 2026
Achievements and Badges Feature Enabled
For the Spring 2026 semester, Achievements have been enabled in the Syracuse University Blackboard System. Achievements allow instructors to define key learning objectives based on specific graded items in their Blackboard courses, and use Badges to communicate objectives to students and help them track their progress.
Vendor Updates
The most visible change in this update is to the interface with a cleaner Base Navigation layout, full-screen course pages, and a new Home button for easier orientation. These changes reduce clicks and optimize screen space. The refresh includes the return of the Course Switcher, which allows users to move between recent courses quickly.
It also includes a number of useful functional improvements:
Improved performance for large multiple choice or multiple answer tests. A 200-question test now loads in ~5 seconds, down from ~25 seconds.
Improved multiple choice and multiple question setup and display.
Streamlined the options menu for Document Block Layout by adding sub menu options to change a block's row, size, and position to improve usability and accessibility.
Increased flexibility when creating binary-style questions, with additional display options.
December 2025
Instructors can now configure release conditions for items to be made available once a student has opened or started a prerequisite item. It is now possible to release content when a student opens another document, piece of media, or course link.
Instructors may now add grading and participation requirements for discussions in the form of a specific number of posts or replies for a student to satisfy the assignment requirements.
The module’s instructor view now includes the table of contents, previously enabled for students. Instructors can expand the TOC while viewing any module item.
There are number of other small improvements includes, such as:
Improved handling of group membership changes
Better standardization of the Flexible Grading interface, regardless of submission type
Improvements in audio and video grading feedback
MathJax display improvements
November 2025
With this release instructors will notice changes to the gradebook view to streamline access to submission pages from the column headers on the Grades page.
Instructors should also be aware that:
This release allows instructors to automatically send messages to Students triggered by custom score thresholds they create in their course.
Instructors can now adjust point values for multiple questions at once by selecting all, specific questions, or question types.
Please note that Grade Pill colors are disabled in the Syracuse University system because there is only one color set available at the system level that applies to all courses, regardless of the individual course schema. We will re-enable grade pill colors when instructors have the ability to configure them at the course level.
October 2025
Beginning with this update, instructors will be able to add tags to individual questions they build in Blackboard and be able to use those tags to search and filter questions while building tests. Apart from this minor change, the update is focused on bugs, maintenance issues, and system performance.
September 2025
Instructors can now enhance individual blocks in Blackboard Documents with a set of style indictors. This feature is available on each block in the document and can be useful for highlighting information for students and organizing page content. Each block can be styled as Question, Tip, Key points, or Next steps.
Additional improvements for Instructors in the release include:
Add and manage question titles in tests, forms, and banks
Pop-out rubric when grading group submissions
Announcement creation interface improvements
July 2025
Instructor should be aware that the July 2025 Blackboard update moves the Progress Tracking tool from the Details & Actions menu to a new location in the Course settings, which are accessed by the gear menu at the top of the course. This move is part of Blackboard effort to streamline Details & Actions and to consolidate the Course Settings.
The update also includes captions on images in document, new mathematical formula rendering with MathJax, QTI question bank import, enhanced pop-out rubrics, and an expanded activity page for instructors.
June 2025
Blackboard has made a number of usability improvements in the June 2025 updates, including:
Add dividers inside Blackboard Documents
Activity Log improvements
Create jumbled sentence questions manually or with the AI Design Assistant
Bulk Category changes
Gradebook navigation improvements
Feedback comment tool bug fixes
Grading workflow improvements
Discussion activity indicator improvements
Knowledge Check usability improvements
May 2025
The May 2025 update includes the new ability for users to use the AI Design Assistant to auto-generate AI conversations. Creating personas and topics for an AI Conversation can take a lot of time, and the AI Design Assistant can streamline this process.
Additionally, instructors can now create and use no-points rubrics for qualitative evaluation, allowing instructors to assess student work based on criteria and feedback, rather than numerical values. The AI generation option now supports no-points rubrics as well.
This update also includes enhancements to the discussion feature, making discussions more efficient. Changes include updated wording (“post” instead of “respond”) , clearer input field text, and the removal of avatars and repositioned input fields to maximize space. Additionally, there are now indicators for posts made by the instructor, and an indicator to show a post is still in draft mode. There is also a simplified layout for group discussions.
Also of note are the changes to the gradebook. The Gradable Items tab in the Gradebook now features a redesigned table-based layout that improves accessibility and navigation for keyboard-only and screen reader users. Also, instructors can now create custom text-based columns in the Gradebook, giving them the ability to record information for an assessment, such as performance code, group membership, or tutoring information.
April 2025
The April 2025 update includes the ability for users to print and export PDFs of Blackboard Documents created by instructors. Instructors can take advantage of Blackboard Documents’ features including improved display over .DOCX and .PDF documents across devices, knowledge checks, advanced layouts, and strong integration with the Ally Accessibility Tool while maintaining the ability to use content authored in Blackboard outside of the system.
It also includes a significant Gradebook feature: a flag that show instructors whether or not a student has viewed the feedback provided. This is coupled with small UI change for students meant to encourage them to review feedback as part of their assessment “Results.”
This change is bundled with other bug fixes and improvements including:
Better group labels in the Message recipient field
Updating the Activity Indicator in discussions, journals, and conversations to the color purple
The group submission grading interface now uses Flexible Grading
Improved support for math equations in Ally
March 2025
The March Blackboard update contains a number of small improvements throughout the system, including:
AI interface improvements including energy improvements for image generation and
Discussions have improvements for instructor management and readability for all users.
Rubrics for instructors can now be popped out, have navigation improvements, and can be easily printed as a blank rubric.
Instructors can now copy banners between courses.
The Student view for feedback on tests has been improved.
February 2025
Beginning with the February release, instructors can now convert folders to learning modules and learning modules to folders. This is a small but meaningful change that helps instructors create and revise their course designs. This improvement is included along with a number of others:
An image block has been added to documents to allow a direct upload of image files, rather than needing to add them to a text block.
IP Addresses are included in the student activity log.
Grades entered directly in the Grid view or Grades & Participation page are now marked as the primary grade, rather than an override grade. This change will also mean that grades so-entered will clear needs grading flags a many expect.
Improvements to file rendering in the grading interface and other locations.
The option to exclude descriptions when creating modules with the AI Design Assistant.
Improvements for students in assignment file uploads.
January 2025
Course Availability User Interface Changes
The January 2025 release includes a small but important interface change for instructors: Blackboard is re-locating the settings used to make your course available to students. Moving forward, instructors will visit the “Course Settings” within the course and use the “Course Access” settings. There, instructors will find a toggle labelled “Close Course.” When it is switched on, a grey label will indicate that the course is “Unavailable;” when the toggle is switched off, a blue lable will indicate that the course is “Open.”
The current course status is also displayed in the upper right corner of the course next to the “Course Settings” buttons.
If you are accustomed to opening your course from the Courses page, you will no longer find the options to “Open Course” or to “Complete or make course private” and will instead choose “Course Settings.” That will take you directly to the area where you can change the course availability.
If you are accustomed to opening your course from the “Details & Actions” menu, you will no longer find the availability option there. Instead, access the Course Settings at the link in the top-right corner of the course to go to the area where you can change the course availability.
Other Changes
Some other important changes included in the release are:
AI Designer Improvements in the output, image generation, and expanded language support.
Instructors can now show/hide columns from themselves in the gradebook.
Improvements to the Content Designer with Documents for uploading files and adjusting content blocks.
Automatic zeros will be set to off in the gradebook for all new courses created after the release.
Submission attempts are available for release conditions.
Textbook Integration Changes
We have implemented two changes for textbook tools at the request of vendors. First, McGraw Hill now has an additional “Basic Launch” option. Second, Cengage has been updated to the current version; all courses with existing Cengage links have been migrated to the newest version. In both cases, please contact the vendor if you have questions about how to deploy these tools in your course.
December 2024
Blackboard’s December 2024 updates include a welcome improvement for the way integrated tools behave in modules; the “next” and “previous” buttons now work as expected with items like Kaltura videos.
The update is otherwise focused on usability and performance improvements including:
New labels for late submissions
Grade override improvements
Optimizations of the AI Rubric generator
Improved performance during group management
Better “new post” indicators in Discussions
November 2024
The November 2024 update arrives early in the month with a version number of 3900.104. It includes the following updates of relevance to Syracuse University users:
The Print Tests feature for instructors is expand to include Question Pools.
Instructors may create a new Role Play option for students to have AI Conversations and see the output of those interactions.
Blackboard Documents are getting improvements in the behavior of block sizing.
Discussion replies are now indented for greater visual distinction.
The Student Activity Log is available for instructor download.
The Batch Edit tools in the Content area have been improved.
Student assignment file submission performance has been Improved.
October 2024
In early October, Blackboard will updated to version 3900.102. Here are some of the changes Syracuse University users should be award of:
Small improvements to Documents and the Documents Editor
The ability to generate test questions in the Question Banks area, including the ability to base questions on multiple documents using the context picker
The possibility of opting in to immediate emails for activity in Discussions
Performance improvement for the flexible grading interface to improve page load times
September 2024
The update to version 3900.100 in early September includes a significant visual change to the ultra course view. Blackboard has made these changes to improve, visual depth, page structure, and differentiation among course elements, and greater focus on the content area. All users will find page elements with a new look and some in a different position, but the functionality of these page elements remains the same as before. This change applies to all ultra courses and cannot be modified by instructors or system administrators.
The release also includes a number of important functional improvements.
There is a new element available in Documents called Knowledge Check Blocks for instructors to integrate questions alongside content; students can respond to instructor-created questions and get immediate feedback on their answers.
AI Conversations allows instructors to include topic-related activities in the form of a Socratic questioning exercise guided by AI. Instructors can review the conversation after the student submits it and apply grading if they like.
A new Activity Log in the Student Overview allows instructors to see how a student has accessed the course and interacted with assessments, discussions, documents, journals, and LTI items.
A new Overview tab in the Gradebook helps instructors see items that need grading or posting.
August 2024
The update to version 3900.98 in early August included:
Significant design and layout features have been added to the content editor.
Tests and Assignments have been updated to help distinguish them from one another and clarify creation of Assignments, specifically.
Instructors can now add multiple Release Conditions to content items.
Anonymous response has been added to Forms.
Instructors now have additional options in their course settings to control the messages feature. This feature was included in the 3900.95 release and enabled by OLS in early August.
July 2024
The update to version 3900.95 in early July included:
The reply-to field in emails from the system is now set to the originator of the Message or Announcement
The ability for instructors to print test answer keys
Test printing improvements
The ability to email an announcement even when scheduling it
Grading and feedback navigation improvements
AI Design Assistant Language Selector - To support multi-language use cases, the AI Design Assistant now includes a language selector. Instructors may use the language selector to set the desired language for generated content. This feature is especially beneficial for courses with multi-language requirements.
Printing for Assessments - Instructors can now print assessments. Printing provides a convenient solution for a variety of use cases:
Accommodating students with specific needs or limited technology access
Providing a printed assessment for testing in designated centers
Backup and record keeping
Conducting offline assessment
Documentation and compliance
Maintaining security and integrity
The print option is available in Forms, Tests, and Assignments with questions. Printing also provides the option to save as PDF.
To print an assessment, from Content and Settings, select Print.
Streamlined Point Value Editing for Questions - When editing a question, instructors can now access and edit the point value field with just two clicks. Reducing the number of clicks needed to edit the point value of a question saves instructors time and effort. This small change leads to a smoother workflow and enhances the overall teaching and learning experience.
Note: Editing the point values for matching questions requires three clicks.
Return a True/False Answer to an Unanswered State - Students can now return a true/false question to an unanswered state after choosing an answer. Students clear their choice by selecting the same option again. Students may need to clear their answer selection for a test question. For questions that use negative scoring, if a student is uncertain about their answer, their score may be better if they leave it unanswered. In this case, clearing a response makes it easy for them to come back later using the unanswered question filter. This helps students better manage their time during a test.
In the past, a student could only change their answer to a true/false question to a different value.
Post Announcements Immediately - Instructors can now post announcements as part of the drafting and editing processes. This makes the process of creating and posting announcements simpler.
Instructors can still post from the announcements page.
Prevent auto-assigning members in self-enrollment groups - Instructors use self-enrollment groups to provide agency to students on group activities. Currently, at the end of the enrollment period, unassigned students are always distributed into groups. To improve the use of self-enrollment groups for optional activities, instructors can now opt-out of this behavior. Instructors can deselect the option, which does not enroll students who do not self-enroll by the end of the enrollment to any group. This option gives instructors more flexibility when managing self-enrollment groups.
Group members list available within the selected group - Groups and group work form an important part of the learning experience. To improve and centralize member information, we have relocated the members list to the selected group page. This will now display as a member’s tab rather than a separate panel. Here, users can search for members and sort them alphabetically. This change enhances the visibility of the selected groups page and provides the groundwork for adding more features in future releases.
Filter out Graded Responses when Grading by Question - The Needs Grading filter now filters out graded student responses by default. Filtering this way helps instructors to focus on any remaining ungraded responses for a given question. It also provides instructors with an improved view of their outstanding grading workload. If instructors want to include graded responses, they can select Show graded responses. This selection preference is now stored per course and it persists across assessments in each course.
Grader Notes on Student Grades - Instructors can now add private grading notes to student grades. After a score is assigned, the new Feedback & Notes menu option is available. Grader notes form an important part of the academic record. These notes may serve as documentation for a grading decision or grade adjustment. Grader notes are private to graders and not visible to students.
Those with grading privileges can access Feedback & Notes from two places:
The Grades tab in the Gradebook by selecting a specific score.
The Submissions list page for an assessment, select the More menu for a student
Improved Visibility of New Grades and Feedback in the Student Gradebook - To ensure that students are aware of any new grades in the course we have added an indicator to the Gradebook tab. When there are new grades, the number of new grades appears on the tab.
After selecting the tab, items with new or updated grades appear at the top of the student gradebook and display a purple indicator. The purple indicator disappears and the count on the tab reduces when the student selects the item or reviews their submission.
We also reviewed the use of color in the gradebook based on student feedback. Now, we mark late assessments with a "(Late)" label to reduce stress sometimes associated with the use of the color red. In the past, late submissions appeared with a red assessment icon and label.
Weighted Calculation Usability Improvements - Responding to client feedback, we have made two improvements for gradebook weighting:
The label “0% per item” appeared for categories excluded from weighting. This caused confusion so we removed it.
We updated the calculation rules panel to make it easier to understand the selected settings.
Base Navigation - Course and Organization Filters - Personalization - The courses and organizations tabs in Base Navigation are some of the most accessed places in Blackboard Learn. We received feedback in numerous focus groups and were inspired by client ideas posted in the Idea Exchange. We heard the pages should fit more institutions’ situations and give users more options to customize. This release includes the following improvements:
We removed the carousel for navigating between terms. There is now a term selector and filter you can use on its own or with other filters.
You can set filters, make term choices, and add text searches. All of these are clearly displayed below the search box. Remove these search settings or filters to see more courses or organizations. Remove them by selecting the close icon “x” on each.
Your selections and filters are remembered automatically even if you log out or switch devices. Set up the pages the way you like, and we’ll keep it that way until you change it.
The terms selector has specific logical behaviors to help users:
“Current Courses” and “Current Organizations” are the default term selections. If terms aren’t used or all your courses/organizations are open or use continuous duration, you’ll default to the “All Terms” selection option instead.
You can now choose to view “All Terms” to see everything regardless of term.
The “Upcoming Courses” and “Upcoming Organizations” term options will only display if you have upcoming courses/organizations.
Landing Page Enhancements for Blackboard Learn Mobile App - To enhance usability and streamline user interaction in the mobile app, we added filters to the following landing pages:
Courses
Organizations
Grades
Users now can use filters at the top of each landing page, allowing them to refine their search results.
When a user applies a filter, its tag appears at the top of the landing page. Users can remove filters by unselecting the respective tag.
End of June 2024 Updates
Align Goals to Questions in Question Pools - Now, instructors can align goals to questions within a question pool. Question-level goal alignment ensures that assessment items measure the desired learning outcomes. This helps to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of evaluation and feedback practices.
Multiple Performance Criteria in Release Conditions - Release conditions determine when students can view course content. Release conditions are on the content's visibility setting on the course content page. Currently, you can set:
Which course members or groups have access;
When the course content is accessible, visible, and hidden;
When student performance is necessary for completing an assignment or scoring.
Instructors can now set more than one performance criteria per content item.
Reuse Questions in Forms - Reusing questions streamlines the Form creation process and saves users time and effort. Instructors can now select Reuse questions when editing or creating a Form.
Multiple Attempts for Forms Assigned to Groups - Instructors can now assign a Form to a group and allow multiple attempts. When assigning forms to groups, enabling multiple attempts promotes dynamic, iterative learning experiences. Groups can now submit the Form, receive feedback, and submit another response.
Add Question Feedback when Grading a Test by Question - When grading by student or by question, instructors can provide contextual feedback. Instructors can add feedback to all question types. Question level feedback promotes deeper understanding and personal growth among students. Question level feedback enhances overall submission feedback and automated feedback for auto-graded questions.
Improved Gradebook Navigation - To create a more intuitive navigation, we replaced the grid and list view buttons with text links. The options are now:
Gradable Items
Grades (grid view)
Students
The Gradebook will remember the last view you used in each course.
Weighted Calculation Improvements - Instructors have diverse grade calculation needs. Some instructors use weighted calculations to help with aggregating calculations like midterm or final grades.
Now instructors can assign equal weights to items in the same categories. The chosen calculation method, whether proportional or equal, applies to all categories. In the past, weighted items in the same category had proportional weights. These weighted items were based on the possible points of each item.
To better understand student performance, some instructors use drop rules to remove outliers. Because it’s important to know the weighting method when managing these settings, we now display the instructor's chosen weighting option in the calculation rules panel.
Landing Page Enhancements for Blackboard Learn Mobile App - The landing pages (Grades, Messages, Courses, Organization) are now designed in a card layout. For the Courses and Organization pages, the course status indicator previously located in the course image has been moved below the course or organization title. The current functionality remains the same. These design changes align the landing pages with the design principles and language of the Blackboard Mobile App.
These enhancements are a part of a larger redesign of the Blackboard Learn mobile app landing pages to ensure uniform design, optimized user experience, and natural user flow across various devices and screen sizes.
End of May 2024 Updates
AI Context Picker - Context selection is key for tailoring course content generated with the AI Design Assistant. The context picker also helps to ground generated content in an appropriate context.
File types supported by the context picker include PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, RTF, and HTML.
We are extending the context picker for test questions to other generation workflows:
Learning modules
Authentic assignments
Authentic discussions
Authentic journals
When Ultra documents are selected as context, file attachments on the Ultra document will also be included as context for all context pickers.
Persistent Navigation Bar for Learning Modules - When in modules instructors and students have maintained access to the navigation bar. Now the navigation bar is sticky and remains visible as students vertically scroll through content. Students no longer need to scroll back up to the top of content to access the navigation tools.
Student Feedback Visible in Release Condition - Instructors may want to control access to course content using release conditions. This is helpful for providing custom learning paths through course content. The release conditions include an option to show or hide content to/from students before they meet release conditions. We've modified how these settings impact the students' view of feedback from instructors. Now instructors can set release conditions without any impact to feedback to students.
In the past, when an instructor selected the option to hide content, students could view associated grades but not the feedback. We have corrected this to ensure that students can always review feedback.
Default question points value changed from 10 to 1 - manually adjusting the point value for questions can be time-consuming and error prone. Based on valuable client feedback, we are changing the default point value from 10 to 1. Moving forward, any newly created questions will have a default point value of 1. This change helps reduce the need for manual adjustments.
Questions copied from another assessment retain the designated point value.
Duplicate Questions - Sometimes an instructor may want to have a question repeated with the same answer options but a different question. Instructors can now select Duplicate to quickly copy an existing question within the same assessment (test, assignment, form) or in a question bank. This feature eliminates the need for manual duplication and simplifies the process of creating multiple questions with the same answer options.
Likert Answers Options - Instructors can now create Likert scale questions with 4 or 6 answer options. This allows for greater granularity in student responses. An even number of answer options also supports the creation of questions where students cannot select a neutral option. This enhancement is in response to valuable user feedback.
Auto-submitted Indicator in Attempt Logs - Understanding the context of student submissions is helpful to instructors. Now the Attempt Log indicates whether a submission is manual or automatic. This indicator provides instructors with deeper insights into student behaviors. This addition also allows instructors to better track their student progress.
Anonymous Discussion Post - Students need to feel free to express their ideas and opinions without fear of judgement. To support this, we've added an option for instructors to allow anonymous posts in ungraded discussions. This feature provides flexibility for instructors. They can toggle anonymity on or off as the discussion progresses. Any existing anonymous posts keep their anonymity.