Greetings from your Center for Instructional Technology! CIT provides training, support, and consultations for UA’s instructional technologies and technology accessibility. Visit cit.ua.edu to find step-by-step guides with pictures, discover upcoming workshops and webinars, or book an appointment. You can also reach us at cit@ua.edu or 205-348-3532 or visit us in A203 Gordon Palmer Hall.
This month’s CIT Instructor News features information and resources to support teaching and learning needs, with a focus on People.ua.edu changes, Blackboard Ultra, and Blackboard, Qualtrics, and Simple Syllabus highlights.
People.ua.edu platform and branding update
UA’s people.ua.edu sites, including faculty profile and some research websites, are moving to a new platform and will have refreshed branding by the end of 2024! CIT is shepherding sites from the older Weebly platform to CampusPress, an accessible and flexible service provider that aligns more readily with UA’s web policies and provides expanded site capabilities. Faculty and staff who manage people.ua.edu sites will be contacted when the newly migrated sites are ready for review. More information will be shared with individual site owners by Oct 31.
Explore – and teach with – the new Blackboard: Blackboard Ultra
Blackboard Ultra Course View (“Ultra”) offers a simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices and a more streamlined experience for instructors and students. All Blackboard courses will be designed and delivered in Ultra by Spring 2026, and instructors of non-OTIDE-supported courses can teach with Ultra now (OTIDE-supported courses are designated as OL or OLM). Visit the CIT site to learn more about Ultra and UA’s plans, join or watch a recorded demonstration/information session, or request a practice course: Blackboard Ultra Course View
Ultra course Messages options now available
Instructors can now adjust message settings in Ultra Course View. They can set the following limits on messages within the course:
- Students can message anyone in their course
- Students can only message staff and students in their groups
- Students can only message staff
- Students can only reply to messages
- Turn all messages off, which sends all messages by email only
Check out this CIT knowledge base article for more information: How do I edit course Messages settings in Ultra?
Ultra Good Features
Check out these recent additions to Blackboard Ultra!
Send a copy to email when scheduling announcements
Instructors often plan certain communications in advance. Now instructors can schedule an Announcement for a future date and select that it will send an email copy. The announcement tool will send the email copy on the day and time the announcements are posted. This change was introduced with the July 2024 Ultra release.
When composing an announcement in Ultra, “Send an email copy to recipients” and “Schedule announcement” options appear below the editor.
CIT KB: How do I create a course announcement in a Blackboard Ultra course?
Blackboard Instructor Help: Announcements
Video: Announcements in Blackboard
Content Designer: Enhanced Documents
Ultra’s Documents feature can be used to combine a variety of materials to view together, such as text, multimedia, and attachments. The August 2024 Ultra release introduced new options for content design, such as resizing and dragging/dropping blocks into columns and rows and the ability to convert PDF, PowerPoint, and Word files to Documents.
Blackboard Instructor Help: Create Documents
Video: Create Document – Blackboard
What’s New in Blackboard – August 2024
Content Designer: Knowledge Check in Enhanced Documents
The September 2024 – 3900.10 Release brought additional enhancements to Documents, including the addition of Knowledge Checks. Knowledge checks test student comprehension of a document by asking a multiple choice or multiple answer question. Knowledge checks include:
- Feedback: You can pre-populate correct and incorrect answer feedback
- Student interaction: Students receive immediate feedback on whether their answer is correct or incorrect. Knowledge checks allow unlimited attempts.
- And Metrics: You have access to detailed metrics about how students are engaging with the knowledge check.
Blackboard Instructor Help: Create Documents
Video: Knowledge Checks in Blackboard Documents
What’s New in Blackboard – September 2024
Student Activity Log
A couple more highlights from the September release:
The Student Overview page now has a Student Activity Log instructors and other higher roles can use the to check what a particular student did in a course. The Activity log can be filtered by event type and can look to the past 140 days. Any information older than that won’t be stored in this report. The log can take up to 20 minutes to update from the last time a student performs an action.
Student Activity Log listing several items with dates, times, and events
Blackboard Instructor Help: Student Activity Log
View items that need grading and posting in the new Overview tab
And also in the September release: The Gradebook’s new Overview tab displays grading tasks for you to complete.
- Needs reconciling lists all items ready for reconciliation. Select Reconcile now to open the Submissions tab for the item. Then review grades and feedback from others before determining the final grade.
- Needs grading lists submissions ready for grading with the oldest ungraded submissions at the top of the list, allowing you to prioritize grading tasks. Select Grade now to open the submission and begin grading.
- And Needs posting lists graded assessments that are ready to be posted. Select Post now to immediately post the graded assessment.
Gradebook Overview tab view displays grading tasks: needs reconciling, needs grading, and needs posting
Blackboard Instructor Help: Ultra Gradebook
Video: Gradebook – Blackboard
Award Course Badges with Achievements
Finally, a preview of the October release, coming to production on October 3. The release brings some badging capabilities, including course badges! Instructors can create course badges and set criteria for students to earn the badges.
Instructor view of the new course badge screen. You can set the title, description, badge image, and earning requirements.
Blackboard Instructor Help: Achievements
What’s New in Blackboard – October 2024
CIT Technology and Tool Highlights
Blackboard
- The Blackboard Learn App is Now the Blackboard App – As part of Anthology’s ongoing rebranding, the Blackboard Learn App is now known simply as the Blackboard App. The name change is complete, and an icon update is scheduled for the October release.
- Digital Teaching Symposium – A full day of free, peer-led virtual sessions on digital teaching strategies from Anthology.
- Known Issue – Sporadic invalid format error for third-party tools– Some student users are receiving an “Invalid locale format: false” error when accessing third-party tools in Blackboard. Visit the knowledge base for a workaround.
Qualtrics
- Known Issue – Qualtrics Maintenance Oct 5 – Qualtrics will undergo maintenance on Saturday, October 5, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.
Simple Syllabus
- Known Issue – Simple Syllabus Deadline Reminders – Some instructors received notifications about unpublished syllabi in error. We’ve reported this to the vendor, as they are working on a resolution.
News from OIT
These Office of Information Technology updates are of particular interest to instructors.
- Auto-Archiving of Emails for UA Accounts – Starting October 10, 2024, OIT will begin auto-archiving emails over two years old for all students, faculty and staff.
- Mobile Application Management Deploying to UA Faculty – OIT began deploying enhancements to protect UA data on Microsoft mobile device applications on September 16.
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
Learn with us! CIT regularly hosts workshops and webinars on UA instructional technologies and technology accessibility. We are also pleased to offer individual consultations and group instruction by request.
10.3 | Blackboard Learn Ultra User Group (partner event)
10.3 | Social Annotation Strategies: October 2024 (partner event)
10.3 | Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
10.4 | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Ultra Course View webinar
10.10 | Getting Started with Panopto webinar
10.10 | Social Annotation Strategies: October 2024 (partner event)
10.10 | Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
10.17 | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Ultra Course View webinar
10.17 | Blackboard Learn Ultra User Group (partner event)
10.17 | Social Annotation Strategies: October 2024 (partner event)
10.17 | Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
10.17 | Social Annotation Strategies: October 2024 (partner event)
10.24 | Teaching with Turnitin: Turnitin Basics webinar
10.24 | Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
10.31 | Blackboard Learn Ultra User Group (partner event)
10.31 | Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
About This Message
All UA instructors of record are automatically subscribed to updates about Blackboard and other instructional technology. UA community members who would like to be added to the communications list for CIT news can contact us.