Tools
In the Ultra experience, most tools appear in these areas:
Tools page in the base navigation
Inside a course
Tools page in the Base Navigation
When users select any link from the list in the base navigation, they see a global view across all their courses. They can access the global calendar that captures due dates in all their courses and the grades page that shows all their grading tasks organized by course. No need to navigate to each course to see what's ready for grading.
Note
Administrators can't disable items in the Base Navigation menu.
Other global system tools are available on the Tools page, such as the Content Collection, Goals, Enterprise Surveys, and Portfolios. Users only see the tools they have access to.
When Blackboard Ultra is enabled, certain Tools are “always on” and cannot be turned off for Blackboard Original and Blackboard Ultra Courses. These Tools include:
Assignments
Calendar
Course Roster
Discussion Boards
Grade Center
Links
LTI Links
Math Editor (rich text editor)
Messages
My Grades (Student view of Grades)
Partner Cloud
Rubrics
Spellcheck (rich text editor)
Note
For Messages, you have the ability to choose whether students are able to create and reply to messages in both Blackboard Original and Blackboard Ultra courses when Base Navigation is enabled.
Manage tools
The Ultra experience has two categories of tools:
These tools always appear in the base navigation. You can't turn them off, but you may be able to make some configurations.
Activity Stream
You manage these tools in the Admin Panel > Tools and Utilities > Tools.
In the Ultra Course View, tools are always available to instructors, such as File, rubrics, gradebook, assignments, tests, documents, profile, messages, and the roster.
Change tool availability
Manage Tools
Blackboard has a robust set of tools and the flexibility to add new tools to the platform. The Tools page lists each tool that is available. Each row shows the availability of the tool to authenticated users, guests, and observers.
Only system tools appear on the Tools page in the Ultra base navigation.
On the Administrator Panel in the Tools and Utilities section, select Tools.
Open the Filter by menu and make a selection to narrow your list.
The type of tool is listed, such as course or organization.
In the Availability column, change to ON or OFF.
Lock or unlock the tool availability setting. If locked, instructors can't change the setting at the course or organization level.
Note
You manage course tools in the Original Course View on the Course Tools page.
In the Scope of Change column, select the lock icon to open the menu and select where the change is applied, such as for new courses only. Based on the change, the menu may only have one option.
In the Available to Guests and Available to Observers columns, if check boxes appear, you can allow these roles access to the tool. You can't make tools with a circle and diagonal line icon available to guests and observers.
Select Submit to save your changes.
System tools using LTI
Administrators can integrate external tools with Blackboard using the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) protocol. You can setup these tools within the system and allow access in different areas of Blackboard, including the Tools page of the base navigation in the Ultra Experience.
To place an LTI tool on this page, select System tool on the Manage Placements page for the chosen tool.