What's New

Early Access: New Content Editor for Blackboard Documents: A modernized Content Editor arrives in Blackboard LMS as an Early Access option starting with the August release. Administrators can enable the new editor for Blackboard Documents through a feature flag. Instructors can switch between the new and classic editors when creating Documents while both remain fully supported. The new editor brings reorganized menus, a streamlined toolbar, enhanced list and table formatting, and improved keyboard navigation.

Manage Group Membership with Drag and Drop: Instructors can now drag and drop students between the unassigned list and groups to quickly assign or remove membership. This faster, more intuitive workflow simplifies group management and makes it easier to organize and adjust groups without relying on menus or selection lists.

Create Multiple Groups at Once: Instructors can now create between two and 5,000 groups in a single action from the Groups management screen, eliminating the need to add groups one at a time. This streamlines course setup, reduces repetitive work, and makes it much faster to establish group structures, especially in large courses.

Restructured Gradebook Grid View: The Gradebook Grid View has been restructured with a reorganized layout and new Grade Details panel that surfaces grading information and actions in one place. All gradebook data, grade calculations, and settings are completely unaffected. No configuration is required to activate this feature.

Export question banks: Instructors can now export question banks as a file to their local device. This makes it easier to backup assessment content or share with other instructors for reuse across courses.

Configure the “From” name for automation messages: Instructors or other users with automation editing permissions can now configure the “From” name on automation-generated messages, separating the sender from the author of the automation. This is useful when a course builder or administrator creates automations on an instructor's behalf. The sender can be set to the instructor, so students receive messages from a familiar, trusted source.

Duplicate items on the Course Content page: Instructors can now duplicate any item on the Course Content page except LTI items, with the copy retaining all content and settings from the original. A new Duplicate option appears in the More options menu for every item. This makes it faster to build consistent, repeating course structures.

Improved Microsoft Cloud Document Experience: Blackboard LMS has updated the names of its Microsoft cloud document tools to align with the unified Microsoft 365 LTI experience, improving clarity and consistency when adding content. These are naming changes only, with no impact to existing workflows for embedding, creating, or collaborating on Microsoft documents.

Stay on Top of Deadlines with Your Top To Dos: A new Your Top To Dos component on the Courses page highlights up to five of a student’s most urgent tasks—such as assignments, tests, and feedback—organized by due date and linked directly to action. This helps students quickly prioritize work, avoid missed deadlines, and spend less time searching for what’s due. Please note that this feature is available behind a feature flag from the August release until the January 2027 production release, when the flag will be removed, and the updates apply to all courses automatically.

Course Catalog: Use Mercado Pago to pay for courses: We added Mercado Pago as a payment service provider. This gives students whose institutions have implemented it the option to use Mercado Pago to purchase courses from Course Catalog. As we continue to add more payment service providers, students gain greater flexibility and choice when paying for courses.

Make Notifications More Accurate and Reliable: Blackboard notifications are now more reliable and accurate, resolving issues with duplicates, missing alerts, and incorrect timing. These improvements reduce notification noise and ensure users receive timely, relevant updates they can trust across their courses.

Display answer-level feedback for selected options only: Students now receive answer-level feedback only for the options they chose in multiple choice and multiple answer questions. This gives students more targeted insight into their responses without revealing feedback for options they did not select.

Navigate Courses Faster with an Improved User Interface: Blackboard introduces full-page content navigation, breadcrumbs, and a clearer exit option to improve orientation, reduce navigation errors, and create a more consistent experience. These enhancements make course navigation more intuitive and predictable while helping students stay focused, especially during assessments.

Navigate Between Courses Faster with the Updated Home Button: Selecting the Home button from within a course now takes users directly to the Courses page instead of the institution-defined landing page, making it quicker and more predictable to move between courses. This reduces navigation friction and streamlines access to course content without changing the login landing experience.

Set release conditions based on journal submissions: Instructors can now set release conditions based on the submission status of journals. Content releases automatically when a student submits, without waiting for grading, keeping students moving through the course on their own timeline.

Restrict Discussion, Journal, and Blog Activity in Completed Original Courses: Participation in discussions, journals, and blogs is now read-only in completed Original courses, preventing users from adding new content. This ensures course content remains consistent and preserves finalized courses as part of the official record.

Video Studio: Customize Your Recording Background: Users can now blur their background or replace it with an image before recording in Video Studio, with a real-time preview and the ability to switch or reset as needed. This helps protect privacy, reduce distractions, and create a more professional, consistent look that keeps viewers focused on the content.

Video Studio: Resume Video Playback: Video Studio now remembers where users stop watching and automatically resumes playback from that point, even across sessions and devices. This saves time, eliminates the need to search for a place in the video, and makes it easier to consume instructional content in multiple sittings.

Add Sorting Controls for Discussion Posts: Instructors and students can now sort discussion posts by newest or oldest first, making it easier to navigate and scan long threads without altering the discussion structure. The selected sort order is remembered per discussion, applies to nested replies and mobile, and instructors can set the default order students see.

Delete unwanted third-party columns in the Gradebook: When an instructor converts an Original course with third-party content to Ultra, all columns are brought into the Ultra Gradebook. Instructors can now delete unwanted third-party columns.

Display nested items in the Learning Object Repository Move to view: When administrators move items in the Learning Object Repository, the Move to view now displays the contents of folders and learning modules alongside the containers. This gives administrators greater visibility into each destination before completing a move, reducing the risk of misplacing content and making repository structure easier to navigate.

Import external course packages as Ultra courses: When administrators import course packages from Canvas LMS, D2L Brightspace, or Moodle, Blackboard LMS now delivers those courses directly in Ultra Course View. Imported courses are ready to use right away, with no extra conversion steps needed. This streamlines the import process and reduces manual work for administrators.

Display warning banner in Original courses: Blackboard LMS now displays a warning banner in Original courses for all non-student roles. The banner notifies instructors, administrators, and other staff that Original Course View support ends after December 31, 2026. It will not be available for teaching and learning as of January 1, 2027.

Restrict copy into completed courses: Blackboard LMS now blocks content from being copied into courses marked as Completed. Completed courses are read-only, intended for retrieval, reference, accreditation review, and grade verification. This protection keeps institutional records accurate and prevents unintended modifications.

Add descriptions to Discussions and Journals: Discussions and Journals now include a dedicated Description field, matching the experience of other course content items. The Description field is separate from the prompt, so instructors can use it for expectations while reserving the prompt for the core question or task.

Control AI Conversation Duration with Time Limits: Instructors can now set either an assessment-level or conversation-level time limit for AI Conversations, controlling whether the entire activity or just the conversation is timed. This flexibility helps structure student interactions, supports accessibility, and ensures reflection time is preserved when needed.

Find your favorite courses faster with Course Switcher:The Course Switcher now includes a Favorites tab that surfaces courses marked as favorites on the Courses page, alongside Recent and Search options. This enhancement provides faster, more flexible access to frequently used courses, reducing navigation friction and keeping users focused on their work.

Preview existing message thread in Course Messages:When composing a message, selecting recipients now automatically loads the existing conversation in a continuous thread, allowing users to have context of previous discussions in one place before sending their message. This builds confidence for senders and aligns Course Messages with familiar messaging experiences like Microsoft Teams or Slack. This feature is in production environments as of 5 June 2026.

Video Studio: Record longer videos with extended recording time: Video Studio now supports longer recordings—up to 30 minutes in Premium for students and instructors and up to 10 minutes for instructors in Core—enabling more comprehensive presentations, demonstrations, and assessments. This enhancement gives students and instructors greater flexibility by allowing longer, uninterrupted recordings and supporting richer, more meaningful video-based assignments.

Video Studio: Record Videos in More Areas on the Blackboard App: Instructors and students can now record Video Studio videos directly from the Blackboard LMS App in additional areas that use the content editor—such as Discussions, Assignments, and Tests—expanding mobile recording beyond Course Content pages and Documents. This update increases flexibility by enabling instructors to create and embed video content wherever they engage with students, without needing to switch to a desktop device.

Video Studio: Optimize Player Layout by Moving Transcript Control to Settings:The Video Studio player has been updated to move the transcript option into the Settings menu, freeing space in the control bar and improving visibility of key playback controls like the timeline. This enhances usability and viewing experience while maintaining full access to transcript functionality and accessibility features.

Run a Rubric Evaluation Report for graded activities: Instructors can now run a Rubric Evaluation Report directly from the Ultra gradebook for any graded activity associated with a rubric, bringing to Ultra a reporting capability previously available only in the Original Course View. The report aggregates rubric data across all student submissions to help instructors identify trends and inform course improvements.

Restrict Content Edits in Completed Original Courses:Content in completed Original Course View courses is now read-only, preventing instructors from creating, editing, or deleting course materials once a course is marked complete. This ensures course consistency and preserves finalized materials as part of the official record, reducing discrepancies between delivered content and archived course data.

Add supplemental content to Learning Object Repository folders and learning modules: Instructors can now add their own content to LOR folders and learning modules, which were previously locked to additions. Instructor-added items are fully editable and behave like standard course content, while LOR-owned items remain protected and continue to sync updates. This gives instructors the flexibility to personalize courses with supplemental materials without affecting institutional consistency.

Milestone: Identify micro and macro badge hierarchy from new Relationships column:The badges page now includes a new Relationships column that helps administrators quickly identify connections between badges in micro and macro badge structures. Selecting the column displays related badges one level above or below, giving administrators a clear picture of badge dependencies and hierarchy.

Milestone: Explore badge relationships with new Tree View: Administrators now have access to a new Tree View that displays complete badge hierarchy structures. The Tree View shows the full map of badge relationships and dependencies across multiple levels. This greater visibility helps administrators more effectively manage and validate complex micro and macro badge ecosystems.

Access course Announcements as an observer:Observers now have access to a dedicated Announcements tab in the observer view. The tab displays each announcement's title, content, posted date and time, and the date and time the student read it. This access gives observers clear insight into course communications and student engagement with them.