2026 Archived Release Notes

Restrict attempt activity in completed Original courses: Once an Original Course View course is marked complete, students can no longer start, save, or submit assessment attempts, ensuring completed courses are effectively read‑only. This reduces confusion, preserves the integrity of course records, and aligns system behavior with course completion expectations.

Milestone: Receive expiration alerts for Open Badge 3.0 credentials: Learners now receive expiration alerts for Open Badge 3.0 badges at 90, 30, and 7 days before expiration, plus a notification on the expiration date itself. These alerts arrive by email and include the badge name and expiration date. This helps learners stay informed and take action before their badges lapse.

Rebuilding the Groups management experience for instructors: Groups management has been redesigned to improve usability, performance, and consistency, making it faster and easier for instructors to create, organize, and manage groups—especially in large courses. The new experience reduces manual effort with clearer enrollment options, better sorting and visibility, and significantly improved reliability at scale.

Make second due date for Discussions visible in Gradebook: The second due date for Discussions now appears in the Gradebook's Overview tab and Gradable Items tab, allowing instructors to be more aware of and responsive to student discussions needing grading. This improvement reduces instructor confusion around deadlines for student engagement.

Visualize release conditions inherited by items in learning modules and folders: Instructors can now view release conditions inherited from a parent Learning Module or Folder directly within the Release Conditions panel of individual items. Inherited conditions appear in a read-only format, giving instructors a clear picture of all conditions that apply to an item.

Carry group filter into Flexible Grading: The group filter selected in the Gradebook grid view now carries over into Flexible Grading. Instructors who filter by a group in the Gradebook will find only the students from that group when they enter Flexible Grading, reducing the need to re-filter after switching views.

Resized Accommodations icon: The Accommodations icon has been updated to a smaller size across the product. The icon remains unchanged on the Student drill-down page. This update was made to make the icon consistent across the product and to support spacing in the new Gradebook Grid view and is being released in advance where applicable.

White space improvements in Documents: Documents now use vertical space more efficiently, reducing unnecessary white space and improving readability and visual balance. These improvements apply when creating new content, editing existing content, or using AI‑generated layouts.

Improved screen reader experience in document view mode: Screen reader users now have a cleaner, more focused experience when navigating documents in view mode. Content is delivered in the correct order, left to right, across rows, columns, and blocks.

AVA: Explore with AI Playground: A dedicated, institutionally managed space in Blackboard where students and instructors can explore generative AI through a chat‑based interface with selected models, clear trust and safety messaging, and persistent conversations. This exploratory environment encourages experimentation and ideation to support teaching and learning, while remaining separate from coursework, assessments, and instructor workflows and fully controlled by administrators.

Improved search and navigation in Course Switcher: The Course Switcher now includes a search box that lets instructors and students quickly find and open courses by name or course ID without returning to the Courses page. Combined with quick access to recent courses, this streamlines navigation and reduces friction when working across multiple courses.

Remove feature flag for Learning Module Table of Contents: The Table of Contents for Learning Modules is now permanently turned on for instructors and students, removing the need for administrator feature-flag management. This ensures a consistent navigation experience across institutions and makes it easier for users to orient themselves within modules.

Video Studio: Add Audio Descriptions for Inclusive Videos: Video Studio now supports audio descriptions, allowing instructors to add text‑to‑speech narration for key visual elements to improve accessibility for learners with visual impairments. Students can switch on or off audio descriptions during playback, ensuring inclusive access while supporting WCAG compliance and broader engagement.

Sync Program data from SIS: Administrators can now sync Program data directly from their SIS into Blackboard LMS using flat file integration, reducing manual configuration and keeping program structures aligned with institutional source-of-truth systems. This supports consistent program-level reporting, outcomes assessment, and accreditation workflows.

Sync Term Types from SIS: Administrators can now sync Term Type definitions directly from their SIS into Blackboard LMS using flat file integration, reducing manual setup and ensuring term classification stays accurate and consistent over time. This supports longitudinal and cross-term reporting and establishes a reliable time-based foundation for analytics and accreditation workflows.

Enhanced Institutional Hierarchy control for UEF integrations: Administrators can now switch on or off course‑context UEF integrations at specific Institutional Hierarchy nodes, allowing targeted rollouts and alignment with existing governance models. The UEF availability control applies only to tools in the Course Details Actions area and requires integration support. In this release, we include the Microsoft 365 tool UEF integrations. This ensures UEF tools appear only where relevant, reducing course clutter and improving institutional control without affecting global UEF behavior.

Cancel queued course copy and delete tasks: Administrators can now delete certain queued system tasks—such as course copy and course delete actions—while they are still in a Waiting status, allowing mistakes or duplicate submissions to be corrected before processing begins. This improves system safety and administrative confidence by preventing unintended or irreversible changes before they run.

Course Catalog: Only show students in Download Certificate search results: Results now include only students when Certificate Managers search by course on the Download Certificates page. This update removes non-student roles from results, reducing confusion and streamlining the search process for managers.

Strengthen logout behavior for supported SAML SSO configurations: Blackboard now performs a global logout for supported SAML SSO configurations, ensuring that when a user signs out or a session is invalidated, both the Blackboard and SSO sessions are fully terminated. This reduces confusion, prevents unintended re‑authentication, and strengthens session management in shared, multi‑device, or high‑security environments. Please note, this feature only applies to institutions using specific SAML configurations and doesn't affect most institutional configurations.

Require confirmation for updated email addresses: Blackboard now permanently requires users to verify email address changes, ensuring secure updates and uninterrupted delivery of important communications. This upgrade removes the feature flag for this functionality and strengthens account integrity for all users.

Enhanced threading experience in Course Messages: Course Messages now automatically organizes new messages into existing conversations, or creates a new one when needed. This streamlines communication and reduces fragmented threads. We’ve removed reply-blocking to accommodate this feature. Additionally, displaying of the Rich Text Editor and Send button now persist on mobile and hand-held devices to improve usability across devices.

Increased file size limit to 25 MB for assignments and tests: SafeAssign now supports submissions up to 25 MB, reducing failures caused by the previous size restriction and better accommodating larger documents with complex formatting. Support for the same 25 MB limit in Direct Submit is planned for April. Existing SafeAssign functionality and reports continue to operate as before.

Add a second participation requirement and due date in Discussions: Instructors can now set two separate due dates with distinct participation requirements for Discussions, offering clearer expectations and more structured engagement. Students benefit from transparent progress tracking and updated indicators as they complete requirements across both due dates.

Video Studio: Generate thumbnail automatically: Video Studio now auto‑generates a thumbnail image from each new recording, giving viewers a clear visual preview and helping instructors and students quickly recognize video content before opening it. This enhancement creates a more polished viewing experience while reducing effort for instructors since thumbnails are created automatically.

Video Studio: Enhance timer to show time left during recording: Video Studio now displays the remaining recording time in both full and minimized views, giving instructors and students clearer pacing to reduce the risk of unexpected cut‑offs during recording. This improvement improves time management so users can stay focused on creating their content.

Question Title field relocated: The Question Title field now appears only when the metadata option is enabled. This update reduces accidental use of the title field when instructors only intend to enter question text. The workflow remains consistent with other optional metadata fields.

Generate Knowledge Checks with AI: Instructors can now generate multiple choice Knowledge Checks in Documents using AI. Questions are created based on document content and selected course items, and instructors can choose and edit the generated options. Existing manual Knowledge Check workflows remain unchanged.

Partial credit limits removed for Multiple Choice and Multiple Answer: Partial credit values for answer options no longer need to total 100%. Instructors can assign values freely within the allowed range, and the system continues to provide warnings without blocking setup. Existing behaviors for negative marking and regrading remain supported.

Anonymous grading by question: Flexible Grading now supports anonymous grading in Question View. Student names, avatars, and IDs are replaced with anonymous identifiers while grading. All actions available in non‑anonymous Question View remain available in anonymous mode.

Metadata analysis layer in Originality Report: SafeAssign now includes a new metadata analysis layer within the Originality Report. In addition to traditional text matching, instructors can access contextual insights in the new Document Properties section in the report summary.

Support subject creation: Blackboard now supports importing Subjects through SIS integrations. This update keeps Subject data aligned with institutional systems and reduces manual setup. Flat file, API‑based, and LIS workflows are supported.

Course Catalog: Batch edit offering availability: Managers can now batch edit offering availability on the Offering Management screen instead of updating each offering individually. This feature saves time by allowing managers to update multiple offerings at once.

Performance Results Scale and Key Assessment: Institutions can begin using the Performance Results Scale and Key Assessment Indicator, providing a shared framework to interpret, aggregate, and visualize learning outcome performance consistently across assessments. Additionally, Outcomes for Blackboard will be available March 2026. The release of Outcomes for Blackboard is not aligned with Blackboard's March 4000.10 release. To prepare for Outcomes for Blackboard, please visit help.anthology.com/outcomes.

Use automations to remind students to check their feedback: Instructors can create automation that sends a message to students who have unread feedback after a certain number of days. These automatic messages save time and promote student engagement by encouraging students to review their feedback.

Stack blocks vertically in Documents: Instructors can stack blocks in a single column to reduce whitespace and create cleaner layouts. A new toggle allows switching between column-level and block-level editing, and columns can be dropped into other block areas for flexible design.

Enhanced achievement usability: The Achievements tab displays a count of unread badges for students, and the “New” pill appears consistently. Instructors and students benefit from clearer wording in dialogs and improved distinction between Course Badges and Open Badges. Accessibility updates include better aria-labels, alt-text, and image styling.

Improved accessibility for custom badge options: Accessibility enhancements include clearer aria-labels, consistent alt-text, and tooltips for buttons. Decorative images are marked correctly, and fallback alt-text is provided for custom images, making badge workflows more inclusive and easier to navigate.

Video Studio: Students can download videos they create for offline use: Students can now download the Video Studio recordings they create in areas such as Discussions or Assignment submissions to their local devices for offline storage and viewing.

Visualize LTI data in Anthology Adopt: Institutions can now track and segment LTI tool usage within Pendo, enabling richer insights and targeted user experiences. Pendo can identify individual LTI launches, which allows administrators to monitor adoption, analyze usage patterns, and deliver contextual guidance.

Grade Export: Launch Grade Approval and Transfer Tool directly to column level: Administrators can set the Grade Approval and Transfer Tool to pen at the column level, bypassing the course level. This setting prevents instructors from approving an entire course’s grades without viewing the grades at the column or grade level.

Opt out of upcoming features: Administrators can now opt in or opt out of specific product functionalities directly from the Admin Panel both before and after an official release. This update gives administrators greater control over when new capabilities are enabled, so teams can adopt features on their own timelines and with more confidence.

Institutional Hierarchy: Restrict Content Copy Search for Node Administrators: Search results for courses are now limited to courses within a node administrator's scope within Institutional Hierarchy, improving governance, privacy, and institutional boundaries.

Organize terms with parent-child relationships: Institutions can create a parent Annual term with child terms such as Semester, Trimester, or Quarter. A new column shows term type, and sorting by subject and term type improves reporting and analytics for administrators and instructional designers.

View activity log for automations: Instructors can now view an activity log for each course automation, showing the date and time it was triggered and the specific student and item involved. This feature enhances transparency by giving all instructors visibility into when automations occur and which students receive automated messages.

Grades Journey: Validate grades before submission, approval, or extract: Graders now see a red X in the Current Grade column for invalid grades and are blocked from submitting, approving, or extracting them. This update ensures clarity for graders about which grades are valid. This feature requires a Grades Journey license.

Grades Journey: Prevent manual extraction of unapproved grades: Graders now get an error message when they try to manually extract grades that are not in the Approved status. This feature prevents graders from sending unapproved grades to the SIS. This feature requires a Grades Journey license.

Usability Improvement for Document Block Layout: We've streamlined the options menu for Document Block Layout by adding sub menu options to change a block's row, size, and position. This improves usability for instructors creating Documents as well as improves accessibility for keyboard and screen reader users.

Expanded Question Options for True/False: Instructors now have more flexibility when creating binary-style questions, with additional display options that better align with varied instructional needs.

Improved Gradebook Download Options: When downloading the Gradebook, the option for whether to include hidden items is available only when the Gradebook has hidden items.

Improved performance for large multiple choice or multiple answer tests: We've optimized rendering of MCQ and True/False questions, significantly improving load times for large tests. For example, a 200-question test now loads in ~5 seconds, down from ~25 seconds, which equates to an 80% improvement.

Enhanced multiple choice and multiple answer workflow:Updates to question setup provide a more intuitive experience, including updating the default answer options from 3 to 4 and improving controls for how students interact with questions (radio buttons for single answer responses and checkboxes for more than one answer response). These changes support greater flexibility in assessment design and an improved experience for students.

Video Studio: Use Knowledge Checks for Videos: Instructors can now embed ungraded knowledge check questions within videos to confirm comprehension and keep students engaged. Videos pause at designated points until students answer correctly, creating an interactive learning experience that reinforces key concepts.

Video Studio: Download Video for Offline Use: Users can now download Video Studio recordings to their local devices for offline viewing, giving instructors and students the flexibility to access content without an internet connection. Instructors can control download permissions for each recording, ensuring secure and convenient distribution of course materials.

Video Studio: Edit Description: Instructors and students can now add or edit titles and descriptions for Video Studio recordings, making it easier to provide context, summaries, or guidance for viewers before they watch. This enhancement improves clarity and helps highlight key topics or instructions within course videos.

Video Studio: Edit all entries of a speaker's name in a video transcript: Instructors can now edit all instances of a speaker’s name in a video transcript at once, making it faster and easier to maintain consistency across the content.

Granular Control of Achievements for Ultra via Institutional Hierarchy: Institutions can now register internal Blackboard features as configurable tools and control their visibility at the node level (e.g., campus or department), enabling scalable governance aligned with organizational structures.

Grade Export: Email a grade extract summary list: Administrators can now send a single email with a text file listing all course IDs included in a grade extract to selected administrative recipients. This update allows recipients to choose whether to receive a single email per extract instead of an email for each course, streamlining communication.

Improved Automation placement on course home page: The heading for the section on the Course Content page that includes automations is now titled Course Assistants instead of Virtual Assistant and does not contain the AVA logo. This makes it clear that automations do not require an AVA license and prevents confusion for admins and instructors.

Navigate courses and tools faster with refreshed user interface: The updated Blackboard interface streamlines navigation with a cleaner Base Navigation layout, full-screen course pages, and a new Home button for easier orientation. These changes improve usability, reduce clicks, and optimize screen space for faster access to courses, grading, and settings.