What's New

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.

Lock answer options in a fixed position for multiple choice and multiple answer questions: Instructors can now lock specific answer options, such as "None of the above," so they remain in a fixed position when other answer options are randomized.

Improved rubric usability when overriding grades: Instructors can override grades without locking the rubric and add feedback at the criterion level. The rubric score box uses clearer wording, and grades save at the attempt level for discussions and journals, removing override workflows.

Track Announcement engagement by student: The new Announcements tab on the Student Overview page gives instructors a student-level view of announcement engagement. Instructors can check which announcements each student has and has not read.

Trigger Feedback Reminder automations when feedback is posted:The Feedback Reminder automation now triggers when instructors post feedback, not only when grades are posted. When an instructor creates a new Feedback Reminder automation, Blackboard LMS also evaluates existing assignments and sends reminders for any feedback posted in the last 30 days but not yet checked by the student. This ensures students receive timely, relevant notifications about the feedback that supports their learning.

Enhance Stability and Usability of Commenting Tools: Improvements to Bb Annotate fix issues with formatting, editing behavior, navigation, and file handling to ensure more consistent and reliable commenting workflows. These updates help instructors provide feedback more efficiently with fewer errors and smoother interactions.

Restrict grading activity in completed Original courses: Once an Original Course View course is marked complete, all grading activity becomes read-only, preventing changes to grades, overrides, group attempt grades, or feedback. This keeps finalized courses consistent and preserves the integrity of official course records without requiring any action from instructors or administrators.

Video Studio: Record Videos on Blackboard App: Instructors can now use the Blackboard App on their mobile devices to record Video Studio videos directly to Course Content and Documents using their device’s camera and microphone. This update makes it easier for instructors to create content on the go and supports more flexible teaching and learning workflows.

Provide answer-level feedback for multiple choice and multiple answer questions: Instructors can now add feedback for each individual answer option in multiple choice and multiple answer questions.

Add Folders and Learning Modules to the Learning Object Repository: The Learning Object Repository (LOR) now supports Folders and Learning Modules. These objects provide centrally managed, locked structures that ensure content remains consistent and cannot be altered within courses. Updates made at the source automatically sync to all associated courses and organizations—even while they are active—allowing institutions to add, update, or remove content in real time, reducing repetitive updates and minimizing errors.

Choose what happens to course content when deleting an object from the Learning Object Repository: Administrators can now choose between two options when deleting an object: Delete this object and Delete this object and all associated objects.  These options give administrators precise control over content removal, reducing manual effort and helping maintain course integrity across the system.

Sort objects by type in the Learning Object Repository: Administrators can now sort items in the Learning Object Repository (LOR) by type. This helps administrators locate and manage objects more efficiently, saving time.

Use Institutional Hierarchy for Microsoft Education integration: The Microsoft Education course-level integration now honors Blackboard’s Institutional Hierarchy settings, allowing administrators to enable or disable the tool at specific hierarchy nodes such as campuses or departments. This enhancement builds on the previously released Institutional Hierarchy support for Ultra Extension Framework (UEF) course-level integrations. The feature ensures Microsoft Education appears in the Details & Actions menu only where it is approved, supporting controlled rollouts, licensing alignment, and a cleaner instructor experience.

Use API for managing course user accommodations: Administrators and developers can now retrieve, create, and update student accommodations in Ultra courses with public REST API support. This lets administrators manage accommodations programmatically. This reduces manual course-by-course setup and supports scalable, automated workflows aligned with institutional and third‑party accessibility systems.

Grade Export: Configure OAuth 2.0 scope settings: Grade Export now includes an optional OAuth 2 scope field in the REST (Outgoing) Security Settings. When configured, Grade Export includes the scope value in the OAuth 2.0 token request and as a header on outbound REST calls. Institutions whose OAuth 2.0 implementations require a scope parameter can now connect and post grades successfully.

Preserve activity data for Group Assignment submission through Bulk Copy and Convert: The Include Activity Data option in the Bulk Copy and Convert conversion process now supports submissions for Group Assignments as well as individual Assignments. This enhancement allows students to access their historical Group Assignment submissions and instructor feedback in converted Ultra courses.

Course Catalog: Unenroll learners through managed enrollment workflow: Managers can now unenroll learners from managed enrollment offerings on the Offering Management screen. This reduces the need for managers to leave the Course Catalog interface to manage enrollments, streamlining the enrollment management process.

Use LTI Link and Content Service Support: Blackboard LMS now supports LTI Link and Content services (GET, PUT, POST), enabling tools to automatically synchronize content details like due dates and links with Ultra courses. This enhances integration capabilities for tool providers, improving consistency, reducing manual updates, and delivering a more seamless instructor and student experience.