What's New

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 Reminders 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.

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.

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.