What's New

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.

Expanded release conditions for content items: Instructors can now set release conditions based on activity for both assessed and non-gradable content items, such as documents, media, or course links. Conditions include Opened or Started, enabling flexible learning pathways and prerequisite engagement.

Improved group membership handling in Flexible Grading: Flexible Grading now reflects group membership at the time of submission accurately when viewing an attempt. Groups with no members display a “?” avatar and “No members” label on the Submissions page, and their names are non-selectable.

Aligned submission counts with visibility settings: Submission counts in the Gradebook now respect the Show/Hide Unavailable Students setting, ensuring consistent totals across views like the Submissions page, Student Activity tab, and Gradable Items page.

Standardized tabbed interface in Flexible Grading: All submission types—text, files, mixed content, and LTI—now appear in a consistent tabbed interface. Tabs include Instructions, Submission, and dedicated file tabs, improving grading efficiency and navigation.

Improved Automations experience: We made several enhancements to Automations. Instructors now have better visibility of Automations actions such as which instructor executed each automation, increasing transparency. Improvements such as added pagination and improved error messaging lead to a smoother experience when creating and managing Automations.

Specify Participation Requirements for Discussions: Instructors can now define required numbers of posts and replies for discussion participation, giving students clearer expectations and aligning engagement with instructional goals. Progress is tracked and visible to students, enhancing transparency and accountability without altering grading workflows.

AI Conversation – Remove Originality Reporting: The Originality Reporting option has been removed from AI Conversation settings, as AI persona interactions do not produce meaningful originality results. This change improves clarity and streamlines the instructor experience.

Video Studio in Assessment Feedback and Flexible Grading: Instructors can now use the full Video Studio workflow—including recording, uploading, captioning, transcription, and editing—directly within assessment feedback and Flexible Grading. This enhancement supports more personalized, accessible, and engaging communication with students, without requiring additional licensing or configuration.

Learning Module Table of Contents – Instructor View: Instructors now have access to a collapsible Table of Contents panel within Learning Modules, enabling quick navigation and visibility into unpublished content without switching to Student Preview. This update streamlines course review and organization while aligning the instructor experience with the student view.

AVA – Responses to Student Messages: AVA can now automatically respond to common student messages sent to instructors by referencing visible course content, reducing instructor workload and providing students with immediate, contextual help. Instructors can review and clarify AVA’s replies, and the feature is off by default but can be enabled per course or institution wide.

MathJax – Support Inline and Display Formulas: We’ve expanded MathJax capability in the Content Editor to include additional LaTeX delimiters for rendering mathematical formulas. This enhancement improves compatibility with standard STEM workflows and makes it easier to upload exam content without modifying source files.

Video Studio – Record Screen and Camera Simultaneously:Instructors and students can now record their screen and camera at the same time in Video Studio, enabling more dynamic, immersive content for lectures, walkthroughs, and feedback. This feature is available in Announcements, assessment feedback, and flexible grading without requiring a Video Studio license.

Video Studio: Recording Minimize Workflow: Instructors and students can now minimize the camera view and Video Studio controls during recordings, allowing for clearer screen-focused presentations while maintaining a visible speaker overlay. This flexible workflow enhances feedback and instructional videos and is available anywhere Video Studio is enabled—no license or setup required.

Course Catalog: Use Trust Payments to pay for courses: Institutions can now offer Trust Payments as a payment option in Course Catalog, giving students greater flexibility and choice when purchasing courses.

New Spectator Role (Course Role): The Spectator role provides read-only access to Ultra courses, ideal for auditors, observers, or reviewers who need to view content without editing or accessing administrative features. It enhances secure oversight and collaboration without requiring activation or configuration.

Customize grade pills for incomplete items: Grade pills for incomplete submissions now display in gray, making them visually distinct and reducing confusion for students and instructors. This update improves clarity without requiring any configuration.

Schema-based gradebook calculations: A new Calculated schema option allows gradebook calculations to use numerical schema Grade Names instead of raw assessment scores. Admins can enable this feature in the Tools framework. This type of calculation is beneficial for grading scales that starts from values other than zero, for example the Chilean grading scale that ranges from 1 to 7 and where a zero grade still counts as 1.

Enhance Control Over LTI Tools (Proctoring Tools) with Institutional Hierarchy: Institutions using Blackboard’s Institutional Hierarchy can now manage LTI proctoring tool placements at the node level, enabling administrators to assign different tools to specific campuses or departments. This update improves governance, supports complex rollout strategies, and enhances the instructor experience by showing only relevant tools during assessment setup.

Import/Export Privileges for System and Course Roles: Administrators can now export and import role privileges in Blackboard via CSV files, streamlining the review and update process for System and Course roles. This enhancement simplifies privilege management across Ultra and Original courses with no activation or configuration required.

Switch On or Off Discussion Tool Visibility: Administrators can now toggle the Discussion tool for Ultra courses and organizations, hiding all related components without data loss. This improves control over course features and supports cleaner interfaces for new courses.

Permanent “Course Complete” Banner in Closed Original Courses: When an Original course is marked as complete, a permanent banner now appears on all course pages stating: This course is complete. No further modifications are allowed. This banner provides clear visual confirmation that the course has ended. It aligns Original courses with Ultra courses, where this banner already exists. Currently, the banner is informational only—users can still make edits. In an upcoming release, editing completed Original courses will be restricted.

Managing Blackboard App Session Timeouts and Session Controls:The default mobile session timeout has been extended from 3 hours to 336 hours (14 days) for institutions using the Blackboard App, reducing unexpected logouts and improving continuity for students.