What's New

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.