Assessment

Instructional technologies provide many opportunities to support assessment and track student performance in Blackboard.

The following articles provide details describing the best practices we regularly publish to support our pedagogical community of practice.

Showing items tagged blackboard. Show All

New Online Form Available to Request Merge of Blackboard Course Shells

Improved Process Supports Instructor Course Management

DoIT is pleased to announce a new form to help faculty manage their Blackboard course shells with greater efficiency. As part of our ongoing updates to the course creation and enrollment process,...

Posted: August 11, 2025, 4:47 PM

August Ultra update delivers smarter image descriptions, captioned video announcements, and table of contents for learning modules

Get back-to-school ready with new Ultra design features

This month’s Ultra update makes it easier than to generate meaningful descriptions for complex images. August also brings new tools for recording video announcements, styling course materials, and...

Posted: August 6, 2025, 11:10 AM

Black and white robot dog running with the words "New to Ultra" written on light turquoise background

FA2025 Courses Created in Blackboard on July 16, 2025

Reminder: New Course Creation & Student Enrollment Process

Blackboard course shells for Fall 2025 were created on July 16, 2025. All Fall 2025 courses listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), regardless of designation as lecture, lab, etc, or...

Posted: July 17, 2025, 7:37 AM

Anthology announces retirement date for Blackboard Original Courses & Organizations

Original content will become read-only after Dec 31, 2026

Anthology, the parent company of Blackboard, has announced that they will retire Original courses and organizations on December 31, 2026. At this point, all Original content in courses and...

Posted: June 30, 2025, 8:26 AM

Improve Course Accessibility with Image Captions & MathJax Formulas in July's Ultra Update

Track who's reading your announcements and more

How do you know if students actually read that important course announcement? What if you could make your content more accessible by adding image captions or rendering complex math more clearly...

Posted: June 24, 2025, 1:11 PM

Explore Jumbled Sentences and Gradebook Tools in Ultra’s June Release

Track unread discussions & student activity

The June 2025 update to Blackboard Ultra brings a fresh set of enhancements designed to support instructional efficiency, student engagement, and accessible course design. From new question types...

Posted: June 3, 2025, 12:56 PM

New grading features include no points rubric & text-based column for Ultra courses in May update

Updated assessment setting & discussion enhancements

The May 2025 Ultra release delivers several meaningful updates that improve how faculty assess student work, support engagement, and manage course tools. From expanded rubric options to accessible...

Posted: April 29, 2025, 8:44 AM

SU2025 Courses Created in Blackboard on April 24, 2025

New Process To Request Merged Course Shells

Blackboard course shells for Summer 2025 were created on April 24, 2025. All Summer 2025 courses listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), regardless of designation as lecture, lab, etc, or...

Posted: April 25, 2025, 9:30 AM

Blackboard Reminder: Update Browsers to Latest Version

Older browser versions may not be supported in Blackboard

Following the April 2025 Blackboard release, some Blackboard users reported issues (e.g., blank screen, spinning wheel) with Blackboard access. Unsupported browser versions were identified as the...

Posted: April 7, 2025, 2:01 PM

DoIT to Change Blackboard Auto Course Creation & User Enrollment

New Process To Be Piloted SU25

To address current and future Blackboard (Bb) system administration issues and opportunities, DoIT will be changing how all Bb courses are automatically created and enrolled. Specifically, the new...

Posted: April 3, 2025, 1:34 PM

Search UMBC