What's New in Blackboard Ultra

December 2025

Ability to specify Discussions participation requirements.
Better Audio/Video feedback
Release conditions based on status of non-gradable content. For example, an instructor can require students to open a reading or watch a video before an assessment becomes available.

Bulk change question points in tests: efficiently update point values for multiple questions in tests.
Automations: automatically send messages to students based on course-level rules. Send congratulatory or supportive messages to students based on custom rules set at the course level. Instructors define the score thresholds and write the messages. These automations help instructors deliver timely, personalized feedback throughout the course, boosting student engagement and saving time.
Achievements: generate or upload custom achievement badges. Instructors now have three new options for customizing Achievement badges: AI-generated images, choosing from a selection of stock images from Unsplash, and utilizing manual image uploads.

Tag test questions with metadata. Instructors can now tag questions with metadata when creating or editing questions in tests, forms, and banks. Questions can have multiple tags of the same type. Metadata is visible during question creation/editing and can be used to filter questions when reusing or adding to pools. Metadata is not visible to students during test taking or review.

Improved student experience with Fill int he Blank Question Type. Fill in the blank questions now display the blanks in line with the surrounding text, whether the question is presented as a sentence, paragraph, or table.

What's New for Instructors?

Enhance Documents with new Block Styling: helps instructors create more engaging content.
Use Pop-out Rubric when grading Group Submissions: Instructors can now use the pop-out rubric when grading group submissions in Flexible Grading. This enhancement brings the same efficient grading experience already available for individual submissions to group work.

The following features are not available for STCC Blackboard Ultra

Generate attempt feedback summaries: this feature requires a premium license with AI capabilities.

What's New for Instructors?

PDF quick fix remediation: When reviewing identified issues within PDF documents, Instructors can take advantage of available quick fixes for PDF files as part of Ally’s feedback and guidance. This includes the ability to fix issues for missing title, missing language, and/or OCR a scanned PDF all directly from within the Instructor Feedback panel.

For more detailed information, see What’s New in Blackboard – July 2025 (June 25, 2025)

Expanded Activity Page: The updated Activity page features time-saving shortcuts that enable instructors to access items requiring grading quickly, view new course messages, open course activity reports to monitor student engagement, and read institutional announcements—all designed to streamline course management.
Review Student Engagement with Announcements: Verify which students have marked an announcement as viewed. By selecting the viewer count on the main Announcements page, instructors can open a list showing who has and hasn’t acknowledged the message.
Apply the No Category Option to Gradebook Items: Select "No Category" in the Grade Category dropdown to exclude items from grading categories, helping maintain a clean and organized gradebook. This update allows for more precise control over grade organization without storing unnecessary data.

Video Studio is currently unavailable for STCC, so the Create and Edit Recordings features in Assignments and Tests are not available for use.

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