Blackboard Ultra
Blackboard Learn is the Learning Management System (LMS) used by The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley faculty, staff, teaching assistants, and students. As a result, Blackboard Learn continues to be an important platform to facilitate the delivery of teaching and learning online and hybrid courses.
At a Glance
The major change to Blackboard Learn is a new landing page that allows students and instructors to more easily access important course information, including Learning Materials, Grades, Messages, Calendars, and relevant links arranged in the Activity Stream.
Training
Training materials—including tip sheets, instructional videos, and live training opportunities—are now available.
Technical Support
The COLTT Help Desk is available 24/7. Call (956) 665-5327 or submit a case at utrgv.edu/coltthelp. In addition, you can also review FAQs for more information.
Navigating Blackboard Ultra
The Institution Page includes information and helpful links for using Blackboard and other technologies for teaching. The information on this page is customized for you based on your teaching role. Students will see slightly different information to help them be successful. Learn more about the Institution Page.
The navigation menu will display the link to the Profile Page as your name. The Profile Page contains information about your account. Your full name, Email, and C Number are saved here. Global Notification Settings for your account can also be configured on this page and on the Activity Stream page. Learn more about your profile.
On the Activity Stream, you can see what's new in all your courses and jump directly into course activities from the list! You don't need to dig through the system or miss submissions from students. You see a prioritized list of what's relevant to you, including updates to discussions, recent messages, and new student submissions to assessments.
For a student, the Activity Stream also highlights upcoming or past due dates, newly added content, and recently posted grades. You can also customize the notifications you receive in your Activity Stream and disable email notifications. Learn more about the Activity Stream and Notification Settings.
The new Courses page sorts your courses into a timeline so that you can focus on courses that are currently active. You can search for courses by name or filter the view. Courses you mark as a favorite will appear at the top of your course list, making it easy for you to access the courses you use most frequently. You can even make courses visible or hide them from students right from your Courses list.
Note: You can no longer reorder your course list; courses are listed in alphabetical order. Learn more about the Courses page.
The Organizations page list all organizations or trainings you are enrolled in. Organizations you mark as a favorite will appear at the top of your list, making it easy for you to access the organizations you use most frequently.
This is the global Calendar where you can find the due dates for the assessment items in all courses as well as any office hours and events that may have been populated into a course calendar. As the due date for these events approach, you will see reminders in the Activity Stream reminding you of these. Learn more about the Calendar.
In the Messages page, you and your students can send messages to each other, multiple people, or an entire class. Messages activity remains inside the system, and you don't have to worry about email addresses that may be incorrect or outdated.
As an instructor, you can quickly send messages to all students about important deadlines and schedule changes. Learn more about Messages.
From the Grades page, students can see the grades for all assessment items of all courses. From here you can click on items and link through to the course assessment item for additional information. This differs from the My Grades section in a course, which only shows the grades for that course. Learn more about accessing grades here.
Blackboard Assist is a central hub for both online and on-campus resources meant to drive student success. Your students can try out any of the listed service easily and subscribe to the services that best suit their needs. Learn more on Blackboard Assist.
The Tools page list all tools available in the learning management system. You may access any tool or integration from this page such as the Content Collection, Panopto, Zoom, etc.
Content is now displayed in layers rather than loading a new window. New content slides in from the right-hand side and displays the previous location as a sub-layer on the left-hand side. This means no matter where you click, your previous place is always saved and easy to get back to by simply clicking on the [X] to close the current layer.
Course Experience Options in Blackboard Ultra
ORIGINAL COURSE VIEW
By default, all of your courses will continue to use the same look and functionality that you are familiar with, called the Original Course View. After selecting a course from your Courses list, you will find the original course view with the same instructor interface, navigation, features, and tools.
ULTRA COURSE VIEW
The Ultra Experience also includes a new, optional course experience, the Ultra Course View. The Ultra Course View is an optional change to how courses are organized and displayed. To preview courses in the Ultra Course View, access this guide.
Training & Resources
Video Tutorials
Blackboard Help
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I try out the Ultra Course View?
How can I convert my course to Ultra?
We have enabled the Base Navigation (Ultra experience), you are know allowed to have a mix of courses in the Ultra Course View and the Original Course View. Choose the course view that works best for each of your courses. Both course views appear seamlessly in your course list.
You can fully explore your Original course in the Ultra preview before you switch to the Ultra Course View. You can also review a list of features and functions that change or won't carry forward if you convert. Learn more about the Ultra Course Preview.
Should I use a Folder or a Learning Module to organize my content?
Folders and Learning Modules are both great ways to organize your course materials so that it is easier for students to find what they are looking for. Learning Modules offer additional benefits over folders, however.
BENEFITS OF FOLDERS AND LEARNING MODULES
- Both present content in an organized manner for easy navigation
- Both collapse for a streamlined view of materials
- Both include a sub-folder (i.e., a folder inside of a folder or a folder inside of a learning module; you can not nest a learning module inside a learning module, nest a learning module inside of a folder, or nest beyond 2 levels)
- Both can be used to set overall release conditions to control access to content, such as releasing content on a specific date or to a specific group of students
- Both can be copied from past courses as a block of materials with all of the contents inside
BENEFITS OF LEARNING MODULES
- Students can navigate from one item to the next via forward and back arrows
- You can enable sequential viewing to require that students view content or complete an assessment before moving to the next item
- With sequential viewing enabled, the learning module displays checkmarks to show students what they have completed
LIMITATIONS OF LEARNING MODULES
- Contents of folders can be copied granularly from one course to another (e.g., you can copy a single file from within a folder)
- Learning Modules must be copied in their entirety from one course to another (e.g., you must copy the entire learning module and its contents, as opposed to a single item inside of the learning module)
Can I convert my course back to the Original Course View if I have confirmed the conversion to the Ultra Course View?
After I convert my course materials from Original to Ultra Course View, why is it so difficult to move content around?
The Ultra Course View only permits 2 levels of course folders. However, when you convert a course from Original to Ultra Course View, the content areas from your course menu become top level folders in the Ultra Course View. If you had more than a single level of folder within a content area, you can end up with three folders nested in the course in the Ultra Course View. This makes it difficult or impossible for you to create new content or move content in the course.
For example, if you had a content area named "Course Modules", with a folder for each module, and a folder for the activities within that module, that is 3 levels of folder: Course Modules > Module 1 > Activities.
To make it easier to move and create content in your Ultra course, we recommend moving the second level (e.g., Module 1) out of the top level (Course Modules) folder. Once you have moved them, everything should work as expected.