What’s New in Blackboard – February 2025

January 22, 2025

We've got more new updates and enhancements to Blackboard®coming your way this month! The Blackboard 3900.110 release, out in February, is packed with features in the areas of Instructional Design, Gradebook, Learner Progression and Personalized Experience, Communication and Collaboration, and more. These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Read on to find out more about the upcoming Blackboard release!

Note: The below updates pertain to customers using the Ultra interface. For complete release notes, visit the Blackboard help site.

1. Gradebook - Improvement to Rendering in Bb Annotate

Impact: Instructors and Students

Instructors and Students
We enhanced how files submitted by students are rendered in Bb Annotate. Previously, formatting changes during the rendering process made grading more challenging for instructors. Now, files display with the exact same formatting as when they were submitted, ensuring a smoother grading experience. This feature was well-received by customers in a tech preview! 

Supported file types include: 

• PowerPoints 
• Excel worksheets 
• PDFs 
• Other common formats 

Additionally, the warning about potential formatting changes during the conversion process has been removed.

This improvement is now available in both test/stage and production environments for Ultra and Original courses.

Image 1. A PowerPoint file rendered by Bb Annotate now displays in the original format, ready to be annotated.

Administrators
Availability: Available for all Ultra courses 
Activation: None needed 
Configuration: None needed

2. Instructional Design - Change Folders to Learning Modules or Learning Modules to Folders

Impact: Instructors

Instructors
Instructors can now change a folder to a learning module or a learning module to a folder. Benefits of changing a folder to a learning module include: 

• Thumbnail images: Learning modules come with thumbnail images, which provide a visually appealing course experience 
• Forced sequencing: Instructors can ensure that students navigate learning modules in linear paths 
• Progress bar: Learning modules have a progress bar for students that highlights the number of items that they need to complete and their progression on those items 
• Previous and next navigation: Students can quickly navigate to the next or previous item in a learning module 

Image 1. The new option to change a folder to a learning module in the dropdown menu.

To give instructors more control over their courses, they can also change learning modules to folders. Instructors are advised that all learning module functions are removed when converting a learning module to a folder. 

Administrators
Availability: Available for all Ultra courses 
Activation: None needed 
Configuration: Administrators can turn the feature on or off by going to Ultra Experience Management and selecting Change Folder to Learning Module or Learning Module to Folder

3. Instructional Design - Upload Images to Documents Using the New Image Block

Impact: Instructors

Instructors
We added an image block to Documents. Instructors can use image blocks to upload their own images, use the AI Design Assistant to generate images, or select images from Unsplash. Image blocks can be moved throughout a Document, just like other block types. Instructors have the option to resize images, set height, and maintain aspect ratios in image blocks. A dedicated image block makes adding images more apparent. Adding images via the image block also reduces white space around images and provides greater control over content design. 

Image 1. The new image block option in Documents.

Image 2. The preview of an image within a Document.

Administrators
Availability: Available for all Ultra courses 
Activation: None needed
Configuration: None needed

4. Learner Progression & Personalized Experience - Include IP Addresses in Student Activity Log

Impact: Instructors and Administrators

Instructors and Administrators
IP addresses are now in the student activity log for assessment submissions and drafts. This new information can help with comparing data while reviewing a student's test taking behavior.

Image 1. The new IP address column that is included in the student activity log.

Administrators 
Availability: Available for all Ultra courses 
Activation: None needed
Configuration: None needed

5. Premium Features - Video Studio: Add Video Content Within the Course Content Page

Impact: Instructors, Students

Instructors and course builders can now add video content to the Course Content page with Video Studio. While video can be incorporated within the announcements, feedback, and documents, this new functionality enhances the ability to show compelling instructional content on the main course page.

Instructors
To add video content to the Course Content page, select + and then Record Audio/Video. To record the video, follow directions for using Video Studio.

Image 1: Record Audio/Video now appears among menu options when adding content to the Course Content page.

Students
Students can now view video content directly from the Course Content page. Video content appears with a camera icon. Select the video content, and a panel opens to display the recorded content.

Image 2: For students, video content on the Course Content page is designated by a camera icon next to the title of the content.

Administrators
Availability: Video Studio is a premium solution
Activation: We are offering customers a free trial until June 30, 2025. This trial provides access to the full version of Video Studio. Video Studio is set to OFF as a default in test/stage environments. If you want to enable it in your institution's production environment, you can do that for free until the end of June 2025
Configuration: In the Administrator Panel, select Configure in The Ultra Experience is Here! module. Select Enable creating/uploading videos using Video Studio. Beyond June 30, 2025, your institution will have to purchase Video Studio to continue using it

Explore these updates and more in the full Blackboard 3900.110 release notes.

Topics: LMS