Overview
As a Blackboard Administrator, you have two options to convert courses and organizations from Learn Original to Ultra:
Bulk Convert:
- Convert selected courses/organizations using the Original view to the Ultra view.
- You can convert existing courses/organizations provisioned natively or through the Student Information System to the Ultra view without deleting or recreating them.
- Preserve Enrollments.
- Activity data (such as submissions, discussion responses and replies, grades, etc.) is not preserved.
- There's no option for instructors to revert to the Original view.
Bulk Copy and Convert (recommended):
- Selected courses/organizations using the Original view are copied, and the copy is then converted to the Ultra view.
- Instructors/Leaders have access to both versions of their course/organization (Original view and Ultra view). They can easily adjust content by referencing the original version while working on the Ultra view copy.
- The copy is not synchronized with the Student Information System, and enrollments are not preserved. Any student enrollments will be purged since it's a copy.
- Activity data (such as submissions, discussion responses and replies, grades, etc.,) is not preserved.
If most of your courses/organizations have deeply nested content, you may want to activate an additional level of nested items. The additional folder depth will reduce the "flattening" of course/organization content during the conversion process for these type of courses.
Prerequisites
Verify that the following privileges are permitted on system roles that need to use Bulk Convert and Bulk Copy and Convert:
- Administrator Panel (Courses) > Courses > Bulk Convert Actions > Bulk Convert
- Administrator Panel (Courses) > Courses > Bulk Convert Actions > Bulk Copy and Convert
- Administrator Panel (Organizations) > Organizations > Bulk Convert Actions > Bulk Convert
- Administrator Panel (Organizations) > Organizations > Bulk Convert Actions > Bulk Copy and Convert
Bulk Convert courses and organizations
- Select Admin.
- Select Courses/Organizations.
- Search for courses/organizations that you would like to convert. Use the search criteria and filter and select Go.
Select the checkbox next to each course/organization that you would like to convert to the Ultra view.
Courses/Organizations that are already using the Ultra view, Ultra preview, or are set as ‘available’ will not be added to the bulk conversion process.
- Select Bulk Convert Actions.
- Select Bulk Convert. A conversion task will be created for each course/organization selected and added to the system task queue. As a Blackboard Administrator, you will receive either a success message or a warning message based on your selection.
These messages are examples:- Success: “The conversion tasks are now queued. Courses that are available, using the Ultra Course View, or ultra course preview were not included.”
- Warning: “The conversions tasks were not created. The courses selected were either available, using the Ultra Course View, or Ultra course preview.”
Bulk Copy and Convert courses and organizations
You can use the Bulk Copy and Convert option if you'd like to provide instructors with access to their course, using the Original Course View, while also having a copy of their course, with the Ultra Course View.
- Select Admin.
- Select Courses.
- Search for courses that you would like to copy and convert. Use the search criteria filter and select Go.
Select the checkbox next to each course that you would like to convert to the Ultra Course View.
Courses already using the Ultra Course View or Ultra course preview will not be added to the Bulk Copy and Convert process.
- Select Bulk Convert Actions.
- Select Bulk Copy and Convert.
Select and add a Prefix and/or Suffix that will be added to the copied course or organization id.
A hyphen (“-“) will be added after the prefix and before the suffix. For example, a course with the course id “ECON-101” will become “ECON-101-SANDBOX” if a suffix of “SANDBOX” was specified.
- Select Submit.
Check the conversion status of courses and organizations
- Select Admin.
- Select Logs.
- Select System Tasks Status.
You'll see a list of tasks. Each course/organization being converted will have its own conversion task and status. You'll see Convert to Ultra: COURSEID/ORGANIZATIONID as the title for bulk conversion tasks. You’ll see Source COURSEID/ORGANIZATIONID | Destination COURSEID/ORGANIZATIONID as the title for bulk copy and convert tasks. The type is Bulk Convert for Bulk Conversion tasks. The type is Bulk Copy and Convert for Bulk Copy and Convert tasks.
Bulk conversions are sets of queued tasks. There's a limit of two (2) conversions that can be processed at a time.
Activate an additional level of nested items
By default, courses in Ultra Course View support up to three levels of hierarchy on the Course Content page. For example, a folder within a folder is two levels. A folder within a folder within a learning module is an example of three levels. This is different from the Original Course View, which had no restrictions on the number of levels that could be used. This change is intended to simplify course structures and enhance student experience.
However, this setting can be challenging when converting a course from the Original Course View to the Ultra Course View, as content at deeper levels gets moved to the lowest level supported in Ultra Course View.
To address this challenge, you have the option to use one additional level of content nesting.
This feature is off by default. To activate an additional level of depth in Ultra Course View, follow these steps:
- Select Admin.
- Select Configure.
- Navigate to the “Activate an Additional Level of Nested Items” feature toggle.
- Toggle the switch from Off to On.
- Select the checkbox “I acknowledge that this action cannot be undone.”
- Select Confirm.
- Select Save.
Once you activate the Additional Level of Nested Items, you can't revert it. It's important to discuss and confirm with internal stakeholders before you select this option.
