Release Notes 2021 | Blackboard Help

Release Notes for Learn SaaS - 2021

Learn SaaS release 3900.28.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.28.0
Release to Test/Stage: Tuesday, 16 November 2021 | Release to Production: Thursday, 2 December 2021.
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

For full feature details please review the corresponding notes for the Learn 3900.28.0 version included below on this page.

Last release: 3900.28.0-rel.22+1a80aa0 to Production servers on 16 December 2021. Replaced by version 3900.30.0 on Production on 6 January 2022.

For more information on updates and bug fixes, please visit Behind the Blackboard.

Bb Annotations - Save preferences and settings: Delay for release to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery | Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View, Original Course View, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, and transparency to our users, we’re delaying the Bb Annotations: Save preferences and settings release previously scheduled in tandem with version 3900.28.0 on December 2, 2021. This will now be included in the 3900.30.0 release to client Production sites on January 6, 2022.

Learn SaaS release 3900.28.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

We're releasing an updated version of 3900.28.0 (full release number 3900.28.0-rel.11+732fc84) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, November 30, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Original and Ultra Experiences, the way the system handles an error produced while a document is uploaded again to the Annotation server, changed. Now the Annotation server provides a flag to let the system know when to upload a document again.
In the Original Experience, when students tried to submit files in a group assessment, they got a UI red ribbon error reading “Failed to submit", but they could see the successfully submitted file after refreshing. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.26.0: Update to client Production environments

We're releasing an updated version of 3900.26.0 (full release number 3900.26.0-rel.27+c56b21e) to client Production servers on Thursday, November 25, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Experience, the announcements page wasn't loading in specific cases where announcements contained tables. The logic replacing tables for the text ‘Table with contents’ in the announcement's preview was causing an error and affected the whole announcements panel. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, when students tried to submit files in a group assessment, they got a UI red ribbon error reading 'Failed to submit', but they could see the submitted file after refreshing. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.28.0: Release to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.28.0 | Release to Production 2 December 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We're releasing a new Learn version 3900.28.0 (full release number 3900.28.0-rel.5+d4503d3) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. The details on new features and updates will be published in the corresponding individual feature release notes.

Force completion and timer - 3900.28.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.28.0 | Release to Production 2 December 2021
Original Course View

To ensure a secure testing environment and to support academic honesty and integrity, we have made an important update to the behavior of Force Completion to solve a specific issue found with core student assessments. Prior to 3900.28, the timer and force complete options were not strictly linked such that the Force Completion flow was triggered when a student accessed an in-progress test attempt. To both improve the workflow and resolve an outstanding issue, beginning with the 3900.28 release, we have linked the Timer option and Force Completion capabilities. This change now incorporates 2 updates:

If the student attempts to open an in-progress test in a second window a message opens and informs the student that the assessment is already in progress and there is no option to continue or reopen the same test.
The status of the test in the primary window remains unchanged and continues to progress until the time limit expires and the test auto-submits.

This change impacts only Original course assessments. Third-party remote proctoring solutions are not impacted. The Timer can still be used without Force Completion.

API updates - 3900.28.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.28.0 | Release to Production 2 December 2021
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View, Original Experience

We’ve made some noteworthy API updates:

Ultra Discussion APIs: Management of discussion topics/posts (Ultra only). We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including the management (creating, updating, deleting and grading) of discussion posts in Ultra course.
Adaptive Release API Support: PATCHs, PUTs and DELETEs for Rule APIs and Rule Criteria APIs (Ultra and Original). We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including: the ability to manage the release or visibility of a course content based on timing or student success criteria.

For more information about our REST Public APIs, please explore the Learn API at: https://developer.blackboard.com/portal/displayApi

Highlight on bug fixes - 3900.28.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.28.0 | Release to Production 2 December 2021
Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience, Original Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

Issues with Discussion board and Discussion analysis: Discussion analysis showed no information and the Discussion board visible/hidden menu was too small to use. These issues have been fixed and the UI now behaves as expected, and allows for better working space.
Student assessment answers show "None given" and "saved question 0 multiple times": The access log for assessments displayed confusing and inaccurate messages. The log now displays messages as expected.
Issues with special characters causing erratic behavior: The platform was having issues interpreting some characters, causing special characters to appear in the subject of Original course messages in the global navigation updates, and the “What's New” Module. It also caused inadvertent posting of an announcement and emails sent to users to fail when an ampersand was in the course name. This behavior has been fixed and now works as expected.
Student preview does not work properly on Ultra courses: The 'Reset preview' text box was shown in white over white, which made the message invisible unless the user highlighted it. Also, selecting the 'Reset' button didn't reset the actual coursework for the student preview user. These issues have been fixed by changing the color of the text and correcting the behavior of the 'Reset' button.
Adding LTI option to the questions feedback: To give instructors more tools for providing feedback on student evaluations, the present development makes the LTIs available in the question feedback RTE. The following plugins were enabled in the automatic feedback editor: LTI content, YouTube inserts and Cloud files access.
Spacing issues on Ultra documents - Course restore: The line spacing between a heading and paragraphs was affecting legibility. After resolving the spacing issues for courses that are currently in the database, the issue remained for course documents that were restored in Ultra. The space issue was adjusted and corrected for courses that weren't in the database when the upgrader was executed.

You can view all maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3900.28.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Learn SaaS release 3900.26.0: Release to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.26.0 | Release to Production 4 November 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re releasing an updated version of 3900.26.0 (full release number 3900.26.0-rel.22+4fb8410) to client Production servers on Thursday, November 11, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Course View, when grading discussion boards, the entire discussion thread wasn't appearing. We've fixed the issue (2).
In the Ultra Experience, assessments weren't submitted after students selected 'Submit', cancelling altogether the submission prompt. We've fixed the issue (2).
In the Ultra Experience, multiple options for matching questions weren't supported with voiceOver for IOS phones, and gestures didn't allow a correct interaction with controls or inputs, affecting the experience for IOS users who had voiceOver enabled and tried to select an answer in an exam or quiz. We've fixed the issue (1).
In the Original and Ultra experiences, In a multi node environment, when the administrator changed the Safe HTML policy, it wasn't reflected in the other nodes of the application. We've fixed the issue and now, the Safe HTML policy updated will reflect in all nodes across the application immediately(1).
In the Original Experience, after the latest upgrade on November 4, multiple sites in the APAC, US Central, US Mountain, and US Pacific regions experienced periods of unresponsiveness or degradation, due to a database index that wasn't recreated as part of the 3900.26 upgrade. We've fixed the issue.

For client sites already on 3900.26.0 before November 11 release:
(1) These fixes were deployed on November 4.
(2) These fixes were deployed on November 8.

Learn SaaS releases 3900.26.0 and 3900.28.0: Update on release to client Production and Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.26.0 | Release to Production 4 November 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.28.0 | Release to Production 2 December 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

Due to a critical issue reported in discussion forums during the latest release, we’re performing an unscheduled update today, Monday 8 November, 2021, to the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.26.0 release (full release number 3900.26.0-rel.18+de6a634) to client Production environments in APAC and US Pacific, Mountain, and Central time zones. This update will only apply to production sites which have already been upgraded to 3900.26.0, and won't impact Europe or US Eastern time zones.

The issue addressed in this release is:

In the Ultra Course View, when grading discussion boards, the entire discussion thread wasn't appearing. We've fixed the issue.

As a result of the delay completing the full roll-out of 3900.26.0 to production environments, we will postpone the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.28.0 release to client Test/Stage servers, previously scheduled for Tuesday, November 9, 2021, to Tuesday, November 16, 2021. This new release date aligns with our usual pattern.

The release schedule has been updated to reflect this latter change.

Learn SaaS release 3900.26.0: Release to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.26.0 | Release to Production 4 November 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re releasing an updated version of 3900.26.0 (full release number 3900.26.0-rel.15+621c3b2) to client Production servers on Thursday, November 4, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Experience, multiple options for matching questions weren't supported with voiceOver for IOS phones, and gestures didn't allow a correct interaction with controls or inputs, affecting the experience for IOS users who had voiceOver enabled and tried to select an answer in an exam or quiz. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra experiences, In a multi node environment, when the administrator changed the Safe HTML policy, it wasn't reflected in the other nodes of the application. We've fixed the issue and now, the Safe HTML policy updated will be reflected in all nodes across the application immediately.

Learn SaaS release 3900.26.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.26.0 | Release to Production 4 November 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.26.0 (full release number 3900.26.0-rel.13+180c3aa) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, November 2, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Course View, the Ultra Extension Framework hover events weren't triggered for the new course menu. We've added the analytics hover event for Eesysoft on the new course menu links, and we've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, the Enable/Disable feature, and the Save and Submit buttons weren't behaving properly for assessments that have text questions only. The assessments were enabled in the presence of an answer, but couldn't be disabled when the answer was removed. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, the feature flag progress tracking was removed without making available the toggle for administrators. When announced in the Community site some users requested to recover the feature flag toggle while the administrator flow is completed, and we listened. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, whenever a tab was loaded, individual records for all modules on the accessed page were logged. While on Ultra the impact was negligible, on the Original Experience this could account for between 25% to 75% of data, slowing down the execution of reports for more relevant details. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, some clients were still experiencing overlapping issues on Wiris math formulas after the latest fix we provided. The Stix font family wasn't used when the overlapping happened. We've fixed the issue for formulas created from this point onwards. Formulas created before this fix need to be modified again manually, using the Wiris editor.
In the Original Experience, in the Administrator Panel's Tools and Utilities section, there was a generic label with a broken link. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, when the Learn version was being upgraded on Windows servers, the script that completed the process generated an execution error. We've fixed the issue, and made sure the upgrading process now finishes successfully.
In the Original Experience, when admins copied a course with embedded LTI links within the Rich Text Editor to a new or existing course, those links broke. They were still pointing back to the old course where users of the new course didn't have permissions. We've definitely fixed the issue for both links and embedded LTI calls, but the LTI links in the Original editor created before this release won't copy correctly. They'll have to be recreated.

Learn SaaS release 3900.26.0: Release to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.26.0 | Release to Production 4 November 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We're releasing a new Learn version 3900.26.0 (full release number 3900.26.0-rel.2+6bc051d) to client Test/Stage servers on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. The details on new features and updates will be published in the corresponding individual feature release notes.

Highlight on bug fixes - 3900.26.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.26.0 | Release to Production 4 November 2021
Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

'Needs grading' didn't take effect in Ultra grade journal on 'Grades and Participation' screen: this issue is now fixed and the Needs Grading filter is working as expected.
Unable to rename file in Ultra assignment: when an instructor tries to rename a file added into an Ultra assignment, a pop up titled "Close Without Saving?" appears when the user navigates away from the page. The edit option is there for instructors to be able to rename assignment's files, and it is now working without errors.
When the search box was clear in the gradebook grid view, not all columns were restored: when interacting with the search box, the elements (students(rows) and gradable items (columns)) are filtered. Now when the input is clear (by using the X button or removing the text explicitly with the keyboard), and all elements are restored, meaning no filtering.
Completed Course was not displayed in the vertical message tab for students: this has been fixed. Completed courses are displayed in the messages tab for students.
The number of unread messages was displayed twice on the Japan Language pack: the number of unread messages was displayed twice in the Ultra Base navigation on the Japanese Language. This is now fixed.

Learn SaaS release 3900.23.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.23.0 (full release number 3900.23.0-rel.27+bf491df) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, October 5, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Experience, when instructors sent messages to course users and then marked the course as complete, the unread message count for students wasn't reduced when message was read. We fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, when admins copied a course with embedded LTI links within the Rich Text Editor to a new or existing course, those links broke. They were still pointing back to the old course where users of the new course didn't have permissions. We've fixed the issue, but the links within course copies made before this fix still need to be manually fixed.

Learn SaaS release 3900.21.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.21.0 (full release number 3900.21.0-rel.30+4b0740b) to client Production servers on Thursday, September 30, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Course View, students couldn't access the feedback when selecting the feedback icon in tests that used Respondus LDB, getting a console error instead. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, LTI Contents of Original course in Ultra base navigation calendar were displaying permission errors when selected, preventing users from opening them. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, during the September 16 Production SaaS update, an issue with the deployment configuration management tool prevented log folders and log files from being added and displayed in the Content Management /internal/logs folder. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.23.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.23.0 (full release number 3900.23.0-rel.20+390fc02) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, September 28, 2021.

Updates in this release include internal enhancements and system optimization.

Learn SaaS release 3900.23.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.23.0 (full release number 3900.23.0-rel.19+2fb7fc2) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, September 21, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Course View, students couldn't access the feedback when selecting the feedback icon in tests that used Respondus LDB, getting a console error instead. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, some client Test/Stage instances experienced outages due to an incorrect query during notification cleanup. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, LTI Contents of Original course in Ultra base navigation calendar were displaying permission errors when selected, preventing users from opening them. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Course Views, instructors were required to login again to Learn, after they accessed an LTI tool and selected the Return to Learn button. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.21.0 and 3900.23.0: Update to client Production and Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 2 September 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.21.0 to client Production servers and an updated version of 3900.23.0 to client Test/Stage servers on Friday, September 17, 2021. Full Learn release numbers will not change.

Updates in this release include:

Update to the Ultra UI for iOS 15.

Learn SaaS release 3900.21.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 2 September 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.21.0 (full release number 3900.21.0-rel.28+dd6c7ec) to client Production servers on Thursday, September 16, 2021.

Updates in this release include general internal enhancements and ongoing system optimization.
For Learn SaaS, we also deployed OS Fonts to address some remaining Wiris Math Editor issues on overlapping formulas. We've fixed those issues.

Learn SaaS release 3900.23.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.23.0 (full release number 3900.23.0-rel.11+a845e27) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, September 14, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Original Experience, some clients' SafeHTML policy was overwritten by default after rolling restart took place. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.21.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 2 September 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.21.0 (full release number 3900.21.0-rel.25+75ad05d) to client Production servers on Thursday, September 9, 2021.

Updates in this release include:

In the Ultra Course View, the gradebook wasn't finish loading when courses were using SCORMs with adaptive release. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, instructors couldn't delete uncompleted SCORM package's attempts from students, and the process was producing 405 status codes instead. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, some clients' SafeHTML policy was overwritten by default at irregular intervals, usually after upgrades took place. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, a distribution notification alert processing was causing stability issues and peaking the use of memory for a few clients. We've fixed the issue. Affected sites might still receive some backlog alerts.

API updates - 3900.23.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View, Original Course View

We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including the ability to manage the release or visibility of a course content based on timing or student success criteria:

Adaptive Release API Support: GET and POST methods for Rule APIs and Rule Criteria APIs

For more information about our REST Public APIs, please explore the Learn API at: https://developer.blackboard.com/portal/displayApi

Highlight on bug fixes - 3900.23.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

In the Ultra Course View, when creating assignments with the auto zero set on, any past due standard assignments and basic LTI links are marked with automatic zeros after their due date. However, items deployed using partner cloud were never marked. We've fixed the issue and now the partner cloud and the manual column set the automatic zeros as required.
In the Ultra Course View, in the instructor view, the help bubble icon on a discussion board disappeared once an instructor had created and closed the discussion. When accessing the discussion again, the icon disappeared as well. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, an instructor added a SCORM package to a course content with a grade category TEST/ASSIGNMENT, and then created another test with a release condition based on the performance of the SCORM content. However, the SCORM test didn't appear for students. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, when users tried to add content to a course by selecting the plus sign "+" for adding content, then selecting on "+ Create", a menu on the right was displayed. If the user then selected the 'X' for canceling the action on that menu, the content area didn't refresh properly. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.23.0: Release to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.23.0 | Release to Production 7 October 2021
Original Experience, Original Course View, Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View

We’re releasing a new Learn version 3900.23.0 (full release number 3900.23.0-rel.7+ad745cb) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. The details on new features and updates will be published during the course of that day.

Learn SaaS release 3900.21.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 2 September 2021
Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience, Original Experience

The regular release of 3900.21.0 (full release number 3900.21.0-rel.21+e2c25ca) to client Production servers on Thursday, September 2, 2021 will include some additional updates.

In the Ultra Course View, when a custom language pack was installed, the Ultra gradebook filter panel wouldn’t display. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, new menu icons were missing analytics-Id DOM tags, which caused some third-party integrations to break. We’ve fixed the issue.
During a Learn SaaS upgrade, a few clients experienced outages when a drop constraint command inadvertently locked a table that a certain building block relied on. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.21.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 2 September 2021
Original Experience, Original Course View, Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.21.0 (full release number 3900.21.0-rel.19+e6e7e83) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, August 31, 2021.

Updates on this release include:

In the Ultra Course View, the automatic zero functionality wasn't working for some content items with release conditions that were partially visible within a course. It wasn't working for Ultra courses or Original to Ultra converted courses. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience and Ultra Course View, for course announcements and instructor feedback features, users couldn't use the A/V recording option for Collab in the Rich Text Editor. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Course Views, the Wiris math editor was sometimes displaying overlapped formula symbols, due to an improper font family type setting, making it difficult to read. We've fixed the issue and set a default font family, but please be aware that any formulas currently corrupted need to be manually edited.

Learn SaaS release 3900.19.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.19.0 (full release number 3900.19.0-rel.38+a5c3f13) to client Production servers on Thursday, August 26, 2021.

Updates on this release include:

In the Original and Ultra Experiences, the Telemetry/LDP Export with Snowflake, Blackboard reports and the Consulting Central B2, were failing for some users, who were receiving error messages and a Snowflake exception. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.21.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 2 September 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.21.0 (full release number 3900.21.0-rel.15+3067e88) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, August 24, 2021.

Updates on this release include:

In the Original and Ultra Experiences, the Telemetry/LDP Export with Snowflake, Blackboard reports and the Consulting Central B2, were failing for some users, who were receiving error messages and a Snowflake exception. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, attendance activity in the gradebook was triggering many session spikes affecting the system's capacity. We've made improvements for better performance and fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, instructors weren't able to create math equations for content within courses on alternate domains, unless it's the default domain at the Blackboard configuration properties. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Course Views, users created using a SIS integration were seeing an error page when trying to load the Content Market page. We updated the integration and fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.19.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.19.0 (full release number 3900.19.0-rel.36+070b377) to client Production servers on Thursday, August 19, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Original Course View, instructors weren't able to create math equations for content within courses on alternate domains, unless it's the default domain at the Blackboard configuration properties. We’ve fixed the issue.

Highlight on bug fixes - 3900.21.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.21.0 | Release to Production 2 September 2021
Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience, Original Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

In the Ultra Course View, an instructor attempting to grade an assessment submission with rubrics and then cleaning the rubric with the grading's bar grading pill, was seeing the bar's grading pills empty and colorless, unlike the rubric's grading pill. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, when changing the way students were sorted in the gradebook for a course's discussion, assignment, test or attendance, students were sorted alphabetically by first name instead of being sorted by last name. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, within the Grade Center of a course set as Unavailable, the Last Access column was showing students as if they had accessed the course instead of showing no activity. We've fixed the issue.
In the original Course View, the preview mode for the TinyMCE editor was displaying a grey background. We've updated the editor and made it transparent, for better readability of contents.
In the Original Course View, there was an inconsistency in the TinyMCE editor between edit and display modes for list items regarding their line spacing. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, there were differences of color for certain HTML tags within the TinyMCE editor, between the display and edit modes. We've fixed the issue.
The course cards in Base Navigation now better reflect the access state for students when viewed by instructors. There are several settings that determine whether students can access a course including the availability setting, course duration dates, and term dates. Previously, a course would appear as “private” or “open” depending only on the availability setting and didn’t consider duration or term date restrictions. Now the displayed state of a course card will consider these settings and better reflect students’ ability to access the course.

Ally File Transformer in Blackboard Assist (North America availability)

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Test/Stage and Production 5 August 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience, Base Navigation, and Blackboard App

The Ally File Transformer helps students to personalize their learning experience. It can convert files into alternative formats that better fit their needs, devices, and learning preferences.

Available at no cost with Blackboard Assist enabled. An Ally license is not required.
It converts files to alternative, more accessible formats including HTML, ePub, electronic braille, audio, or BeeLine reader. Also, to a PDF that’s undergone optical character recognition (OCR).
For institutions licensing Ally, the Ally File Transformer allows students to convert their own files, or files they've found via research or project work.
The Ally File Transformer comes automatically with Blackboard Assist. There is an option to turn it off, if preferred, in the Administrator Panel > Partner Cloud Settings.

The Ally File Transformer will be available with Blackboard Assist for Higher Education clients in North America on August 5. Availability for clients outside this region is expected later this year.

Learn SaaS release 3900.19.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021

Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.19.0 (full release number 3900.19.0-rel.31+ccd7094) to client Production servers on Thursday, August 5, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Course View, when a basic assessment was created in a private course and then the course was opened, unintentionally peer notifications were generated for all basic assessments. We've fixed the issue. The fix will cleanup the stream notifications that were incorrectly created.
In the Original Experience, when instructors who are enrolled in very large courses (e.g. more than 10,000 enrollments) accessed the system, or navigated the course's landing page, clients experienced slow or no access. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.19.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021

Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.19.0 (full release number 3900.19.0-rel.27+6b0ef49) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, August 3, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Original Course View, any image in the data picker component (icons, chevrons, etc.) used within courses, always appeared broken. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.19.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021

Original Course View, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.19.0 (full release number 3900.19.0-rel.20+7105532) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Course View, users carrying out a proctored assessment on the latest Chrome versions were redirected to login. By updating the authentication method to use a one-time session token rather than cookies, we allowed proctoring partners to continue with their integration projects. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Content Editor, we’ve fixed issues with the height of the editor window and alignment of content in tables. Clients using custom theme packages may need to refresh their theme package from the default Learn 2016 Theme to get these fixes.
In the Original Experience, a query associated with the disk usage task was consuming CPU time without completing executions. This was affecting performance, especially for Oracle data base clients. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, a text in a table cell remained left aligned even though a different text alignment was specified using the TinyMCE. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, Assist users could have been impacted by the integration not being visible in the base navigation UI. We've removed previous dependencies to allow displaying Assist through the base navigation, and fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.19.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021

Ultra Course View, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.19.0 (full release number 3900.19.0-rel.13+02039cd) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, July 20, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Course View, when making a copy of a course, if quotes were used in custom alt-text descriptions for images, the Ultra assignments and assessments in the course appeared blank. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, when using the REST API for courses copied from a specific template course, due dates for assignments and other activities couldn't be updated. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, some SCORM attempts remained In Progress in the Grade Center, even after a successful completion of the corresponding SCORM quiz. We've worked with our partner to fix the issue and mitigate future problems.
In the Original Experience, some Learn SafeAssign reports couldn't be rendered. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021

Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.51+174af62) to client Production servers on Thursday, July 15, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Experience, when making a copy of a course, if there were quotes used in custom alt-text descriptions for images, the Ultra assignments and assessments in the course appeared blank. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, some instructors and administrators couldn't save their HTML in the new Content Editor despite having the privilege to do so. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, some SCORM attempts remained "In Progress" in the Grade Centre, even after a successful completion of the corresponding SCORM quiz. Rustici identified the potential problem causing the issue. We've made their recommended fixes to mitigate future problems.
In the Original Experience, some Learn SafeAssign reports could not be rendered. Submissions could remain in a "report in progress" status for days. We've fixed the issue.

Original Content Editor: Format consistency between edit and display - 3900.19.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021
Original Experience, Original Course View

The Content Editor for Original Experience and Original Course View was last updated in November 2020 (3900.0.0). Since then, there have been inconsistencies in the way content is formatted when editing content and when viewing it.

With this release, settings like font, size, color, and spacing are more consistent. When existing content is selected, the editor tool bar updates to display its current font, size, and header settings. This creates a better WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) experience.

The CSS changes associated with these improvements could impact clients using custom theme packages. We recommend testing.

CSS in a custom theme package could disrupt the consistency between content edit and display in the Content Editor.
Overly-broad CSS changes in a custom theme package could be applied to the Original Content Editor in unexpected ways. These may need to be corrected in a custom theme package and uploaded to Learn. Alternately, fall back to the default Learn 2016 Theme.
There may be circumstances in which the Content Editor’s styles are preventing custom CSS from presenting. We are planning an enhancement in an upcoming release to include the opportunity to customize the CSS of the Content Editor within the custom theme package.

API updates - 3900.19.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.19.0 | Release to Production 5 August 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We've made some noteworthy API additions, including providing Ultra Discussion APIs for reading both single and collections of discussion topics and posts.

For more information about our Rest Public APIs, please refer to: https://developer.blackboard.com/portal/displayApi

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience and Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.43+eee598e) to some client Production servers on Friday, July 2, 2021. Only GovCloud clients in the US Eastern timezone and other GovCloud clients who could not be updated yesterday will receive the update during evening hours.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Delay for release to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.17.0 release to GovCloud client Production servers in the US East timezone, previously scheduled for Thursday, July 1, 2021.

Also, an issue identified during today's rollout and already corrected, will cause some clients to receive a new, updated release today.

We’ll provide more updates as soon as we’ve identified a new target date.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience

We're applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 to client Production servers on Thursday, July 1, 2021. Due to an issue identified during today’s rollout, clients will receive different build numbers depending on the time their update was performed.

Updates with full release number 3900.17.0-rel.37+505c78f include only:

In the Original Experience, the installer was leaving the SCORM B2 in a corrupted state after an upgrade failure. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, the Rustici Engine required a provider update to fix a library defect and installation snags. We've fixed the issue.

Updates with full release number 3900.17.0-rel.42+b2e6934 include the above fixes as well as:

In the Original Experience, we've implemented an enhancement to reduce the need for heavy load and to avoid system slow down for the loadAllAchievements process.
In the Original Experience, a table lock issue prevented upgrades, leading to some outages. We've fixed the issue.

The next full rollout will include all fixes for everyone.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.31+ea0ceef) to client Test/Stage servers on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Course View, when updating time on conditional availability on assessments, if an instructor selected 'Show On' date too close to the current due time, the date picker reverted the selected date back to the current date, ignoring the instructor's selection. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, for a course running the report All User Activity inside Content Areas, no data was presented on a period where it should be data. Running a different report (e.g. Course activity Overview) for the same course during the same period of time, this last report did present the missing data. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, the Self and Peer Assessment process was presenting a performance issue, due to a data file processing that required improvement. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Course Views, alerts for New Discussion Posts didn't appear in the What's New module for courses, based on term availability. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.15.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience and Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.15.0 (full release number 3900.15.0-rel.33+c15f06f) to client Production servers on Thursday, June 24, 2021. Please remember that the efforts to resolve the SCORM upgrade issues are still ongoing. Clients still running on 3900.13.0 will not be updated this time.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Course View, users with Course Builder roles couldn't create journals or any type of content on Ultra courses. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, course announcements became single paragraphs of unformatted text, after making a copy of a course. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, the function CONTENT_IS_AVAILABLE(), was a potential driver of performance problems for some clients. We made significant improvements, for the benefit of both courses and organizations's users.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, a critical DB performance issue was present whenever a grade refresh occurred. Also, due to a SameSite restriction of the Chrome browser impacting the major workflow of Cengage B2, users weren't able to import contents. We’ve fixed both issues.
In the Original Experience, the Downtime Maintenance Schedule date picker worked as expected only when the en_US language pack was set as the user's language. When using other language packs (e.g. en_UK), and error appeared when selecting a desired date. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS releases 3900.15.0 and 3900.17.0: Update on releases to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re updating the information available regarding the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.15.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 2021:

A maintenance update to client Production environments will take place on Thursday, June 24, to apply high priority fixes.
The efforts to resolve the SCORM upgrade issues are still ongoing. Clients still running on 3900.13.0 will not be updated on June 24.

We aim to update all Production sites to 3900.17.0 on Thursday, July 1. This will include those clients who are currently on 3900.15.0 as well as those who are still on 3900.13.0.

We’ll provide new updates as soon as we have more information.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience and Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.17.0 (full release number 3900.17.0-rel.24+35b8869) to client Test/Stage servers on Friday, June 18, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Original Experience, some building blocks didn’t launch correctly after a libraries' update. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, student preview users couldn’t access journals. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, students couldn’t access assessments with system-generated access codes, as they contained leading zeros or unnecessary commas within. Now the codes are properly generated. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS releases 3900.15.0 and 3900.17.0: Update on release to client Production and Test/Stage environments

We’re updating the information available regarding the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.15.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 2021:

The release remains on hold for clients in the US-East-1 region while continuing to work with Rustici on the SCORM issue. We do not have a target release date yet.
For institutions that have already received Learn SaaS 3900.15: there will be no further production upgrades until the SCORM issue has been resolved.
For institutions that are still using Learn SaaS 3900.13: production upgrade to 3900.15 will not be performed until the SCORM issue has been resolved.

Two issues were identified during the 3900.17.0 release to test/stage on Tuesday. For the benefit of our clients, we're working on a test/stage update, scheduled for Friday, June 18.

We’ll provide new updates as soon as we have more information.

Highlight on bug fixes

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

In the Ultra Course View, manual grade columns were lacking a Post All grades button on the Submissions page. A Post All button is now present there for instructors to use. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, Ultra Courses, Organizations, and Grades pages went blank on Safari, when the zoom was below 100%. Now, the pages display the courses the user is enrolled in. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, the Content Editor wasn't loading randomly. Now, the Content Editor loads in all use cases. We've fixed the issue.

Course Role Mapping to LTI Context Roles

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View, Original Experience and Original Course View

Some third-party integrated tools function better when users’ course roles are more specific to the responsibilities they have in their courses. Before, all privileged course users were sent to LTI tools with the context role instructor. Administrators can now edit course roles and choose from a list of LTI Context Roles that may be more appropriate for each.

Default and custom course roles, Original and Ultra courses, and older LTI 1.1 and newer LTI Advantage/1.3 tools are all supported.

To prevent possible disruption for current users, the old default role behavior wasn't changed. Administrators may wish to review all course role configurations after this release, and choose LTI context roles. Any given LTI context role mapping is specific to a course role and will apply to all LTI tools.

Performance tuning: 1M stack size increment for all SaaS sites

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 1 July 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

SH/MH customers may improve Learn thread’s capabilities, memory wise, by updating the bbconfig.max.stacksize.tomcat property value, within the bb-config.properties file to “1M”. This change will take effect when the instance is restarted and in case threads need the extra piece of memory that is being provided, they will have access to it.

Learn SaaS release 3900.17.0: Delay for release to client Testing environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.17.0 | Release to Production 8 June 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.17.0 release to client Testing servers, previously scheduled for Tuesday, June 8, 2021.

We’ll provide more updates as soon as we’ve identified a new target date.

Learn SaaS release 3900.15.0: Delay for release to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.15.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, June 3, 2021.

Issues have been identified with the SaaS Downtime Maintenance Schedule (impacting INTL admins when the system locale is not en_US), and, for a few clients, a SCORM issue.
The release has been rolled out for most clients.
The release is being held for some clients on the US East Coast.

We’ll provide more updates as soon as we’ve identified a new target date.

Learn SaaS release 3900.15.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 Jun 2021
Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.15.0 (full release number 3900.15.0-rel.17+fc81d0d) to client Production servers on Thursday, June 3, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Original and Ultra Experiences, users couldn’t download files attached to Organization discussion boards. Instead, they were redirected to Learn’s front page. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.13.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.13.0 | Release to Production 6 May 2021
Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.13.0 (full release number 3900.13.0-rel.31+9040981) to client Production servers on Thursday, May 13, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Original Experience, some courses with many milestone achievements with a display in the past, were causing performance issues when loading their contentStatus. We've fixed the issue.

Highlight on bug fixes - 3900.15.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

In the Ultra Experience, when Ultra Stream Notifications were sent to a specific, targeted role, the system announcement was sent correctly to the specific users with that institution role, but the Admin Announcement UI indicated the notification was sent to everyone. causing confusion for admins. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, in tests, the student's browser needed to be refreshed manually in order to show them tests hidden by conditional availability, even after these conditions were met. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra and Original Experiences, there were software updates related to server performance causing customer email alerts: Administrators were receiving Failed to Phone Home emails for software updates on SaaS environments. They will no longer see those emails. Also, as part of this change, the Update Status column has been removed from the Installed Tools page for Building Blocks. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original Experience, after a Learn user had disabled their profile image from view, other users were still able to see it as it remained publicly available. We've fixed the issue.

Reset Signed URL configuration

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 Jun 2021
Original Experience

This feature improves content delivery, accessibility and performance for China users, serving all files via our CDN Servers. The server will auto-configure and set up the user’s session to use or not to use signed URLs during login. Administrators can manually adjust exceptions by contacting Blackboard Support.

Course Auto-Archive performance and efficiency improvements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.15.0 | Release to Production 3 June 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

This improvement fixes known issues causing archive-related instability and implements a safety-net to stop archiving courses that repeatedly fail. It also improves efficiency of auto-archives by adding more sources that the system can store as a reference instead of copying them as file data. Last but not least, it ensures that auto-archives are enabled for all sites as part of each release.

Learn SaaS release 3900.13.0: Update to client Test environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.13.0 | Release to Production 6 May 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.13.0 (full release number 3900.13.0-rel.19+fa9ae0b) to client Test servers on Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Original and Ultra Experiences, for LTI links with the proctoring changes added, the Deep Linking response wasn't handling properly array aud fields. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, Organizations, content items or files created with attachments could not be edited, and the user received an error message when attempting to modify them. We’ve fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, briefly after the Ultra Experience was enabled on their Production environment, admin users were receiving to many emails from [email protected], even from courses they were not enrolled in. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, users were unable to post results for certain groups, getting instead an error message. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.10.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 22 April 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.10.0 (full release number 3900.10.0-rel.36+d29e3aa) to client Production servers on Monday, May 3, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Original and Ultra Experiences, Organizations, content items or files created with attachments could not be edited, and the user received an error message when attempting to modify them. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.10.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 22 April 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.10.0 (full release number 3900.10.0-rel.33+0562ff2) to client Production servers on Thursday, April 29, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Experience, briefly after the Ultra Experience was enabled on their Production environment, admin users were receiving to many emails from [email protected], even from courses they were not enrolled in. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.10.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 22 April 2021
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.10.0 (full release number 3900.10.0-rel.29+3b9a0fc) to client Production servers on Thursday, April 22, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Experience, for mobile users (Instructor App), instructors can normally access Assessments RWD Ultra Screen in preview mode, but in the latest version this screen was rendered in editable mode. We fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, users enrolled with Facilitator role were getting an error message when changing assignment availability in Ultra courses as opposed to be able to change the visibility of the items. We've fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Experience, in large courses with more than 1000 students using discussions, the JVM was running out of memory or presenting performance delays. We've fixed the issue.

Upgrade notifications for administrators

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.13.0 | Release to Production 6 May 2021
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

In the Ultra and Original Experiences, System administrators for Learn deployed in SaaS can opt-in to receive email notifications when an upgrade process starts and completes. This is particularly helpful for SaaS clients who want to be able to communicate with their support teams and user communities, with greater specificity when feature changes are available or bug fixes have been implemented. Users with the full System Administrator role can opt-in at Admin Panel > Notifications > System Alert Settings. Each administrator must opt-in individually to receive emails.

Learn SaaS release 3900.10.0: Delay for release to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 22 April 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.10.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, April 15, 2021, to Thursday, April 22, 2021. No other urgent fixes or security items are scheduled with this release, so we've decided to stay aligned with the regular weekday for Production releases (Thursday).

The release schedule has been updated to reflect this change.

Learn SaaS release 3900.10.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 15 April 2021
Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.10.0 (full release number 3900.10.0-rel.23+d32af8a) to client Test/Staging environments on Tuesday, April 13, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Original Course View, for some instances, when an authorized user attempted to enroll another user in a given course, even from within the course, they received an error message related to the necessary privileges required to perform the enrollment. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.10.0 and 3900.13.0: Delay for release to client Production and Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 15 April 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.13.0 | Release to Test stage 20 April 2021 | Release to Production 6 May 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.10.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, April 8, 2021, to Thursday, April 15, 2021. No other urgent fixes or security items are scheduled with this release, so we've decided to stay aligned with the regular weekday for Production releases (Thursday).

We will also replace the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.12.0 release previously scheduled for Tuesday, April 13, for the 3900.13.0 release to client Test/Stage servers to take place on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. This delay also aligns with our usual pattern, to release a new Test/Stage version the Tuesday after a Production release, allowing us to include additional work in the upcoming May release.

The release schedule has been updated to reflect this change.

Learn SaaS release 3900.10.0 and 3900.12.0: Delay for release to client Production and Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 1 April 2021
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.12.0 | Release to Production 6 May 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.10.0 release to client Production servers, previously scheduled for Thursday, April 1, 2021, to Thursday, April 8, 2021. No other urgent fixes or security items are scheduled with this release, so we've decided to stay aligned with the regular weekday for Production releases (Thursday).

We will also delay the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.12.0 release to client Test/Stage servers, previously scheduled for Tuesday, April 6, 2021, to Tuesday, April 13, 2021. This delay also aligns with our usual pattern, to release a new Test/Stage version the Tuesday after a Production release.

The release schedule has been updated to reflect this change.

Learn SaaS release 3900.8.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.8.0 | Release to Production 4 March 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.8.0 (full release number 3900.8.0-rel.37+0b5fb53) to client Production servers on Thursday, March 18, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Experience, when questions were imported from an Original unit, some of them got randomly and unnecessarily duplicated in the Ultra Question Banks. We've fixed the issue.
In the Original and Ultra Experiences, the Change Hostname option within the Admin authentication SAML settings returned the user to the Admin Panel page instead of changing the host name. We've fixed the issue.

Disable notifications for users with high enrollments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 1 April 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

In both Original and Ultra Course Views, we've improved the timeliness and performance of notifications for all users (including emails, push notifications, Stream, and MyBlackboard) by no longer generating these notifications for users with more than 500 enrollments.

A user with this large volume of course enrollments will still have access to all course resources but won’t receive notifications regardless of their settings.

Typically, users enrolled in so many courses are support staff or instructional designers. We recommend administrators to configure these users to be node administrators instead, with privileges to enroll and unenroll themselves from any course in the appropriate Institutional Hierarchy nodes, and with access to all the courses they may need without enroll them. Enrollment availability or enablement states are not considered for a user to count as to have over 500 enrollment records.

Embed LTI Content in Original Content Editor

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 1 April 2021
Original Experience, Original Course View

In the Original Experience and Original Course View, the ability to support access to third-party content within the Content Editor by the use of LTI is an important milestone for institutions, partners, and tool creators who look to transition from Building Block mashups to the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard from IMS Global. Appropriate LTI course tools will appear for instructors, course builders, teaching assistants, and students in the Add Content menu as additional tools alongside Building Block mashup tools. Two methods are supported: either the tool can add a link in the editor, or if the tool designates that the resource should be embedded, it will be inserted into an iframe in the Content Editor and rendered automatically.

Scripts for Learn SaaS to bulk download course archives

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.10.0 | Release to Production 1 April 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

In order to comply with data retention policies and reduce utilized space, administrators often want to move course archives to another location for longer-term storage. In SaaS, course archives are created automatically, and daily back-ups of course archives are stored in the cloud. We’ve included these scripts written in Python in the Course Settings and Auto Archive Settings pages to allow admins to copy archives locally or to an AWS S3 bucket prior to deleting them from Learn.

Learn SaaS release 3900.8.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.8.0 | Release to Production 4 March 2021
Ultra Course View, Original Experience and Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.8.0 (full release number 3900.8.0-rel.32+30fa709) to client Test/Staging environments on Tuesday, March 2, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Course View, when an instructor is grading with a rubric a student's submission with a very long description in its content, the instructor needed to scroll down in order to see the submission and scroll up to see the rubric. We made this flow more comfortable, so the instructor can now see the submission and the rubric at the same time.
In the Original Course View and the Original Experience, within the Content Editor, a user won't be able to use copy and paste functionalities to transfer images from other sources. The user can include images with the Add Content workflow, as it used to be before version 3900.0. We've made this change to address performance problems that arose with certain large or numerous images. We’ll review whether it's possible to reintroduce this capability in the future.
In the Original Course View, when an XSS filter is applied to sanitize the content for different fields present in the plugin modules section, the fields are sanitized for both trusted and untrusted users as well. This behavior only occurred when a course tool was created via importing a package with the Import Package & Utilities functionality. We fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.6.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.6.0 | Released to Production 4 Feb 2021
Original Experience, Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.6.0 (full release number 3900.6.0-rel.32+4fc1198) to client Production servers on Thursday, February 25, 2021

Updates in this version include:

In the Original Course View and the Original Experience, within the Content Editor, a user won't be able to use copy and paste functionalities to transfer images from other sources. The user can include images with the Add Content workflow, as it used to be before version 3900.0. We've made this change to address performance problems that arose with certain large or numerous images. We’ll review whether it's possible to reintroduce this capability in the future.

Learn SaaS release 3900.8.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.8.0 | Release to Production 4 March 2021
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.8.0 (full release number 3900.8.0-rel.28+7eb0c69) to client Test/Staging environments on Tuesday, February 23, 2021.

Updates in this version include:

In the Ultra Course View, in Assignments, Assessments and Journals, when a student inserted a math formula image it was replaced with a broken image and ALT text and the instructor couldn't see it properly in order to grade the submission. We fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, when copied from an Original course, incompatible discussion board availability settings were retained, blocking access to current students. We fixed the issue.
In the Ultra Course View, when feedback was about to be recorded for an Assignment using Chrome, a misleading error message appeared instead of the expected recording controls and prevented the user to continue. We fixed the issue.
In the Original Course View, students were unable to view iframe content in the Notes area for Contacts, Tasks and Glossary posted by their instructor including YouTube and Kaltura uploaded content. We fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.8.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.8.0 | Release to Production 4 March 2021
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3900.8.0 (full release number 3900.8.0-rel.19+5f99a51) to client Test/Stage servers on Friday, February 12, 2021

Updates in this version include:

Some Test/Stage environments encountered a deadlock during startup and couldn’t be upgraded. We’ve reverted the changes made while we gather the required diagnostic information to implement a permanent solution.
In the Ultra and Original Course Views, in Mobile, course messages had duplicated content in their push notifications and appeared encoded and unreadable to users. We’ve reverted the changes made while we verify a permanent solution.
In the Ultra Course View, in Mobile, course messages' push notifications were sent to sender users. We’ve fixed the issue (updated).
In the Original Course View, the Goal Performance Dashboard was failing on SaaS Servers for certain reports. We've fixed the issue.

Localize EMAIL and SMS notification messages to user's preferred language

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.8.0 | Release to Production 4 March 2021
Ultra Experience and Original Experience

In both Ultra and Original Experiences, system notification emails were always sent in the SYSTEM DEFAULT language. Now, system notifications sent by email and SMS will be sent in the USER’s chosen language instead. This aligns Learn with our goal to provide individual choice wherever possible. Users continue to have control over their notification types and modalities in their notification settings.

Course archive quarantine

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.6.0 | Release to Production 4 February 2021
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

We’ve improved the performance of the course archives process when an archive fails due to specific, particular circumstances.

After three unsuccessful archive attempts, the course will be quarantined for evaluation. Administrators will receive an email notification that a course has been quarantined. Once the email notification is received, the administrator can check the quarantined courses list and reach out to Blackboard Support for further assistance, similar to the process for an export course issue.

A notification will be sent to the administrator every time a new course enters quarantine.
The functionality is enabled by default. To disable it, the system administrator should contact Blackboard Support.

Learn SaaS release 3900.4.0: Addition to client Production release

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.4.0 | Release to Production 7 January 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

The scheduled Production release of 3900.4.0 (full release number 3900.4.0-rel.20+93e130c) during off-hours on Thursday, January 7, 2021 includes one additional update.

Client credentials bearer tokens didn't grant access to Learn when using Applications with Premium API Access enabled. We fixed the issue.

API updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.4.0 | Release to Production 7 January 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including:

Added an endpoint that separates child courses from their set parents so that API users can now undo parent/child course relationships via APIs.

Building block self-service

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.4.0 | Release to Production 7 January 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

With this release, SaaS administrators can now install and uninstall building blocks on their SaaS instance without depending on Blackboard Support. This change gives our clients the flexibility of managing their own installations instead of waiting for the Support team. Administrators can install and uninstall building blocks in Admin Panel > Building Blocks > Installed Tools. Installation and removal of a building block will trigger an automated rolling restart. No additional action is needed from the administrator.

Blackboard understands this is an exciting update for our clients. It is worth pointing out that we continue to expand our REST APIs as well as deepening our LTI support. It's important to note that a combination of REST API/LTI is preferred to ensure integration support in the Ultra experience. REST APIs/LTI are the modern standard that SaaS companies use when interfacing with their systems. More and more of our partners are developing towards REST APIs/LTI, and we continue to look forward to the time where our REST API/LTI framework is robust enough to handle all use cases that building blocks currently support.

End of SOAP Web Services capabilities

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.4.0 | Release to Production 7 January 2021
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

Blackboard SOAP Web Services were officially deprecated on January 4, 2019 (see the original announcement).

As of December 31, 2020, Blackboard Learn SOAP Web Services are no longer supported, as they have reached the end of life per our deprecation policy.

In February 2021, we will update the Proxy Tools and Web Services System Administrator pages with the removal of links for Registering new Proxy Tools, Creating new Web Services, and accessing SOAP Web Services documentation and development tools.

The removal of these links does not disable the use of currently installed Proxy Tools or Web Services.

While SOAP may continue to work for your institution, any issues or concerns regarding SOAP will not be addressed by Blackboard other than the recommendation of moving to REST APIs.

Full removal of SOAP Web Services capabilities is planned for the May 2021 and future releases. Note that this plan is subject to change, and that SOAP Web Service capabilities may not be removed until a later release.