Release Notes for Learn SaaS - 2023
Learn SaaS release 3900.78.0
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.78.0
Release to Test/Stage: Tuesday, 10 October 2023 | Release to Production: Thursday, 2 November 2023
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
Original Course View, Ultra Course View
For full feature details please review the corresponding notes for the Learn 3900.78.0 version included below on this page. Details can also be found on Behind the Blackboard.
Latest release: 3900.78.0-rel.23+5efc216 to Production servers to take place on 30 November 2023.
For more information on updates and bug fixes, please visit Behind the Blackboard.
November 2023 – 3900.78 Release
The November 2023 - 3900.78 release contains features and improvements in eight (8) areas:
- Instructional design;
- Tests and assignments;
- Communication and collaboration;
- Flexible grading;
- Gradebook;
- Integrations;
- Learn core and security; and
- Upgrade to Ultra
These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Some features do require administrative action.
Instructors:
- Matching question updates: partial credit auto-distribution and other updates
- Tab navigation for Journals
- Anonymous grading in Flexible Grading view
- Grading optimization for file-based Assignment submissions in Flexible Grading
- Edit/Regrade in Questions view
- Sorting controls for Student Name, Overall Grade, Assessments, and Manual Columns in grid view
- Gradebook grid view performance improvements
- Canvas conversion improvements: Support for equations
Instructors and students:
Students:
All users:
Administrators:
- Data state management from Administrator Panel
- Multiple LTI Deployments
- Content management: Blank page handler supported via REST API
- Institutional Hierarchy: Move child nodes to new parent node via REST API
- Calendar REST API: Enable non-3LO users to manage personal, course/organization, and institution calendars
Instructional Design
Image insertion option for Ultra Documents, Journals, Discussions, Assessment attempts, and Course Messages – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors, Students
Images play an important role in a student's education experience. Images help to enhance comprehension of and engagement with course content. To help instructors more easily identify high-quality images, we have added a new image button in the content editor in the following places:
- Ultra Documents
- Journal prompts
- Discussions
- Course Messages
Image 1. Instructor view - New image button on content editor for Ultra Documents
When selected, the instructor has the following options:
- Upload an image through selection or drag and drop
- Select a royalty-free, high-quality image from Unsplash.
- Generate images using AI (initially, only for Ultra documents)
Image 2. Instructor view - Image source options
Students can also access the new image button on the content editor in the following areas:
- Discussion responses
- Assessments and test question inputs
- Course Messages
Image 3. Student view - New image button on content editor for discussion response
Image 4. Student view – Drag and drop or upload an image file
After selecting the image, instructors and students can reposition the focus and zoom of the image. There's also an option to alter the aspect ratio of the image.
Image 5. Modify the zoom and focus of the image; set the aspect ratio.
Users can rename the image. It is important always to consider the accessibility of course content. The user should mark the image as decorative or provide suitable alternative text.
Instructors can also set the view and download file options for the image. After the image is inserted, the user can resize the image.
For administrators: The "Stock images from Unsplash" and "Generate images" options only appear for instructors when each tool is on. Select Building Blocks from the Administrator Panel, then select Installed Tools. Locate "AI Design Assistant and Unsplash" and select Settings from the drop-down. The default state is off. You must also activate privileges. Assign the following privileges for the appropriate Course Roles (e.g., Instructor):
- Search for images using Unsplash.
- Use AI features.
Tests & Assignments
Matching question updates: partial credit auto-distribution and other updates – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
Matching questions are useful for testing a student's skill in making accurate connections between related concepts. This question type also checks students' understanding in a structured format.
To reward students who show partial understanding, some instructors wish to award partial and/or negative credit for matching questions.
In the past, instructors selected a scoring option:
- allow partial credit,
- all or nothing,
- subtract points for incorrect matches, but question score can't be negative
- or allow negative question scores.
These options were exclusive and, at times, created confusion for instructors. We removed these options.
Now, partial and negative credit is turned on by default. We auto-distribute partial credit as a percentage across the matching pairs. The auto-distribution of credit saves instructors time. Instructors can edit the partial credit values if needed to grant some pairs more or less credit. Values for partial credit must sum to 100%.
If desired, instructors may also specify a negative credit percentage to any pair. Negative credit is only assessed when applied and when a student mismatches a pair. If desired, instructors may choose to allow an overall negative score for the question.
We also made a few other improvements to this question:
- We re-worded the question construction guidance and moved it to an info bubble.
- In the past, the "reuse an answer" and "delete pair" options were behind the three-dot menu. Now, these options appear on the right side of the answer for each pair.
- Before reused answers appeared as "Reused answer from pair #" in the answer field. Now, the answer itself is displayed in the answer field. "Reused answer" appears beneath the answer for the pair.
- We renamed "Additional answers" to "Distractors."
Image 1. Before – Matching question
Image 2. After - Matching question
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.
Late submission indicator in submission receipts – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Students
Students lead busy lives and sometimes submit assessments late. Some instructors and institutions use penalties or deduct points for late submissions. Based on direct feedback from instructors, we added a new ‘late indicator’ to the submission receipt. This indicator is present only if a student submits the assessment late.
Students can view the late submission indicator in:
- the confirmation modal displayed upon a successful submission,
- the downloaded version of the submission receipt, and
- the emailed submission confirmation.
Image 1. Student assessment submission receipt confirmation with ‘late’ indicator
Image 2. Late submission indicator in downloaded submission receipt
Image 3. Late submission indicator in email submission confirmation
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.
Communication & Collaboration
Tab navigation for Journals – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
To improve navigation for journals, we have introduced a new tab navigation. Now, instructors can switch between the Journal and the Participation page. When an instructor sets up a journal for grading, the Participation is replaced by Grades & Participation. This update improves the usability of the journal. It also provides consistency of navigation with discussions and assessments.
Image 1. Tab navigation for a graded journal
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.
Flexible Grading
Anonymous Grading in Flexible Grading view – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
Instructors can reduce grading bias for high-stakes assessments by enabling anonymous grading. Many consider it an important grading approach.
Anonymous grading is now available in the new Flexible Grading experience. Instructors can now complete the following tasks and actions:
- Grade test and assignment submissions by student
- Filter on grading status of choice
- Navigate between students and multiple submission attempts
- Keep track of grading progress
- View both the attempt- and the final grade for each assessment
- Provide meaningful feedback, with or without a rubric
- Grade inline using Blackboard Annotate
- Collapse side panels to view more of the student submission
- Show an originality score if SafeAssign is used
We plan to support anonymous grading for tests by question in a future release.
Image 1. Instructor uses a rubric to grade an anonymous submission
For administrators: This feature is available in Ultra Experience Management and is "On" by default to ensure the Flexible Grading interface is available to users. You can turn off the Flexible Grading interface by setting this feature to "Off."
Grading optimization for file-based Assignment submissions in Flexible Grading – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
Some instructors design assignments that require students to attach one or more files.
In the past, if a student attached multiple files to their assignment submission, the Bb Annotate inline grader displayed for each submitted file. This behavior introduced usability issues:
- It was difficult for the instructor to know how many files the student had submitted easily.
- Multiple stacked Bb Annotate instances, one for each attachment. This caused multiple scroll bars on the grading page, making navigation difficult.
Now, when grading file-based submissions, a tabbed interface appears. The first tab displays the assessment instructions. After that, there is one tab for each submitted file. The first attached file displays by default.
This new tab-based navigation has several benefits:
- More of the student submission is visible to the grader without scrolling.
- Navigating file-based submissions is more transparent and easy by removing multiple scroll bars.
- The option to download the student-submitted file(s) is more apparent.
- The number of files the student attached to their submission is clear.
- Graders can switch between the assessment instructions and the submitted file(s).
- Graders can easily navigate across the submitted files.
Image 1. A submission with two files attached, with the first file attachment is open in Bb Annotate
Image 2. Tab navigation supports switching between the assessment content and attachments
For administrators: This feature is available in Ultra Experience Management and is "On" by default to ensure the Flexible Grading interface is available to users. You can turn off the Flexible Grading interface by setting this feature to "Off."
Edit/Regrade in Questions view – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
Instructors may spot a mistake in a test question when grading a test submission. For example, instructors may have found a typo, chosen a wrong answer, or want to adjust points.
In the past, the "Edit/Regrade Questions" option was only available when grading submissions by "Student." Now, instructors can also access the Edit/Regrade workflow when grading by question.
Image 1. Instructor view - Edit/Regrade option when grading a test by question
Image 2. Instructor view - editing a question using the Edit/Regrade option
For administrators: This feature is available in Ultra Experience Management and is "On" by default to ensure the Flexible Grading interface is available to users. You can turn off the Flexible Grading interface by setting this feature to "Off."
Gradebook
Sorting controls for Student Name, Overall Grade, Assessments, and Manual Columns in grid view – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
Sorting options in the gradebook provide a more efficient grading experience.
Now instructors can sort the following gradebook grid view columns:
- Student Name
- Overall Grade
- Tests and Assignments
- Manual columns
Instructors can sort records in ascending or descending and remove any applied sorting. A purple highlight in the column header helps instructors identify where sorting is applied.
Any sorting applied yields a temporary change to the sort order of all columns in the gradebook grid view.
Image 1. Sorting an assessment in the grid view with filters applied
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses.
A new configuration option called "Grid view record sorting" has been added to the Ultra configuration page in the Administrator Panel. The default state is "On." Administrators can opt out of using the sorting controls by setting the option to "Off."
Gradebook grid view performance improvements– 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
Some instructors prefer to work in the gradebook grid view. To improve the user experience, we made several improvements to this view. These improvements address overall performance and reduce the load time.
Performance tested scenarios:
- 25K student enrollments and 400 gradable items:
Load time reduced from 108 s (about 2 minutes) to 14s (87% performance improvement) - 2000 student enrollments and 400 gradable items:
Load time reduced from 19s to 8s (57% performance improvement) - 40 students and 400 gradable items:
Load time reduced from 8s to 6.8s (14.75% performance improvement)
For administrators: These improvements are available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.
Integrations
Data state management from Administrator Panel – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience and Original Experience
Impact: Administrators
Related topic: Data Source Key Overview
In the past, the York DSK tool allowed users to change record row status and the data source key for records. This was helpful because users could make these changes without using the SIS Framework or REST API calls.
Now, users can change data integration one at a time or in bulk in the LMS. This functionality is critical since the York DSK tool is no longer available.
Learn administrators can change the Data Source Key and enable or disable by bulk the following items:
- Users
- Courses
- Organizations
- Enrollments
Users with permission can modify the data source key or change the status from the administrator panel by selecting the “Integration” button
Image 1. Change Row Status or Data Source Key by batch
Image 2. Data Source Key by item
Each time the administrator changes the row status or data source key, the administrator is asked to confirm the change.
Image 3. Confirmation of change to row status or data source
When the administrator disables a user, course, or enrollment, no changes are applied to it. The administrator needs to enable the item first so that changes can be made.
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra and Original courses/organizations, users, and enrollments' administrator pages. There are no configurations needed.
Multiple LTI Deployments – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience and Original Experience
Ultra Course View and Original Course View
Impact: Administrators
Related topic: Managing LTIs
Some instructors like to integrate content tools so they have more options in their courses. Institutions can integrate third-party tools through LTI. Blackboard Learn had a model of one deployment of a tool to a single domain. Administrators managed that single domain when a tool provider was registered.
Now, administrators can register third-party integrations. After that, they can create multiple deployments of the same tool. These deployments create unique deployment IDs for managing different access credentials. Institutions can now license multiple versions of the same third-party tool. This provides benefits allowing integration for distinct parts of an organization.
Image 1. The Manage Deployments option in tool provider menus
Administrators can assign Deployments IDs to nodes based on the organization hierarchy and its integrations.
Image 2. Create a Deployment ID
After submitting the form, the new deployment IDs display on the “Manage Deployments” page.
Image 3. Deployment ID created
Multiple LTI Deployments are available for item creation for course content. LTI links can be added to the course content page. This implementation applies to deep linking and cloud documents. We are planning support for multiple LTI deployments for Books and Tools and the content editor in an upcoming release.
This implementation will be available for LTI 1.3 Tools.
For administrators: This feature is available for System Administrator and System Support. There are no configurations needed.
Content management: Blank page handler supported via REST API – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Original Experience
Original Course View
Impact: Administrators
Related topic: Learn APIs
The blank page content type is a versatile tool. With this tool, educators can create engaging and interactive teaching materials. In Original courses, the blank page can incorporate files, images, and text as links. But we had no supported integration with REST APIs, creating inefficiencies in content management.
Now, users create and organize blank pages directly from the Content REST API. We have added support for the blank page handler (resource/x-bb-blankpage). This streamlines the content management process.
Users can perform the following content operations using the blank page handler:
- GET for the following endpoints:
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}/attachments
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}/attachments/{attachmentId}
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}/attachments/{attachmentId}/download
- POST for the following endpoints:
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}/children
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}/attachments
- PATCH for the following endpoints:
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}
- DELETE for the following endpoints:
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}
- /learn/api/public/v1/courses/{courseId}/contents/{contentId}/attachments/{attachmentId}
For administrators: The required entitlements for Content API remain unchanged.
Institutional Hierarchy: Move child nodes to a new parent node via REST API – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Administrators
Related topic: Learn APIs
Institutional hierarchy is a valuable tool for some institutions. It provides a framework that reflects the institution's structure. This helps administrators to manage schools, departments, or academic programs in Learn.
We have improved the hierarchy management experience in Institutional Hierarchy. Users can move a child node to a new parent node via REST API.
Now, users can restructure their institutional hierarchy using the following endpoint:
- PATCH /public/v1/institutionalHierarchy/nodes/{nodeId}
This feature helps users streamline the organization of courses, organizations, and users.
For administrators: Nodes cannot be moved into themselves, their child node, or parent nodes. The required entitlements for Course Content API remain unchanged.
Calendar REST API: Enable non-3LO users to manage personal, course/organization, and institution calendars – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Administrators
Related topic: Learn APIs
Calendars play a vital role in helping users manage academic schedules and deadlines. With calendar integration, users gain greater control and flexibility in managing their events.
In the past, the Three-Legged OAuth (3LO) access rule caused limitations. This affected users who wanted to integrate external calendaring systems with Blackboard Learn. It was also difficult to develop integrations via API that synchronize calendar events.
Now, with the latest enhancements for Calendar API, non-3LO users can:
- retrieve
- create
- update, and
- delete calendar events in Learn.
Moreover, users can integrate external calendar systems with the Learn Calendars. This includes Personal, Course/Organization, and System calendars.
For administrators: To use the endpoints, the REST integration user must have full calendar privileges. To enable integration with Learn calendars, users do not have to be enrolled in a course. When users attempt to create a Course Schedule or Office Hours event, course membership will be checked for that event type.
Learn Core & Security
Accessibility link before and after authentication – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Impact: All users
Related topic: Accessibility Overview
In the past, when clients turned on the Base Navigation, there was no link to the accessibility information. Now, all users can access the accessibility link for Blackboard Learn on the login page and anytime after logging in. The links direct users to our Help Center. On the Help site, users can find the following information about the accessibility statement, standard, and information needed to best navigate key features of Blackboard Learn Ultra:
- Accessibility statement
- Accessibility standards in use
- Navigating key features and tools using assistive technologies
On the default login page, the Accessibility link appears below the login area. After logging in, the Accessibility link appears at the bottom of the Base Navigation menu.
Image 1. The link for accessibility information on the login page
Image 2. The link for accessibility information in the Base Navigation after logging in
Legacy Navigation already includes an accessibility disclosure link on the login page. There is no change with this release.
For administrators: This feature is available for all environments with Base Navigation enabled. If a custom login page is used, it may be necessary to update it. The updated login page template can be downloaded in “Admin Panel > Brands.” Create or edit a brand and select the button "Download Template."
Self-enrollment via URL – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: All users
Related topic: Enroll Users
Self-enrollment empowers learners and provides them with control over their educational journey. Self-enrollment also streamlines administrative tasks for instructors and learning administrators.
Now, users can self-enroll in Ultra courses through the course URL. Instructors can copy the course URL and share it with anyone they'd like to invite to enroll. Link recipients select the link, which takes them to the self-enrollment page. From there, students can join the course.
Image 1. Self-enrollment page when user selects a link to access a course where self-enroll is turned on
Administrators must select the self-enroll option for courses before instructors share the course URL. Administrators may also select the "require access code to enroll" option as desired.
Image 2. Self-enrollment page for a course that has the “require access code to enroll” setting applied
For administrators: This feature is available for Ultra courses that have the self-enrollment option selected. Administrators may select this setting when creating or editing a course.
Upgrade to Ultra
Canvas conversion improvements: Support for equations – 3900.78
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Instructors
The Canvas Learning Management System provides instructors with a LaTeX Math Editor. The Math Editor is accessible from the content editor. Instructors can use the Math Editor to create equations and expressions.
Image 1. The Math Editor in Canvas
In the past, equations created using the Math Editor in Canvas did not convert. We have updated conversion so that equations from Canvas are now preserved. Instructors no longer need to rebuild equations when converting a course from Canvas.
For administrators: This feature is available for all Original and Ultra courses. There are no additional configurations needed.
