Release Notes for Learn SaaS
This page contains features and updates currently on Learn SaaS Test/Stage and Production environments. Visit Archived SaaS Release Notes to see features and updates in older versions. Visit In-Product Updates to learn more about in-product updates.
Filter the list of features to learn more.
More on Learn with the SaaS Deployment | Export the list of Known Issues | Access the latest API and database documentation | Blackboard Learn SaaS release notes archive | Learn Releases White Paper
Looking for Blackboard Learn 9.1 release notes?
Follow this page to get email updates when we publish new release notes
View the SaaS release schedule
Learn SaaS release 3900.69.0
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.69.0
Release to Test/Stage: Tuesday, 6 June 2023 | Release to Production: Thursday, 6 July 2023
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
Original Course View, Ultra Course View
For full feature details please review the corresponding notes for the Learn 3900.69.0 version included below on this page. Details can also be found soon on Behind the Blackboard.
Latest release: 3900.69.0-rel.7+99730ca to Test/Stage servers to take place on 6 Jun 2023.
For more information on updates and bug fixes, please visit Behind the Blackboard.
Learn SaaS release 3900.67.0
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.67.0
Release to Test/Stage: Tuesday, 9 May 2023 | Release to Production: Thursday, 1 June 2023
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
Original Course View, Ultra Course View
For full feature details please review the corresponding notes for the Learn 3900.67.0 version included below on this page. Details can also be found Behind the Blackboard.
Latest release: 3900.67.0-rel.25+fc2d438 to Production servers to take place on 1 Jun 2023.
For more information on updates and bug fixes, please visit Behind the Blackboard.
July 2023 – 3900.69 Release
The July 2023 - 3900.69 release is replete with features in six areas:
- Assessment and grading;
- Richer course and content;
- Data and analytics;
- Mobile app;
- Integration, extension, and management; and
- Course upgrading
These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Some features do require administrative action.
Instructors:
- Partial and negative credit improvements for the Multiple Choice / Multiple Select question type
- Tab navigation for Assessments
- Add exceptions for anonymously graded assessments
- Exceptions panel updates
- Delete Grade Schemas
- File deletion in the course also removes the file from the Content Collection
- Manage Course Duration in Course Settings Panel
- Import Instructure Canvas course packages
- Improved flattening logic
Instructors and students:
- Formative label and Gradebook filter
- Complete/incomplete grade schema
- Send reminders to non-submitters for anonymously graded assessments
Students:
- Start, Continue, and View Assessment options and file submission updates
- Progress Tracking and Start / Continue / Completed options for Learning Modules
All users:
- Resizing media
- Improvements to the Grades landing page
- Manage Messages at institutional level
- Self-enroll for Ultra Courses and Organizations
Administrators:
Mobile App
Improvements to the Grades landing page – 3900.69
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra and Original Experience
Impact: All users
Mobile app users can now select the sorting criteria for their grades. Users can sort grades as follows:
- course order
- last activity (most recent grade posted)
- due date (latest or oldest first)
These sort options allow users to customize the Grades landing page to suit their preferences.
Images 1 and 2: Users may order their grades based on Course Order, Last Activity or the Due Date
For administrators: This feature is available for all users of the Mobile App. No action is needed from users who have enabled automatic updates on their devices. Users who have disabled automatic updates on their devices must download the update.
Import Instructure Canvas course packages – 3900.69
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Instructors, Administrators
An instructor may move between institutions or teach at more than one place. That could mean the instructor has course packages they built in Instructure Canvas. Some institutions adopting Blackboard Learn Ultra are moving over from Canvas.
Now instructors and administrators can import Canvas packages directly in Learn courses. This can save significant time preparing a course for teaching in Learn. Canvas packages can be imported into either Learn Original or Learn Ultra courses by users with course import privileges.
All course import and restore workflows support Canvas packages:
- Course import in an Ultra course
- Course import in an Original course
- Administrator course import
- Administrator course restore—only course contents will be imported with this action, user data is not restored
Canvas exports courses in a proprietary format. This proprietary format shares elements with the interoperable standard Common Cartridge. For example, both have the file extension .imscc. When importing a package with this file extension, Learn will automatically determine if a package should be processed as a Common Cartridge package or a proprietary Canvas package.
Note: Course structure and tools differ between Canvas and Learn. After import, instructors or course designers should review all contents and settings. This is to adjust the content so is suited for use in Learn. Not all course elements are converted.
Image 1: Import Canvas packages using the standard course content import tools
For administrators: This feature is available only in Learn SaaS environments. It works with both Original and Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed, but only users with privileges to import course packages can use the feature. If you need to convert many courses in bulk, Anthology Product Support can assist with this request. Due to a dependency on a web service, the feature will start to function a few days after release.
Instructure and Canvas are registered trademarks of Instructure, Inc.
REST APIs to read Rubrics Evaluations – 3900.69
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Administrators
With the Rubric Evaluations Public API, users can now retrieve comprehensive data on student attempts that were graded using a rubric. The Rubric Evaluations Public API includes three new GET endpoints:
- Retrieve Rubric Evaluations from a Student Attempt: This endpoint allows users to retrieve detailed rubric evaluations from a specific student attempt.
- Retrieve All Rubric Evaluations from a Rubric Association: This endpoint provides users with the ability to retrieve all rubric evaluations associated with a particular rubric.
- Retrieve a Single Rubric Evaluation with Cell Expansion: This endpoint enables users to retrieve a single rubric evaluation while having the flexibility to expand its cells.
This new API showcases our commitment to empowering educators and institutions with advanced assessment capabilities.
For administrators: The REST integration user must have the entitlement “Course/Organization Control Panel (Grade Center) > Full Control” to make use of the new endpoints.
LTI Tool Dynamic Registration – 3900.69
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Impact: Administrators
LTI Advantage, including LTI 1.3, is a standard for integrating tools into learning environments. This standard from 1EdTech is based on the highly secure three-legged OAuth2 method. This security method requires a secured key registration process and supports key rotation. For Blackboard Learn, this key registration and rotation procedure is managed in the Anthology Developer Portal.
Tool providers can register their applications in the Developer Portal so that clients don’t have to. This lets the tool provider define things like icons and tool placements in Blackboard Learn, saving administrators time. This is Anthology’s preferred LTI tool adoption workflow because it reduces the burden on administrators.
Some tool providers require adopting clients to register applications themselves and manually configure all aspects of the tool in both the Anthology Developer Portal and in Blackboard Learn. This is usually because they don’t support multiple deployments for a single application as they are defined in the LTI specification. There are many steps to this registration process.
Recently the LTI standards committee defined a new service called LTI Dynamic Registration. This helps tools and learning platforms simplify the registration process in an interoperable way. The Anthology Developer Portal now supports this standard. For tools that support this standard but require administrators to register the application themselves, this will reduce the number of steps to configure the LTI tool.
Learn administrators given a registration URL should add the application in the Developer Portal using the Dynamic Registration option. After this step, the administrator should complete any other steps as required by the tool provider.
Image 1: An administrator or developer chooses to add a new application using Dynamic Registration
Image 2: An administrator or developer enters the tool registration URL
June 2023 – 3900.67 Release
The June 2023 - 3900.67 release is robust with features in six areas:
- Assessment and grading;
- Richer course and content;
- Data and analytics;
- Communication and social engagement;
- Integration, extension, and management; and
- Course upgrading
These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Some features do require administrative action.
Features with this icon are controlled by a client facing feature flag:
Instructors:
- Add Exemptions for Anonymous Assessments
- Add Exceptions from Gradebook Grid View and Student Overview page
- ‘Base calculation on points earned out of total graded points’ support for Custom Calculations
- Upload questions from a file to tests
- Support for anonymous grading of tests
- Journals Grades & Participation list filters
Instructors and students:
- Course Links improvements
- Announcements in the top navigation
- Course Term display logic improvements
Students:
All users:
Administrators:
Original Course View: Improved Assignment Submission page – 3900.67
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Original Course View
Impact: Students
Students submitting an Assignment in Original Course View have several possible actions. They can upload files, author a submission, and attach a note to their instructor. Previously, these actions could be confusing for students. The option to add comments always displayed. The option to author a submission required selecting a button that was easy to miss.
We redesigned the Assignment submission page to be less confusing and easier for students to use.
Students have three distinct actions they can take. Each section can be opened independently. Students can open more than one. The page will retain added content when a student closes a section.
- Create Submission
- Upload Files
- Add Comments
All Assignment information has been grouped together:
- Due date
- Points possible
- Grading rubric
- Group membership and update statuses
- SafeAssign disclosure
Image 1. The new student Assignment submission page has three sections: instructions, submission, and assignment information
Image 2. The “Create Submission” section opened
Image 3. The “Upload Files” section opened
For administrators: This feature is available for all Original courses. There are no configurations needed.
Integration, Extension, and Management
Prevent passwords exposed in data breaches – 3900.67
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Impact: All users allowed to change passwords in Learn
Some institutions use an identity provider, such as Azure Active Directory, to authenticate users. Others manage passwords within Learn. In recent releases, we have prioritized improvements to the security of passwords managed in Learn.
Now institutions can also restrict users from selecting passwords exposed in a data breach. This is an important security measure since passwords like "123456," "qwerty," or "password123" are frequently targeted by hackers.
When a user attempts to change their password within Learn, we check it against a global database of breached passwords. If the chosen password is among passwords in the database, we notify the user and require them to select a different password. This helps to ensure that users' passwords are strong and secure, reducing the likelihood of unauthorized access to their account.
Image 1. A user is informed that their proposed password was exposed in a security breach
Image 2. An administrator configures the exposed password protection policy
For administrators: For most institutions, this feature is off by default. It must be enabled by an administrator.
For United States government clients in FedRAMP boundaries: This feature is on by default. If your compliance boundary changes, you should confirm your configuration.
Managed privilege to view System Roles – 3900.67
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Administrators, Developers
Developers create applications that expand the functionality of Blackboard Learn. Some of these apps integrate using REST APIs. Administrators manage the privileges for integrated apps. As a best practice, an integration should only have the minimum privileges necessary to function.
In the past, if an integration needed to read System Role information, the integration user had to be set as a full System Administrator. Now administrators can configure an integration user with fewer privileges and still grant access to view System Role information.
In the System Role privileges manager, administrators can now grant a new privilege called Administrator Panel (Users) > System Roles. No System Roles have this privilege by default. An Administrator must always grant the privilege to any System Role. It isn’t possible to grant this privilege to a Course Role.
For administrators: This feature is available for all Learn environments. There are no configurations needed at the administrator level. To improve security, admins should reduce privileges for a REST application if System Administrator privileges were granted previously as a workaround.
Looking for older release notes?
Check out the Blackboard Learn Release Notes Archive for more information on past releases.
