About notification settings
If you see a list where your name appears, your courses appear in the Ultra experience. The notification system is always on.
On your activity stream's Notification Settings panel, you can choose which notifications you receive about activity in all your Original and Ultra courses:
- Activity stream: Choose which activities appear on your Stream page.
- Email: If you want to receive email notifications, add an email address to your profile page. Then, choose how often and which activities you want to receive notifications for.
- SMS: If you want to receive SMS text messages on your mobile phone, add a phone number to your profile page. Then, choose how often and which activities you want to receive notifications for.
- Push notifications: If you want to receive push notifications, choose how often and which activities you want to receive notifications for. Messages pop up on your mobile device if you have the Blackboard Instructor mobile app installed.
Video: Notifications for Instructors
Watch a video about notifications
The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.
Video: Notification Settings shows how to set your notification options.
Choose how and when you get notifications
You can choose the types of notifications you receive and how they're delivered to you.
On your Activity Stream page, select the Stream Settings icon to open the Notification Settings panel. You can also access these settings from your profile page.
Stream notifications
You can control which activity appears in your stream. Select the Stream Notification Settings tab to open the panel.
Notifications for due dates and items ready to grade always appear in your stream.
Choose which notifications you receive about activity in all your Original and Ultra courses:
- Institution announcements
- Course announcements
- New content
- Assessment added
- Content added
- New gradable items
- New courses available
- Grades need reconciliation
- Student performance alerts
- Students who are participating or may need help
- Compare students' grades with their activity levels
- Number of students falling behind
- Number of students falling behind and absent
- Number of students falling behind and failing
- Number of students falling behind, absent, and failing
- New discussion
- New calendar event
- New course or organization
- Blog activity
- Blog entry posted
- Blog entry edited
- Blog comment posted
- Journal activity
- Journal entry posted
- Journal entry edited
- Journal comment posted
- Wiki activity
- Wiki page created
- Wiki page edited
- Wiki comment posted
You can choose to receive all or some notifications of a certain type. A checkmark appears when you select all notifications. A dash appears when you select some notifications.
Email notifications
Select the Email Notification Settings tab to open the panel.
If you haven't added an email address to your Profile page, you won't see any options in the Email Notification Settings tab.
Organization activities won’t trigger email notifications.
Choose how often you want to receive emails for activities in all your courses:
- Email me right away: Receive individual notifications for each activity you choose from the list.
- Email me once a day: All notifications are collected and sent once a day at a time set by your institution.
In the Notify me by email about these activities list, choose which notifications you want to receive:
- New gradable items
- New messages
- New discussion messages
- New content added
- New and upcoming due dates
- Past due items
- New courses available
Clear all the check boxes if you don't want to receive emails about the activities in the list.
| Course Activity | Course View |
|---|---|
| New gradable items | Assignments and tests need grading |
| New messages | Yes |
| New discussion messages | Sent in daily email only |
| New content added | Assignments and tests added Content items added |
| New and upcoming due dates Sent when an assessment is made available and 24 hours before the due date Also, sent when you create a manually added item with a due date |
Assignments and tests due Items due: Manually added items in your gradebook |
| Past due items | Past due assignments and tests |
| New courses available | Yes |
Restored courses
When one of your course packages is restored, you'll receive an email that details the number of new items. Select the link to go to your course.
SMS notifications
Select the SMS Notification Settings tab to open the panel.
If you haven't added a phone number to your profile page, you won't see any options in the SMS Notification Settings tab.
Organization activities won’t trigger SMS notifications.
In the Notify me by SMS about these activities list, choose which notifications you want to receive:
- New gradable items
- New messages
Clear all the check boxes if you don't want to receive SMS text messages about the activities in the list.
| Course Activity | Course View |
|---|---|
| New gradable items | Assignments and tests need grading |
| New messages | Yes |
Push notifications
Push notifications are sent to a mobile device where you have the Blackboard Instructor app installed. You can manage which push notifications are sent to your mobile device in these ways:
- Blackboard on the web: Log in to Blackboard on a web browser and navigate to your Activity Stream. Select the Stream Settings icon. From the Notification Settings panel, select the Push Notification Settings tab.
- Blackboard Instructor app: In the app's main menu, tap Settings. Manage push notifications in the app.
Choose which push notifications you want to receive for activity in your courses:
- New content and discussions added
- New discussion replies
