This information applies only to the Ultra experience.
The up-to-the-minute activity stream captures all the action in your courses.
You can see what's new in all your courses and jump directly into course activities from the list! You don't need to dig through the system or miss submissions from students. You see a prioritized list of what's relevant to you.
- Follow latest posts on graded discussions as they happen. Posts on discussions that aren't graded are not visible.
- Take note of how many submissions are ready to grade. You can also access new submissions from the stream.
- Receive reminders about personal events and meetings.
- Enjoy a bird's eye view of course activity and direct access to course items.
- Filter your view. Use the Filter menu and choose Show All, Assignments and Tests or Grades and Feedback.
We've combined many notification features to help you find the targeted information you need. Over time, our system will get even smarter and help you understand which items are most time-sensitive or critical.
Your institution controls the page you visit first after you log in.
Video: Activity Stream
Watch a video about the activity stream
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: Activity Stream shows how to access the activity stream and which items appear.
Activity stream categories
Activity stream items are grouped into four categories to make the list easier to scan:
Important: Students see overdue assignments, tests, and graded discussions that need their immediate attention. The number of items in this section makes up the count shown by Activity Stream in the list where your name appears. If you dismiss an item in this section, you won't be able to view it again even if you sign out and sign in again. When you dismiss a stream item, the original content isn't affected. You just remove the notification from the activity stream.
Upcoming: View your top five events that will happen in the next seven days. Select Show More for a complete list. This section doesn't appear if you don't have upcoming events.
Today: See everything happening and due in the next 24 hours, including institution-wide announcements about emergency notifications and updates. If you added course announcements, they appear here or in the Recent section for students.
Recent: If you haven't checked in for a bit, view stream items that were previously in the Today section over the last seven days. Students always see reminders about overdue work in the Important section.
Notification Settings panel
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.
The notification system is always on in the Ultra experience. 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 your institution has a Blackboard Connect account you can receive SMS text messages on your mobile phone. Simply add a phone number to your profile page. Then choose how often and which activities you want to receive notifications for.
Your institution needs a Blackboard Connect account to use SMS notifications. Contact Blackboard Support if you need assistance.
- 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 Blackboard Instructor installed.
