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.