Instructional Design
Content Designer: Enhanced Documents – 3900.98
Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience
Ultra Course View
Impact: Instructors
Related Topic: Create Documents
Content design is key to creating an engaging course that supports learner needs. The Document feature is a useful option for creating and presenting a variety of visual elements. We have made significant enhancements to Documents to provide new and robust options for content design. Instructors will be delighted that all enhancements work beautifully using a mouse, trackpad, or the keyboard. All enhancements are mobile friendly for instructors and students.
We've removed the option to generate questions from Documents. Generating questions from within a test using the context picker in the AI Design Assistant is the preferred method.
Image 1. Enhanced Document with diverse content laid out in rows and columns
Image 2. Empty Document with block options
Instructors can now design Documents by selecting from a variety of block types.
- Content block
Add content via the content editor. - HTML block
Add content via HTML or CSS in the Document.
An administrator must configure an alternate domain for the HTML block to appear. Learn more about setting up an alternate domain.
- File upload block
Browse for files on the local machine to upload to the Document.
Note: Administrators can define the maximum size of a file that users can upload. - Cloud upload block
Login to a cloud service and select a file to add into the Document. - Content Collection block
Browse the Content Collection and select a file to add to the Document. - Convert a file block
Browse for files on the local machine. Once selected, the system converts the file into the Document format. Supported file types include PDF, PowerPoint (ppt, pptx, pps), and Word (doc, docx, odt).
In this release, the option to convert a file is only available in the main authoring space. In the Add Content panel (the + menu), the option to convert a file doesn’t appear. We'll correct this in an upcoming release.
Instructors can also open the left panel by selecting the + and choosing the desired block.
Image 3. Empty Document with the blocks panel opened
Document menu bar
To provide greater efficiency when designing content, we added a menu bar to Documents. The menu bar remains in view as the instructor scrolls the Document to view, add, or edit content. The menu bar contains the Edit option when in the view state. After selecting Edit, the menu bar displays the following options:
- Edit
- Add Blocks
- Undo/Redo
- Cancel
- Save
Image 4. Add blocks from the left panel or select the purple + to add a block as a row
Resizing and moving blocks
Instructors can create appealing layouts by resizing and dragging/dropping blocks into columns and rows.
- Each row includes a menu with options to move or delete the block.
- Each block includes a menu with options to edit, move, or resize, or delete the block.
Image 5. Move, expand, and shrink options via keyboard controls
New LTI placements via the Content Market option in the content editor aren't yet supported in enhanced Documents. Pre-existing placements continue to function as expected. We are working to add this feature. We will update you soon.
For administrators: This feature is available for all Ultra courses. A new configuration option is on the Ultra configuration page in the Administrator Panel: “Enable support for customizing Ultra document layouts.” The default state is on. This option will be available until December 2024. At that time, we will remove the configuration option and enhanced Documents will be default.
The 3900.98 release will begin updating on production sites on Thursday, Aug. 8 in the US morning as usual. The Content Designer: Documents option will not appear as configuration setting for administrators in the Administrator Panel and enhanced Documents will not be available in courses. We will enable the Content Designer: Documents feature on Monday, Aug. 12 at 9 am ET. At this time, the administrator setting will display in the configuration options and will be ON by default, but administrators can toggle it off.
This option can be toggled on or off. Be mindful of potential impacts to content created with or modified by enhanced options if you turn this option off.