Release Notes for Learn SaaS

Learn SaaS release 3900.58.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.58.0
Release to Test/Stage: Tuesday, 10 January 2023 | Release to Production: Thursday, 2 February 2023
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

For full feature details please review the corresponding notes for the Learn 3900.58.0 version included below on this page. Details can also be found on Behind the Blackboard.

Latest release: 3900.58.0-rel.21+cb60724 to Test/Stage servers to take place on 24 January 2023.

For more information on updates and bug fixes, please visit Behind the Blackboard.

Learn SaaS release 3900.56.0

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.56.0
Release to Test/Stage: Tuesday, 6 December 2022 | Release to Production: Thursday, 5 January 2023
Original Experience, Ultra Experience
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

For full feature details please review the corresponding notes for the Learn 3900.56.0 version included below on this page. Details can also be found on Behind the Blackboard.

Latest release: 3900.56.0-rel.31+e33c6d6 to Production servers to take place on 26 January 2023.

For more information on updates and bug fixes, please visit Behind the Blackboard.

February 2023 – 3900.58 Release

The February 2023 - 3900.58 release is robust with features in five areas:

• assessment and grading;
• data and analytics;
• groups;
• mobile app; and
• integration, extension, and management.

These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Some features do require administrative action.

Instructors:

• Technical Preview: Improved attempt switching when grading student submissions with multiple attempts
• Gradebook List View – Gradable items sorting
• Progress Tracking: visibility filters for the Student Progress tab

Instructors and students:

• Exemptions
• Extra credit questions in assessments
• Hot spot question type – polygon shapes
• Show Course Group Members
• Progress Tracking: Ally alternative format views count towards progress
• Attendance tool available in GovCloud

Students:

• Student Gradebook record sorting

All users:

• Mobile App: User Profile Card

Administrators:

• Login As
• Course Auto-Archive Retention Policy Change
• Retain third-party app icons defined in the Developer Portal

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Attendance tool available in GovCloud – 3900.58

Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course Viw
Original Experience, Original Course View
Impact: Instructors, Students

Attendance can be an important factor in determining a student’s level of participation. Sometimes this is used for part of a student’s grade. Previously, the Attendance tool was unavailable to United States government clients hosted in GovCloud. Now government clients can enable this tool.

For each class meeting, instructors can mark whether a student is present, late, absent, or excused. The attendance records for each student appear in a single column next to other grades. On the Attendance page, profile pictures appear. The profile pictures help instructors identify students. Instructors can use attendance as part of grade calculations the same as assignment grade columns.

Image 1. An instructor accessing the Attendance tool in Ultra Course View

Image 2. An instructor accessing the Attendance tool in the Original Course View Control Panel

Image 3. An instructor marks attendance for today’s class session

For administrators: The Attendance tool is not verified for use under FedRAMP certification. If you comply with that security standard, you might choose not to adopt Attendance. In GovCloud, the Attendance tool is off by default. An administrator must enable it with these steps:

- Go to Admin Panel > Building Blocks > Installed Tools.
- In the context menu for Attendance, choose “Set Available.”
- Accept the notice about FedRAMP compliance.
- Go to Admin Panel > Tools.
- Enable Attendance for courses and organizations as appropriate.

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January 2023 – 3900.56 Release

The January 2023 - 3900.56 release is complete with features in five areas:

• assessment and grading;
• richer course and content design;
• mobile app;
• integration, extension, and management; and
• course upgrading;

These improvements primarily impact instructors and students. Some features do require administrative action.

Instructors:

• See and edit grades for anonymous submissions prior to posting
• Essay Question Model Answer
• Non-posted grades included in Grade History
• Test Question and Page Randomization
• Progress Tracking: Status and filters for group submissions
• Original Course View: “Needs Grading” flow kept when AWS auto-scales
• User Interface Improvement-Microsoft OneDrive Integration
• Course Upgrading: Convert Test Passwords to Passcodes
• Course Upgrading: Remove Unsupported Text Colors
• Course Upgrading: Preserve Text Sizes
• Base Navigation: Activity Stream New Submission link improvement
• Bb Annotate: Create categories inside the content library
• Assist banner update

Instructors and students:

• Show icons for Third-Party app content (LTI) in Gradebook and Grades
• Discussions – No Activity After Due Date
• Improvements to Messages recipient types by course role

All users:

• Expand and Collapse Course Faculty, Details & Actions, and Course Content sections
• Custom HTML/CSS content blocks in Institution Pages
• Base Navigation: Visibility controls for the Course and Organization Catalog; Hide Organizations tab

Other - Support roles:

• Privileges: Support role can now access Course Content page without progress setting privilege

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Bb Annotate

Bb Annotate: Create categories inside the content library - 3900.56

Blackboard Learn SaaS
Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View
Original Experience, Original Course View
Impact: Instructors

Creating and reusing comments is a useful practice for instructors. When using Bb Annotate, instructors can use the content library to store comments across courses. Now instructors can also organize comments into categories. Categories helps instructors find the comments they want to use. The process of providing student is more efficient with the new option. Existing comments will be part of a general comments category until instructors decide to move them to a new one.

Now instructors will be able to:

• Create as many categories as needed
• Move comments to new or existing categories
• Collapse or expand the categories to easily locate the comments

For administrators:This feature is available for all Ultra courses. There are no configurations needed.

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Original Course View: “Needs Grading” retains tasks when AWS auto-scales – 3900.56

Blackboard Learn SaaS, Learn 9.1
Original Experience
Original Course View
Impact: Instructors

Because Learn SaaS is in the cloud, the application scales on demand. When more users are on Learn, the cloud provides more resources. In the past in Original Course View, this cloud scaling could disrupt instructors grading student work. Instructors navigating to their next task in “needs grading” would see an error.

Now instructors can navigate to their next task even when the application scales. In some cases, instructors can’t return to completed tasks. If this happens, instructors receive clear instructions to return to the Grade Center where they can review these submissions.

For administrators: There are no configurations needed. 

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