Release Notes 2020

Learn SaaS release 3900.2.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.2.0 (full release number 3900.2.0-rel.34+4ad580a) to client Production environments on Thursday, December 17, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, the Question Analysis report for tests presented incorrect results at some institutions. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, some students didn’t have permission to access a group assignment. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, the Link to Wiki page option was missing from the new Content Editor experience. You can now find it under the Add content dialog. Learn more about linking to other wiki pages.

Learn SaaS release 3900.2.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.2.0 (full release number 3900.2.0-rel.31+0a50fe3) to client Production environments on Thursday, December 10 and Friday, December 11, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• If HTML content written by instructors or administrators referenced hosted content served from an alternate domain, the iframe didn’t load properly. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, test questions linked from a question pool had a difficulty score of 0% regardless of how students answered. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.2.0: Partial delay for update to Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re partially delaying the regular maintenance update to Blackboard Learn SaaS 3900.2.0 Production environments, previously scheduled for Thursday, December 10, 2020.

• Production environments aligned to Europe and US Eastern time zones will be updated as usual on Thursday, December 10, 2020.
• Production environments aligned to Asia-Pacific, US Central, US Mountain, and US Pacific time zones will be updated on Friday, December 11, 2020.

Learn SaaS release 3900.2.0: Addition to client Production release

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

The scheduled Production release of 3900.2.0 (full release number 3900.2.0-rel.27+70f5845) during off-hours on Thursday, December 3, 2020 includes two additional updates.

• When an LTI gradable item with a deep link response was copied, the copy wasn't gradable. We fixed the issue.

• In the Ultra Course View, some students didn't see the feedback their instructor added to their journal. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.2.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.2.0 (full release number 3900.2.0-rel.25+e0228f9) to client test/stage servers on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, when an instructor edited response feedback to a test question, the content editor loaded after a 2-second delay. We’ve fixed the issue.

• When an institution had the same entityID configured in their IDP and SP metadata, SAML authentication failed and users couldn’t log in. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.2.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.2.0 (full release number 3900.2.0-rel.20+e43df0f) to client test/stage servers on Tuesday, November 24, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• The download button for the Insight Report (Beta) for administrators wouldn't respond or create a CSV. We've fixed the issue.

• When restoring a merged course from an archive, Learn only restored the parent course and not its child course(s). We've fixed the issue.

• A few institutions that use the Consulting Central B2 for Blackboard Assist saw slow performance and some downtime in Learn. We've fixed the issue.

• Existing and newly created web links in Library modules were throwing an error when clicked. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.0.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.0.0 (full release number 3900.0.0-rel.60+0c79e9e) to client Production servers during off-hours on Monday, November 23, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• A few institutions that use the Consulting Central B2 for Blackboard Assist saw slow performance and some downtime in Learn. We’ve fixed the issue.

Annotate comment enhancement

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery | Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

Now, instructors can create multiple comments in Bb Annotate without needing to select the comment tool for every comment they add.

The comment tool will get de-selected if an instructor scrolls through the document, but once they fit the document to the screen, the comment tool will stay selected.

Bb Annotate enhancements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery | Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

Starting on Tuesday, November 24th, PDF files will be flattened for the BbAnnotate preview when uploaded for an assignment. On PDFs, text comment annotations made prior to submission will appear as yellow boxes in the document and will not be movable or collapsible. Drawings, pictures, shapes, and other annotations that are not comments will appear normally and also won't be movable after flattening.

When the file is flattened, students can also see their drawable annotations made with iPad or Microsoft Surface pens on PDF preview before the professor grades it. Currently students cannot see annotations until after professor grades it, which can cause confusion about whether the file appears correctly.

This enhancement is an additional security layer in BbAnnotate to prevent forgeable re-submissions of professor annotations. It also resolves an issue where iPad annotations (APStreams) weren’t appearing on annotated PDFs.

This change only affects PDFs submitted in the future. Previously uploaded files (including files with iPad annotations) will render as they have been.

Learn SaaS release 3900.0.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View, Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.0.0 (full release number 3900.0.0-rel.57+59c5f28) to client Production servers during off-hours on Wednesday, November 18, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• When an instructor copied a journal from one Ultra course to another, all journals from the first course were copied to the second. We’ve fixed the issue.

• In the Ultra Course View, some Collaborate sessions didn’t appear in the Join Session overflow menu. We’ve fixed the issue.

• In the Original Course View, response feedback for the Grade Questions feature of the Grade Center was missing the new content editor, and text entered into the box there wouldn’t save. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Unannotated Box documents wouldn’t load in Bb Annotate. We’ve fixed the issue.

• The download button for the Insight Report (Beta) for administrators wouldn’t respond or create a CSV. We’ve fixed the issue.

• When restoring a merged course from an archive, Learn only restored the parent course and not its child course(s). We’ve fixed the issue.

• When a Redis connection failed, Learn didn't attempt to reconnect, so users had to manually retry their task. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.2.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View, Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.2.0 (full release number 3900.2.0-rel.11+071cf8e) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• When an instructor copied a journal from one Ultra course to another, all journals from the first course were copied to the second. We’ve fixed the issue.

• In the Ultra Course View, some Collaborate sessions didn’t appear in the Join Session overflow menu. We’ve fixed the issue.

• In the Original Course View, response feedback for the Grade Questions feature of the Grade Center was missing the new content editor, and text entered into the box there wouldn’t save. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Unannotated Box documents wouldn’t load in Blackboard Annotate. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Ally wouldn’t work in Learn when alternative domains were enabled. We’ve fixed the issue.

• When a Redis connection failed, Learn didn't attempt to reconnect, so users had to manually retry their task. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Final automatic archive files created after a course was deleted didn’t include enrolled user data. We’ve fixed the issue.

• After an upgrade, some institutions had to manually uninstall and reinstall their Authentication Provider SAML building block because of a Postgres installation problem. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.0.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View, Ultra Experience, Original Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.0.0 (full release number 3900.0.0-rel.46+e0d1a9b) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, November 12, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• When an instructor copied a journal from one Ultra course to another, all journals from the first course were copied to the second. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Unannotated Box documents wouldn’t load in Bb Annotate. We’ve fixed the issue.

• SAML logins intermittently failed on one app server at a time for a small number of institutions. We’ve fixed the issue.

Custom HTML/CSS code blocks in Ultra course documents

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, instructors can create, edit, and delete custom HTML/CSS code blocks in Ultra course documents. Instructors can select Add HTML when creating a document to add their own HTML and CSS and fully customize the appearance of their Ultra course documents.

We've added this capability without compromising the Ultra design aesthetics (i.e., content will be fully responsive and accessible). We’ve also added a new entitlement to support greater security and flexibility for institutions to allow granular permissions to specific roles.

Students will see what the instructors created or edited, but they will not be able to create, edit, or delete any of the HTML/CSS blocks. 

In an effort to support more enhanced security and to maintain the responsiveness of the Ultra Experience, we're leveraging an existing solution in Learn to support this capability. If you already have an alternate domain configured, your instructors will see the Add HTML option in Ultra Course View documents. If you don't have an alternate domain configured, we have you covered! We're in the process of automating an alternate domain for all clients, and should have that work completed later in the year. You can submit a support ticket to request access to this feature now.

Fixed issues

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

The bug fixes in this Learn release include:

• When D2L course content was imported into an Ultra course, document heading formatting was lost. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In an Ultra course, when a user not enrolled creates a discussion, the system throws an error when a student tries to access it: “Oops! Something broke. Please reload the page.” Now, the discussion board opens without error.
• In the Ultra Course View, students couldn’t navigate to the next course content item from a discussion board post if conditional availability was set. We’ve fixed the issue.
• The Course List / My Courses module was missing from the main Courses tab on the Institution Pages during the upgrade process. We’ve fixed the issue.
• When an instructor exported a single question pool with a special character from the Original Course View, the pool wouldn’t import as a question bank to an Ultra course. We’ve fixed the issue.

You can view all maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3900.2.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

LTI tool availability by institutional hierarchy

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

Administrators can now manage the availability of third-party LTI tools according to their institutional hierarchy, similar to how they can with Building Block tools. Administrators can control availability of tools by department or course in Admin Panel > Institutional Hierarchy. Original Course View courses continue to allow instructors to override the availability state of tools if allowed. Tool availability in Ultra Course View courses is always managed by the administrator. The options when managing LTI tool availability settings have been updated to reflect these differences.

Student list view improvements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View

This release includes additional improvements for student list view in the Ultra gradebook that we added based on feedback we’ve had from instructors. New functionalities include:

• Administrators can configure whether students’ usernames are visible to instructors if they need to differentiate students. This capability is available for institutions that choose to hide usernames for privacy considerations and when instructors still need to be able to see them, particularly in courses with very large enrollment numbers. Administrators need to enable this permission for a role in Admin Panel > System Roles > Show username even when hidden from other users.

• Instructors will receive additional search capabilities, column sorting options, and enhanced page controls for both large and small devices.

Ultra feedback timing controls

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, Learn Ultra now allows instructors to further promote test fairness and discourage academic dishonesty. Instructors can enable more granular controls on when and what type of feedback is given to students when taking an assessment. Instructors can set up timed release to automated question feedback, correct answers, and question scores. They can also select when to show feedback: after submission, after due date, at a specific date, or after the assessment is graded. Students will see if and when feedback will be available for a specific assessment after they submit an attempt.

Ultra journals enhancements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.2.0 | Release to Production 3 December 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, we’ve added the highly-anticipated participation and submission views to Ultra journals. Importantly, participation view can now support over 1,000 students at once. Instructors can clearly see when students post new journals and comments, and can view a single submission. Instructors can also use Ultra’s grading tools, including feedback and rubrics, to create and post grades. To allow instructors more varied access, both participation and submission views link to the gradebook. By default, students will be allowed to delete and edit their journal entries and comments, but instructors can also now choose to disable this permission.

Learn SaaS release 3900.0.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.0.0 (full release number 3900.0.0-rel.42+47a7c9a) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• When D2L course content was imported into an Ultra course, document heading formatting was lost. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Some Ultra tests that use Respondus LockDown Browser added extra time permitted to the test time limit automatically, instead of presenting as two different time totals. We’ve fixed the issue.

• If an Ultra test had a set time limit and then was set to require Respondus LockDown Browser, the time limit was removed. We’ve fixed the issue.

• When Ultra discussion boards were copied from a different course and Include only the forums, with no starter posts was selected, members of the destination course could only see the discussion name and couldn’t edit or reply to the discussion. We’ve fixed the issue.

• When an Original course was converted to Ultra Course View, unlinked journals were retained and slowed course content copying. We’ve fixed the issue.

• In the Original Course View, if the Content Collection Availability was set to “No,” administrators couldn’t browse the Content Collection to restore a course from automatic archives. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Institutions that use the Redis Cache Building Block couldn’t connect to the Redis service during high traffic periods. We’ve fixed the issue.

Blackboard Chatbot for Learn

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We’re excited to announce the first availability of Blackboard Chatbot in Learn. Blackboard Chatbot is a free tool offered in Blackboard Learn that will be automatically available to SaaS higher education clients in North America who have enabled the Ultra Base Navigation. It launches beginning on November 5, with the 3900.0.0 Learn SaaS production release. Some institutions may not see Chatbot in Learn until November 6.

Seamlessly integrated into Ultra Base Navigation and Ultra courses, Blackboard Chatbot provides always-on support. It returns answers to students' commonly asked Learn questions and issues directly from Blackboard Help. For this initial release, Blackboard Chatbot is available only in English.

To access Blackboard Chatbot, select the help icon in the bottom right. Then select Chat Support to open the Chatbot panel. Students can ask Blackboard Chatbot their questions or select from a pre-populated list. Chatbot uses machine learning to better serve your learners over time.

Blackboard Chatbot will be on by default, but administrators can manage its availability.

For more details about Blackboard Chatbot for Learn, visit the Community site

Learn SaaS release 3900.0.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.0.0 (full release number 3900.0.0-rel.28+4af3c58) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, October 27, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Based on user feedback, we’ve removed the blue background from course-related icons in the large icon update for Ultra Course View and base navigation.

• In the Original Course View, some students could access private journal entries written by other students. Also, additional students couldn't post after the first student responded to the journal prompt. We’ve fixed the issue.

• When Learn SaaS environments were updated, Original course and organization menus reverted to the default and customizations had to be reapplied. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.19.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.19.0 (full release number 3800.19.0-rel.54+54663c8) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, October 22, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Some Learn environments that use the Partner Cloud Building Block had problems with content sync. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3900.0.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3900.0.0 (full release number 3900.0.0-rel.18+41e3877) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, October 20, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View with the Spanish language pack, a grade calculation in the Ultra gradebook was incorrectly labeled as NaN. We’ve fixed the issue.

• Some Learn environments that use the Partner Cloud Building Block had problems with content sync. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.19.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.19.0 (full release number 3800.19.0-rel.51+4456ac1) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, October 15, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• We've integrated Xythos Service Packs 20 and 21, which introduce internal improvements to the content system.

• The verbosity level of new log nodes reverted to the default initial value instead of matching the level set in Log Settings. We've fixed the issue.

Assist

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As students re-engage in their disrupted educational experience, they'll need student services more than ever. At some institutions, these services will be virtual for the first time. Blackboard Assist is a student success hub for campus and online resources, available on your desktop or from anywhere with the Blackboard mobile app. Assist elevates campus and online resources, building awareness so students always find what they need.

Assist supports your educational continuity plans with institutional, Blackboard-sourced, and partner-provided solutions. Institutions can create and feature profiles of their existing services to appear in Assist. Assist also provides access to partner services: curated, high-quality providers offering scalable, virtual solutions to meet student needs. Administrators can manage available partner services that best benefit their students.

Assist will be available in Learn SaaS for higher education institutions in the Original Experience, the Ultra Experience, and the Blackboard app. At this time, it won't be available for K12, corporate, and government clients.

We encourage you to start planning the services you would promote in Assist, connecting with the offices that manage your student services including academic and financial assistance, health and wellness, housing and food security, and student life.

In future releases, Assist will adapt to users and offer personalized recommendations in places of learning such as in courses, the gradebook, and the activity stream.

More on Assist for students

More on Assist for instructors

More on Assist for administrators

Visit the Community site for more details and guides you can use to share information on Assist

Content editor updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience

This release introduces big updates to the content editor in the Original Course View and the Original experience. We’ve made numerous simplifications and improvements, including:

• A single menu to add content that automatically recognizes file types

• Optimized experience for all devices and screen sizes

• Better accessibility for both the editor and the content you create. Menus and icons have higher contrast, pop-ups are gone, and an accessibility checker lets you know about accessibility issues as you write

• The ability to paste content from Word, Excel, and websites with basic formatting and easily remove extra HTML

• The ability to paste a link in the editor and automatically embed videos and previews

• The ability to display formatted computer code snippets

Institutions using custom language packs created for older versions of Learn have found they may need to update their language packs for the editor to work properly.

More on the Original content editor for students 

Visit the Community site for more details and guides you can use to share the changes at your institution

API updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including:

• Institutions and partners can now provide students direct, deep links to specific Learn course content from their own portal or tool.

Visit the Developer site for full REST API documentation.

Blog performance

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Original Course View

In very large classes, performance is one of our top concerns. We’ve received feedback that including all students in the blog and journal view filter created slow loading times. To improve this performance, we’ve changed the view filter to display only those course members who have completed participation in the blog or journal activity. Non-participants are not displayed. For graded blogs or journals, instructors can display non-participants in the Grade Center.

Details & Actions items load together

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, items in the Details & Actions section of the Ultra Course View will now load in a single wave. This change will prevent students and instructors from selecting the wrong item as the page loads.

Embed Office 365 documents

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View

In this release, students and instructors can embed Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files as well as Microsoft Stream videos from SharePoint into the rich text editor in the Ultra Course View. This option is only available with enterprise versions of Office 365.

Gradebook student list view improvements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View

This release introduces several improvements and new functionality for student list view in the Ultra gradebook.

• Instructors can send messages and add accommodations for a student within both the student list view and the grade details view
• Instructors can set up activity stream alerts about student inactivity and grade thresholds for themselves and their students. If their course contains enough activity and grading data, they can also see a detailed visualization of class performance.

Maintenance items

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3900.0.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Large icon updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience

In this release, you’ll see new large icons in the Ultra experience. We made these changes to our icons to improve accessibility and differentiation for all users.

• Like the small icon update earlier this year, the new icons have a thicker stroke to improve accessibility.
• The new icons are more distinctive to avoid confusion between similar icons and to better support quick scanning. 

Show seconds in quiz timer

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, students will know how much time they have left down to the last second when they take a quiz in the Ultra Course View. The quiz timer will change from minutes to seconds when less than 1 minute remains.

Show/hide overall grade column

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3900.0.0 | Release to Production 5 November 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, instructors can choose whether to show or hide overall grades to their students in the Ultra Course View.

Learn SaaS release 3800.19.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.19.0 (full release number 3800.19.0-rel.42+e227a86) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, October 8, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Emailed course announcements in both the Original and Ultra Course Views now include both the course name and the title of the announcement in the email subject.

• The calculated grade snapshot information didn't update correctly in courses that use the Telemetry B2. We've fixed the issue.

• Learn environments ran out of memory when archiving courses with large volumes of activity accumulator records. We've fixed the issue.

• In the Ultra Course View, students couldn’t navigate to the next course content item from a discussion board post if conditional availability was set. We’ve fixed the issue.

• In the Ultra Course View, users who had system permission to create materials but were not enrolled in a course couldn’t add permanent files to a course. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.19.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.19.0 (full release number 3800.19.0-rel.35+878ad8e) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, some users couldn't join Collaborate sessions with their course links. We've fixed the issue.

• Emailed course announcements in both the Original and Ultra Course Views now include both the course name and the title of the announcement in the email subject.

• The calculated grade snapshot information didn't update correctly in courses that use the Telemetry B2. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.19.0: Addition to client Production release

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Ultra Course View

The scheduled Production release of 3800.19.0 (full release number 3800.19.0-rel.33+a603588) during off-hours on Thursday, October 1, 2020 includes an additional update.

• In the Ultra Course View, some users couldn't join Collaborate sessions with their course links. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.19.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.19.0 (full release number 3800.19.0-rel.32+99f4ccd) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, September 29, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• We’ve added unique login counts for the previous 30, 90, and 180 days to the Learn Insight Report.
• In the Ultra Course View, some replies weren’t visible in discussions. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, some users’ discussion response and reply counts didn’t appear correctly. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, some users’ profiles and activity in discussions appeared as though the users were unavailable. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, discussion forum links that were broken during a course copy couldn’t be removed from the new course. We’ve fixed the issue.
• When an instructor reverted a course back to the Original Course View from Ultra Course Preview, a lost association with the course data source key caused problems with SIS integration. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some users at institutions that use SSO with the SAML Building Block had trouble logging in to their Learn environments. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.17.0 (full release number 3800.17.0-rel.27+f09831f) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, September 24, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, emailed announcements didn't include the announcement title in the subject line. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, students received an incorrect password error when a test used a password with certain character patterns. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.19.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.19.0 (full release number 3800.19.0-rel.24+879e1a1) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, September 22, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, emailed announcements didn't include the announcement title in the subject line. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, students received an incorrect password error when a test used a password with certain character patterns. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View with Ally enabled, administrators couldn’t remove replaced files included in a course copy from the new course’s content collection. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, students couldn't view a course document after visiting an LTI link in a learning module that uses sequential availability. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, students couldn’t view a test submission when SafeAssign was enabled and Respondus LockDown browser was required. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Instructors couldn’t add LTI deep linked content to their courses if SameSite cookie support was enabled in their browser. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Instructors couldn’t access the users enrolled in their course through third-party applications that use the course membership REST API. We’ve fixed the issue.
• At some institutions that use SIS integrations for notifications, a small number of user accounts were locked when notification traffic was heavy. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.17.0 (full release number 3800.17.0-rel.23+292bc5b) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, students couldn't view a course document after visiting an LTI link in a learning module that uses sequential availability. We've fixed the issue.
• Instructors couldn’t access the users enrolled in their course through third-party applications that use the course membership REST API. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, students couldn’t view a test submission when SafeAssign was enabled and Respondus LockDown browser was required. We’ve fixed the issue.

Changes to deleted file retention period

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

With this release, Blackboard will change the content collection system’s deleted file retention period from 45 days to 32 days on clients' Learn SaaS sites. This change will reduce the amount of storage used by client sites and bring our retention period in line with the Learn SaaS Service Level Agreements data retention period. The change will not impact course auto archives or active course data.

Expanded access to Ally in Ultra documents

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Ultra Course View

Now, in the Ultra Course View, instructors and students can download Ally alternative formats for course documents in the expanded view. With Ally enabled at their institutions, instructors and students see the Ally icon in the top menu, next to the conversations icon. They can choose the alternative format that best suits their needs.

Maintenance items

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.19.0 | Release to Production 1 October 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.19.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Learn SaaS release 3800.17.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Course View

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.17.0 (full release number 3800.17.0-rel.21+0b17a13) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, September 10, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, some instructors intermittently encountered an undefined error in the Grade Center. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.17.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’re applying an updated version of 3800.17.0 (full release number 3800.17.0-rel.17+ca99c4d) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, September 1, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• For some administrators, the Insight Report (Beta) displayed 0 for Auto-Archived Courses and Organizations and Days of logs available instead of the correct count. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, when an instructor quoted a post with embedded files, students couldn't access the files from the instructor's reply.  We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some environments encountered short periods of downtime after RDS maintenance. We've fixed the issue. 

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.15.0 (full release number 3800.15.0-rel.32+577dd66) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, August 27, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, when partner content was used in a course, some content provider options didn't display in the Content Market. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, Vimeo videos wouldn't embed in course content. We've fixed the issue.
• For some administrators, the Insight Report (Beta) displayed 0 for Auto-Archived Courses and Organizations and Days of logs available instead of the correct count. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.17.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.17.0 (full release number 3800.17.0-rel.14+16bd146) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, August 25, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, a variable name displayed instead of the Assessment security heading when users launched the LockDown Browser. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, instructors couldn't close the Add Content menu for an empty folder with the X (close) icon on the Course Content page. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, when partner content was used in a course, some content provider options didn't display in the Content Market. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, Vimeo videos wouldn't embed in course content. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.15.0 (full release number 3800.15.0-rel.30+8445ff0) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, August 20, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Some users couldn’t log in to their Learn environment when a SAML SSO provider was created as inactive and then was set to active. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, SAML logout pages displayed in the default language instead of a user's preferred language. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.17.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.17.0 (full release number 3800.17.0-rel.11+9b66d12) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, August 18, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, forgotten password emails for custom, secondary brand domains incorrectly sent users to the main brand domain. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, content added with LTI tools wouldn't open with learning module navigation. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some users couldn’t log in to their Learn environment when a SAML SSO provider was created as inactive and then was set to active. We’ve fixed the issue. 

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.15.0 (full release number 3800.15.0-rel.28+ba39496) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, August 13, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, forgotten password emails for custom, secondary brand domains incorrectly sent users to the main brand domain. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, content added with LTI tools wouldn't open with learning module navigation. We’ve fixed the issue.

Protect assessments with access codes

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Ultra Course View

Features that support academic integrity and assessment security remain at the top of our priority list because of consistent feedback from Ultra early adopters and institutions evaluating a move to Ultra courses. Over the last several months, these concerns have been dramatically amplified due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, we're happy to share that instructors can now add a system-generated access code for their assessments in the Ultra Course View. For the initial release, access codes can only be generated randomly and can't be customized. Instructors can also regenerate the access code when needed. Test facilitators can see the access code, but can't change it.

Students need to enter the access code each time they start or continue an assessment. Instructors or test facilitators need to provide the access code, and students won't have a way to discover the access code on their own. Students don't need the access code to access their grades and feedback.

More on the instructor workflow

API updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including:

• We added the ability to create, update, or delete institutional hierarchy node associations between courses and Institutional Hierarchy nodes.
• We enhanced the public assignment APIs to support SafeAssign options, which aligns with the functionality offered in the user interface.

Visit the Developer site for full REST API documentation.

Automated test question feedback

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Ultra Course View

Instructors rely on automated feedback in Original to provide focused feedback on individual test questions without needing to type feedback for each question on each submission. With this release, automated test question feedback is now available in Ultra courses. Instructors can enter feedback for correct and incorrect answers on auto-graded question types (such as True/False). Students will automatically receive the feedback when they submit the assessment.

For this initial release, feedback will be available at the question level only. While conversion of automated feedback from Original courses is supported, any images, files, or weblinks in the Original course’s feedback will not convert. Future work will add feedback for individual answer choices and manual feedback for test questions.

Enhancements to course archive and restore

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

This update makes the archive process more comprehensive. Now, archives gather data for users who may have dropped the course during the term, which provides a fuller picture of user activity in restored courses for records and reviews.

When an archive is restored, course and enrollment records are returned to the enablement state at the time of the archive creation. User records that match with existing accounts will be linked during the restore process, but the existing user’s enablement state will not change. As before, if records are disabled and locked, an administrator will need to enable records in Learn to review them.

H5P added to list of embedded media

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, H5P has been added to the list of supported embedded media in the text editor.

View the instructor workflow

Learn SaaS release 3800.17.0: Update to release notes

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We prematurely announced that version 3800.17.0 would contain Assist, a student success hub for campus and online resources. We are still testing this feature, and it’s targeted for release in the near future. We apologize for the confusion.

Send course announcement by email

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

To be sure Ultra course announcements reach as many students as possible, we've added the ability to send course announcements by email. Emails about Ultra announcements are always sent and aren't controlled by the global notification settings. Instructors also receive a copy as the email is sent to all course members. In the email, embedded content appears as links. Students can select the links to view the content.

You can't send an email for an announcement that you schedule for a future date.

We also reformatted the subject line for announcement emails in the Original Course View. Now, they’re consistent with the Ultra Course View.

More on the instructor workflow

Student list view in the gradebook

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.17.0 | Release to Production 3 September 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, we've added a new view option in the gradebook for Ultra courses. The new view, called student list view, improves gradebook performance in courses with very large enrollment numbers. In the student list view tab, instructors can see rows for each student in addition to a tab with rows for gradebook items.

We listened to concerns that instructors have about the current gradebook and we incorporated these concerns into student list view. Items such as last access date, student, and user ID are included so instructors can easily get to the student record they want.

The initial release allows instructors to view all the gradebook items for a single student and grade and give feedback on just those submissions. The next improvement for this feature will include additional filtering and sorting options, messaging, and accommodation options within the student list view.

This view doesn't affect any current workflows that instructors use today. Student list view is an addition to the existing gradebook list view—the default view for Ultra courses.

More on the instructor view

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.15.0 (full release number 3800.15.0-rel.24+b25671a) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, August 4, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• We’ve improved system performance and stability for institutions with very large courses (many students and many content items).

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.15.0 (full release number 3800.15.0-rel.22+7825384) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, instructors couldn't access created tests. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.13.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.13.0 (full release number 3800.13.0-rel.29+ffe3614) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, July 23, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Some SIS feed files were blocked and couldn't update information in Learn. We've fixed the issue.
• Courses with missing resources couldn’t be deleted because the archive process couldn’t complete. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.15.0 (full release number 3800.15.0-rel.21+8a56e93) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, July 21, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Some SIS feed files were blocked and couldn't update information in Learn. We've fixed the issue.
• Courses with missing resources couldn’t be deleted because the archive process couldn’t complete. We’ve fixed the issue.

Bb Annotate release to Singapore Polymall environments shifted

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

The release of Bb Annotate to Singapore Polymall environments has been shifted by one week. It will be available in Test/Stage environments beginning on July 20, 2020, and in Production environments beginning July 27, 2020.

The detailed release plan on Behind the Blackboard and the Community site has been updated to reflect this change.

To learn about Bb Annotate, visit the Bb Annotate Communication & Adoption Toolkit.

More on how to review instructor feedback in Bb Annotate for Students

More on Bb Annotate for Instructors

Learn SaaS release 3800.13.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.13.0 (full release number 3800.13.0-rel.26+bfd99e6) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, July 16, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, some users still saw incorrect column headers and missing data in exported Outcomes Assessment reports. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Experience, only two lines of a course announcement displayed at a time. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.15.0 (full release number 3800.15.0-rel.15+49a56b1) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, some users still saw incorrect column headers and missing data in exported Outcomes Assessment reports. We've fixed the issue.

Additional sources for embedded media in the text editor

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Ultra Course View

This release expands our list of embedded media sources in the text editor. The Insert/Edit Video from Web option is now called Insert/Edit Media from Web. Users can add media from these sites:

• VidGrid
• Panopto™
• FlipGrid
• SlideShare
• Prezi
• VoiceThread
• KhanAcademy
• Kaltura
• Soundcloud
• Spotify®
• Genial.ly
• NearPod
• Quizlet
• EdPuzzle
• YouTube™
• Vimeo®

API updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including:

• We added the ability to create, update, or delete institutional hierarchy nodes. We also added the ability to create child nodes for a specific NodeId, and delete and update institutional hierarchy nodes by NodeId.

Visit the Developer site for full REST API documentation.

Journal support for course copy and conversion

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, we've added support for Ultra journals in course copy and conversion. Now, Ultra journals are included in the list of content items to copy from one Ultra course to another. Users can also use the Administrator Panel or Copy Content to copy journals between courses. Journals can also be converted from an Original course to an Ultra course as part of the Ultra Course Preview and will be included in the course's export/archive ZIP file. Journal prompts and settings are included when an Original course is converted to the Ultra Course View. Comments and student entries aren’t included.

The conversion workflow for journals will have additional improvements in the future.

At this time, the Ultra journals grading view supports up to 50 users. Future development will expand this number.

We recommend that you use Ultra journals as you build new courses, but our guidance is to limit teaching and grading usage until additional work is completed.

Maintenance items

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.15.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

SOAP Web Services API removal

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

Please note that in the August 2020 Learn release, as part of the removal of SOAP Web Services APIs from Learn, we are removing the following Java APIs which have been deprecated since 2015:

• CourseCategoryMembershipLoader
• CourseCategoryMembershipPersister
• OrganizationCategoryLoader
• OrganizationCategoryMembershipLoader
• OrganizationCategoryMembershipPersister
• OrganizationCategoryPersister

Text editor added to course announcements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Ultra Course View

Instructors rely on course announcements to deliver important, timely information to students. To make announcements easier to read and more visually appealing, many instructors enhance them by adding images, links, and text formatting. Now, instructors can use an enhanced text editor to add and display more types of content, links, embedded media, and file attachments in announcements in Ultra courses.

View the instructor workflow

In the next milestone, available in a future release, instructors will be able to send an email copy of a course announcement to recipients with an email address on record.

Learn SaaS release 3800.15.0: Delay for Continuous Delivery release to Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.15.0 | Release to Production 6 August 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re delaying the Blackboard Learn SaaS 3800.15.0 Continuous Delivery release to Test/Stage servers, previously scheduled for July 7, 2020, until Wednesday, July 8, 2020. The release schedule has been updated to reflect this change.

Learn SaaS release 3800.13.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.13.0 (full release number 3800.13.0-rel.23+f2b803a) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, some SIS integrations didn't process feed files. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, administrators couldn’t see the result categories in an enterprise survey results report. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, certain assessment settings (like rubrics, delegated grading, and peer review) were disabled when an instructor added presentation-only content. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.11.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.11.0 (full release number 3800.11.0-rel.35+a142044) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, June 25, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, some students couldn’t access enterprise surveys. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.13.0: Update to client Test/Stage environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.13.0 (full release number 3800.13.0-rel.17+e9dcbb4) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, June 23, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Experience, users couldn't access the date picker to edit a date. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, some grades entered as letters were incorrectly changed to the next highest letter grade. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, the exported Outcomes Assessment report had some incorrect column headers and was missing data. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, some students couldn’t access enterprise surveys. We’ve fixed the issue.
• We enhanced logging for the SAML B2.

Learn SaaS release 3800.11.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.11.0 (full release number 3800.11.0-rel.34+e7b8bbb) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, June 18, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, when a Learn instance used custom brands or themes based on the 2012 theme, users couldn't see links under the Course Control Panel. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, some grades entered as letters were incorrectly changed to the next highest letter grade. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Experience, the exported Outcomes Assessment report had some incorrect column headers and was missing data. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.13.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.13.0 (full release number 3800.13.0-rel.11+32b12c7) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, the Grade Center didn't load for users who use the Spanish language pack with a Chilean grading schema. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, when a Learn instance used custom brands or themes based on the 2012 theme, users couldn't see links under the Course Control Panel. We've fixed the issue.

Bb Annotate release to international Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

Bb Annotate will be released to international Production environments starting on Monday, June 15, 2020.

The release is staggered by Regional Data Centers. To find your specific date, consult the detailed release plan on Behind the Blackboard or the Community site.

To learn about Bb Annotate, visit the Bb Annotate Communication & Adoption Toolkit.

More on how to review instructor feedback in Bb Annotate for Students

More on Bb Annotate for Instructors

Learn SaaS release 3800.11.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.11.0 (full release number 3800.11.0-rel.26+6de5309) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, June 11, 2020. 

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, the Grade Center didn't load for users who use the Spanish language pack with a Chilean grading schema. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, recurring Collaborate Ultra sessions didn't appear under Join Session in the Details & Actions section after the first session. We've fixed the issue.

Administrator support panel

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Ultra Experience

We’ve made it easier for full system administrators to find self-help resources while in Learn with the Ultra experience. With this release, system administrators can access Blackboard Help, as well as Behind the Blackboard links for the knowledge base, support ticket submission, and support phone numbers. Select the help icon in the lower-right corner to open the new support panel.

More on the support panel

API updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We’ve made some noteworthy API updates, including:

• We added the ability to provide public APIs to Read Institutional Hierarchy Nodes.
• We added the ability to provide APIs to access and manage user avatars.

Visit the Developer site for full REST API documentation.

Course discussions improvements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Ultra Course View

In the Ultra Course View, students currently can create their own discussion topics. This sometimes causes confusion in the student workflow when responding to discussions. With this release, instructors can decide if they want students to generate their own discussions or not. By default, students won't be able to create discussions. When students are allowed to create discussions, a label appears under discussion titles to show they were student-created.

Note that the plus sign and the menu now appear in the upper-right corner of the Discussions page along with the new settings icon.

More on the instructor view of discussions

We also made several styling changes and usability improvements to the course discussions workflow, which include:

• The Grader role can't modify a discussion by default, but an administrator can grant that permission if it's needed.
• Students can delete the discussions they created if no one else has responded.

Maintenance items

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.13.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

System permissions for brands

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.13.0 | Release to Production 2 July 2020
Ultra Experience

Some institutions want the ability to grant certain users limited Admin Panel access to allow them to view Ultra's brands and themes configuration. With this release, we've added two new system permissions to allow more granular access to certain areas of the Admin Panel. They are automatically granted to any role that has the Administrator Panel (Integrations) > Building Blocks > Installed Tools permission.

• View Ultra Settings makes the Ultra admin module visible on the main Admin Panel screen, but doesn't confer any other permissions. Additional permissions will be needed to access specific configuration pages. For example, the Brands configuration page requires Administrator Panel > Brands > View Brands and Themes.
• Change Ultra Settings controls access to the existing Ultra settings page, where you can configure Default Landing Page and link to Course and Organization Catalog settings. Any role with this permission will automatically have View Ultra Settings permission.

Learn SaaS release 3800.11.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.11.0 (full release number 3800.11.0-rel.23+7619f1a) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. 

Updates in this version include:

• Files attached to discussion threads replaced existing discussion files when copied into existing courses. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, when an instructor created a test from a question set, they couldn't add more than one question. We've fixed the issue.
• Some administrators saw large numbers of assignment submission exceptions in their logs. We’ve added log information to help determine the sources of those exceptions.

Learn SaaS release 3800.11.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.11.0 (full release number 3800.11.0-rel.13+dc44ed6) to client Test/Stage servers during off-hours on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. 

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, students with special characters in their name couldn't launch a test in Respondus LockDown Browser. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, instructors couldn't enter maximum points for a graded discussion thread. We've fixed the issue.
• Some administrators still saw "New Box View" as their building block title after Bb Annotate was turned on. We've fixed the issue.

Bb Annotate release to U.S. Production environments and international Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

Bb Annotate will be released to U.S. Production environments starting on Tuesday, May 26, 2020.

Bb Annotate will also be released to international Test/Stage environments starting on Wednesday, May 27, 2020.

The release is staggered by Regional Data Centers. To find your specific date, consult the detailed release plan on Behind the Blackboard or the Community site.

To learn about Bb Annotate, visit the Bb Annotate Communication & Adoption Toolkit.

More on how to review instructor feedback in Bb Annotate for Students

More on Bb Annotate for Instructors

Learn SaaS release 3800.9.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.9.0 (full release number 3800.9.0-rel.29+616af15) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, May 21, 2020. 

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, students with special characters in their name couldn't launch a test in Respondus LockDown Browser. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.9.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.9.0 (full release number 3800.9.0-rel.25+4afe1a1) to some client Production servers during off-hours beginning Tuesday, May 19, 2020. This update will be applied to clients in the following regions or time zones:

• US Central
• US Mountain
• US Pacific
• Asia and Oceania

Clients in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and the US Eastern time zone have already received this updated version.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, instructors couldn't view a survey's Attempts Statistics from the Grade Center. We've fixed the issue.

Discussions added to Copy Content

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, Copy Content now supports discussions. Instructors can create a discussion in one Ultra Course View course and copy it to other Ultra courses they teach.

Journals in Ultra

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Ultra Course View

Journals are now available in the Ultra Course View. Instructors can create a journal assignment on the Course Content page, add them to learning modules, and use conditional release if they want. Journal assignments appear in the activity stream, and students and instructors can discuss the entry in comments. Instructors can make a journal assignment count for a grade and add a rubric so students know what they'll be graded on. The initial release includes a basic grading workflow, where instructors enter grades manually in the gradebook. Full grading functionality and support for course copy and conversion are expected later this year. Continued enhancements are also coming for the Participants panel.

The Ultra journals grading view currently supports up to 50 students. Future improvements will expand this number.

We recommend using Ultra journals as you build new courses, but our guidance is to limit teaching and grading usage until additional improvements are completed.

Visit the instructor topic

Maintenance items

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.11.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Score per Question in Ultra assessments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Ultra Course View

In the Original Course View, instructors use Score per Question feedback settings to control if students see the score they earned for each assessment question. With this release, in the Ultra Course View, instructors can deactivate the default and choose not to show Score per Question feedback in assessments.

Students can embed media from integrated tools in Ultra

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.11.0 | Release to Production 4 June 2020
Ultra Course View

In the Ultra Course View, students can add links and embed media from integrated tools using the Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) standard. When using the content editor in tools such as Discussion Boards and Assignments, students will now also be able to access a list of integrated LTI Tools, choose resources, and include them in their authored content. This will allow students to add media and resources from tools such as Kaltura, among many others. Administrators must configure which tool placements are appropriate for student use and access. Both LTI Advantage and the older LTI 1.1 are supported for this workflow in the Ultra Course View. The placement configuration screen for administrators has also been improved for clarity in this release.

Learn SaaS release 3800.9.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.9.0 (full release number 3800.9.0-rel.24+a58123a) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• We changed the title of a basic usage report for Learn administrators. It's now called Insight Report (Beta). Learn more about where to find the report and how to read it.
• In the Original Course View, some tests got stuck in "In Progress" status, so instructors couldn't end attempts or grade them. We've fixed the issue.
• Some Learn instances didn't receive grade events information from Caliper. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Custom SafeHTML filters reverted to the default policy with certain SaaS upgrades. We've fixed the issue.

Bb Annotate release to U.S. Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

Bb Annotate will be released to U.S. Test and Stage environments starting on Monday, May 4, 2020. More information on the Bb Annotate release plan can be found on Behind the Blackboard and the Community site.

To learn about Bb Annotate, visit the Bb Annotate Communication & Adoption Toolkit.

More on how to review instructor feedback in Bb Annotate for Students

More on Bb Annotate for Instructors

Learn SaaS release 3800.9.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.9.0 (full release number 3800.9.0-rel.17+0de27ea) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Administrators couldn't send SMS or text-to-voice notifications to users through Connect for Learn. We've fixed the issue.
• Some Learn instances had performance issues related to mobile Notifications. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.9.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.9.0 (full release number 3800.9.0-rel.13+116516d) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, April 21, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• A basic usage report for Learn administrators on system usage and storage. Learn more about where to find the report and how to read it.
• Improved dynamic flow control for better system resiliency and efficient database queries.
• In the Original Course View, the Overall Summary of User Activity report only listed the Guest user in the Access/Date graphic. We've fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, course content that used adaptive release with groups created an unwanted membership criterion that blocked student access to the content. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.6.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.6.0 (full release number 3800.6.0-rel.18+ade3869) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, April 16, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, when grades were transferred with the Grade Journey B2, some grade columns were hidden from instructors in the Grade Center. We've fixed the issue.

API updates

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

We've made some noteworthy API updates, including:

• We added the ability to search and sort on the timestamp when a course membership was modified. Developers can increase efficiencies in report generation, audit completion, and membership information display.
• We redesigned the Groups API and separated Groups and GroupSets. Now, developers will have easier access to Groups in a GroupSet and behavior that better resembles how the Learn interface presents Groups.

Visit the Developer site for full REST API documentation.

Learn SaaS release 3800.9.0: Update to release notes

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Ultra Course View

We prematurely announced that version 3800.9.0 contained the ability for students to embed media from integrated tools in the Ultra Course View. We are still testing this feature, and it’s targeted for release in the near future. We apologize for the confusion.

Maintenance items

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.9.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Performance improvements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.9.0 | Release to Production 7 May 2020
Ultra Experience

In this release, we improved the load times for the Calendar and when students and instructors expand folders on the course outline.

Learn SaaS release 3800.6.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience, Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.6.0 (full release number 3800.6.0-rel.16+f1c0e8e) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, April 9, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, some students' participation in gradable discussions didn't report correctly to the gradebook. We've fixed the issue.
• Some fixes behind the scenes to keep your environments tidy.

Learn SaaS release 3800.6.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.6.0 (full release number 3800.6.0-rel.16+f1c0e8e) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, April 7, 2020.

Updates in this version include some fixes behind the scenes to keep your environments tidy.

Learn SaaS release 3800.6.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.6.0 (full release number 3800.6.0-rel.13+fa0f5ed) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, March 24, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, some students couldn’t see the group they were assigned to after they were randomly enrolled. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, if a course had a large number of enrolled students, instructors couldn't access the Grades and Participation view. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Original Course View, students couldn’t view completed assignment rubrics if their assignment was graded using delegated grading. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some instructors couldn’t create math equation assessment questions using the math editor. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Students who accessed Blackboard with Google Chrome couldn’t view a full PDF in their course. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some private APIs required permissions that didn’t work correctly with Java 11. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.4.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of the 3800.4.0 Ultra user interface (full release number 3800.4.0-rel.40+d78544e) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, March 19, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, if a course had a large number of enrolled students, instructors couldn't access the Grades and Participation view. We’ve fixed the issue.

Adjust first day of the week in the calendar

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

Different global regions have different calendar conventions, including which day displays as the first day of the week. With this release, Blackboard calendars will display the most common convention for the first day of the week based on a user's selected language. Users will be able to see the change in the month and day views of both their overall and individual course calendars. The date picker display will also change in the Ultra Course View and for administrator notifications in the Ultra Experience.  

Users can change their language in the user profile. Administrators can customize the first day of the week for their language pack if they choose.

Auto-archive on course deletion

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

With this release, a complete archive package will now be created automatically when a course is deleted. The archive package is stored in the course's autoArchive folder like other automatic archives, but the filename is different:Course_ID_Course_PKID_Course_Title_currentTime_in_milliseconds_bb_permanent.zip. 

Archives created automatically by course deletion are available for 30 days. This can be helpful for recovering data from courses deleted accidentally.

Learn more on course deletion

Learn more on automatic archives

Course-level group self-enrollment

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Ultra Course View

Previously, self-enrollment groups were limited to assignments and discussions in the Ultra Course View. With this release, instructors can create self-enrollment course groups that can apply to any graded content within a course. When they create a new course group set, instructors will see Self-enrollment in the Group students menu.

Instructors can add a description for the group set, specify the start and end times of an enrollment period, and set the maximum members per group. After the group set is created, a course announcement is automatically created to inform students of the enrollment period. When the enrollment period ends, students who haven't joined a group will be assigned to one automatically.

Student view

Maintenance items

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.6.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

New LTI Preview User role

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

Third-party integrated tools in a course using the LTI Advantage standard from IMS Global can now distinguish between student and student preview users. This allows integrated tools to choose if they want to handle instructors navigating the course as student preview users differently than standard student users. Per the LTI specification, the user is indicated as the type, “test user.” As an example, the Turnitin LTI Advantage integration uses this to filter student preview users from the student list in Turnitin.

Rich text editor improvements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.6.0 | Release to Production 2 April 2020
Ultra Course View

We made some improvements to the rich text editor in the Ultra Course View:

• We moved the file attachment function to the top level so it's easier to access.
• We added a strikethrough font style option.
• We updated our function groupings so they're easier to read on smaller screens.
• We allowed the browser to control the background of highlighted text to improve accessibility.

Learn SaaS release 3800.4.0: Addition to client Production release

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Original Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, the scheduled Production release of 3800.4.0 (full release number 3800.4.0-rel.40+d78544e) during off-hours on Thursday, March 5, 2020 will include an additional update.

• Some instructors couldn't import content using the Cengage Mindlinks B2. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.4.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.4.0 (full release number 3800.4.0-rel.32+1b0447c) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• When an Original Course used two percentage range rubrics, the second rubric didn’t always have the correct total number of points. We’ve fixed the issue.
• If a user changed their password through their SIS using encryption methods other than SSHA, they could be kicked out of their session after logging back in. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.4.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Original Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.4.0 (full release number 3800.4.0-rel.26+312e74d) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, February 25, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Some integrations using LTI 1.3 deep link couldn't launch a needed resource link. We've fixed the issue.
• Column headers in the Ultra grade center were duplicated after an administrator customized the colors in their institutional brand. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some users couldn't see their avatar thumbnails in the users and groups section of the Original Course View. We've fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.2.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.2.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.2.0 (full release number 3800.2.0-rel.25+95332d7) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, February 20, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• Some administrators encountered LDAP authentication problems because the TLS connection failed. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.4.0: Update to client Test/Staging environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.4.0 (full release number 3800.4.0-rel.20+6b6dbf5) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, instructors were informed that their institution had made messages read-only for students in English instead of their selected language. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some administrators saw a both successful and a failed login for each sign-in attempt in their authentication logs. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some administrators encountered LDAP authentication problems because the TLS connection failed. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Issues with file uploads and downloads in the Ultra Course View:
  • Some users saw the upload icon buffering even though they could upload and download files. We’ve fixed the issue.
  • Some students couldn’t download files they added to essay questions. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Issue with grading in the Ultra Course View:
  • Some student submissions reordered randomly while an instructor was grading. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Issues with file uploads and downloads in the Original Course View:
  • Some users couldn’t upload files with % in the filename. We’ve fixed the issue.
  • Some users couldn’t download files attached to submissions that use Box view. We’ve fixed the issue.

Learn SaaS release 3800.2.0: Update to client Production environments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.2.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Original Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.2.0 (full release number 3800.2.0-rel.24+29cd420) to client Production servers during off-hours on Thursday, February 13, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Experience, the last login date wasn’t updating accurately for users with cloud profiles. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, some users couldn’t see images they added to the text editor until their content was posted or submitted. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Issues with file uploads and downloads in the Ultra Course View:
  • Some users saw the upload icon buffering even though they could upload and download files. We’ve fixed the issue.
  • Some users couldn’t download files they had previously uploaded if the filename contained a special character. We’ve fixed the issue.
  • Some students couldn’t download files they added to essay questions. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Issues with grading in the Ultra Course View:
  • Some student submissions reordered randomly while an instructor was grading. We’ve fixed the issue.
  • Some instructors encountered a blank screen after entering a grade for a student assignment that had multiple attempts. We’ve fixed the issue.
  • Some instructors didn’t see entered grades in the gradebook until they refreshed the page. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Issues with file uploads and downloads in the Original Course View:
  • Some users couldn’t upload files with % in the filename. We’ve fixed the issue.
  • Some users couldn’t download files attached to submissions that use Box view. We’ve fixed the issue.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

Calculated Formula question types are now available in assessments using the Ultra Course View. Calculated Formula questions require students to make a calculation and respond with a numeric answer. This feature has been highly requested, especially by institutions whose STEM disciplines rely on Learn. Now, instructors can convert Calculated Formula questions from their Original courses or add new ones within the Ultra Course View.

When creating a new assessment, select the plus sign to open the menu and then select Add Calculated Formula question. Begin by adding the question text and answer formula. In Ultra Course View only, instructors can choose whether to display the formula to students with the text. Instructors can then adjust the answer settings and verify the question.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience

In this release, a Course ID now appears with the Course Name in key areas when Ultra base navigation is enabled. Now, users can find their Course IDs on the Courses page of base navigation, in the Calendar, and when copying course content.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

Now, when instructors create new content on the Course Content page, all options in the Create Item panel will open by default. In previous versions, only the Course Content Items options opened by default. Instructors often missed the arrow to expand these menus, leading them to believe that fewer content items were available than there actually were. Loading these menus by default also makes the content creation workflow faster.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Experience

In this release, we moved the Edit course image option in the tile view on the Courses page. Now, it can be found in the overflow menu at the top-right corner of the course tile.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

We're improving the conversion of Discussions from Original to Ultra courses. Previously, the Discussion conversion workflow has caused confusion and manual work to complete. With this release, a graded discussion in an Original course that allows members to create threads will convert to a Graded Ultra discussion and all of its seed child threads and replies will be removed. A graded discussion in an Original course that doesn't allow members to create threads will keep the current behavior. Group boards, forums, and threads won't be converted.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.4.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Make Messages Read-only for Students

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

With this release, administrators can choose whether students are able to create and reply to messages in both Original and Ultra courses. Now Learn Course Messages can better adjust to institutions' different communication preferences and policies. To find this setting, go to Admin Panel > Tools and Utilities > Course Messages.

When you select this option, students also can't forward messages.

More on course messages options

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

• We changed the way students are sorted in Ultra gradebook views for calculated columns and overall grade. Students now sort by last name throughout the gradebook.
• We increased the length of the course name in tile view on the Courses page. Unless the course name is exceptionally long, users should see the full course name.
• We increased the line spacing of discussion posts to make them easier to read.
• We made some additional visual improvements to the Courses pages in Ultra base navigation, the Calendar, and the Copy Content workflow. Among the changes, we updated some text to a heavier weight as a result of the small icon update.
• We updated some small icons in the text editor.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Original Course View

In this release, we've added right-to-left language support in Courses and Organizations using the Original Course View with Ultra base navigation. This feature has been highly requested by users in the Middle East. Future enhancements will bring right-to-left language support to Ultra.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

In this release, students won't see overdue notifications for Ultra Assessments that use the Collect Submissions Offline setting. Because Learn relies on instructors to create the submissions for offline assessments, students were sometimes notified an assessment was overdue even if they turned it in on time. Now, these notifications won't appear.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

In this release, we added a word count to the text editor when instructors create Documents and students respond to Assessment essay questions in the Ultra Course View. This feature will help students meet minimum word count requirements their instructors may have communicated. Future enhancements will add the word count feature in other areas of Learn Ultra, including instructor grading workflows.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

In this release, we clarified a menu option in the text editor. Previously, users could select Insert Web Content in the text editor to embed a YouTube video. User feedback indicated that many users didn't understand that they could embed YouTube videos. To make options clearer, we changed the menu option to Insert YouTube Video.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

In this release, we added text to the Matching question creation workflow. Now, Learn directs instructors to delete the default additional answer field before saving if it's not needed. User feedback indicated it wasn't intuitive to delete this additional option when creating matching questions.

We also removed the student-facing text that suggested answers may be used more than once. Client feedback requested that the direction be left to instructors.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Experience

To increase confidence and clarity, we've added some text when administrators turn on the Ultra Experience. Now, when administrators activate Ultra base navigation, the message will include When you enable the Ultra experience, your existing courses aren’t affected. Your institution can choose to use the Original or Ultra Course View for new and existing courses.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.4.0 | Release to Production 5 March 2020
Ultra Course View

Updates to the Ultra Extension Framework in this release add capabilities for banners, modals, and notifications. Partners can dynamically create banners within the Ultra-UI to display data to the user while the user is within a course. We also added the ability to notify users in a course through blocking modals, dynamic guidance messages, and notifications.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.2.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Original Experience, Ultra Experience

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.2.0 (full release number 3800.2.0-rel.20+2226729) to some client Production servers during off-hours beginning Thursday, February 6, 2020. This update will be applied to clients in the following regions or time zones:

• Americas Central
• Americas Mountain
• Americas Pacific
• Asia and Oceania
• Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Updates in this version include:

• In the Original Course View, users couldn’t access pre-existing course glossaries. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, some users couldn't view inline or download files attached to essay questions if the file names had certain special characters. We’ve fixed the issue.
• In the Ultra Course View, some users couldn’t view inline or download files with New Box View. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Some assignments submitted through SafeAssign got stuck in In Progress status and the submission didn’t complete. We’ve fixed the issue.
• Users accessing Learn with the Google Chrome 80 beta release had trouble with SAML login authentication. We’ve fixed the issue.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.2.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

The 3800.2.0 Production release will be divided by region or time zone to ensure release quality. All upgrades will occur during off-hours in each region or time zone.

• Asia, Oceania, Europe, Middle East, and Africa: By region.
• Americas: By four major time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.
  • If your institution lies outside one of these time zones, you'll be included with the nearest time zone. For example, clients in the Atlantic time zone will be upgraded with the Eastern time zone.
• Americas Eastern time zone: In three groups.
  • These groups are alphabetical by the official name of your institution on file with Blackboard. If you want to confirm the name we have, please log in to Behind the Blackboard and select My Account > My Institution. Your institution name is displayed in the upper-left corner with your client ID number.

DateGroupLocal Start Time*

Monday, February 3, 2020
Americas Central
Americas Mountain
Americas PacificEarly Morning
After 2 AM CST
After 2 AM MST
After 2 AM PST

Asia and Oceania
Europe, Middle East, and AfricaEvening
After 17:00 SGT / 20:00 AEDT
After 17:00 CET

Thursday, February 6, 2020Americas Eastern Group #1 (institution names A–G)
Americas Eastern Group #2 (institution names H–R)
Americas Eastern Group #3 (institution names S–Z)Evening
After 5:00 PM EST

*For alerts or changes to timing on the day of the release, log in to Behind the Blackboard.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.2.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Ultra Course View

As part of our commitment to release quality, we’re applying an updated version of 3800.2.0 (full release number 3800.2.0-rel.14+94469ce) to client Test/Staging servers during off-hours on Tuesday, January 28, 2020.

Updates in this version include:

• In the Ultra Course View, students could change their self-enrollment group after they had been assigned a grade for a Discussion. We've fixed the issue.

Group self-enrollment enhancements

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.2.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Ultra Course View

We’ve enhanced self-enrollment for students and instructors in the Ultra Course View. Now, students can change self-enrollment groups themselves within the instructor-specified enrollment period. Before, once a student joined a group, they couldn’t change groups themselves.

We also replaced the Number of groups drop-down menu with a counter for instructors. The counter updates with the number of groups instructors create using the + option. Before, if an instructor picked a number of groups from the drop-down menu and then added or deleted a group, the Number of groups count didn't change. This enhancement streamlines the workflow and reduces confusion.

Learn more about group assignments

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.2.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.2.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.0.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Blackboard Learn SaaS Flexible Deployment Option Q4 2019
Original Course View, Ultra Course View, Ultra Experience

• Links to Blackboard’s Privacy statement and Terms of Use now appear at the bottom of the global navigation bar in the Ultra Experience.
• Previously, disabled students were included in the Participants list for a discussion in the Ultra Course View. This was confusing for instructors since these students don't display in assessment submission lists or in the gradebook. This update removes disabled students from the Participants list in discussions, so this view is now consistent with assessments and the gradebook.
• With this release, Blackboard Learn will remember instructors’ preferences for the Show attempts that don't contribute to user's grade filter on the Needs Grading page in the Original Course View. By default, the checkbox is unselected and student attempts that don’t affect grades won’t show on the Needs Grading list. When an instructor changes the setting, Learn will remember the preference across that user’s sessions and courses.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.0.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Ultra Course View

With this release, we’ve expanded Ally support for accessible content in Ultra courses. Now, students and instructors can access Ally’s alternative formats and accessibility indication for content directly in the Ultra course outline.

Ally’s accessibility indication is also now available in Ultra Assessments for content embedded in the rich text editor.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.0.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Blackboard Learn SaaS Flexible Deployment Option Q4 2019
Original Experience

With this update, API users can view and filter a list of assessment attempts based on when the attempt was created, modified, or submitted.

Java 11 JDK and Building Blocks

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.0.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Blackboard Learn SaaS Flexible Deployment Option Q4 2019
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

As we have previously announced, Blackboard Learn’s 3800.0.0 release uses a new version of Java, Java 11 JDK. Java are the libraries on which the Learn application runs and also the libraries that power Building Blocks, the add-on tools and features you may use in your environment. We’re implementing Java 11 to improve security and performance. Staying on recently updated libraries is crucial to staying ahead of those who may try to compromise your learning environment.

This important update can impact custom and third-party add-on tools using the Building Blocks (B2) integration framework, and we strongly encourage all clients and partners who use Building Blocks to test them with Java 11. We’ve extended the time 3800.0.0 will stay on Test/Staging servers to allow more time to test Building Blocks (see the Learn SaaS CD Release Schedule).

To help identify potential incompatibilities with third-party add-ons, we’ve developed a Building Block scanning tool. While the tool doesn’t replace functional testing, it can help developers understand what changes need to be made if issues are found with a Building Block. Because the tool can be resource-intensive, it should only be run on your staging or test environment.

For additional resources on Java 11 testing and details about the Building Block scanning tool, visit the Developer portal.

Learn more about Java 11

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.0.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Ultra Experience, Original Experience

You can view maintenance items in Behind the Blackboard. Our Known Issue articles provide information for individual bug fixes, and may include bug descriptions and which Learn versions were affected. You can filter bug fixes by SaaS release for easier navigation. View the 3800.0.0 maintenance issues on Behind the Blackboard.

Blackboard Learn SaaS Continuous Delivery v3800.0.0 | Release to Production February 2020
Blackboard Learn SaaS Flexible Deployment Option Q4 2019
Original Course View, Ultra Course View

After much anticipation, Pearson’s popular MyLab and Mastering (MLM) courseware can now be used in Blackboard Learn Ultra courses thanks to the new Pearson MyLab and Mastering Partner Cloud integration. Set-up and configuration of the integration is easily managed through the Learn Administrator Panel, and once made available, instructors can efficiently access and add Pearson MLM content into their Ultra courses through the familiar Content Market.

Major features of the Pearson MLM Building Block are available with the new Partner Cloud integration, including single sign-on, deep content linking, and manual grade synchronization. Not using Ultra courses quite yet? This integration works with Blackboard Learn Original courses too. This is especially helpful for schools who may be piloting or fully using the Ultra experience with dual course mode enabled. By implementing the Pearson MLM Partner Cloud integration, administrators can rest assured that instructors can add Pearson MLM content regardless of which course view they choose.

In addition, admins can choose to utilize our migration tool which migrates existing courses and content using the MLM Building Block to Partner Cloud. While migrating to Partner Cloud gives users more flexibility in terms of which course view they can use, the Pearson MLM Building Block will still be supported for institutions who decide to keep their current configuration.

Visit Behind the Blackboard for more information on the Pearson MLM Partner Cloud integration and migration tool, including system requirements and admin guide.