We’re once again pleased to join Fix Your Content Day 2026, a 24-hour global event on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, aimed at creating a more inclusive learning environment for all students. This is a brilliant initiative which encourages staff to improve the accessibility of digital course content using Blackboard Ally, helping make NILE more inclusive, one fix at a time. In 2025, institutions around the world made more than 150,000 accessibility improvements during the event, demonstrating how small changes can have a significant impact on learners.
How do I get involved?
If you’d like to take part, simply email your Learning Technologist with the code of your NILE module.
On the morning of 10 November, email us a screenshot of your current Ally Accessibility Score, then spend some time improving the accessibility of your module content. By 8pm, submit another screenshot showing your updated Ally score and you will have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve helped create a more accessible learning experience for your students.
Not sure where to start? A good first step is to review your Ally report and focus on the issues highlighted as having the greatest impact on accessibility. This year, you may also wish to explore Ally’s newer image accessibility features, including AI-assisted alt text suggestions and improved support for images contained within PDF documents. These tools can help you create meaningful image descriptions more efficiently while remaining in complete control of the final content.
Need Support?
If you’d like help reviewing your Ally report, improving the accessibility of your NILE content, or exploring Ally’s image accessibility features, please contact your Learning Technologist. We’re always happy to help.
We hope you’ll join us on 10 November and help make NILE more accessible, one fix at a time.
The new features in this month’s Blackboard’s upgrade will be available from Friday 16th October. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
Following the October upgrade, staff using anonymously marked Blackboard assignments will be able to reveal individual student identities in accordance with University policy when academic misconduct is suspected.
Where staff have set up an anonymously-marked Blackboard assignment and need to reveal an identity, the option to do this is located in ellipsis menu in the marking window. After selecting ‘Reveal student identity’ staff will be prompted to provide a reason, and the reason and name of the staff member revealing the identity will be stored in NILE.
• Marking window with ellipsis menu open and ‘Reveal student identity’ option highlighted
Unlike anonymously-marked Turnitin assignments, anonymously-marked Blackboard assignments will not show staff which students have not submitted assignments, therefore staff cannot contact non-submitters in line with University policy. For this reason, use of anonymously-marked Blackboard assignments is still discouraged.
Blackboard rubrics: new rubrics management page, plus rubrics export/import option
October’s upgrade will introduce a new rubrics management page for Blackboard rubrics. Currently, rubrics are accessed at the bottom of the gradebook settings panel. Following the upgrade, the bottom of the gradebook setting page will instead show a link to the rubrics management page, allowing staff to better see, create, sort, search and manage their rubrics. In addition, rubrics can be exported and imported from the rubrics management page, as well as auto-generated and duplicated.
Display username, last access date, and points possible in the gradebook
October’s upgrade will allow staff the option to display each student’s last access date in the gradebook grid view, as well as their student ID. Staff can also choose whether to display names in firstname, lastname order, or lastname, firstname. As with other gradebook columns, these can be sorted in ascending or descending order. All these display options can be found at the top of the gradebook setting panel.
• Gradebook display options in the gradebook settings panel
Note that more detailed student engagement analytics can be found under the Analytics tab in NILE, including days since last access and overall time spent in the NILE course.
Following the October upgrade, the gradebook list view display will show the points possible for each assignment. Unlike the previous options, points possible is always displayed and there is no option to switch it off.
• Gradebook in list view showing the new ‘points possible’ columns for each assignment
October’s upgrade will introduce a new immersive experience for students taking part in AI conversations, providing students with more room to work and removing information they do not need while they are taking part in an AI conversation.
• Student view of AI conversation before (top) and after (bottom) the October upgrade
Staff who are interested in finding out more about learning technologies and NILE are invited to join the Learning Technology / NILE Community Group on the University’s Engage platform. The purpose of the community is to share information and good practice concerning the use of learning technologies at UON. When joining the community, if you are prompted to login please use your usual UON staff username and password. By joining the Learning Technology / NILE Community you will receive calendar invitations to our regular live community events:
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
UPDATE 02/09/2026: Blackboard have postponed this September update until October 1st at the earliest. The below features will become available from October onward.
This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses, etc:
Ability for staff to restrict accepted file types for Blackboard assignment submissions
Just one change to NILE this month, an update to Blackboard assignments allowing staff to restrict the types of file that students can submit. By default all file types can be submitted, so Blackboard assignments will continue to work as normal where these new settings are unchanged. However, where staff wish to do so a list of accepted file types can be added to a Blackboard assignment.
To specify which types of file students can submit, staff can add these in the assignment settings panel, under ‘Submission details’. Common file extensions can be selected from a drop down list, but staff can add their own too. Where this feature is used, we strongly recommend that students are informed of this well in advance.
• Blackboard assignment submission settings with ‘Permitted file types’ highlighted
Staff who are interested in finding out more about learning technologies and NILE are invited to join the Learning Technology / NILE Community Group on the University’s Engage platform. The purpose of the community is to share information and good practice concerning the use of learning technologies at UON. When joining the community, if you are prompted to login please use your usual UON staff username and password. By joining the Learning Technology / NILE Community you will receive calendar invitations to our regular live community events:
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
Update, 6th August: The August 2026 upgrade has been temporarily delayed and will not be available as planned on the 7th of August. Update, 10th August: The August 2026 upgrade was completed over the weekend of the 8th/9th August.
The new features in this month’s Blackboard’s upgrade will be available from Friday 7th August. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses, etc:
Blackboard’s August upgrade includes significant changes to the gradebook. There is no loss of functionality with the new gradebook, and some new features have been added, but the layout and general look and feel of the gradebook is quite different.
As there’s too much to cover in a blog post we’d recommend taking a look at the following page on Blackboard’s Community site for a video walkthrough of new gradebook (no login is required to access this page): Blackboard Community – Gradebook Navigation and Layout
The creation and management of groups will become easier following the August upgrade. As well as an improved interface, the new groups tool allows students to be added to groups using drag-and-drop.
Option to duplicate learning modules, folders and content items within a course
Following the August upgrade, staff will be able to duplicate learning modules, folders, and individual content items within a course via the ‘More options’ (•••) menu to the right of the item.
Copied items will, by default, be hidden from students and placed immediately below the original, with ‘Copy’ added to the name of the copied item. Most individual item types can be copied, but for those that cannot be duplicated individually (i.e., LTI items*) the duplicate option will not be available. However, where a whole learning module or folder is duplicated all items within (including LTI items) will be duplicated.
*An LTI item is anything which has been added via the Content Market
• Staff view of a NILE course with the ‘Duplicate’ button highlighted and ‘More options’ menu circled in red
Staff who are interested in finding out more about learning technologies and NILE are invited to join the Learning Technology / NILE Community Group on the University’s Engage platform. The purpose of the community is to share information and good practice concerning the use of learning technologies at UON. When joining the community, if you are prompted to login please use your usual UON staff username and password. By joining the Learning Technology / NILE Community you will receive calendar invitations to our regular live community events:
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
The Learning Technology Team would like to say a very big thank you and many congratulations to the members of academic staff who have received a NILE Ultra Course Award this year.
The recipients of a 2026 Ultra Course Award are:
Hazel McAllister for EDUM134: Approaches to Language Learning – Theory and Method
Kardi Somerfield for MKTM057: Digital Diversity
The Ultra Course Awards recognise staff who have created excellent Ultra courses for their students, and each course submitted for an award is reviewed by a panel of experts to ensure that it meets the award criteria, which are that the course:
Is clearly laid out and well-organised at the top level via the use of content containers (learning modules or folders), and that content items within top-level content containers are clearly named and easily identifiable for students, using sub-folders where necessary to organise content within the top-level content containers;
Contains a range of content and activities for students to take part in.
The new features in this month’s Blackboard’s upgrade will be available from Friday 3rd July. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
NILE courses for the 26/27 academic year are now available. Full guidance about how to set up your NILE courses for teaching is also available, along with written and video guidance about how to safely copy across your 25/26 NILE courses to your 26/27 NILE courses.
Staff are not required to specify either the maximum number or replies a student can make or the maximum time a conversation may last, but can optionally use one or both of these to constrain the conversation. Where both are used, whichever constraint is reached first will end the conversation. When the conversation ends due to a constraint being reached the AI persona will wrap up the conversation, thanking the student for their participation, summarising the conversation, and directing the student to complete the reflection question. Where a limit to the number of replies is set, a student can still use the ‘Save and close’ and function and is not required to complete the conversation in a single sitting. However, while a student can save and close a conversation while the timer is running, this will not pause the timer, which will continue to run regardless. If the timer runs out while the conversation has been saved and closed the AI persona will not wrap up the conversation.
The options to specify time and/or reply limits are available via the ‘Conversation constrains’ menu when setting up the conversation.
• AI conversation setup screen with conversation constraints panel open
When students begin an AI conversation which has had constraints applied, this will be displayed when launching the conversation. If a timer has been set, an additional screen will show following the ‘Start conversation’ screen at which students will be prompted to ‘Start timer’ (or to cancel if they are not ready to begin). Once the timer has started it will not stop. If the student chooses to save and close the conversation, the timer will still run in the background. Once the conversation has started the remaining time and the remaining number of replies is shown at the bottom of the conversation. Note that the timer applies only to the AI conversation, not to the reflection question.
• Student view of a conversation with constraints applied
Staff can now add descriptions to discussions and journals. These descriptions are optional and are separate from the discussion/journal topic. Currently, the topic for the discussion or journal is shown on the course content page immediately below the discussion or journal title. Following July’s upgrade the topic will no longer be shown on the course content page, and will only be visible to students once they have entered the discussion or journal. The space below the discussion/journal title on the course content page will be reserved for the description, and where a description is not used this field will remain blank.
An example of how this might be used is as follows. The discussion topic would be used as normal, as the initial stimulus post to which students would post their replies. The description, which students will see on the course content page before entering the discussion, could then be used to add useful information about when to post their replies or to make their journal entries: for example, to remind students to complete their discussion post (or journal entry) before coming to class on such and such a date, as shown in the screenshot below:
• Staff view of the discussion setup screen with a description applied
The description would then display to students in the NILE course on the course content page as so:
• Student view of a discussion in the course content area, showing the description below the discussion title
And the actual topic for discussion would only be seen upon entering the discussion, along with the description:
Find your favourite courses faster with course switcher
Building on May’s upgrade, which introduced a search option to the course switcher, a favourites tab has now been included to the course switcher, allowing staff and students to quickly move between their favourite courses.
Staff who are interested in finding out more about learning technologies and NILE are invited to join the Learning Technology / NILE Community Group on the University’s Engage platform. The purpose of the community is to share information and good practice concerning the use of learning technologies at UON. When joining the community, if you are prompted to login please use your usual UON staff username and password. By joining the Learning Technology / NILE Community you will receive calendar invitations to our regular live community events:
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
The new features in this month’s Blackboard’s upgrade will be available from Friday 5th June. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
Provide answer-level feedback for multiple choice and multiple answer questions
When creating or editing multiple choice or multiple answer questions, June’s upgrade will bring in an ‘Option Feedback’ tool which allows staff to add feedback to each answer response, thus providing students with more detailed feedback about why certain responses were correct or incorrect. When adding feedback, staff do not have to enter feedback for all responses, so can, for example, only add feedback for incorrect responses.
• MCQ test question with ‘Option Feedback’ tool highlighted and feedback added for all responses
The release timing of the feedback is controlled in the assessment setting panel, so staff can choose when to provide the question feedback, e.g. immediately upon submission of the test, or only when all grades are posted.
Please note that in this initial release of the option feedback tool, students will see the feedback for all responses, not just the ones they selected (as shown in the screenshot below). However, this will be changed in a later release so that feedback is only displayed to each student for the responses they actually selected.
• Student view of MCQ response feedback, showing feedback for all responses, which response was selected, that it was incorrect, and which was the correct response
Lock response options in a fixed position for multiple choice and multiple answer questions in Blackboard tests
Following June’s upgrade, staff using Blackboard tests will be able to lock multiple choice/answer responses in place when using the ‘randomise answers’ setting. The main use case for this is where staff want to lock responses such as ‘all of the above’ or ‘none of the above’ in place while randomising the display of the remaining responses (as in the screenshot below).
• MCQ test question with ‘None of the above’ response lock highlighted
However, as the randomise answers test setting applies to all multiple choice/answer questions in a test (i.e. staff cannot specify that some questions should have have randomised answers and some should not), the lock tool allows for scenarios in which staff want the responses to most questions randomised, but where there are certain questions in which all the responses to a particular question need to be displayed in a particular order, therefore there is no limit to the number of responses that can be locked in a test question.
In the following screenshot, all the responses for the question are locked, so that although other test questions will have their responses randomised, this one will always display the responses in the order specified.
• MCQ test question with all responses locked
Note that the ability to lock answers in place will only display once randomise answers has been selected in the assessment settings panel.
In addition to the Marks, Progress, and Activity Log tabs, the June upgrade will bring in an Announcements tab to the student overview panel in NILE courses, showing which announcements each student has marked as read and when. However (and it’s a big ‘however’), despite appearing to do so, the announcements tracker does not actually indicate whether a student has read an announcement or not, only whether they have marked it as read or not. Students can read an announcement but not mark it as read, and can not read an announcement but mark it as read. Therefore, because there is no necessary relationship between marking an announcement as read and actually reading it, staff should treat the information in this tab (and also in the review student engagement with announcements panel) with an appropriate degree of caution.
• Student information panel with new ‘Announcements’ tab showing
Staff who are interested in finding out more about learning technologies and NILE are invited to join the Learning Technology / NILE Community Group on the University’s Engage platform. The purpose of the community is to share information and good practice concerning the use of learning technologies at UON. When joining the community, if you are prompted to login please use your usual UON staff username and password. By joining the Learning Technology / NILE Community you will receive calendar invitations to our regular live community events:
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
We’re very excited to let you know that three academics from UON have each received a Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Award for their NILE courses this month. The recipients are:
Carey Allen for PSY1011: Positive Psychology
Dr Muhammad Hijazy for HRMM094: Academic and Digital Skills for Professionals
David Meechan for EYS3145: Research and Inquiry
The ECP is an international award which recognises staff who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to creating engaging, innovative, and student-centred learning experiences in their Blackboard (i.e. NILE) courses. To reach ECP standard is a major achievement, and effectively means that these NILE courses are amongst the best anywhere in the world!
“We are proud to recognise educators like Carey, Muhammad, and David, whose work reflects the creativity, care and intention behind impactful course design,” said Dr Lisa Clark, Associate Vice President of Academic Transformation at Blackboard.
As well as being a very well-deserved recognition for Carey, Muhammad, and David, for their hard work and expertise in developing excellent NILE courses, this is a big achievement for UON’s Learning Technology Team too, as only seven ECP awards went to staff at UK universities, and UON staff won three of them!
If you’d like to know more about how you can transform your NILE course into an award-winner, or if your NILE course is already brilliant and you’d like to find out how to apply for ECP status or for one of UON’s own NILE Ultra Course Awards, please get in touch with your learning technologist.
Finally, many, many congratulations once again to Carey, Muhammad, and David. ECP status is no small achievement, and we’re very proud to have your award-winning courses on NILE.
Update – May 8, 2026: Please note that the May upgrade is currently on hold as a problem was discovered with it. NILE is not affected by the problem as it was discovered prior to our upgrade, therefore we will remain on version 4000.12 (April 2026) and won’t be upgraded to version 4000.15 (May 2026) until the problem has been fixed. More information is available at: Blackboard Issues with 4000.15.0 Release Update – May 11, 2026: The 4000.15 (May 2026) upgrade is available as of today, Monday 11 May 2026.
The new features in this month’s Blackboard’s upgrade will be available from Friday 8th May. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
Following the introduction of the new navigation in the January 2026 upgrade, the May upgrade will bring in an improvement to the course switcher, allowing staff and students to search for courses. At present, the course switcher allows staff and students to move from their current course to one of their four most recent courses (displayed in the ‘Recent courses’ section of the course switcher window). Following the upgrade staff and students will see a search box, making it possible to switch between any two NILE courses without closing the current NILE course and returning to the main NILE courses menu.
• Course switcher and new ‘Search courses’ option marked
Second due date for discussions visible in gradebook
Following the December 2025 and March 2026 upgrades, which, respectively, brought in the options to specify participation requirements and add a second due date when using marked discussions, May’s upgrade will, where a second due date has been set, allow staff to view both discussion due dates in the gradebook.
• ‘i’ info button highlighted with a pop-up showing due dates for a marked discussion
Staff who are interested in finding out more about learning technologies and NILE are invited to join the Learning Technology / NILE Community Group on the University’s Engage platform. The purpose of the community is to share information and good practice concerning the use of learning technologies at UON. When joining the community, if you are prompted to login please use your usual UON staff username and password. By joining the Learning Technology / NILE Community you will receive calendar invitations to our regular live community events:
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
Choosing the right tool in NILE can sometimes feel overwhelming. With a wide range of options available, it’s not always obvious which activity to use when thinking about student engagement.
To support academic tutors with this decision‑making, Richard Byles and Kelly Lea, Learning Technologists at the University of Northampton, co-delivered a series of workshops called Enhancing and Measuring Student Engagement through NILE Tools which ran between November 2025 and May 2026. As part of this, Richard created a table of digital engagement tools that helped staff compare and evaluate tools for engagement based on pedagogic purpose, rather than guesswork.
The NILE engagement activities table brought together commonly used engagement activities, like polls, journals, Padlet activities, quizzes and discussions, and set them out alongside considerations such as:
what the activity is designed to achieve
how it supports learning and engagement
accessibility considerations for diverse learners
potential risks around inappropriate use of AI
time commitment for both students and staff
how tutors might respond when engagement is low
So, rather than trying to work out what the ‘best’ tool was, tutors were able to make more informed decisions based on questions such as:
What kind of engagement am I trying to encourage here?
Is this activity inclusive and realistic for my students?
How will I know whether it has been effective?
The resource is intended to be used flexibly, whether you are planning a new module, rethinking an existing activity, or simply exploring alternatives to familiar approaches within NILE.
By focusing on pedagogy, accessibility, and student experience, the activity table can support a more purposeful use of the wealth of NILE tool available to foster meaningful engagement, rather than engagement for its own sake.
Below is a link to the resource, which you are welcome to use and if you need help, you can contact your Learning Technologist to schedule any training you need.
