{"id":7894,"date":"2021-11-29T13:35:51","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T13:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/?p=7894"},"modified":"2021-11-29T13:35:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T13:35:53","slug":"blackboard-upgrade-december-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2021\/11\/29\/blackboard-upgrade-december-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackboard Upgrade \u2013 December 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>December&#8217;s upgrade includes improvements to rubrics, accommodations, and groups in Ultra courses. Also included in the December upgrade is the ability to add a description to Ultra course banners. New features in the December upgrade will be available from Friday 3rd December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rubrics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Rubric types in Ultra courses have been extended to include both points and points range rubrics. The addition of qualitative rubrics is on Blackboard&#8217;s roadmap, although no date has yet been given for when these will be availalble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-rubrics.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7895\" width=\"551\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-rubrics.png 735w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-rubrics-300x192.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 551px) 100vw, 551px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Guidance on creating and using rubrics in Ultra courses is available from: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Grade\/Rubrics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Grade\/Rubrics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accommodations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, accommodations for time-limited assessments only include the options to give an individual student +50% or +100% more time, or unlimited time. Following December&#8217;s upgrade, any percentage can be selected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-accommodations.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7896\" width=\"335\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-accommodations.png 447w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-accommodations-186x300.png 186w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>More information about accommodations for time-limited assessments in Ultra courses can be found at: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Interact\/Roster#about-accommodations_OTP-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Interact\/Roster#about-accommodations_OTP-2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Groups<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A small and subtle change to groups in Ultra courses, but following the upgrade, staff will have the option to decide whether groups are visible to students or not. This will be useful for staff who like to set up marking groups in Turnitin, for example, to manage the marking of a large cohort amongst multiple markers. While it&#8217;s not a problem to do this already, such groups can be hidden from students following the upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-groups-1-1024x387.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7899\" width=\"512\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-groups-1-1024x387.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-groups-1-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-groups-1-768x291.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-groups-1.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>More information on using groups in Ultra course is available at: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Interact\/Course_Groups\/Create_Groups\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Interact\/Course_Groups\/Create_Groups<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Course banner description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultra course banners were introduced in the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2021\/10\/28\/blackboard-upgrade-november-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">November upgrade<\/a>. These course banners should always be used as a decorative element to the course, and they are treated as such for accessibility purposes, informing students using a screen reader that the image is decorative and does not need describing. However, December&#8217;s upgrade allows an image description to be added, and which, if used, will explain to students using a screen reader what the image contains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-banner-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7900\" width=\"410\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-banner-1.png 546w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/11\/ultra-banner-1-195x300.png 195w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>More information about adding a course banner to your Ultra course can be found at: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Getting_Started\/Navigate_Inside_a_Course#customize-your-course_OTP-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Getting_Started\/Navigate_Inside_a_Course#customize-your-course_OTP-2 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the December upgrade: <a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/staff\/nile-help\/who-is-my-learning-technologist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/libguides.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/staff\/nile-help\/who-is-my-learning-technologist<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/staff\/nile-help\/who-is-my-learning-technologist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December&#8217;s upgrade includes improvements to rubrics, accommodations, and groups in Ultra courses. Also included in the December upgrade is the ability to add a description to Ultra course banners. New features in the December upgrade will be available from Friday 3rd December.<\/p>\n<p> Rubrics <\/p>\n<p>Rubric types in Ultra courses have been extended to include both points [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,261,290],"tags":[39,305,135,269,304,253,212,213],"class_list":["post-7894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learntech-news","category-nile-update","category-uon-ultra-project","tag-blackboard","tag-blackboard-upgrade","tag-nile","tag-ultra","tag-ultra-upgrade","tag-update","tag-updates","tag-upgrade"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blackboard Upgrade \u2013 December 2021 - Learning Technology Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2021\/11\/29\/blackboard-upgrade-december-2021\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blackboard Upgrade \u2013 December 2021 - Learning Technology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December&#8217;s upgrade includes improvements to rubrics, accommodations, and groups in Ultra courses. 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