{"id":8202,"date":"2023-02-03T16:35:37","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T16:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/?p=8202"},"modified":"2023-05-04T14:17:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T14:17:51","slug":"blackboard-upgrade-february-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2023\/02\/03\/blackboard-upgrade-february-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackboard Upgrade \u2013 February 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The new features in Blackboard\u2019s February upgrade will be available from the morning of Friday 3rd February. This month\u2019s upgrade includes the following new features to Ultra courses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Polygon shape tool available when creating hotspot questions in Ultra tests<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sort items by grading status in the Ultra gradebook<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Students can see other members of their group in Ultra courses<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ally alternative format views count towards progress in progress tracking<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Polygon shape tool available when creating hotspot questions in Ultra tests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2022\/11\/02\/blackboard-upgrade-november-2022\/\">November upgrade<\/a>, staff have been able to create hotspot questions in Ultra tests. Initially, the hotspot area could only be rectangular, but following the February upgrade staff will be able to define complex hotspot areas in Ultra tests using the polygon shape tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"713\" height=\"696\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/PolygonHotspots1-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/PolygonHotspots1-1.png 713w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/PolygonHotspots1-1-300x293.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 713px) 100vw, 713px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><sup>\u2022 Defining a complex hotspot area using the polygon tool<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>More information about how to add and use hotspot questions is available at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Tests_Pools_Surveys\/Question_Types\/Hotspot_Questions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blackboard Help \u2013 Hotspot Questions<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sort items by grading status in the Ultra gradebook <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the February upgrade, when viewing the gradebook in list view, staff can sort the gradebook by the grading status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"945\" height=\"564\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/Gradebook_ListView_Sorting.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/Gradebook_ListView_Sorting.png 945w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/Gradebook_ListView_Sorting-300x179.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/Gradebook_ListView_Sorting-768x458.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 945px) 100vw, 945px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><sup>\u2022 Sorting the gradebook by grading status<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Students can see other members of their group in Ultra courses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After the February upgrade, students who have been assigned to groups will be more easily able to see who they are in a group with. However, they will not be able to see any information about groups that they are not a member of, nor will they be able to view detailed information about their other group members. All that will be disclosed when viewing other group members will be their name, their role in the course, and their profile image if they have uploaded one.<\/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\/2023\/02\/groups-1024x605.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8206\" width=\"768\" height=\"454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/groups-1024x605.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/groups-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/groups-768x454.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/groups.png 1056w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><sup>\u2022 A view of a student viewing the other members of one of the groups of which they are a member<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ally alternative format views count towards progress in progress tracking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When documents are uploaded into NILE they are automatically made available in various additional accessible formats by Ally. Following the February upgrade, when students download and view one of Ally&#8217;s accessible versions of a document, this will be tracked by Ultra&#8217;s progress tracking tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find out more about Ally at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Ally\/Ally_for_LMS\/Instructor\/Quick_Start\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ally &#8211; Quick Start Guide<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u2019s 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><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new features in Blackboard\u2019s February upgrade will be available from the morning of Friday 3rd February. This month\u2019s upgrade includes the following new features to Ultra courses:<\/p>\n<p> Polygon shape tool available when creating hotspot questions in Ultra tests Sort items by grading status in the Ultra gradebook Students can see other members of their [&#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":[39,40,305,135,319,269,304,253,212],"class_list":["post-8202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learntech-news","category-nile-update","category-uon-ultra-project","tag-blackboard","tag-blackboard-learn","tag-blackboard-upgrade","tag-nile","tag-nile-ultra","tag-ultra","tag-ultra-upgrade","tag-update","tag-updates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blackboard Upgrade \u2013 February 2023 - 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\/2023\/02\/03\/blackboard-upgrade-february-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blackboard Upgrade \u2013 February 2023 - Learning Technology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The new features in Blackboard\u2019s February upgrade will be available from the morning of Friday 3rd February. 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