{"id":8373,"date":"2023-08-01T08:26:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T08:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/?p=8373"},"modified":"2023-08-07T09:49:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T09:49:55","slug":"blackboard-upgrade-august-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2023\/08\/01\/blackboard-upgrade-august-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackboard Upgrade \u2013 August 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The new features in Blackboard\u2019s August upgrade will be available from the morning of Friday 4th August. This month\u2019s upgrade includes the following new features to Ultra courses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"#learning-module-images\">Ability for staff to add images to learning modules<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#groups\">New location for Ultra groups<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#messages\">Improvements to messages tool<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"learning-module-images\">Ability for staff to add images to learning modules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Following feedback from staff about the need to make Ultra courses more visually engaging, the August upgrade will allow staff to add images to learning modules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"778\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/learning-module-images-1024x778.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/learning-module-images-1024x778.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/learning-module-images-300x228.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/learning-module-images-768x583.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/learning-module-images.png 1239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><sup><em>\u2022 Blackboard Ultra course with images added to learning modules.<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information about customising the appearance of learning modules, please see: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Course_Content\/Create_Content\/Create_Containers_for_Content\/Create_Learning_Modules#Customize\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blackboard Help &#8211; Create Learning Modules, Customise your learning module&#8217;s appearance<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><sup><a href=\"#top\">Back to top \u2191<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"groups\">New location for Ultra groups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After the August upgrade, the groups tool in Ultra courses will move from the Details &amp; Actions menu to the top menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1012\" height=\"529\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/groups.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/groups.png 1012w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/groups-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/groups-768x401.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1012px) 100vw, 1012px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><sup>\u2022 Ultra courses with new Ultra groups location highlighted <\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information about creating and managing groups, and about group spaces in Ultra courses, please see: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/Learn\/Instructor\/Ultra\/Interact\/Course_Groups\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blackboard Help &#8211; Groups<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><sup><a href=\"#top\">Back to top \u2191<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"messages\">Improvements to messages tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to the August upgrade, although courses which contained unread messages were flagged, they were not sorted to the top of the list in the messages page. Following feedback from staff and students, courses with unread messages will now be automatically placed at the top of the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"690\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/messages-1024x690.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/messages-1024x690.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/messages-300x202.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/messages-768x517.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/messages-1536x1035.png 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/08\/messages.png 2034w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><sup>\u2022 Messages page with courses with unread messages sorted to the top of the list.<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><sup><a href=\"#top\">Back to top \u2191<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\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 August upgrade will be available from the morning of Friday 4th August. This month\u2019s upgrade includes the following new features to Ultra courses:<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"#learning-module-images\">Ability for staff to add images to learning modules<\/a> <a href=\"#groups\">New location for Ultra groups<\/a> <a href=\"#messages\">Improvements to messages tool<\/a> Ability for staff to add images [&#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-8373","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 August 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\/08\/01\/blackboard-upgrade-august-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 August 2023 - Learning Technology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The new features in Blackboard\u2019s August upgrade will be available from the morning of Friday 4th August. 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