Alert: Changes to Blogs, Wikis, Journals and Portfolios in Blackboard Ultra

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What is happening?

Blackboard Ultra does not support the following Blackboard Original tools / functions:

  • Blackboard Wikis 
  • Blackboard Blogs 
  • Assessment integration for Blackboard Portfolio (instead, students will need to download a zipped file for upload to a Blackboard submission point).
  • Peer-to-peer functionality for Blackboard Journals (i.e. the ability for students to view each other’s Journal entries).

We are contacting instructors who have deployed these tools in 2023/24 courses.

What should I do next? 

  1. If you do not require these tools or particular functions for 2024/25, please disregard this notification. 
  2. If you need to seek an alternatives, see suggestions and links to guidance below.  
  3. If you would like further advice, please contact us as soon as possible via the DTS Service Desk or email dts@reading.ac.uk (to ensure there will be someone to help you, we will schedule a future date to meet). If your immediate teaching team is affected and you would like support, please coordinate as a group to liaise with us. 

Possible alternatives using available tools? 

The following are institutionally licenced and approved software. 

Tool and link to guidance Ability to create templates?

 

For co-authoring activities?
students can see and edit each other’s contributions
 
For a shared viewing space?
students can
see (but not edit) each other’s contributions
For a private space?
students cannot see each other’s contributions
 
Blackboard Ultra Journal  N  N  N  Y 
Microsoft 365 shared documents and/or folders  Y  Y  Y  Y 
One Note or Class Notebook  Y  Y  Y  Y 
Microsoft 365 apps (Whiteboard, Sway, etc)  Y  Y  Y  Y 
Blackboard Ultra Discussions  N N
(students can only leave comments/replies)
Y (anonymous posting unavailable for graded Discussions) N

 

Padlet
(September institutional licence coming, subject to procurement) 
Y Y Y Y

Useful resources

 

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