Feature highlights
These are some of the Blackboard Ultra features and updates released on May 1st 2025. Updates will be automatically available within your courses, organisations and content menus. You’ll find more detailed release notes below.
Gradebook Accessibilty enhancements
No Points Rubrics
Topic: Tests and Assessment
Feature Details: Instructors can now use a No Points (Qualitative) Rubric to give feedback to students.
What does this mean for you?: A rubric allows markers to give students feedback in-line with the marking criteria and choose whether they assign marks to students based on these. Qualitative rubrics allow users to give formative feedback and marks independently. This gives greater flexibility to instructors when deciding what type of rubric to use to give marks and feedback to students.
Guide: No Points Rubric
One Time Test Feedback option
Topic: Tests and Assessment
Feature Details: When setting up a test, you can decide that students can see their feedback for the test in a one time only option.
What does this mean for you?: This allows students to see any marks and feedback for a particular test. This option gives them the information once, and then locks access to the test when closed. You may then choose to reveal all feedback to students at a later date.
Guide: Blackboard Test Settings (Results Settings)
Gradebook Accessibility Improvements
Topic: Accessibility
Feature Details: The Gradable Items tab in the Gradebook now features a redesigned interface to improve accessibility and navigation for keyboard-only and screen reader users.
What does this mean for you?: With this update, the Gradable Items tab uses a table-based layout to enhance usability. Screen reader users can now hear both header and row announcements, allowing for smoother navigation through student submissions. Keyboard users can now move efficiently across rows or down columns using arrow keys. This makes Blackboard Ultra increasingly accessible for all users.
Text Based Columns
Topic: Gradebook
Feature Details: Users can add a text column to their gradebook.
What does this mean for you?: The cell has 32 characters so that you can use this for adding supervisor names, short notes, or other uses. You can choose to reveal or hide to these columns to the learner. More information is in our new guide.
Guide: Add a Text item to Gradebook
Grade Approval Updates
Topic: Programme Admin Colleagues
Feature Details: There are several updates to the Grade Approval screens.
What does this mean for you?: Programme Admin teams using the Grade Approval screens for sending marks to RISIS will now see pagination to longer list screens; items selected in these screens will remain selected whilst users are viewing across multiple pages. The columns in the Grade Approval and Marking screen will also have new heading names.
If you have an idea for a Blackboard feature or improvement, please raise a ticket with the TEL Team.