Blackboard – CETL

November Academic Technology Updates

Posted on November 10, 2026 (November 2, 2026) by Mike Verdusco

Blackboard’s November update, released for November 6, brings improvements to rubrics, group management, and feedback in Ultra courses. Some features have separate rollout timelines. Print rubrics or save them as PDFs Building on the new cubic features release in October, faculty will be able to print both blank and scored rubrics or save them as […]

October Academic Technology Updates: Highlights for Faculty

Posted on November 2, 2026 (November 4, 2026) by Mike Verdusco

October brought improvements to rubric management, grading, assignment submissions, and AI activities in Blackboard Ultra, and Ally improvements to PDF tools. Blackboard Updates Manage and reuse rubrics more easily A dedicated Course Rubrics page brings your course’s rubrics into a searchable, sortable table. Open it through Gradebook Settings → Manage Course Rubrics, or select Add Rubric in Assignment Settings. You […]

New Blackboard Tools and Updates for Fall 2026

Posted on August 12, 2026 (November 2, 2026) by Mike Verdusco

CETL is pleased to announce several Blackboard updates that will support teaching, learning, accessibility, and course management this fall. The biggest addition is Blackboard Ally, a new accessibility tool that will help faculty improve course materials and give students more options for engaging with content. In addition, the August Blackboard release features an updated Gradebook […]

Kick Off Rubric Creation with Blackboard AI

Posted on March 14, 2024 (March 18, 2024) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson, Associate Director for Digital Education Blackboard has introduced an array of AI-assisted tools to enhance ultra-style course sites. If you have utilized the stock image search to add a course banner following our February 2024 newsletter, you have already interacted with one of these AI features, as the default image search keywords […]

Try the Ultra View Prompt in Blackboard Classes

Posted on February 8, 2023 (October 25, 2026) by Erin Bell

By Russell Davidson; Associate Director for Digital Education, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning The next time you open a newly created course site on Blackboard, you will be presented with a message suggesting you, “Try the Ultra Course View!” In this article, we will briefly look at why you are seeing this message, […]