In addition to the content editor updates in the original course view, (highlighted in a separate OWU Daily post,) the Nov. 5 release to Blackboard Learn includes these enhancements to the ultra course view.
* Details & Actions items load together
Items in the Details & Actions section will now load in a single wave. This change will prevent students and instructors from selecting the wrong item as the page loads.
* Embed Office 365 documents
Students and instructors can embed Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files into the rich text editor. This option is only available with OWU Office 365 accounts.
* Gradebook student list view improvements
Instructors can send messages and add accommodations for a student within both the student list view and the grade details view
Instructors can set up activity stream alerts about student inactivity and grade thresholds for themselves and their students. If their course contains enough activity and grading data, they can also see a detailed visualization of class performance.
* Large icon updates
You’ll see new large icons throughout the Ultra interface. These changes to the icons are intended to improve accessibility and differentiation for all users.
– The new icons have a thicker stroke.
– They’re more distinctive to avoid confusion between similar icons and to better support quick scanning.
– All course-related icons have a blue background.
* Show seconds in quiz timer
Students will know how much time they have left down to the last second when they take a quiz in the Ultra Course View. The quiz timer will change from minutes to seconds when less than 1 minute remains.
* Show/hide overall grade column
With this release, instructors can choose whether to show or hide overall grades to their students.
OWU Sponsoring Organization/Office: Information Services
Contact: David Soliday at helpdesk@owu.edu