Blackboard Ultra Course View Faculty Quick Start Guide

Modified on Fri, 01 Mar 2024 at 03:11 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS


What is Blackboard Ultra Course View?

Blackboard Ultra has been redesigned from the ground up and features a modern, mobile-first design and intuitive navigation. Features include:

  • A responsive mobile friendly experience. Move from phone to tablet to computer seamlessly. 
  • Improved accessibility. 
  • Consistent navigation for students across courses. 
  • Progress tracking.
  • Streamlined grading.


View the Why You Should Try Blackboard Ultra video walkthrough for more information about Blackboard Ultra at Lesley University.




Blackboard has recently tripled its development team for Ultra courses. New features and improvements are released every month! Some of these new features are large updates with completely new functionality. Others are small enhancements that improve workflows and your experience teaching and learning in Ultra. For more information about new features, visit our What's New in Ultra? page. 


Check out all of our Ultra information pages on the Lesley eLIS blog. 



Create Course Content

Your course creation starts on the Course Content page. Here you can create Learning Modules or Folders in which to organize your content, copy content from a previous course, upload content from your computer or Cloud Storage, etc. 


The Add Content to the Course Content Page tutorial video will walk you through the basics of adding content to your course.




Learning Modules

When you design your course, we recommend that your content be “chunked” into discrete, manageable units of learning. This could be by week, unit, topic, or whatever will help to present materials in a meaningful and helpful way. 


Learning Modules allow students to navigate from one content item to the next without distractions or extra clicks. You may decide whether to allow students to view the materials in sequence or allow them to explore the content in any order. Within your learning module you may add different types of content, including folders, documents, tests and assignments, links, and more.


For more information go to the Create Learning Modules support page or watch the Create Learning Modules tutorial video.




Folders

When you design your course, we recommend that your content be “chunked” into discrete, manageable units of learning. This could be by week, unit, topic, or whatever will help to present materials in a meaningful and helpful way. 


Like Learning Modules, Folders allow you to organize your content in a meaningful way. Use folders to organize related documents, projects, etc. For example, if you have an assignment or activity with multiple, related pieces, group them together in a folder for easier navigation.


You may create folders on your Course Content page or create folders within learning modules. You can create two levels of folders to organize your content.



Documents

On the Course Content page you can create a document, or a page to present a combination of content, including text, links, images, video, and more.


For more information, go to the Create Content Items or Documents support page or watch the Create a Document tutorial video.




Release Content

As you create content, you may decide to make it visible to students, hidden from students, or set conditional availability to release content on an exact date or within a date range. For example, your course content is covered in a specific order and you do not want students to get too far ahead. Release your content one week at a time to keep them on track.


For more information go to the Release Conditions support page or watch the Release Conditions tutorial video.





Add and Format Content

The editor appears in most places where you can add content, including Discussions, tests, messages and more. You may add and format text, embed images, attach files, and insert equations, links, and tables.


For more information go to the Blackboard Ultra Course View: Add and Format Content support article or watch the Use the Content Editor tutorial video.



 

Communicate with your Students

Communicate with your entire class at once using the Announcement tool or communicate with individual or groups of students using the Messages tool. As a best practice, use the Announcement tool for communications to the entire class.


Announcements

Announcements are a great way to post time-sensitive information or notifications to your students. Ultra courses display an Announcement as an overlay, requiring the student to dismiss the pop-up before they can access the course content. Announcements can also be emailed as well as viewed in the Activity Stream.


For more information, go to the Announcements support page or watch the Create Announcements tutorial video.




Messages

Course messages are private and secure communications sent within your course and among course members. Messages will appear in the Messages area of the navigation bar. You may send messages to everyone in your course, multiple people in your course, or an individual in your course.


For more information, go to the Messages support page or watch the Messages video tutorial.




Create Discussions

Ultra has a robust Discussion Forum and you and your students can receive notifications about new posts via the Activity Stream or email. Students have the option to edit or delete their posts (this cannot be turned off), but all replies to a deleted post are preserved in the thread.


For more information, go to the Create Discussions support page or watch the Create Discussions video tutorial.





Create Assignments

Ultra Course View allows you to create Assignments alongside other content in your course. You may grade your assignment and provide feedback to your students.


For more information, go to the Create and Edit Assignments support page or watch the Create an Assignment video tutorial.




Create Tests

Ultra Course View allows you to create tests alongside other content in your course. You may grade your test and provide feedback to your students.


For more information, go to the Create Tests support page or watch the Create a Test tutorial video.





Setting up Accommodations and Test Exceptions

Ultra courses allow you to set an Accommodation for a student on the Roster. Rather than applying exceptions for individual tests and assignments, the Accommodations will apply to every assessment in the course. Additionally, you may apply individual exceptions for students on the Submissions page for an Assignment or Test.


Accommodations

You may set accommodations for individual students to allow for additional attempts or extended access. Accommodations apply to all assessments within the course. Students will not see the accommodations that you have added.


For more information, go to the Accommodations support page or watch the Grant Student Accommodations video tutorial.



Assessment Exceptions

You may set exceptions for an individual student on a specific test or assignment to allow additional attempts or extended access. An exception overrides the settings applied to all other students for that specific assessment and students will not see the exceptions you have added.


For more information, go to the Assessment Exceptions support page or watch the Grant Assessment Exceptions tutorial video.




Navigating the Gradebook and Assigning Grades

You may access your Gradebook from the Global Grades Page or from the Gradebook in your individual courses. From the Gradebook, you can view and grade submissions, check your grading progress, manage student grades, view student engagement, and more.


For more information, go to the Navigate Grading support page or watch the Gradebook Overview tutorial video.



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