Blackboard Ultra Updates: January 2026

1. Navigate courses and tools faster with refreshed user interface – 4000.6

Idea Exchange ID: LEARNU-I-2913, LEARNU-I-4193, LEARNU-I-4536

We’re introducing a refreshed Blackboard interface designed to make teaching and learning more intuitive and efficient. These updates help you find information faster, reduce clicks, and simplify tasks such as managing courses, grading, and configuring settings.

The changes reflect extensive feedback from instructors, administrators, and students and aim to:

• Use screen space more effectively

• Reduce navigation errors, such as accidental exits

• Improve performance and page load times

• Provide clearer context and orientation

• Minimize motion for smoother navigation

Changes include the following:

Refreshed Base Navigation

Cleaner layout for clear access to main navigation tabs with less clutter.

• User profile now appears at the top of the navigation, complete with profile image for easier customization.

• Admin and Sign Out options are moved to the bottom of the panel, separating them from other actions for clarity.

• Administrators can now access base navigation directly from the administrator panel, streamlining workflow transitions.

Image 1: The refreshed Base Navigation menu moves Profile to the top of the menu. Admin and Sign Out are moved to the bottom of the panel. The cleaner layout improves clarity for users.

Course Panels Become Full-Screen Course Pages 

Courses now open in full-screen mode to maximize horizontal space and reduce clutter. This update applies to top-level panels such as Course Content Homepage, Calendar, Announcements, Discussions, Gradebook, Analytics, Groups, and Achievements. Secondary panels will update in future releases.

Image 2: The refreshed user interface in courses includes full-screen course pages and improvements to enhance the amount of screen space for users to engage with their course.

Home button replaces Exit

The “X” to exit a course is replaced with a Home button that returns you to your institution’s landing page (Activity Stream, Institution page, or Courses page). The “X” remains for lower-level panels like learning modules for now.

Course ID and title in the header bar

The header now displays the course ID and title for better context. Breadcrumbs will be added in a future update to improve navigation further.

System navigation changes affect how the course ID and course title appear within the course experience. You can set and update these display options as part of the brand workflow, choosing how the course title and ID are shown.

Full-width banner

The course banner spans the full width of the screen with the course ID and title on a darker background for better clarity and accessibility. To improve accessibility, we recommend that your banner image not include text.

If a course doesn’t have a selected banner, a placeholder image will appear at the top. When using brands, this image will adopt a hue of the brand color you set, ensuring visual consistency across all courses.

Image 3: The Course menu has been moved further to the top of the screen to make better use of screen space for users. Additionally, the menu reflects an institution’s branding, using colors and styles from your theme settings.

Branded course menu 

The course menu reflects your institution’s branding, using colors and styles from theme settings. The menu is positioned higher on the screen for better use of space.

Course Switcher

Users can quickly jump between their four most recent courses or go to the full Courses page. More enhancements are planned based on ongoing feedback. 

2. Usability improvements for Document Block Layout  – 4000.6

 Updated Help Page: "Resizing and moving blocks” section on Create Documents 

To improve usability and accessibility, we restructured the menu for document block layout. Previously, all options for changing the row, size, or position of a block were in a single dropdown list. Now, these options are organized by type of change (row, size, and position).

Selecting the edit icon for a block prompts a menu with three options: Change row, Change [block/column] size, and Change [block/column] position. Each of these options have a sub-menu, with the related actions.

• Change row

  • Move to row above

  • Move to row below

  • New row above

• Change [block/column] size

  • Expand to the left

  • Expand to the right

  • Shrink from the left

  • Shrink from the right

• Change [block/column] position

  • Move to the left

  • Move to the right

3. Expanded question options for true/false – 4000.6

Updated Help Page: True/False Questions
We expanded the display options for true/false questions to include:

• True/False

• Yes/No

• Right/Wrong

• Agree/Disagree

These additional answer options display when:

• Instructors create or edit this question type when building a test or in a question bank

• Students answer the question

• Instructors grade the question

• Students review their submission or graded question

Image 1: True/false questions now include additional options.

When converting courses, tests, or pools from Original to Ultra, questions with these display options convert to Ultra with the corresponding display option, Additionally, this enhancement includes improved keyboard navigation when creating true/false questions. We updated the styling of the answer selection for true/false questions to radio buttons.

4. Enhanced multiple choice and multiple answer workflow – 4000.6

We updated question setup to provide a more intuitive experience, including updating the default answer options from three to four and improving controls for how students interact with questions. These changes support greater flexibility in assessment design and an improved experience for students.

To reduce setup time when creating a multiple choice question, we changed the default number of answer options from three to four. Instructors can add or remove answer options.

Instructors can now define the number of answer selections that a student can make for each multiple choice question. When the student takes the assessment, the system enforces the instructor’s selection limit.

The default is:

• 4 answer options

• partial/negative credit is off (no additional changes made to partial/negative credit for this release)

• students can select up to 4 answers

  • if additional answers are added, selection limit remains at 4

  • if answers are removed, instructor must select the selection limit

For questions where students can select only one answer, the selection mechanism is radio buttons. For questions where students can select more than one answer, the selection mechanism is checkboxes.

5. View activity log for Automations – 4000.6

Updated Help Topic: Automations

Instructors can now access an activity log for each automation in their courses. The activity log lists the action date and time the automation was triggered and identifies the student and item that triggered it. This feature gives all instructors in the course visibility into when automations occur and which students receive automated messages.

Instructors

To view the activity log for an automation, instructors select View Automations from Course Assistants on the Course Content page, then select an automation. They then select the Activity Log tab.

6. Improved Automation placement on Course Content page – 4000.6

Impact: Administrators and Instructors
Updated Help Topic: Automations
Idea Exchange ID: Not applicable

The heading for the section on the Course Content page that includes automations is now Course Assistants instead of Virtual Assistant, and the AVA logo has been removed. This change clarifies that automations do not require an AVA license and helps prevent confusion for administrators and instructors.