Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to FHSU Tilt Talk, a podcast about educational technologies, teaching and learning, scholarly research and service hosted by Teaching, Innovation and Learning Technology Staff.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Welcome back to what's New and Ultra Tilted, your monthly guide to all the latest and greatest in Blackboard Ultra. I'm Thomas Matthews Horn.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: And I'm Dani Reilly. We're back for episode three, and wow, do we have a packed release to talk about today.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Seriously, Danny, the 3900.121 release for July is absolutely loaded. We are looking at updates across eight different areas. Instructional design, mastery learning tests and assignments, the gradebook, learner progression. The list goes on and on.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: I know when I first saw the release notes, I thought, how are we going to fit all of this into one episode? But don't worry, listeners. We'll hit the highlights that'll make the biggest impact on your teaching.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: So, Danny, where do we start? There's so much good stuff here.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Let's kick it off with something visual. The new image caption feature in documents. This one's been on my wish list forever.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Finally, we can add captions above or below images and documents. It seems simple, but it's huge for proper documentation, accessibility and just general clarity.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: You know how many times I've had faculty ask, how do I add a caption to this diagram? And I'd have to tell them to basically hack it with text formatting. Now, it's just built right in, and.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: You can position the caption above or below the image, which is nice for design flexibility. Just go to edit file options and boom, there's your caption, and it's a field and position selector. So it's awesome.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: I love that they're thinking about context and understanding. A good caption can totally transform how students interact with visual content.
Like, instead of just seeing quote, unquote, a cat, you could have a caption that says, tabby is one of the most common fur patterns in cats.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Did you just quote the example from the release notes?
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Maybe, but it's a good example.
Speaking of good examples, let's talk about something that's going to save a lot of headaches during course conversions.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Oh, the folder and learning module description conversion feature.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: That's the one.
So here's the deal. In original courses, you can have these super rich descriptions of formatting, embedded media attachments, the works. But ultra descriptions are plain text with a 750 character limit, which means when.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: You convert from original to ultra, you could lose a ton of content.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: So now there's a toggle that converts those descriptions to full documents. Instead, the document gets placed right inside the folder or learning module so nothing.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Gets lost and they turned it on by default, which is smart. Better to preserve everything and let instructors clean up later than to lose content permanently.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Now let's shift gears to something that's going to make assessment management way easier. QTI Question Import for Question Banks oh, this is big.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: For anyone who creates assessments and other tools, QTI is like the universal language for quiz questions, right?
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Pretty much. It stands for Question and Test Interoperability and it's an industry standard. So if you're building questions in, say, Respondus or some other assessment tool, you can export them as a QTI and now import them directly into your blackboard question banks.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: What question types are supported?
[00:03:34] Speaker A: The main ones True, false, multiple choice, multiple answer, fill in the blank, and essay questions. And here's what I appreciate if something can't be imported, the system tells you exactly what couldn't be converted and why.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: That's so much better than the old import. Failed message with no explanation, right?
[00:03:53] Speaker A: Transparency for the win.
Now let's talk about something that seems small but is going to make a lot of instructors happy. The no Category option in the Gradebook.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: I can already hear the collective sigh of relief from instructors who've been fighting with grade categories.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: I know before, if you wanted to remove an item from a category, you had to assign it to another one. There was no way to just not have it in a category, which was.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Frustrating if you had a one off assignment that didn't fit anywhere.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Now you can just select no category from the dropdown and it's not linked to any grading category. Clean, simple, no workarounds needed.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Speaking of the Gradebook, they also enhanced the pop out rubric feature.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Yes, three really nice quality of life improvements here. First, if you try to close the rubric without saving, you get a warning. No more accidentally losing all of your feedback.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Thank goodness. I've done that more times than I care to admit.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Haven't we all? Second, clicking save doesn't close the rubric anymore, so you can save your progress and keep working.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: And third, they improved keyboard navigation with arrow keys and tab interaction.
Accessibility Win?
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Absolutely. And while we're on the topic of grading efficiency, group submissions now have previous next navigation buttons.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Oh, that's going to save so much time. No more going back to the submission list between each group.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Just click through them all in sequence. It's these little workflow improvements that really add up over a semester.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: And we all know that faculty have enough on their plates.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Good point. Now, here's another feature that's been highly requested, tracking who's viewed announcements.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Finally, how many times have students claimed they never saw an important announcement?
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Every semester, multiple times. Now you can see exactly who's marked an announcement as viewed. Just click on the viewer count and you can get a list showing who has and who hasn't seen it.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: And you can message the students who haven't viewed it directly from that screen.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Which is perfect for those. Hey, just making sure you saw the exam date change follow ups.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Exactly. Now let's talk about something that'll make our STEM Faculty Very happy. MathJax integration.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Oh yes. For those who aren't familiar, MathJax is a tool for rendering mathematical formulas, and it's kind of the gold standard in academic publishing.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: It renders LA text code directly in the content editor, and the formulas look exactly like they would in a scientific journal or textbook.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: The visual difference is subtle but important. For math and science folks, the formulas just look more professional, more precise, more.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Like what students will see in their textbooks and academic papers. It's about consistency across their learning materials.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Now, important note, this only works with the double dollar sign delimiters right now.
So if you type dollar your latex.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Code dollar sign and whereas is still there as the default if MathJax isn't activated, the Math Editor tool still uses weirs too, right?
[00:07:06] Speaker A: This is specifically for latex type directly into the content editor. But for math heavy courses, this is a game changer.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Speaking of game changers, how about retroactive achievements?
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Oh, this fixes such an annoying limitation. Before, if you created an achievement after students had already completed an assessment, they.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Wouldn'T get it, which meant you had to plan all your achievements before the course.
This audio was created with Podcastle AI which meant you had to plan all your achievements before the course even started.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Now, achievements are awarded retroactively. So if you decide midway through the semester to add an achievement for scoring above, let's say 90% on a midterm, everyone who already hit that mark gets it automatically.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: That's so much more flexible. You can respond to how your class is going and add achievements that make sense in the moment.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: All right, Thomas, this has been a massive release. How would you sum it up for our listeners?
[00:08:10] Speaker B: I'd say this release is all about efficiency and flexibility. Whether it's the streamlined grading workflows, the enhanced activity page, or the ability to add achievements retroactively. Everything's designed to make instructors lives easier.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: And more responsive to student needs too. The announcement, tracking, better math rendering and image captions. These all help create a better learning experience.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Absolutely.
As always, if you want to dive deeper into any of these features, head over to VVUltra FHSU.edu.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: You'Ll find links to the anthology community, the Idea Exchange, which by the way, several of these features came from the user suggestions there.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Love to see it. Plus, don't forget about our Blackboard Ultra Open Office hours if you need hands on help with any of these new features.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: And of course the what's New in Ultra Blog. If you prefer to read about these updates in detail.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Well, that's all for this month's episode of what's New in Ultra Tilted. Thanks for joining us for this feature packed July release.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Seriously, my brain is full. But in the best way. We'll be back next month with even more Ultra updates. Until then, keep exploring these new features.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: And remember, if something seems different in your Blackboard course, it's probably a new feature, not a bug. When in doubt, seek Tilt out. I'm so proud of that when I typed that out. RB Support and Instructional Designers are available to support you.
See you next month.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to this episode of FHSU Tilt Talk. Subscribe on Spotify, Amazon and check us out on the Tiger Learn Blog or the Tilt Social Media pages for updates. We'll see you next time.
