TILT’Ed with Blackboard Ultra 3900.118
Blackboard’s June release (3900.118) is packed with upgrades designed to improve teaching, streamline course design, and boost student engagement—all without requiring any setup or configuration. This month’s updates bring exciting improvements to test creation, mobile accessibility, and course communication features. Below, we highlight some of the most valuable changes for instructors and students alike.
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Smarter Assessments: Jumbled Sentence Questions Are Here!
One of the most anticipated test features has finally arrived: Jumbled Sentence questions.
Instructors can now build interactive, paragraph-style questions where students fill in the blanks using a drag-and-drop or selection-based word bank. This makes it easier to assess understanding in context, especially in subjects like science, history, or language where terminology matters.
Highlights include:
- Create variables using square brackets (e.g., [covalent]).
- Add distractors to increase difficulty.
- Enable partial credit so students earn points for partially correct answers.
- Provide automated feedback for both correct and incorrect responses.
- Use keyboard-only workflows for improved accessibility.
For example:
“Single water molecules are held together by [covalent] bonds and multiple water molecules are held together by [hydrogen] bonds.”
Blackboard will recognize those bracketed terms as correct answers. Variables support letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores, and even chemical terms like H2O or polar-covalent-bond. Plus, answer choices are randomized for each student—leveling the playing field during online assessments.
AI-Generated Jumbled Sentence Questions
Pressed for time or struggling with example phrasing? Blackboard now lets instructors use AI to generate jumbled sentence questions directly from within the test builder.
Click “Generate,” and the system will produce a full question—including answer options. You maintain full editing control, so you can adjust points, add distractors, or customize feedback.
This is ideal for:
- Rapid question bank creation
- Variations of existing questions
- Inspiration for complex terminology or concepts
It’s like having a tireless teaching assistant right in your LMS.
Keep Conversations Flowing: New Discussion Activity Indicator
A deceptively simple—but powerful—upgrade is the addition of unread post indicators for Discussions.
Now, when students or instructors visit the course content page, a small number badge appears next to the Discussions link, showing how many posts have gone unread. This change mimics the look and feel of app notifications, which we know are hard to ignore.
Why it matters:
- Increases visibility of ongoing conversations
- Helps students stay engaged and on track
- Makes it easier for instructors to monitor participation
Expect more meaningful interactions and fewer missed threads!
Better on Mobile: Knowledge Check Enhancements
Blackboard also rolled out several design improvements to Knowledge Checks, making them cleaner, more intuitive, and far more mobile-friendly.
Visual & Functional Updates:
- Answer letters now appear at the top of each choice (not centered).
- “Correct” or “Incorrect” labels moved above the answers for clarity.
- Instead of bold red/green highlights, a colored bar now shows answer status—making the UI more professional and less jarring.
- On small screens, text labels like “Correct answer” are now shortened and repositioned for improved readability.
- The Submit button spans the full screen width, making it easier to tap.
Language Refinements:
Participation results now read more naturally—e.g., “2 of 8 students participated” instead of “2/8 students”. This subtle shift aligns with the low-stakes, formative intent of Knowledge Checks.
Overall, these enhancements improve usability without requiring instructors to lift a finger.
No Setup Required
Every new feature highlighted in this release is automatically available in all Ultra courses. No activation steps. No configuration changes.
That means:
- Instructors can start building Jumbled Sentence questions now.
- Students benefit from visual and accessibility improvements right away.
- Everyone enjoys a smoother, more intuitive Ultra experience.
Want to Learn More?
If you’d like hands-on help or want to explore how these new features can support your course goals, we’ve got you covered:
- Visit: BBUltra.FHSU.edu – your hub for Blackboard Ultra resources
- Attend: Blackboard Ultra Open Office Hours
- Meet: Need a 1-on-1 consultation with an Instructional Designer at TILT?
- Connect: Visit the Anthology Community to share ideas
- Submit: Suggestions via the Anthology Idea Exchange
And of course, subscribe to the Tiger Learn Podcast to hear our instructional design team talk through each release with practical tips, real use cases, and some fun along the way.
Have questions? Want to share how you’re using the new features in your courses? Reach out to us at TILT@fhsu.edu — we love hearing from our FHSU faculty and staff!
Until next month,
Keep innovating. Keep learning. Keep those discussions active.
— The TILT Team
*note: information from this blog post and podcast has come from Anthology’s June release that can be found here.
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