The September 2025 Blackboard Ultra release (3900.125) is one of the most impactful to date, delivering enhancements across instructional design, grading, assessment, communication, and accessibility. Here are the highlights from this month’s episode of What’s New in Ultra: TILTed:
Block Styling in Documents
Faculty now have new styling options:
each with its own icon and color scheme. These help create visual hierarchy and guide students’ attention, much like callout boxes in textbooks. This update is available immediately in all Ultra courses.
AI-Powered Feedback Features
Anthology’s Virtual Assistant (AVA) introduces two major tools for grading:
- Summarize: Generates overall feedback from completed rubrics.
- Rewrite: Polishes instructor-written feedback into clear, student-friendly language.
These AI tools are premium features, but they’re free to use until June 2026.
Question Management & QTI Export
Instructors can now add searchable titles to questions, making it easier to organize and reuse content. Additionally, Blackboard now supports QTI v2.1 export, allowing question banks to be transferred across learning management systems—saving hours of manual work.
Group Work Enhancements
Group submissions benefit from a new pop-out rubric and students now have access to detailed per-question feedback, including text, files, and video responses.
Quality-of-Life Improvements
- Consistent display of time limits for all users
- Streamlined announcement creation page
- “See more” option for large question pool filters
Accessibility Win
The Submissions list in the Gradebook now uses semantic HTML tables, improving navigation for screen reader users and strengthening Anthology’s commitment to inclusive design.
Grade Export Enhancement
The Grade Export tool now displays the number of results being viewed (e.g., “Showing 1–20 of 50”), improving usability for faculty managing large sets of data.
Takeaway
From visual content design to AI-enhanced grading, this release demonstrates Blackboard’s responsiveness to faculty needs. Most updates are live now, with AI tools available for free until June 2026.
👉 Learn more and access resources at BBUltra.FHSU.edu.
👉 Listen to the full episode of What’s New in Ultra: TILTed for deeper insights.
Until next month,
Keep innovating. Keep teaching. Keep connecting.
— The TILT Team
Note: information from this blog post and podcast has come from Anthology’s September release, available here.
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