DoIT Alerts

Have you ever wrestled with Blackboard's group management -- spending too many clicks trying to organize students, waiting for pages to load in large courses, or losing track of who's assigned where? We have good news: Blackboard has completely rebuilt the Groups tool, and it's a meaningful upgrade.

Just the Facts:

• The new Groups tool goes live for SU2026 courses on May 20, 2026.

• Want to explore it first? You can preview it on our test server from April 24 – May 19. Please open an RT ticket to get access. 

What's Changed in Groups Management

A more logical setup flow. Instead of diving straight into managing individual students, you now start by choosing how you want to structure your groups: manual assignment, automatic assignment, self-enrollment, or CSV import. This upfront choice eliminates a lot of guesswork.

Image 1: Instructors now start by creating a group set by choosing how they want to structure groups—before managing individual members.

Smarter automatic enrollment. Just enter the number of students you want per group, and Blackboard does the math, creating the right number of groups and randomly assigning students in one step. No more counting rows.

More ways to move students around. You can assign students from an unassigned list, assign a selected group of students to a specific group at once, or add and remove members from within a group. Fewer clicks, more flexibility.

Better sorting and visibility. You can now sort students by first name, last name, or student ID, and sort groups by name or number of members. This sounds small, but if you've ever tried to manage 200 students across 40 groups, you know how much it matters.

Image 2. Instructors can now sort group members by first or last name, student ID and sort groups by group name or number of members.

Context about how groups are being used. Each group now shows whether it's connected to assignments, tests, or discussions, so you can understand the impact before making changes.

Much faster performance. Save operations that previously took minutes in large courses now complete in seconds. You can even close the page mid-save and Blackboard will finish the job in the background. The previous limits of 5,000 students and 1,000 groups per course have also been removed.

More features on the way. Future improvements to groups will include search and sort functions, drag-and-drop group management, and bulk group creation options.

Want to see it in action? Watch a short video walkthrough.

Coming Later This Summer: A New Gradebook

Groups management isn't the only thing being reimagined. Blackboard is also actively developing a redesigned Gradebook experience, with a technical preview beginning May 21. We'll share more details about when the new Gradebook will be released as they become available. Stay tuned for updates as we head into the fall semester.

Questions?

Reach out by opening an RT ticket. We're happy to walk you through what's new or answer questions about how the changes might affect your course setup.

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
  • What's new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources

Thumbnail-image: Ultra news update

• Attached Inline Image for Blackboard's Groups tool gets a major redesign that makes managing students faster and easier
• Attached Inline Image for Blackboard's Groups tool gets a major redesign that makes managing students faster and easier

The April release introduce several new features aimed at improving content management, grading flexibility, and student feedback tracking. 

Instructors and students can now print Ultra Documents or save them as PDFs. This feature facilitates offline content review, sharing with peers, or creating physical copies. Note that if knowledge checks are included and already completed, they will display selected answers and instructor feedback when printed.

Image 1: Example of new print Ultra Document feature

A major addition this month is the Learning Object Repository (LOR), designed to centralize resources across courses and organizations. Instructors can copy objects from the LOR while maintaining control over settings such as availability. Updates made to objects in the LOR are automatically reflected across associated courses, making it easier to manage institutional content like policy documents.

Content Creation & Management

• When performing a whole course copy, achievements are now automatically included, allowing instructors to maintain consistent recognition across course iterations. However, achievements are not included in granular content copies.
• Instructors can now access Achievements through the Student Preview.

Assessments & Grading

• Flexible Grading is introduced for group assignments and tests. Though some features (like per-question feedback on group tests) are not yet available, this update is part of ongoing improvements to group grading.
• A new feedback indicator on the student Overview page now shows whether students have reviewed their feedback. The indicator updates from “Not reviewed” to “Reviewed” with a timestamp, giving instructors greater insight into student engagement with their feedback.
• A new “Results” column in the Gradebook replaces the “Feedback” column, making it more intuitive for students to view their grades and feedback.

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around April 4-5 2025. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on April 8, 2025; release notes are posted to the What's New in Ultra that same week. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. Please watch the FAQs, including the What's New with Ultra page, and myUMBC for additional information about Ultra.

Curious about the all latest features in Ultra? Join our What's New in Ultra Courses for Teaching & Learning SU2025 webinar on May 12, 2025.

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