Showing items tagged groups-management. Show All
Redesigned Groups, Cascading Release Conditions in the May Ultra Update
Smarter tools for course design and student support
Have you ever spent more time wrestling with Blackboard's Groups tool than actually designing the group work itself, especially in a large course? The May Ultra update delivers meaningful improvements across course management, giving instructors more flexibility and students more clarity from day one.
Groups Management receive a significant overhaul in this release. Blackboard redesigned the entire Groups experience to address long-standing usability challenges, particularly in large courses where creating, organizing, and managing groups has historically been cumbersome. The updated interface is faster, clearer, and more consistent across group types, so instructors can spend less time configuring group logistics and more time designing the collaborative learning experiences that make group work meaningful.
Image 1: Instructors can now sort group members by first or last name, student ID and sort groups by group name or number of members.
Release Conditions just got more transparent. Instructors can now view any release conditions inherited from a parent learning module or folder directly within the release conditions panel of an individual item. These inherited conditions appear in read-only format, giving instructors a complete picture of everything controlling an item's visibility -- both conditions set on the item itself and those cascading down from a parent container. This update also closes a gap where discussions hidden inside a learning module could still be accessed from the Discussions tab; discussions now fully respect the release conditions applied at the learning module level.
Additional updates for May include:
-
Course Switcher search: The Course Switcher now includes a search box, letting users find and navigate to any course by name or course ID, without browsing the full Courses page.
-
Discussion Due Date in Gradebook: The second due date for discussions now appears on the Gradebook's Overview and Gradable Items pages, helping instructors stay aware of discussions that need grading.
-
Document spacing improvements: Blackboard refined spacing and layout behavior in Documents to reduce unnecessary vertical white space, improving readability and visual balance across content items and images whether editing existing content, creating new content, or using AI-generated layouts.
-
Group filter carried into Flexible Grading: The group filter selected in the Gradebook grid view now persists when entering Flexible Grading. The active filter is displayed within the Flexible Grading view, reducing the need to re-filter after switching views.
When can you expect the update?
Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around May 7-8, 2026. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on May 12, 2026; release notes will be posted to the What's New in Ultra page within two weeks. 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.
For additional information about the latest updates to Ultra, and to get a sneak peek at June’s release, please register for our What’s New in Ultra for Teaching & Learning SU2026, scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2026.
Connect with Instructional Technology
As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:
-
Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
Posted: May 5, 2026, 9:03 AM
Blackboard's Groups tool gets a major redesign that makes managing students faster and easier
Preview it on our test server before it goes live on May 20
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
- 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
Posted: April 27, 2026, 10:49 AM
