Course Navigation

Blackboard Ultra gives students a modern, streamlined way to access course materials, keep track of due dates, submit assignments, take assessments, review grades and feedback, and communicate with instructors and classmates. This guide brings together essential student tutorials to help you navigate Blackboard confidently and stay on top of your course work.

Getting Started & Navigation

Get an introduction to Blackboard Ultra and the main tools you will use to access course materials, activities, and updates.

Review and update the profile information and settings available through your Blackboard account.

Locate current, upcoming, and previous courses from the Courses page in Blackboard.

Use the course navigation to find content, discussions, grades, messages, and other course-specific tools.

Review recent course activity, new content, grades, and upcoming work from the Activity page.

Use the Blackboard calendar to review due dates and course events and stay organized across your courses.

Choose how and when Blackboard notifies you about course announcements, due dates, grades, and other activity.

Use the browser checker and Blackboard Help resources to confirm that your browser is ready for course work.

Course Content & Tools

Learn how common Blackboard content types are presented so you can find files, learning modules, links, and activities.

Use the Blackboard content editor to format text and add links or media when completing course activities.

Assignments & Assessments

Learn how to open assignments, review instructions and due dates, and understand submission status.

Upload your work, review the attached files, and submit an assignment in Blackboard.

Find instructor comments, grades, and other feedback after an assignment has been reviewed.

Learn how SafeAssign works within the Blackboard assignment submission process.

Review assessment details and complete the recommended checks before beginning a Blackboard test.

Navigate test questions, enter your responses, and submit a completed assessment in Blackboard.

Review your test results, submitted responses, scores, and instructor feedback when they are available.

Learn how to answer hotspot questions by selecting the requested area within an image.

Grades & Progress

Use the Gradebook to review scores, submission status, and feedback across your course work.

Use the How Am I Doing? report to understand your activity and progress within a course.

Find and review course grades from the Blackboard mobile app.

Discussions & Collaboration

Open course discussions, create a response, and reply to classmates or your instructor.

Read and send course messages to communicate with instructors and classmates within Blackboard.

Create and manage journal entries for reflective or instructor-guided course activities.

Use Blackboard group spaces and tools to collaborate with classmates on shared course work.

Blackboard Ultra gives instructors a modern, streamlined way to manage courses, communicate with students, deliver engaging content, and assess learning in one centralized platform. This guide brings together essential instructor resources—covering navigation, announcements, discussions, grading, assessments, course content, and student management—to help you work more efficiently and get the most out of Blackboard Ultra, whether you’re setting up a course for the first time or refining an existing one.

Navigation & Getting Started

Locate your course list immediately after logging in. You can view current, past, and upcoming courses from the “Courses” page in the global navigation menu.

Find Your Course

Access global tools such as your Profile, Activity Stream, Calendar, Messages, and Grades from the main menu on the left side of the screen, outside of any specific course context.

Navigate Outside Your Course

Use the course navigation bar (usually at the top) to access Course Content, Calendar, Discussions, Gradebook, and Messages specific to that course.

Navigate Inside a Course

This page (often the “Activity Stream”) highlights important updates such as new content, grades, and due dates, featuring institutional announcements at the top.

Activity Page

Helps students stay organized by automatically populating due dates from assessments and content. Instructors can also add custom events.

Calendar

A tool to share updates, reminders, and weekly overviews with students. You can schedule them in advance to maintain consistent communication.

Announcements

View your course exactly as students will see it before making it available. Use this feature to verify content visibility, layout, and the overall student-facing experience without publishing live changes.

Enter a temporary student account within your course to experience it as a student would. You can submit test submissions and review results to confirm that content and assessments behave as intended.

Customize how and when you receive alerts about student activity, discussion posts, assignment submissions, and course updates. Proper configuration helps you stay informed without being overwhelmed by notifications.

Learn how Blackboard Ultra supports an inclusive learning environment through built-in accessibility features, including screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and tools for creating accessible course content.

Discussions & Communication

Facilitate class-wide conversations to encourage peer interaction and critical thinking. You can set up graded or ungraded forums.

Create Discussions

Instructors and students can reply to threads and posts directly within the discussion board to maintain the conversation flow.

Respond to Discussions

Monitor student engagement and participation levels within discussion forums to assess their activity.

View Discussion Performance and Analytics

Create discussions specific to groups of students to foster smaller, focused collaboration.

Group Discussions

Edit, delete, or organize discussion threads and forums to keep the conversation relevant and appropriate.

Manage Discussions

Find specific posts or threads within the discussion board for review or grading.

Search and Collect Discussions

Communicate privately with students or groups within the course context. This is distinct from email and keeps course-related queries in one place.

Send Messages

View the list of enrolled students and other course members. It is often used to manage course roles and accommodations.

Roster

Access detailed progress reports and activity logs for individual students to track their performance and engagement.

Student Overview

Set up private or shared student journals to support individual reflection, formative writing, and ongoing communication between you and each student throughout the course.

Record audio or video feedback directly within the gradebook to provide students with richer, more personal responses to their work—an effective alternative to written-only comments.

Monitor and record student attendance directly within your course. You can manually update attendance records or configure automatic tracking tied to participation or login activity.

Grading & Assessments

Use the Gradebook to review student submissions, manage grades, track progress, and keep assessment information organized within your course.

Review assignment submissions, enter grades, and provide feedback so students can understand their performance and next steps.

Use flexible grading tools to review test submissions efficiently, move between students and questions, and focus on the grading workflow that works best for the assessment.

Grade student discussion participation, review responses, and provide feedback from the discussion grading workflow.

Create and manage rubrics to define grading criteria, communicate expectations, and support more consistent evaluation of student work.

Apply rubric criteria while grading submissions to provide structured feedback and align scores with the expectations shared with students.

Set time limits for tests and other assessments to manage availability, pacing, and completion expectations for students.

Configure tests to show one question at a time when you want students to move through an assessment in a more controlled sequence.

Content Management

The primary action to build your course. You can create new items, upload files, or import content from other sources using the plus (+) sign in the Course Content area.

Add Content

Build content pages directly in the course that can combine text, images, and other media elements into a single viewable item.

Creating Documents

Use the content editor to type instructions, descriptions, or lessons directly into Documents, Assignments, or Tests.

Add Text

Upload files (documents, images, slides) from your computer directly into the text editor for students to view or download.

Insert Local File in the Content Editor

Blackboard supports a wide range of file formats for upload, including standard office documents, PDFs, and media files.

Supported File Types

Create shortcuts within your course content that link students directly to other tools or materials (e.g., a link in Week 1 content that leads to a Test).

Course Links

Add direct links to external websites and resources as standalone items in your course content.

Web Links

Build structured, step-by-step learning paths that guide students through course materials in a set sequence. Learning Modules support conditional release to help you control the pace of student progress.

Set rules that control when content, assessments, or activities become accessible to students based on criteria such as specific dates, prior completions, or group membership.

Reuse materials by copying content items, folders, or entire banks from your previous courses into the current one.

Copy Content From Other Courses

Create a downloadable package of your course content for backup purposes or to share with another institution.

Export and Archive Courses