May 2026 Updates
These are the latest Blackboard updates SaaS release 4000.15, which will be live on our system from 7th May 2026.
Instructional Design
White space improvements in Documents
We refined spacing and layout behaviour in Documents to reduce unnecessary vertical white space and improve overall readability and visual balance.
Improved screen reader experience in Document view mode
Screen reader users now have a cleaner, more focused experience when navigating documents in view mode. Unnecessary row and column announcements have been removed to allow access to primary content in the correct order, left to right, across rows, columns, and blocks.
Communication and Collaboration
Rebuilding the Groups management experience for instructors
Changes to the group management experience include:
• A redesigned group management experience
• Improved group creation and enrollment
• Automatic enrollment with clearer controls
• More flexible ways to assign students
• Better visibility and organization
• Sorting for students and groups
• Clearer group membership and activity context
• Performance and reliability improvements
• Consistency across group types
• Upcoming improvements
Make second due date for Discussions visible in Gradebook
The second due date for Discussions now appears in the Gradebook’s Overview and Gradable Items pages, allowing instructors to be more aware of and responsive to student discussions needing grading.
Mastery and Learning Pathways
Visualise release conditions inherited by items in learning modules and folders
Instructors can now view release conditions inherited from a parent learning module or folder directly within the release conditions panel of individual items. Inherited conditions appear in a read-only format, giving instructors a clear picture of all conditions that apply to an item, including those set directly on the item and those cascading from a parent container.
This update also ensures that discussions hidden within a learning module are no longer accessible from the Discussions tab. Discussions now respect the release conditions applied at the learning module level.
Blackboard Core
Improved search and navigation in Course Switcher
Users can now search for a course directly from the Course Switcher and navigate to it without first returning to the Courses page. The Course Switcher now includes a search box that allows users to quickly find and open any course they have access to.
Assignments and Test
Provide answer-level feedback for multiple choice and multiple answer questions
Instructors can now add feedback for each answer option in multiple choice and multiple answer questions. This helps students understand why each choice is correct or incorrect after an attempt is submitted.
