April 2025 Updates
These are the latest BlackBoard Updates, which will be live on our system from 4th April 2025
Instructors
Indicator if student has or has not reviewed feedback
In the Gradebook, instructors now have enhanced ability to monitor student engagement with assessment feedback. An indicator on the student Overview page now displays whether a student has reviewed the feedback for a given assessment.
When a grade is posted, the indicator includes a label of Not reviewed with the existing Completed label in the Status column. When the student reviews the feedback, the status updates to Reviewed with a review timestamp.
If the new grade indicator is reset for the assessment, such as when a grade is updated or if the assessment has multiple attempts, the timestamp updates when the student reviews the feedback again. If all attempts are deleted, the Not reviewed or Reviewed label is removed.
Enhanced grading experience for group submissions
Group grading has migrated to Flexible Grading. Instructors now have a more streamlined experience when grading group assignment and test submissions in Flexible Grading. This update allows instructors to benefit from the more efficient grading interface and workflow of Flexible Grading when evaluating group submissions.
Instructors and Students
Content Designer: Print Document
Instructors and students can now print Documents or save them to PDF, providing more ways to engage with content. This new option allows users to:
- Review content offline
- Share content with students or peers
- Physically archive content
To print a Document, select Print. Use the browser to print options to select the following:
- A printer or the PDF option
- The page range
- The layout
When printing from a mobile device, the Document prints as displayed on a desktop web browser.
Activity indicator color changed to purple
The color of the activity indicator for discussions, journals, and conversations is changed from blue to purple.
Students
Replace Feedback column with actionable Results column in student Gradebook
To encourage student to review their submitted assessments in the Gradebook:
- A new Results column replaces the Feedback column
- A View button in the new Results column replaces the Feedback column’s purple feedback icon
When a grade is posted and the new grade indicator (purple circle) is turned on, the View button displays for the assessment.
Instructors and Administrators
Learning Object Repository
The new Learning Object Repository is an institutional repository designed to centralise resources across courses and organisations. Administrators can upload objects to the Learning Object Repository for instructors to copy into their courses. Updates to objects in the Learning Object Repository are automatically applied to all associated courses and organisations, saving instructors time and maintaining consistency. Changes aren’t applied to courses that are marked complete or with an end date/term end date in the past.
This is the initial release of the Learning Object Repository. The capabilities of this release are best suited to reusing institutional content.
Instructors access the Learning Object Repository through the More options menu on the Course Content page. Instructors can copy an object from the Learning Object Repository, but certain attributes are locked down. For example, instructors are locked out from editing the title, description, and body of a Document.
309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW
General enquiries: +44 (0)20 7911 5000
Course enquiries: +44 (0)20 7915 5511
The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee.
Registration number: 977818 England