{"id":22014,"date":"2026-05-19T13:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/?page_id=22014"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:53:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:53:49","slug":"may-2026-updates","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/may-2026-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2026 Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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These are the latest Blackboard updates SaaS release 4000.15, which will be live on our system from 7th May 2026.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Instructional Design<\/a><\/span><\/p>

Communication and Collaboration<\/a><\/span><\/p>

Mastery and Learning Pathways<\/a><\/span><\/p>

Blackboard Core<\/a><\/span><\/p>

Assignments and Tests<\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Instructional Design <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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White space improvements in Documents <\/strong><\/p>

We refined spacing and layout behaviour in Documents to reduce unnecessary vertical white space and improve overall readability and visual balance.<\/p>

Improved screen reader experience in Document view mode <\/strong><\/p>

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.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Communication and Collaboration<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Rebuilding the Groups management experience for instructors<\/strong>
Changes to the group management experience include:
\u2022 A redesigned group management experience
\u2022 Improved group creation and enrollment
\u2022 Automatic enrollment with clearer controls
\u2022 More flexible ways to assign students
\u2022 Better visibility and organization
\u2022 Sorting for students and groups
\u2022 Clearer group membership and activity context
\u2022 Performance and reliability improvements
\u2022 Consistency across group types
\u2022 Upcoming improvements<\/p>

Make second due date for Discussions visible in Gradebook<\/strong><\/p>

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. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mastery and Learning Pathways<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Visualise release conditions inherited by items in learning modules and folders<\/strong>
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.<\/p>

\"Visualise<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Blackboard Core<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Improved search and navigation in Course Switcher <\/strong>
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.<\/p>

\"Improved<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Assignments and Test<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Provide answer-level feedback for multiple choice and multiple answer questions<\/strong>
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.<\/p>

\"Provide<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are the latest Blackboard updates SaaS release 4000.15, which will be live on our system from 7th May 2026. Instructional Design Communication and Collaboration Mastery and Learning Pathways Blackboard Core Assignments and Tests Instructional Design White space improvements in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":815,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22014","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22014"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22033,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22014\/revisions\/22033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/blackboardhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}