New Blackboard features for 2018

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Every December, the UNE IT department updates Blackboard, giving the gift of handy new features to students and instructors. Here are three of those goodies that the Instructional Design team is anxiously anticipating.

Drag-and-Drop Files

Whenever you need to add a file to Blackboard, it can be a hassle to search the file viewer to pick one document from a list of many. The new drag-and-drop feature should make this a little quicker. You’ll be able to click and drag right from your desktop or whatever folder you have open already. Drag-and-drop will be available to both students and instructors.

Submission Receipts

Ever clicked the assignment submit button and wondered, “Wait, did that really work?” Blackboard submission receipts are for moments like those. When an assignment is received successfully, students will see a confirmation number linked to a record of their submission. That record notes the date and time of the submission, and whether it included a file. It’s important to note that submission receipts are not enabled by default. So, you may want to turn them on for important assignments that have due dates, for example.

Assignment Reminders

Imagine you’re an instructor, and you’re looking at your course grade center. You notice that a few students still haven’t submitted an assignment that was due yesterday. With the Assignment Reminders feature, you will be able to send a quick reminder to those students without even leaving the grade center. You won’t even need to type anything – it just takes a few clicks and you’re done.

These features, and a few others included in the Blackboard update, will be ready to use in January. If you’re an instructor and you have questions about how to start using any of these features in your courses, feel free to contact an instructional designer.