Things to Consider

Once you have requested your new Blackboard Learn Ultra Organisation(s) for 2023/24, and booked a place on a Workshop, you will need to review your existing Organisations and consider how you would like to build your Ultra Organisation(s) and present information to students. 

On this page, we will go through the steps needed to build an Ultra Organisation, and highlight the most relevant available guidance. For further support, please attend a workshop or raise a ticket using the Self-Service Portal. 

1. Reviewing your Organisation 

What to keep: Are there any aspects of your existing Organisation that you would like to keep ie. Folder structure works well, all the links and documents are current and up to date, nothing to delete or prune 

New content: Is there any new information that you would like to include in your Ultra Organisation? 

What to change: Are there any aspects of your existing Organisation which you would like to change ie. Too many nested folders, unclear structure, students can’t find the relevant information, students read information in the wrong order and this causes confusion 

2. Building your Organisation structure in Ultra 

When building your Ultra Organisation, remember that the flat structure of Blackboard Learn Ultra means that you can only have two levels within your course structure. You may need to consolidate files and information from your existing Organisation, or choose to group files differently. 

Grouping content 

In the Course Content page, you could use either Learning Modules or Folders to group Documents, folders, links, and files. Learning Modules also allow you to use the ‘Forced Sequence’ option to ensure that information is accessed in a particular order.  

Consider whether this would be useful for your Organisation. Do you provide any information which you would like students to read in a certain order?

Within a Learning Module or a Folder, a Document can be used to present and group information and files. A Document appears as one item, and gives some flexibility in grouping documents ad information together.  

Consider whether this would be useful for your Organisation. Could you combine information currently held in separate items into one editable page?

Consider building your structure of Folders and Modules before creating Documents – you can group content by topic, by week or by Term as required.

3. Adding Content to your Ultra Organisation

Uploading content 

You can click on the plus (+) icon in the Course Content to Upload files from your computer. 

If you open the file location, you can also drag and drop files directly into the Course Content area of your Organisation. 

This will be useful when adding new files. 

Copying content from a Blackboard Original Organisation 

If you are planning to re-use information from an existing Blackboard Original Organisation, you can copy content from any other Organisation on which you are enrolled as a Leader or Assistant. 

Please read the instructions on the guide above carefully, and review your Original Organisation before copying content. Due to the two-level structure of Blackboard Ultra, copying nested folders or entire Organisations is likely to result in errors, and your previous structure will not be reserved. 

We recommend selecting individual files or items to copy into your Ultra Organisation.  

Sharing from the Content Market 

The Ultra Content Market allows you to access available third party tools e.g YuJa and insert them into your Course Content page, Folders, or Learning Modules. 

You can also access the Content Market from within the Document creation menu. 

4. Editing your Ultra Organisation

Moving: drag and drop 

If you upload, create, or copy content and need to move it from one section to another, you can drag and drop items in your Course Content menu to re-arrange them. 

This could be helpful if uploading or copying in bulk. 

Batch Edit 

Copied items are not automatically visible to students. You can use Batch Edit to change the visibility of items as a group, or to delete items which are no longer required. 

5. Making your Ultra Organisation visible

When your 2023/24 Ultra Organisation is ready, please make it available to your students ready for the new academic year.