This resource advises how to communicate with your students at module level via Blackboard Learn Ultra. It also details details the new Ultra analytics functionality, available to both students and staff, to help monitor Ultra course engagement. It gives an overview of the following topics in Blackboard Ultra:
- Announcements and Messages
- Discussions and Class Conversations
- How are students notified of course activity?
- Progress Tracking for staff and students
- Analytics and staff-only reports
The materials are a companion to the staff development session Ultra: course communication and analytics that will be running during Spring and Summer 2024 TEL training programme (suitable for all teaching staff).
Course Communication
Announcements and Messages
This video explains the difference between Announcements and Messages in Blackboard Ultra, and where you might like to use the tools. You can use the Groups feature in Blackboard Ultra to send communications to groups of students, in the same way as in Original.
Resources:
- Blackboard Ultra Announcements
- Blackboard Ultra Messages and emails
- Using Groups in Blackboard Ultra
Discussions and Class Conversations
Ultra can facilitate student interaction via Discussions and a new feature ‘Class Conversations’. This video will explain the functional differences and advises best practices when using these tools.
As with Blackboard Learn Original, you can set up discussions for specific groups of students in Ultra, as long as these groups have been set up in your course.
Resources:
- Blackboard Ultra Discussions
- Blackboard Ultra Class Conversations
- Ultra: Designing Learning Activities [link to Ultra Designing: Learning Activities’ resource]
- Using Groups in Blackboard Ultra
How are students notified of course activity?
The Activity Stream and course notifications can help to keep users informed about activity taking place in Ultra courses and organisations. This video provides an overview of the notification settings and customisations available to staff and students.
Resources:
Analytics in Ultra courses
Progress Tracking for staff and students
Ultra offers a new feature called Progress Tracking, that is useful for both students and staff to monitor progress and engagement. This video provides an introduction to Progress Tracking.
Resource:
Blackboard Ultra Progress Tracking
Analytics and staff-only reports
Ultra offers enhanced reporting visible to staff, which cannot be seen by students. This video introduces the Analytics features and the options it offers to monitor student participation and engagement: