Blackboard Learn Ultra is the University’s centrally supported Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a flexible, web-based system that enables tutors to deliver blended and online learning to students that is accessible at anytime and anywhere via an internet connection. It is a central hub for module materials, resources, learning activities and assessments.
Blackboard is used to support different teaching methods and modes of delivery across various disciplines at the University, supporting both face-to-face teaching, blended learning and distance provision. It provides a practical way to:
- deliver and organise teaching content and activities
- offer dynamic interaction, communication and collaboration
- provide links to essential resources (websites, videos, reading lists, past exam papers)
- track, monitor and assess student engagement and progress.
Find out how staff and students use Blackboard at the University of Reading.
How do I get access?
- All staff are automatically given access to Blackboard. You can log in with your University of Reading username and password at www.bb.reading.ac.uk – see our guide Logging in.
- You will need to be given access to the Courses you are teaching on or involved with. In most Schools, this is done by Programme Administrators in the Support Centre. The Module Convenor, or any other member of staff who is already enrolled on a module you need can enrol you and assign you the role you require, (e.g. Instructor, Marker, Teaching Assistant..
How do I get started?
New to the University or using TEL? Make sure you check out the TEL checklist to get started.
Designing your Blackboard Course
You can design your Blackboard Course to encourage student engagement and optimise your face-to-face teaching.
Each Blackboard Course follows an institutionally agreed template, The course menu is applied to all new courses created in Blackboard to increase consistency across modules.
You can start organising your course materials and activities by editing the course menu and creating content folders. You can then use these to add various types of content, such as Blackboard ‘items’, assignments, file attachments, multimedia, and links to tools and activities. Please see our step-by-step guides on the Blackboard Help for Staff site.
You can also add and embed multi-media content, including videos from Box of Broadcasts (an archive of TV and radio programmes from over 65 channels).
As the ‘module instructor’ you’re in control of what content is available to students at any time. You can use the ‘Hide’ function and Adaptive Release to ensure students see content that is relevant to the right students at the right time.
Find out more about how to structure and design your Blackboard module using this Toolkit.
Learning Activities
Your Blackboard Course has options to set up learning activities for your students:
- Discussions
- Journals
Communication
Every Blackboard module has two communication features to keep the students updated on module information and news, and to send them reminders:
- Announcements – a time-sensitive tool that can be used to send students updates and reminders, e.g. about upcoming events.
- Email – which allows you to send an email to individual, all or a group of participants in your Blackboard module, directly from within Blackboard.
Find out more about how to use Blackboard’s Announcements and email features.
Assessment and Feedback
YuJa – T&L videos
Your Blackboard Course provides students with access to your teaching and learning videos – screencasts and recorded lectures/classroom activities.
Online reading lists
As a document frequently accessed by students, an effective, timely and well-annotated reading list can be an immensely valuable pedagogic tool for developing student learning, both for their immediate module and beyond for the duration of their academic career. Adopting online reading lists will connect tutors, students and the Library to foster the achievement of student success.
Engaging with scholarly, tutor-recommended resources through a dynamic online reading lists system enables us to offer our students further opportunities to ‘study and learn effectively in technology-rich environments’ in a diverse and constantly changing information landscape.
The University uses a system called Talis Aspire to make reading lists available to students online.
Find out more about reading lists
Analytics
Blackboard Courses provide useful analytics to help you monitor student engagement and progress.
Accessible Course and Content
Blackboard’s in-built Ally tool enables you to check and improve the accessibility of your content to ensure it’s fully accessible to all your students. It also offers students a range of alternative content formats with which to access and engage to best suit their needs and preferences.
Administering and preparing your Blackboard Course [make a staff support page]
The checklist: Administering and preparing your Blackboard Course details the annual processes and activities involved in preparing your Course for use in your teaching.
Relevant staff development:
- TEL: Plan and build your Blackboard Course
- TEL: Designing Learning Activities
- TEL: Communications
- TEL: Analytics
- TEL: YuJa
- TEL: Setting up Blackboard Assignments (for administrators)
- TEL: Marking Blackboard Assignments
- TEL: Setting up Turnitin Assignments (for administrators)
- TEL: Marking Turnitin Assignments
- TEL: Blackboard Tests
Want to know more?
Explore other Topics
Blackboard Learn
Learning Capture
Digital Accessibility
Digital Practice
Assessment & Feedback
Tools & Technologies
TEL help & support
If you have a query about anything related to technology enhanced learning, have a suggestion for an addition to this site, or find a broken link, please contact the TEL team via the DTS Self Service Portal or by emailing dts@reading.ac.uk.