Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Blackboard Updates Learn with Accessibility, Mobile Features

Blackboard Learn 9.1 (PRNewsFoto/Blackboard Inc.)

Blackboard today rolled out a variety of updates to Blackboard Learn, the company's flagship learning management system. The release includes updates for both the Original experience (Blackboard Learn 9.1) and the Ultra experience.

New features for the Original experience include:

  • Blackboard Ally integration, which "automatically runs course materials through an accessibility checklist that looks for common accessibility issues and generates a range of more accessible alternatives for the instructor's original content including Semantic HTML, audio, ePub, and electronic Braille";
  • Responsive design for mobile devices;
  • Drag-and-drop capability in more locations;
  • The ability to sample by demographics for outcomes assessment;
  • LTI enhancements; and
  • Additional REST APIs.

The Original experience is available via self-hosted, managed-hosted and software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment options.

The SaaS Ultra experience is updated monthly; recent upgrades include:

  • The ability to align goals to objects, including test questions, rubrics, content, LTI links and discussions;
  • Localization for global markets; and
  • New capabilities in the areas of assessment, content creation and discussions (incorporated based on feedback from recent pilots).

For more information, visit the Blackboard blog.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • digital data protection and cyber security

    White House Launches New AI Security Framework

    President Donald Trump has issued a new executive order aimed at maintaining United States AI leadership while addressing the security risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems.

  • woman

    Microsoft Discovery Platform Brings Agentic AI to Scientific Research

    Microsoft has moved its Discovery platform into general availability, calling the service a production-ready environment for scientists and researchers that want to apply AI agents.

  • A glowing digital brain with neural connections and light trails

    AI Giants Warn It May Be Time to Slow Down

    For years, leaders in the artificial intelligence industry have warned that increasingly capable AI systems could eventually become dangerous, all the while continuing to race to build them. Now, their sentiments have changed.

  • CIS Sandbox Tutor Eli Blouin at Bentley University imagines a future technology learning partner that supports curiosity, critical thinking, feedback, and personalized learning.

    Student Voices: Technology as a Future Learning Partner

    A data analytics and marketing major at Bentley University and a distinguished lecturer at the university explore the future of "technology learning partners" — technologies that participate in the learning process by asking questions and giving feedback, not just information search results.