Reflections and Review – Blackboard Ultra Insights Week

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The Technology Enhanced Learning Unit’s Blackboard Ultra Insights Week proved to be a resounding success, drawing in enthusiastic participation across all sessions. By shifting from a full-day in-person event to several shorter, focused online sessions spread throughout the week, the format offered a more accessible and flexible experience for attendees. We had some people who attended every session and others who dipped into those sessions that were especially relevant to their interests.

The sessions covered a range of topics around engagement and retention in Blackboard Ultra:

  • Integrating Reading Resources covered methods to help students engage with course readings, including a demonstration by Michelle Sterry of her use of reflective journals for students to record and receive feedback on their readings
  • Engagement and Analytics covered Helen Watts’ research into VLE engagement as an indicator of student outcomes and Helen Hope’s use of Blackboard analytics to facilitate student engagement.
  • Guided In-class Activities showcased Louise Martin’s innovative use of Blackboard functionality to build tasks for students to work through in a classroom setting. One attendee said it was “The most useful thing I have seen in ages!”
  • Building Fully Online Courses looked at Sarah Davis’s development of a fully online master’s-level course using a combination of Blackboard Ultra and MS Teams. Sarah’s approach would be an excellent blueprint for anyone considering adopting a distance-learning approach, so we highly recommend viewing the recording if this applies to you.

Recordings are now available on the LDTE CPD SharePoint site at the link below:

LDTE CPD – Home

Thanks again to Ros Sykes, Michelle Sterry, Helen Watts, Helen Hope, Louise Martin and Sarah Davis for presenting some fantastic sessions, and to everyone who attended.

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Blackboard Rubrics

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You can now create no points rubrics for Blackboard Ultra assignments, just like you can for Turnitin.

Previously, Blackboard rubrics required each feedback item to have a points value or percentage associated with it, which was automatically added to the gradebook. This value needed to be overridden so that students would not see an incorrect grade.

When creating a new rubric, just choose the No points selection in the Rubric Type dropdown:

Formative Assignment 'No Points' selected in drop-down menu

Complete the rubric table and save your content. You can then apply the new rubric to any Blackboard assignment.

For detailed guidance on how to create a new rubric, or how to export an existing rubric from another Blackboard course area, access the Blackboard Manual.

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Blackboard Ultra Insights Week – Drop in Sessions

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As part of Blackboard Ultra Insights Week, the TEL team will be hosting some online drop-in sessions open to all staff. These will offer support and ideas on enhancing course engagement and interactivity, improving course structure, and copying content effectively for the new academic year. Come along and chat to us, bounce some ideas around or ask any questions that you may have.

Drop-in sessions:

Tuesday 20th May, 14:30pm -15:30

Link to join the session

Friday 23rd May, 10:00 – 11:00

Link to join the session

Additionally, as part of the week’s events, staff are invited to participate in a quick survey about Ultra – just three questions that will help us identify what tools are most useful to staff.

You can access the survey here.

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PebblePad Alumni Accounts for students who are leaving the University

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If you are a tutor who teaches students who are using PebblePad, you may want to remind your final year students that they can take a free PebblePad alumni account.  

Students who have used PebblePad during their studies may want to retain the work they have done for the purposes of CPD when they leave the University. They can do this by creating an alumni account, when they are about to leave the University. Work in the student’s University account will then be copied into their alumni account, and for this reason it is recommended that students do not create the alumni account until they are ready to leave. There is no charge for an alumni account for students. This PebblePad help page guide provides further information about PebblePad Alumni accounts.

We also have the following additional advice for students, which you are welcome to share:

If you are leaving the University and want to keep your PebblePad for personal learning and professional development, you’ll need to create a free alumni account. To maintain access to your alumni account, you must use a personal email address (not your UW account) which you intend to keep for the foreseeable future. Only create the alumni account just before you are ready to leave, as all work will be copied across to your new account and it is not possible to reverse this action.

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Blackboard Ultra Insights Week

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The Technology Enhanced Learning Unit is celebrating the successful first year of the University using the new Blackboard Ultra VLE with a Blackboard Ultra Insights Week. Throughout the week, online presentations will be delivered by colleagues from academic faculties, Library Services, and the TEL team, showcasing innovative and effective uses of Blackboard Ultra. Sessions have been scheduled around lunchtime, offering a timely break and a chance to engage with something different during the marking period. The presentations will be recorded for those who are unable to attend.

In addition, the TEL team will host online drop-in sessions open to all—offering support and ideas on enhancing course engagement and interactivity, improving course structure, and copying content effectively for the new academic year.

There will also be an opportunity to take part in an online survey designed to gather insights into which areas and tools within the VLE staff find most valuable.

The itinerary for the week is as follows:

Staff Presentations:

Student Engagement with Module Readings

Monday 19th May, 11:00 – 12:00

Ros Sykes, Andrew Bright, Michelle Sterry

This session will explore strategies to boost student engagement with course literature and resources, focusing on practical techniques in Blackboard to encourage the use of your Talis resource lists.

VLE Engagement and Course Analytics

Tuesday 20th May, 12:00 – 12:45

Helen Watts, Helen Hope

This session will look at VLE engagement and student retention, and the practical use of Blackboard Ultra’s analytic tools.

Guided in-class Activities in Blackboard Ultra

Wednesday 21st May, 12:30 – 13:30

Louise Martin

In this session, Louise Martin will demonstrate how guided activities in Blackboard Ultra can be used to support in-class learning, showcasing interactive tasks she has designed to actively engage students and reinforce key concepts.

Developing Fully Online Courses

Thursday 22nd May, 12:00 – 13:00

Sarah Davis

In this session, Sarah Davis will share her experience of developing a fully online course using Blackboard. This session is ideal for anyone considering the design of fully online or highly blended courses—an area of growing strategic importance for the University.

Drop-in sessions:

  • Tuesday 20th May, 14:30 -15:30
  • Friday 23rd May, 10:00 – 11:00

Links for all presentations and drop-in sessions will be shared at a later date.

We hope that you will be able to take part!

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Assessments in the Blackboard VLE

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Choosing assignment submission tools within Blackboard Ultra.

It can sometimes be difficult to determine which is the best submission tool to use when creating assignments for your students in Blackboard.

We have the following advice and guidance for lecturers to help with your choice. We recommend different tools depending on the assignment needs and have submission workflows which your students can follow.

The flowchart below summarises the most suitable assignment software for each submission type:

Assessment flow chart -Essay/Report: Turnitin; Group, Exam/Test, Blackboard tools: Blackboard assignment; Portfolio/Practice assessment: PebblePad; Audio/Video: Panopto

Our Blackboard Ultra Manual includes instructions for the different Assessments within the VLE and how to provide Grading and Feedback.

Turnitin Assignments

Turnitin is most appropriate for word-based assignments or those which contain a large amount of text. Submissions can be checked for originality against the global database.

We have a Turnitin staff manual and a recent Turnitin assignments blog post, which includes all relevant links and tips for tutors.

Blackboard Assignments

If large files, multiple files, zip files, or files which contain mostly imagery, need to be uploaded for an assessment – a Blackboard assignment can be used to manage submissions.

Please see our Blackboard Ultra Manual: Learn Ultra Assignments.

Panopto Assignments

If students are creating video or audio, for example, as part of a presentation – a Blackboard assignment which uses the Panopto integration is normally most useful.

We have a Panopto manual for Staff and a helpful blog post for tutors with further advice: Panopto Assignment Submission Points

PebblePad Assignments

The Ultra VLE manual includes information about PebblePad Assessments. If you require support with PebblePad, please contact the TEL Unit tel@worc.ac.uk.

We also have student FAQs for common PebblePad queries.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to one of the team about upcoming assessments, you are welcome to contact us at tel@worc.ac.uk.

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Blackboard Ultra Insights Week

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Week Commencing 19th May, 2025

Since the university moved to Blackboard Ultra in September, there has been a fantastic effort from academic staff to reshape and develop their modules in a variety of creative ways.

To celebrate the end of the first teaching year using the new VLE, the Technology Enhanced Learning Unit will be running a series of short online talks to showcase innovative and successful practice throughout the University, with an overarching theme of student engagement and retention. This will be in partnership with Darren Cooper, the University Lead for Continuing Professional Development in Learning and Teaching.

Topics will include:

  • Developing fully online and highly blended courses using Blackboard Ultra
  • Encouraging engagement with course readings and Talis resource lists
  • Using Blackboard for guided activities in the classroom
  • Using the reporting tools to monitor student engagement and support retention

Talks will be around 45 minutes to an hour, with time for questions at the end. The sessions will be recorded and hosted via Darren Cooper’s Learning Design For Teaching Excellence site on SharePoint, as a resource for all to use.

The finalised schedule will be published at a later date.

We hope you can join us.

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Turnitin Assignments and Submissions in Blackboard Ultra

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Turnitin Assignments and Submissions in Blackboard Ultra

With assessment deadlines approaching, now is a great time to revisit our latest guides and resources for Turnitin assignments in Blackboard Ultra. Whether you are setting up submission points or grading student work, our updated guidance will help you navigate the process smoothly.

Setting Up Turnitin Assignments

Our updated Ultra manual includes the latest recommended settings for Turnitin assignments. We advise checking these settings to ensure everything is configured correctly before your students submit their work.

Grading Turnitin Assignments

In Blackboard Ultra, there is no longer a need to manually hide the Grade Centre column before marking begins—grades remain hidden until the feedback release date. However, if you are working with an older Blackboard module, you will still need to hide grades manually. Once marking is complete, grades are automatically posted on the feedback release date.

Supporting Your Students

You are welcome to share our Ultra Resources and FAQs with students to help them navigate the submission process. We have also created a Turnitin video tutorial, which provides a step-by-step demonstration.

Here are some quick tips to help address common student queries:

✅ Resubmissions before the deadline: If the setting ‘Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date)’ is enabled, students can submit multiple times. However, after the third upload, there will be a 24-hour delay before they receive a new similarity report.

✅ Allowing late submissions: We recommend enabling this option. If a student submits before the due date, they will not be able to resubmit afterwards. However, if they miss the deadline, they will still be allowed a single attempt, which will be marked as late (in red).

✅ Resubmissions and mitigating circumstances: If students require a resit or need to submit due to mitigating circumstances, a new Turnitin submission point must be created within the original module.

✅ Grade visibility: Once grades are released, they will appear in the Blackboard Ultra Grade Centre, with a ‘Posted’ label indicating they are visible to students.

Final Checklist

To ensure a smooth submission process, consider reminding students about:

🔹 The exact submission point title and location within Blackboard.
🔹 Available student support resources as deadlines approach.
🔹 Our Turnitin video guide, which provides a clear walkthrough of the submission process.

If you have any questions, please refer to our updated guides or get in touch for support!

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Camera Equipment loan for Assessments

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It’s Spring! It is also assessment time for many courses.

The TEL Team have video cameras you can borrow for all those Spring assessment memories.

We will also download these recordings and return the files to you via One Drive to share the precious footage with your external assessors.

Don’t be disappointed, place your order now!

Please contact g.beattie@worc.ac.uk

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Collaborative Documents in Blackboard

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If you would like to set up documents within Blackboard that all enrolled users can contribute to, you can now use the ‘Collaborative Document’ feature.

Collaborative Documents allow you to set up a new document, or use an existing template from Word, Excel or PowerPoint for the class to use. Once set up, the new file will be copied over to your Blackboard course area where it can be edited. (If copied from OneDrive, your original file will not be altered – only the version that has been deployed to Blackboard.)

Collaborative documents can be useful for use cases such as wikis, course glossaries or documents for group collaboration.

See more on how to add a collaborative document in the Blackboard Manual.

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