Hull York Medical School has upgraded from Blackboard Original to Blackboard Ultra. The guidance below provides an overview of the new Phase III Blackboard Ultra layout and key Ultra features and functionality.
With an emphasis on ease-of-use, simplified workflows and accessibility, Blackboard Ultra has a simple, modern user interface that makes it easier for students to access resources and learn collaboratively. It also provides a more engaging teaching, learning and assessment experience. It is important to note that whilst the look and feel of Blackboard Ultra is very different to Original, much of the key functionally and features remain the same.
Key Ultra features and functionality
As mentioned previously, whilst the look and feel of Blackboard Ultra is very different to Original, much of the key functionally and features remain the same. When you enter a Blackboard Ultra course, you will see course content immediately visible in the course content area.
The content area of the course is where all the resources and collaborative learning activities are posted. Course content is organised in folders and learning modules. You can click on a folder or learning module to access content, such as documents, web links, and recordings.
Here is an example of a learning module in the Year 5 course.
In the top right hand corner of the content area, it is also possible to search for course items such as documents and folders.
Across the top navigation menu you can access tabs to the Blackboard default calendar, course announcements, discussions, and the gradebook.
Course calendar
The course calendar displays default teaching events and deadlines for the course. You can switch between day and month view and filter by assignment due dates.
Announcements
From the announcements tab you can access all course announcements posted by staff members. Announcements will continue to be the primary Blackboard tool the Medical School uses to communicate with students. Staff from across the school will use the Announcements forum to promote events, send reminders regarding assessments and to send other time specific information related to the programme.
Please also ensure you set your personal Blackboard notification settings to receive an individual email copy of all announcements to your HYMS email account. Please also see our howto help page for further announcements guidance.
Discussions
The discussions tab displays all the discussions that have been set up in a specific Blackboard course. From the year course discussion tab, we invite you to create your own thread about any topics / points you want to discuss with your peers or the facilitators throughout the year.
Please also see further guidance at the following link: discussions guidance.
Gradebook
The grade book tab allows you to access course grading and feedback. We will be posting new howto help pages shortly that will provide further guidance on submission, grading and feedback in Blackboard Ultra.
Messages
Also accessible from the navigation menu is the Blackboard built-in messaging system.
We strongly recommend that staff and students do not use this. We recommend instead that all continue to make use of the existing communication methods promoted at the school. This will ensure any communications from staff or students successfully reach the intended person or group of people, and that any requests for support are dealt with via the correct support route.