Blackboard Ultra Course View for Faculty and Organization Leaders

Owned by Heather Ulrich
Last updated: Mar 01, 2024
8 min read

Blackboard is Fairfield University's Learning Management System (LMS). In 2018, Fairfield University transitioned to Ultra Base navigation, providing our faculty, staff, and students with an accessible, modern interface to navigate their courses and and organizations. Today we're in the process of transitioning to Ultra Course View to bring that same modern, responsive design to courses and organizations.

We’re interested in hearing from you! Please visit our Padlet, https://fairfielduniversity.padlet.org/hulrich2/fairfield-s-bb-ultra-idea-exchange-e2kels84thpz6nba, to share your experience with Ultra Course View and let us know what features you want to see. If you see an idea that’s already posted, you can upvote it and/or add more information on how it would help you.

Not using Ultra yet? We encourage you to complete the Blackboard Ultra Transition Preparation Survey. Responses will be reviewed weekly and a member of our team will reach out to you to review your answers and schedule a meeting, if necessary.

https://youtu.be/mrTcfMU4Csc?si=CttDHYwHPLZOtB1H

Timeline for Transitioning to Ultra Course View (UCV)

The following schedule is based on our transition goals and is subject to change based on user feedback. Please check back here for the most up-to-date timeline and email academiccomputing@fairfield.edu with any questions or concerns.

Semester

Which Courses will be Impacted?

Semester

Which Courses will be Impacted?

Fall and Spring 2023

Select graduate and undergraduate courses participate in the UCV pilot

Summer 2023

All graduate courses and select courses participating in the UCV pilot

Fall 2023 - Spring 2024

All graduate courses, Bellarmine College, Austin Campus and undergraduate Early Adopters

Summer - Fall 2024

All courses will be populated with UCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Transitioning to Ultra

What type of content won't copy over from an Original course to Ultra?

While Ultra is constantly improving, we've found the most common failures during a course copy are with Kaltura and YouTube videos and some content settings. Tables, images, and files all display differently in Ultra courses as well. Therefore, we recommend reviewing your courses thoroughly if you choose to copy over an Original course. Please note that all of these features are supported in Ultra Course View but you may need to follow steps to re-embed content or adjust your formatting.

To assist in the process of converting to Ultra, we encourage you to complete the Blackboard Ultra Transition Preparation Survey. Responses will be reviewed weekly and a member of our team will reach out to you to review your answers and schedule a meeting, if necessary.

If I need to access a course I haven't taught in a few years, how can I do that?

You can email academiccomputing@fairfield.edu and request your course be restored.

How will students find out about this change?

All students have been sent a message via life@fairfield. The following set of instructional videos have been posted to the Blackboard for Students wiki page as well as the Blackboard Institution Page. Navigating Blackboard Ultra Course View for Students (YouTube Playlist)

Why don't I see my courses in Blackboard?

Courses and enrollments populate in Blackboard 2 times a day. If you do not see the course in Blackboard, it is most likely because you were not listed as the instructor during the last update. If you were just recently assigned the course via CourseLeaf and see them listed on your Faculty Self Service, please wait at least 12 hours for the next update to process. If you do not see the courses listed on your Faculty Self Service, we recommend you contact your program coordinator to ensure your courses have been properly assigned through CourseLeaf.

How do I make my course available?

By default, your Blackboard courses are set as private from students, meaning they can see the course in their course listings but won’t be able to access the content. Even if you have prepared a course's content and consider it ready for student viewing, they will not be able to see it until you manually make it 'available' to them.

  1. Log in to Blackboard

  2. Navigate to Courses and find the course you want to make available

    1. From the courses page: Select More Options (...) to expand the options for that particular course, then select Open Course

    2. From within the course: Under Details and Actions, select Students can't access this course, then in the dialogue box select Open to Students

How does Blackboard support accessibility?

In addition to text exceptions and being built with accessibility in mind, we have licensed Blackboard Ally which works seamlessly with Blackboard to gauge the accessibility of your content. Ally provides guidance and tips for lasting improvements to your content accessibility.

  • Receive feedback on the accessibility of your content

  • Improve content accessibility with Ally's step-by-step instructions

In addition to providing you with insight to your content accessibility, Ally automatically creates alternative versions of your files. This allows students to choose the type of file they want that best suits their needs. While you're in the process of improving files, students still access alternative copies.

Blackboard Ally Resources

Want to learn more?

For questions about accessibility, contact ooa@fairfield.edu.

How do I find my class roster in Blackboard?

All Blackboard courses have a complete set of enrolled-student names, emails, and photos available for the instructor to see and print. In Ultra, you can assign student accommodations via the roster. You can also use the Class Photo Roster LTI to view the students' photos as they appear in Banner.

Class Roster and Accommodations

  1. Log in to Blackboard.

  2. Navigate to Courses and open your course.

  3. Under Details and Actions, select Roster.

  4. On this screen you can change the view from Grid to List, or filter by the user’s roles in the course.

  5. To add an accommodation, find the student, and select the more option (…) menu.

In addition to the registered students, all instructors and TAs will appear in the list of Users. Users are automatically added to your course via the integration between Blackboard and Banner. Updates are performed twice daily. More information on accommodations and using the roster can be found on Blackboard’s Help page: Roster

View the Class Photo Roster

In addition to the main course roster, you can view the class photo roster to see your student’s Banner images.

  1. Within your course and under Details and Actions, select Books & Tools.

  2. Select Class Photo Roster from the list of tools.

  3. Use your browser’s tools to print the file.

How can I enroll a TA or another instructor in my course?

Instructors of record and student enrollments will automatically populate in Blackboard after they have been assigned in Banner. However, faculty may want to observe another course or add a teaching assistant to their course(s).

  1. Within your course and under Details and Actions, select Roster.

  2. In the top right, select Add People and choose Enroll People from the options.

  3. Search by NetID to ensure you select the right person to enroll, then choose a role. Please consult the following table to determine which role is most appropriate.

Role

Purpose

Role

Purpose

Instructor

Reserved for the faculty of record.

Note: If a user is not assigned as faculty of record, they will not receive payment for teaching the course. To resolve this, their program coordinator should submit their course assignment through CourseLeaf.

Teaching Assistant

Assign this role for Grad Assistants who need edit access to the course content or will assist with grading.

Course Builder

Assign this role for Grad Assistants or faculty who need edit access to the course content and will NOT assist with grading.

Fairfield Observer

Assign this role for Grad Assistants, Faculty (not of record), and advisors who need view-only access to the course content and grade center.

Fairfield Observer - No Grades

Assign this role for Grad Assistants or fellow faculty who need view-only access to the course content without seeing the Grade Center.

Unsupported Roles

The following roles are default course roles from Blackboard, but not used at Fairfield:

  • Facilitator

  • Grader

  • Guest

I want to record my classes on Zoom. How do I obtain my student's consent?

According to Connecticut state law, anyone being video recorded in a non-public space has the right to consent to the recording, or to refuse to be recorded. To comply with this law in an educational setting, any faculty member who wishes to make an audio or video recording of their class is required to obtain a consent form from all students. While individualized consent for each session is always preferred, one consent form for entire semester is sufficient. If an instructor chooses to obtain a single form that covers the entire semester, the form must specify that the consent obtained applies to the full range of meeting dates. The instructions and template below, filled in with the complete date range and confirmed by students, will fulfill the State of Connecticut requirements according to University counsel.

Please note: If one or more students do NOT give consent to being recorded, the University’s legal counsel has stated the following:

The safest course is to not allow the recording at all, as some of the states that students are participating from might require two party consent for both video and audio recording (i.e. student might need to consent to the audio recording of his/her voice).

That being said, practically speaking, if there’s a demonstrable need for the faculty to record, I think it’s generally probably reasonably ok to allow the recording to move forward so long as those students’ (who did not consent) cameras are off. Moreover, faculty should refrain from using identifying information about the students who did not consent (i.e. only use first name, not last name or other identifier). As Zoom usually has the name or picture of someone not using video, we should make sure this is not captured.

  1. Download the Consent Form “Test” file:

  2. Open your course in Blackboard.

  3. On the Content page, choose the More Options (…) in the top right and select Import Content from the menu.

  4. Choose Import Course Content and select the file from your computer.

  5. At the bottom of your Course Content page, expand the Undeployed Tests folder and select the Consent Form: Students Participating in Recorded Zoom Classroom Session.

  6. Next to Question 1, select the action button (…) and then choose Edit from the menu.

  7. In the Question Text editor, highlight and replace the text in brackets to enter the course name and the dates the course will run this semester.

    1. I grant permission to Fairfield University (“University”) to record and/or photograph me (and my work) during the period of [INSERT DATES] in connection with [INSERT COURSE] (the “Recording”). I grant to the University the non-exclusive, royalty-free right to use my name, image, likeness, voice, and biographical information in connection with University’s use of the Recording.
      I release and discharge the University (as well as its employees, directors and agents) from any and all actions for damages arising from the Recording, as well as any broadcast or distribution of the Recording. I further agree to waive and release all claims against the University related to rights of privacy, publicity, and confidentiality for the University’s use of the Recording.
      I further understand that the University has engaged a third party vendor to carry out the Recording. I certify that I have reviewed and understand the third party vendor’s privacy policy, found here: https://zoom.us/privacy

  8. Select Save.

  9. In the top right, set the availability and due date (optional).

Blackboard App for Mobile Devices

Support for the Blackboard Instructor app ended on September 30, 2022. The unified Blackboard app will allow students and instructors to engage with their classes from any device. As an instructor, you can use the app to create content, post announcements, grade student work, and more. Faculty are encouraged to downloaded the unified Blackboard app. More information on Teaching with Blackboard app

Training and Resources

 

Contact the ITS Help Desk in the Library Room 230 or at (203) 254-4069 for assistance.