Updated Gradebook Grid View: column and posted marks visibility
There will be significant changes to how mark visibility is displayed from 7 August 2026, as part of Blackboard's Gradebook Grid View update.
Marks that have been released to students will no longer display a 'Posted' indicator. To confirm if an individual mark is visible to a student, you will need to select the student's mark and check its visibility status in the 'Grade details' panel.
Gradebook columns will no longer show a visibility indicator in the column header. To confirm whether a column is visible to students, check the 'List View' or select the column heading and review the 'Assessment Details' panel.
For a full list of changes and impacts visit the project page
Observe great teaching in action at Open Door Week
Step inside a colleague’s classroom during Open Door Week (17–21 August) to observe some of the outstanding teaching happening across UQ. Sixteen classrooms, across a range of disciplines and campuses, are open to visitors across the week. Places are limited, so register early to secure your spot and discover new ideas you can take back to your own classroom.
Microsoft Bookings for courses
A shared Microsoft Bookings page has now been automatically created for all eligible Semester 2 courses, making it easier for teaching teams to manage student appointments and consultations. Microsoft Bookings is an online scheduling tool available to UQ staff through Microsoft 365 that allows students to book meetings via a web-based form.
Course coordinators and teaching assistants assigned to the course now have access and can locate the Shared Bookings page by searching for the course code in the UQ Bookings apps.
See Microsoft Bookings for Courses Guide
Turnitin audio and video feedback
Audio feedback has returned to Turnitin and a new video feedback option has been added. Teaching staff can provide up to 5 minutes of personalised audio or video feedback directly within Feedback Studio, offering an additional way to connect with students and enhance their feedback experience.
The new feature also includes automatically generated captions and transcripts, supporting accessibility and offering students a more flexible way to review feedback.
Gradescope for handwritten in-class tasks
Gradescope can simplify the collection and marking of handwritten, in-class assessment tasks, making paper-based activities more practical, even for large classes. It can be used for short-answer and multiple-choice questions completed using bubble sheets. Gradescope makes it possible to use multiple versions of the same task for students sitting side-by-side during in-class assessment, or for tutorials held at different times.
See the new Gradescope for in-class tasks guide
Ad hoc recordings in EchoVideo – changes coming
Ad hoc recordings created in EchoVideo are no longer being published to Lecture recordings course sections. Instead, the recordings will be added directly to the Instructor's personal library in Echo360. If you need an ad hoc recording to be shared in your Blackboard course, you can manually publish from your personal library.
Blackboard Original guides decommissioned
The Blackboard Original guides for staff and students have now been retired. Redirects have been implemented to the corresponding Ultra guides.
Should you encounter Blackboard Original guides, legacy content or experience issues with redirects, please contact elearningadvisers@uq.edu.au.
For support and guidance on Blackboard Ultra, please visit the Staff Guides and Student Guides pages.
Communicating with students in Ultra
In Ultra, announcements can be used to communicate important information to all students in your course, while messages are a useful way to contact individual students or groups of students. The University has implemented student messaging protocols, meaning that students can only message course staff and other students in their groups, and not whole cohorts.
It is strongly recommended that at the start of each semester staff set up a communication policy within their course outlining their preferred contact methods.
Declutter your Learn.UQ (Blackboard) course
Take a few minutes to review your Learn.UQ (Blackboard) course and delete any content that is hidden or no longer relevant for the current semester. It’s also recommended that you delete any Archive folders, which are not needed as content can be copied directly between courses. After items are deleted remove the unused files from the course.
If you need access to a previous course offering to copy content, contact the course coordinator listed on the Course Profile. If they are no longer contactable, after obtaining approval from your Head of School, forward the email advising access can be granted to help@elearning.uq.edu.au.
Ultra self-enrol groups
Course coordinators can set up self-enrol groups for students to sign up for group assignments and activities. Staff can create the required number of groups, set the maximum number of members per group and create an enrolment timeframe in which students can swap groups (Echo360, 4m 41s).
Course teaching feedback surveys: system upgrade and intensive surveys
A system upgrade for the course teaching feedback platform is scheduled for Semester 2, 2026. To ensure the platform is ready for the standard survey period, there will be no intensive surveys running during the migration and testing (August to mid-October 2026). Course coordinators who wish to run intensive surveys can explore alternative channels for feedback via the ITaLI website and SSET is available to provide consultation and advice.
How to prepare for Semester 2, 2026 SECaT and SETutor surveys
The Student Evaluation of Course and Teaching (SECaT) and Student Evaluation of Tutors (SETutor) surveys will open Monday 19 October and close Friday 6 November 2026.
To have a survey administered for your course, and for yourself as a lecturer or tutor, ensure:
- your course profile has been published
- you and all teaching staff are listed as per the data preparation guidelines in the course profile (Jac) and Schedule+ by the Census Date (31 August).
Please contact evaluations@uq.edu.au if you have any questions.
Talking to students about acknowledging and referencing AI use
Guides and examples on using AI effectively and responsibly are available for staff and students. Staff can explore examples on integrity and acknowledging and referencing AI in the AI Teacher Hub and you can also direct students to the AI Student Hub.
Visit the AI Teacher Hub
Visit the AI Student Hub
What's on
AI in Practice: Lunchtime Insights Series I 4 August 2026, 12–12:30pm
Join Dr Saphira Rekker (UQ Business School) at the next AI in Practice: Lunchtime Insights Series session. Dr Rekker will share how she used Claude Code, an AI coding assistant, to build the Carbon Budget Tracker – a public platform tracking whether major companies are cutting emissions fast enough for the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C warming limit. She'll cover practical workflows, guardrails for research rigour, and how AI let a solo researcher with only basic R-programming researcher ship a full data pipeline and website.
What’s Working? AI Assessment Transformation in Practice I 4 August 2026, 10–11am
Join presenters Dr Aaron Tkacnzynski and Amy Templar for the next What's Working? AI Assessment Transformation in Practice session. Dr Aaron Tkacnzynski's working session will showcase the innovative practice of how students can by courageous thinkers by utilise Microsoft Co-Pilot to develop an Artificial Intelligence poster with a virtual influencer as an output of part of targeted integrated marketing integrated plan to environmentally focused tourists. Amy Templar's presentation will explore the question "What can you do with assessment, when you don't want to secure learning with an exam?"
eLearning online modules (self-paced)
- Learn.UQ Ultra Basics
- Learn.UQ Ultra Assignments (group & video)
- Learn.UQ Ultra Tests
- Learn.UQ Ultra Gradebook
- Inspera Assessment – Exams
- Inspera Assessment – Quizzes
- Inspera Assessment – Marking
Teaching and learning support
eLearning support
For technical support with central eLearning tools, email eLearning support.
eLearning Advisers
To receive pedagogical advice from UQ's leading teaching technology experts on using our central eLearning tools, including how to select and configure learning technologies, book a Zoom consultation with an eLearning Adviser.
Workshops
Workshops (via Zoom) and self-paced online modules are available for a variety of systems and tools. eLearning advisers are available to deliver custom workshops in your school or faculty. Organise a custom workshop.
Learning Designers
Learning Designers provide pedagogical support to academics in curriculum and assessment design, collaborating on learning experiences and activities, and integration of evidence-informed teaching and learning practices.
For faculty or school-level support, please refer to the list of Learning Designers in your area.
Educational Media Production
The ITaLI Educational Media Production Team works closely with academics and Learning Designers to produce educational videos, audio content, graphics and animations that support teaching and learning initiatives across UQ. If you have a project that could benefit from video, animation or graphic design, you are invited to submit an Expression of Interest.
