Ultra Courses Activation Project

What are Ultra Courses?

Ultra is simpler to use with intuitive navigation and a mobile-friendly design. Tools are contextual to reduce clicks and content appears in the course using peek layers that slide from the right. Anthology (Blackboard's parent company) is investing heavily in Ultra courses, delivering new functionality and improvements monthly.

What is happening?

In 2025, UQ will begin transitioning Learn.UQ from the current version, Blackboard Original, to the new Blackboard Ultra. Most courses will make this transition in Semester 2 of 2025 and Semester 1 of 2026. 

A proof of concept of Ultra courses was conducted during 2024.

When is it happening?

Semester 2 2024 - Project communications

The project was approved 30 August 2024. Consultations with faculty management regarding the details of the main deployment occurred September - October. Presentations on the project will be delivered to school Teaching and Learning committees October - December 2024.

Semester 1 2025 - Limited deployment

In S1 2025 there will be a limited deployment of Ultra to courses involved in the proof of concept, courses of school 'Ultra Champions', year long courses and MBA courses. Semester 1, 2025 courses

Semester 2 2025 - Semester 1 2026 - Main deployment

The timeline confirmed is a 'significant proportion' courses will transition to Ultra S2 2025 and S1 2026. The deployment approach will be determined by individual faculties in consultation with schools.

Semester 2 2026 - Semester 1 2027 - Deployment finalisation

It is expected that all courses will transition to Ultra by S2 2026 and S1 2027.

Can I preview an Ultra course?

Example course

A Ultra Example Course is available for staff to self-enrol in (log in required), to experience Blackboard’s new look and functionality for course sites from a student perspective.

Ultra course preview (Sandbox) sites

Ultra Course Preview sites are available for staff to explore Blackboard’s most recent look and functionality for course sites as an instructor. To request a preview (sandbox) site, please email help@elearning.uq.edu.au

FAQs

Do Ultra courses have the same features as 'Original' courses?

Ultra courses provide several enhancements and new features that are not available in 'Original' courses. They include the ability to add stimulus material to test questions, progress tracking, and 'Conversations' that can be enabled for each content item, along with inline Discussions. Certain features have been revamped to increase accessibility and improve workflows. Some features, such as Wikis and Glossary, have been discontinued. Other features, like Blogs, are planned for future vendor releases.

Will there be a lot of work involved in updating my course from Original to Ultra?

Faculty conversion

Course coordinators who elect to have the faculty complete the conversion 'tidy up' work will have the course requested by the faculty. The effort required by course coordinators is predicted to be 6-8 hours which might include attending an Ultra workshop, or using self-directed resources, checking the conversion and completing standard semester updates.

Standard semester updates

The standard semester updates however, will take longer than usual as teaching staff will need to familiarise themselves with the new modern interface and content creation features. Once staff are familiar with Ultra, we anticipate even less time required to update course content moving forward due to more efficient workflows.

Self serve

Course coordinators who elect to complete their own conversion tidy up are required to either request a new site or a copy of a previous course site and complete the required 'tidy up' work themselves. The effort required is predicted to be 10-20 hours which might include reorganising course materials using the Convert your course to Blackboard Ultra guide, attending an Ultra workshop, or using self-directed resources and completing standard semester updates.

View all FAQs 

How was the project initiated?

The Deputy-Vice Chancellor (Academic) requested ITaLI develop a proposal to update UQ's Learning Management System (LMS) with the least amount of impact and maximum benefit. The proposal was approved by the Digital Learning Subcommittee on 6 June 2023 and the Digital Learning Program Management Steering Committee on 22 June 2023.

Consideration had previously been given to whether UQ should change to an alternative leading LMS platform. UQ's Online Learning Platform has been consistently highly ranked by UQ students in the National QILT student experience surveys. A change to the platform represents a risk and an investment in the order of $10-$15M along with work and disruption for teaching staff. The Ultra Courses Activation Project is expected to deliver an updated experience and improved functionality with minimal cost and impact on teaching staff, without risking student satisfaction.

Project Feedback

The following low impact changes have been made to the Ultra courses interface to improve the user experience based on feedback from participants in the Proof of Concept:

• May 2024: Due to some students receiving notifications that assessment tasks had been marked when in some cases they hadn't and that staff often post much more informative announcements themselves, the 'Item Marked' notification setting has been set to 'Always Off' in Stream, email and mobile.
• March 2024: New central Learning Pathway tool is working Ultra courses but does not auto-launch on the homepage. The original eLIPSE Learning Pathway tool is unable to work in Ultra courses.
• March 2024: The final grades upload process for Summer Proof of Concept courses was done by manually merging the SI-net course list and Blackboard Grade Centre spreadsheets prior to uploading to SI-net. The SI-net merge tool and Upload grades to SI-net (Direct) tool are currently being updated by ITS and are planned to be available for Semester 1 Proof of Concept participants before the end of semester.
• February 2024: Students were surveyed to gather their feedback and focus groups were held. The student feedback on Ultra reflects a mixture of positive responses and what can be considered resistance to change as summarised by this student quote: "I think it takes a while to get used to anything new. I think if it is implemented, people will be able to adjust pretty easily."
• January 2024: Based on feedback, the following changes have been made to Ultra course settings.
  • AI design assistant: This has been turned on for evaluation.
  • Class register: This has been made only viewable to staff, not to students.
  • Gradebook “pill colours”: The colour coding of marks (red to green) has been turned off.
  • Messages: This tool can now be turned off in individual courses. Changes can be made via Course Settings.
  • Attendance: This tool can only be turned on/off for all courses. As the tool is being evaluated by one of the courses in the proof of concept, the tool has been left on.
• January 2024: Business case to continue deployment after June 2024 prepared.

Staff Communications

Completed and continuing

• presentations on the project to faculty Teaching and Learning committees

• facilitated a range of workshops for key staff

• met with faculty Associate Deans (academic) to brief them on the project and identify Summer Semester, 2023 and Semester 1, 2024 Proof of Concept courses

• briefings and consultations with key support stakeholders across UQ

• regular presentations to the Learning Design and eLearning Update forum

• regular updates to the Learning Design and eLearning community through Microsoft Team

• regular Teaching and eLearning News article

• monthly project progress reports to DLSC and DLPSC

• project plan presented to eLearning Operation Forum members including ITaLI managers, Library, ITS, and faculty leaders

• project plan approved by Digital Learning Program Steering Committee and DVCA (DLPSC) - 22 June 2023

• project plan approved by Digital Learning Sub Committee (DLSC) - 6 June 2023

Planned

• presentations on the project to school Teaching and Learning committees

• presentation to the Academic Service Managers Committees.

View a detailed list of all communications

Ultra vs Original features

New features

• Progress tracking for students and staff
• Class 'Conversations' collaborative tool for documents and assignments
• Course content search function
• Batch editing
• Analytics

Changed features

• Test question types: Either/or, Multiple answer, Short answer, File response, Fill in multiple blank (Merged with other question types)
• Forms (previously surveys)
• Gradebook filters (previously Smart Views)
• HTML editor 
• Messages (previously email)
• Release conditions (previously Adaptive release)

Features in development

• Blogs
• Gradebook text columns
• Test: Jumbled sentence question type

Discontinued features

• Contacts (Can be built using the document content type)
• Glossary (Can be built using the document content type)
• Guest Access 
• Test: Ordering question and Quiz Bowl question type
• Wikis 

More information about Ultra vs Orignal features

Identified issues

Issue 1: Text columns not available in Gradebook.

Resolution: Can use a marking schema to display text while awaiting the new Gradebook text column to be released in a future update.

Issue 2: Automatic announcements created for self-enrol group sets.

Resolution: Announcement can be deleted prior to the enrolment start date to avoid announcement going out to students. Vote for the improvement on the Anthology Idea Exchange: Self enroll groups: make creation of announcement (and mail) optional.

Issue 3: Students can email all instructors via the mail icon next to their name on the course staff listing regardless if messages have been disabled. In large courses this is problematic

Resolution: This feature is being considered by the vendor as a future improvement. Vote for the improvement on the Anthology Idea Exchange: Messages. Current workaround: Only staff that need access to edit tests in a course should be listed as an Instructor during Semester to avoid them appearing on Course Staff list. 

More information about identified issues

Ultra deployment project team

Ultra Proof of Concept project team

Contact

If you have any questions regarding the Ultra Courses Activation Project or a related support unit, please contact the project team: projects@elearning.uq.edu.au