Ultra Course View Feature Guide

Original	Ultra	Status	Details
Achievements	Achievements	Available ✅	With Achievements, you can issue course badges to students to recognize their accomplishments within the course. Access Achievements from the tab at the top of your course.
Adaptive Release	Release Condition	Available ✅	Items can be made available based on date and time, performance (such as a grade on another item), and by individual or group membership.
Announcements	Announcements	Available ✅	To create an announcement, click Announcements. In the top navigation bar of your Ultra Course. Announcements can be scheduled in advance. Announcements appear in a pop-up box when students enter the course. Announcements in Ultra can also be sent to students via email, although attachments in the Announcement can only be accessed in the course.
Attendance	Attendance	Available ✅	Access Attendance by clicking Attendance under Details and Actions in your Ultra course.
Calendar	Calendar	Available ✅	Click the Calendar icon at the top of an Ultra course to access. Additional capabilities are planned.
Content Editor	Content Editor	Available ✅	The content (text) editor in Ultra includes the ability to format text, add images, embed YouTube videos, and build equations.
Course Menu	- -	Discontinued ❌	In the Ultra Course View, there is no course menu. All of the content is listed on a single page, to make it easier for students to navigate, and links to course tools are organized in the Details and Actions area or along the top of the page. Content can be organized using folders and learning modules, which open and close.
Date Management	Batch Edit	Available ✅	Date Management has been replaced with the Batch Edit tool in which you can batch edit content due dates and visibility. You can also delete multiple course items from Batch Edit. You can open and close folders within the Badge Edit tool to make changes at multiple levels at once and apply date changes to all items within a folder at once.
Edit Mode	- -	Discontinued ❌	Not available in Ultra Course View. You are always in edit mode unless you are in student preview mode.
Files	Upload (Course Content page), Upload from Computer (Document), or Attachment (Text Editor)	Available ✅	Upload files from desktop or cloud storage. Files can also be dragged and dropped into your course or the text editor. NOTE: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files can now be configured to open as a preview directly in the browser. The instructor can also configure whether students have the ability to download the file.
Folders	Folders	Available ✅	Folders organize content within the course outline, and open and close to make it easier for students to find specific files or Documents. Folders can have short descriptions to tell students what content is inside. Folders can be made visible or hidden to affect all of the content inside the folder. NOTE: In the Ultra Course View, folders can only be nested two (2) levels deep. Learning Modules cannot be placed within a Folder.
Glossary	- -	Discontinued ❌	Not available in Ultra and not planned. Alternatives - Create a web link to an external subject-matter glossary or upload the terms and definitions as a file.
Grade Center	Gradebook	Available ✅	Most grading functions are available in the Gradebook, which is accessed by clicking the Gradebook tab in the toolbar at the top of the course. The default Gradebook view is a list of the graded items, but there is a grid view that is similar to the Grade Center in the Original Course View. Only in Ultra Course View, you can automatically assign zeroes (0) for assessments that are not submitted by the due date. NOTE: Assessments can be set to post grades automatically or manually to control visibility of grades to students. Overall Grades can be calculated by points, weighting, or advanced calculations. Grades can be dropped in point-based and weighted overall calculations.
Groups	Groups	Available ✅	Groups can be created manually or generated randomly. They can be created in three different places within a course and can be used for any of the following purposes: Course Groups - Created in the Details & Actions area, these groups allow you to send Messages to a subset of students. These groups can be used for Discussions and Assignments and can be used to filter the Gradebook Discussion Groups - Created in the settings for a Discussion, these groups allow you to limit students to viewing and interacting in discussion only within their group. These groups can be used for Assignments but not for filtering the Gradebook Assignment Groups - Created in the settings for an Assignment, these groups allow students to make a single Assignment submission on behalf of their group and assigns the same grade to each member of the group (which you can override individually if necessary). With Course Conversations enabled on a group assignment, students can have asynchronous conversations or launch a Blackboard Collaborate session to work together on the assignment. You can use Assignment Groups for Discussions but not for filtering the Gradebook
Item	Document	Available ✅	The term "Document" refers to a page in Ultra that resembles a web page. Documents can include images, text, uploaded files, and HTML content. If you only need to add a file without accompanying text, use the Upload option instead.
Publisher Integrations	Content Market	Available ✅	Most publisher integrations are available in Ultra Course View.
Retention Center	- - -	Discontinued ❌	Not available in Ultra and not planned. Alternatives - Many of the features of the Retention Center have been repurposed through the Activity Stream under Analytics, where you will receive alerts for students falling behind, absent, failing and the Course Reports.
Roster	Roster	Available ✅	Available in the Details & Actions area within an Ultra course. You can view the full student roster here.
Send Email	Messages	Available ✅	The updated Messages tool allows you to communicate with students via email. Messages retains a copy of the conversation in Blackboard and includes the option to send the contents to the student via email. To access Messages, click the envelope icon in the upper-right corner of the course or use the Messages link on the left-hand menu on the Institution Page.
Student Preview	Student Preview	Available ✅	Access Student Preview button in the upper right corner area within an Ultra course. As of August 2022, you will be asked whether the preview user should be saved or deleted each time you leave Student Preview mode.
Wiki	- - -	Discontinued ❌	Not available in Ultra and not planned.

This list compares the features of the Original and Ultra Course Views, and will be updated as features are introduced or updated. Note that the Ultra Course View contains additional features and capabilities that were never available in the Original Course View. Generally, these new capabilities are not tracked in this feature guide.

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