Let’s Go Ultra!
College of DuPage is currently utilizing Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation but we’ll soon be starting the process of migrating courses to Ultra as well. Here, you can learn what this means for you and your students and where you can find help and support throughout the process.
What Is Ultra?
Learn Ultra is Anthology’s updated and improved LMS offering. It has a modern, intuitive, and fully responsive interface that is easier to use on mobile devices. It also offers some updated tools for teaching and interacting with students.
Learn Ultra is composed of two distinct components: Base Navigation and Course View. We have already implemented Base Navigation and are working towards implementing Ultra Courses. You can learn more about both components below.
Ultra Base Navigation
Base Navigation offers modern, intuitive navigation that provides quick access to the most critical information from across all of your courses. It should make it easier both to see what you need to do in Blackboard and to get it done. This change doesn’t impact your courses themselves–these remain in Original Course View unless you choose to migrate them. College of DuPage launched Base Navigation in our Spring 2023 term.
Ultra Course View
Ultra Course view offers a streamlined, more intuitive interface and workflows for maximum efficiency within your courses themselves. The Ultra Course View is also fully responsive for optimal use on any device and new functionality and enhancements are added regularly. The College is in the process of transitioning to Ultra Course View, with full transition to be completed by the Spring 2026 term.
Interested in Trying Ultra?
Want to try out Ultra Course View? You can give it a go in a development shell to see what it’s like, how you’ll need to structure your course, and what new features have to offer. Send us an email and we’ll get you set up!
Blog Posts on Ultra
Do One Thing in Ultra: Set a Release Condition Based on Submission
Yup, Blackboard brought back a thing that had been removed in Ultra. Care to guess what it is? (Some of you asked me about it a while back) Yup, it's the conditional release (in original) or release condition (in Ultra) based on submission. For those of you keeping...
Getting The Most Out of The Ultra Calendar
What am I reading? This article from 404 Media (one of my favorite tech publication): A new paper from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which...
