Welcome to the Blackboard Mailbag, where we feature a commonly asked question that has been hitting our mailbox recently: blackboard@fordham.edu. You’ll find an archive of all of the previous questions and answers on our fordham.edu/blackboard website.
Note: Features may change with future updates.
Blackboard Learn SaaS Continues to Evolve: February 2025 Update Preview
Blackboard Learn is committed to ongoing improvement, and as part of that commitment, they regularly release updates to their SaaS platform. The next update, version 3900.110.0, is scheduled for February 2025 and brings with it a host of new features and enhancements. While we wait for the official release, let’s take a look at some of the key changes faculty can expect.
Highlights of the upcoming release:
- Instructional Design: Blackboard is making improvements to the AI Design Assistant by allowing instructors to generate up to 20 test questions and learning modules at once, increasing from the current limit of 4. This enhancement reduces the likelihood of similar questions appearing and streamlines course creation.
- Communication and Collaboration: The Video Studio is getting a refresh with new features and functionality, including the ability to edit captions and subtitles to videos which will allow for corrections to minor errors and improved clarity in automatically generated captions and transcripts.
- Assessments: The Test Settings panel will be streamlined by removing assignment-specific options, reducing complexity and saving instructors time. Additionally, instructors will need to add at least one question before making a test visible or setting release conditions, ensuring students only see assessments they can engage with.
- Other: As always, Blackboard is implementing various other improvements and updates to the SaaS platform, including adjusting the avatar sizes and timestamp positions in discussions for a better user experience, making replies easier to identify and ensuring consistency across posts.
For the latest information:
For the most up-to-date information about the February 2025 – 3900.110 Release Notes for Learn SaaS, please refer to the Blackboard Learn SaaS Release Notes page.