New Look for Blackboard Landing Page Coming January 4th
On Tuesday, Jan. 4, Blackboard will be unavailable from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Central time as the landing page for Blackboard is updated with a new look and feel for easier navigation. The new Blackboard landing page has a sleek, modern look and feel with simpler workflows and easier access to important information.
All institutions within the North Dakota University System (NDUS) will experience this change at the same time as part of the transition to Ultra Base Navigation (UBN).
The features and functionality within Blackboard course and organization sites will NOT change. The color scheme and icons within courses and organizations will be updated to the Blackboard Ultra colors/theme to make the sites more accessible and mobile friendly, but the functionality and features will remain the same.
What is Changing?
After 8 a.m. on Jan. 4, you will see the new landing page and navigation as soon as you log into Blackboard. The new landing page will include a modern, intuitive Blackboard Ultra navigation menu that lives outside of courses and includes the following new features:
- Activity Stream – A customizable view of activity in all your courses.
- Courses – Links to access your past, current and future courses will now be located here, with the ability to filter/sort for a cleaner look and feel. There will be a similar option to access organization sites.
- Calendar – The global calendar displays events and dates from multiple courses in one location. All due dates and meetings instructors create in their courses appear automatically on the calendar.
- Messages – On the Messages page, you can send and receive messages for all your Blackboard courses. Note: This is different from the Send Announcement or Send Email feature and does not include an email copy.
- Grades – Instructors see a summary for each course and can begin grading from this page. Students see a list of recent grades and their overall grades for each course.
Where can I learn more?
Visit our Blackboard UBN Transition Web page for a sneak peak of the new landing page and additional instructor and student resources.
Register to attend a virtual “Show and Tell” session in December or January. Department training sessions can also be arranged.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions.
Teaching Transformation and Development Academy (TTaDA)
O’Kelly 320, Stop 7104
221 Centennial Drive
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7104
P 701.777.2129
