The Blackboard Ultra learning environment or base navigation refers to the interface and left-hand menu that you see when you first log into Blackboard Learn. This menu is available in the background and includes links to Courses and and the Global Calendar as well as the Activity Stream.
Explore the links in the Base navigation:
Activity Stream
The Activity Stream is the default landing page in Blackboard Learn. The Activity Stream will notify you of relevant information from across your modules, related to your role. As an Instructor in a module, you will see announcements, notifications and some new features related to how your students are engaging with your module areas. Upcoming events from your personal Blackboard Learn calendar will also be displayed.
Stream settings
From the Activity Stream you can go directly to course actions such as due dates, new materials and announcements. You can filter your stream to simplify the information it displays. You can decide the types of notifications you receive in your stream. As a best practice, it is recommended to configure your Notification Settings to your desired settings by using the cog icon.
Clicking on the cog with open up the notification settings:
For important notifications and communications, it is advisable to continue to check your staff email and Blackboard Learn modules.
To access your activity stream
Select the Activity Stream button in the left-hand menu
The Activity Stream page will open. In the example below you can see that Blackboard has identified some students in specific modules who are showing online engagement that is lower than their peers.
Monitoring students in the Activity Stream
A new feature, for instructors, is the identification of students who show patterns of engagement that may need further investigation. These students will be identified in the Activity Stream with a text link stating how many students are falling behind.
On clicking the link you will see a list of the students identified as 'falling behind' on a chart showing Marks and Course Activity.
Software is unable to understand a complete picture of a student’s learning experience and there are limitations with any approach that only uses accessible digital data.
Courses
The Courses page helps you organise and personalise your courses list. Use it to access the modules or programme support areas you have been enrolled on.
To access the courses list:
Select the Courses button in the left-hand menu:
The Courses view will open:
Courses Tile/List View
Within the Courses tool, you can view your modules in tile or list view, using the view toggle button (highlighted in red in the image below):
List View
To see your modules displayed in list view:
Toggle the course list view button:
The modules will then appear in list view:
Tile View
To see your modules in tile view:
Toggle the tile button:
The modules will then appear in tile view:
Finding your courses
Your modules and programme support areas will be listed under Courses. If you are teaching large number of modules, the Search your courses box is useful, search by name, module code or CRN.
You can filter through courses:
Favourite Modules
If there are modules you access more often than others, they can be added to your Favourites. Making a module a favourite will ‘pin’ it to the top of your Courses list.
To mark a module as a favourite:
Select the star icon next to the module title (highlighted in red in the image below):
The star icon will change colour (to purple) to indicate that the module is a favourite and the module will be pinned to the top of the Courses list in the Favourites section (see image below):
Hidden/Private Modules
Any modules shown in the Courses list as Private are unavailable to students but will be accessible to you.
Organisations
The Organisations section is not currently used and can be ignored for now.
Calendar
The Calendar page aggregates teaching events and deadlines from all your courses in one place. You can change between day and month view using the toggle button:
To access the Calendar:
Select the Calendar button in the left hand menu.
The Calendar view will open:
Messages
The Messages tool can be used to send messages to individuals, multiple people, or an entire cohort - within the modules you have access to. Messages only exist within Blackboard Learn; they are not sent to e-mail accounts and can only be accessed via the Messages tool.
To access Messages:
Select the Messages button in the left-hand menu:
The Messages page will open:
If you have any new messages, it will be indicated by a red circle next to the Messages icon. For Example:
