Saving Changes

Recent updates to Blackboard have introduced a more consistent and user-friendly experience across several assessment settings pages. Faculty will notice standardized Save and Cancel actions that simplify navigation and reduce ambiguity when configuring assessments.

In the timer settings, the previous X icon has been replaced with clearly labeled Save and Cancel buttons. Access code settings now feature Cancel and Save options instead of the former Close and Continue buttons, aligning with the new interface standard.

Tagging Questions in Question Banks

Faculty who’ve missed Blackboard’s Original View will appreciate a recent update that reintroduces question metadata tagging in Ultra. This enhancement brings back a powerful feature that allows instructors to organize and manage test questions with greater precision.

When creating or editing for tests or forms, instructors can now enable Question Metadata and apply tags to individual questions. These tags are not visible to students during test-taking or review, but they offer significant advantages behind the scenes. Once a tag is created, it becomes searchable and reusable—making it easy to apply consistent metadata across multiple questions without starting from scratch each time.

Metadata is visible during question creation and editing, and it plays a key role when filtering questions for reuse or when building pools. Tags appear as filter facets in the Categories panel on the question banks and Reuse Question pages, streamlining the process of locating and organizing content.

What Students See

And finally, two recent updates to Blackboard focus on improving the student experience, both in terms of what students can access and how content is presented during assessments.

First, visibility controls for have been refined to match those used in tests.

Previously, it was possible to make a form visible to students even if it contained no questions, which could lead to confusion or incomplete assessments. With this update, a form must include at least one question before it can be made visible. Additionally, release conditions cannot be set until the form contains questions, ensuring that students only encounter complete and purposeful content.

Second, have been redesigned for clarity and accessibility.

Blanks now appear inline with the surrounding text, whether the question is formatted as a sentence, paragraph, or table. This change makes it easier for students to understand the context of each blank and respond accurately. To support screen reader users, hidden ARIA labels have also been added to each blank, improving accessibility without altering the visual layout.