Blackboard Product Release Notes

Early Access: New Content Editor for Blackboard Documents: A modernized Content Editor arrives in Blackboard LMS as an Early Access option starting with the August release. Administrators can enable the new editor for Blackboard Documents through a feature flag. Instructors can switch between the new and classic editors when creating Documents while both remain fully supported. The new editor brings reorganized menus, a streamlined toolbar, enhanced list and table formatting, and improved keyboard navigation.

Manage Group Membership with Drag and Drop: Instructors can now drag and drop students between the unassigned list and groups to quickly assign or remove membership. This faster, more intuitive workflow simplifies group management and makes it easier to organize and adjust groups without relying on menus or selection lists.

Create Multiple Groups at Once: Instructors can now create between two and 5,000 groups in a single action from the Groups management screen, eliminating the need to add groups one at a time. This streamlines course setup, reduces repetitive work, and makes it much faster to establish group structures, especially in large courses.

Restructured Gradebook Grid View: The Gradebook Grid View has been restructured with a reorganized layout and new Grade Details panel that surfaces grading information and actions in one place. All gradebook data, grade calculations, and settings are completely unaffected. No configuration is required to activate this feature.

Export question banks: Instructors can now export question banks as a file to their local device. This makes it easier to backup assessment content or share with other instructors for reuse across courses.

Configure the “From” name for automation messages: Instructors or other users with automation editing permissions can now configure the “From” name on automation-generated messages, separating the sender from the author of the automation. This is useful when a course builder or administrator creates automations on an instructor's behalf. The sender can be set to the instructor, so students receive messages from a familiar, trusted source.

Duplicate items on the Course Content page: Instructors can now duplicate any item on the Course Content page except LTI items, with the copy retaining all content and settings from the original. A new Duplicate option appears in the More options menu for every item. This makes it faster to build consistent, repeating course structures.