Over the coming year, Drake will be transitioning from the current LMS, Blackboard Learn, to Blackboard Learn Ultra, a more advanced and user-friendly version.

The August changes will have minimal effect on the functionality of courses or the availability of features within courses. Instead, they will focus primarily on the look and feel of the LMS landing page and its navigation.

Starting Aug. 9, when you log into Blackboard, your landing page will look different. Learn more about the updated navigation at Getting Started with Ultra Base Navigation in Learn Ultra (How-to). The basic background and colors will all be a standard Drake color scheme.

Faculty can, however, customize a course by uploading a banner image. Learn more about customizing course images including guidance around image quality, size, and fair use at Creating Course Card Images/Course Banners in Learn Ultra (Best Practices). 

Learn more about the project, who to contact, and the proposed timeline at our FAQ page at drake.edu/its/learnultra/ and we will be adding additional help documentation to the Learn Ultra category in the Knowledge Base of our IT service portal.

— Karly Good, ITS