In our December 2025 edition of Online Campus News You Can Use, we advise you of important tool updates, tasks, and upcoming events to help faculty deliver high quality online instruction.
Hot Topics
Blackboard Ultra Updates
The following new features and fixes will be available with our update to version 4000.4 by December 4, 2025
- 🔥🔥🔥Specify participation requirements for Discussions
- Set release conditions for open or started and for non-assessment content items
- Improved handling of group membership changes
- Aligned gradebook submission counts with Show/Hide Unavailable Students Gradebook setting
- Standardized tabbed interface in Flexible Grading
- AI Conversation – Remove Originality Reporting
- Better Audio and Video in Feedback
- Learning Module Table of Contents – Instructor View
Career Essentials Reflection & Assessment Folders
If your syllabus indicates that you will be introducing, reinforcing, or assessing a Career Essentials skill, refer to the applicable Career Essentials folder for instructions.
If you are introducing or reinforcing Career Essentials, see the Career Essentials Reflection folder. If you are assessing Career Essentials, see the Career Essentials Assessment folder.
Each will contain instructions and resources for each assessment type. For a better understanding of the difference between Introduce, Practice and Assess levels of Career Essentials, please listen to a 10-minute podcast.
Collaborate Maintenance Coming December 26th
Recordings of Class for Web virtual meetings created before July 1, 2025 will be deleted from the Collaborate server on December 26, 8:00 AM CDT. This is necessary to maintain the tool's availability.
Recordings are automatically backed up to your YuJa media library through the Collaborate Connector. To preserve recordings that are not already in your YuJa library, transfer them to YuJa before December 26, 2025. If you need assistance, refer to our walk-through instructions and demonstration videos.
RSI Resources Added to Faculty Support Site
MATC requires instructors who teach sections that are scheduled as 100% Online, Live Scheduled Online, Hybrid, Hyflex, and Blended to demonstrate Regular Substantive Interaction (RSI) with students, as evidenced in Blackboard. The Faculty Appendix (pg. 131) and 21st C. Classroom Level 2 Checklist state that RSI is an expectation for online teaching.
RSI resources can be found on the Online Learning Faculty Support Site. If you have questions about demonstrating RSI in your online sections, contact onlinelearning@matc.edu.
Training & Support Opportunities
New! - Spring ZERD-190 & 219 Sessions
Designed to empower educators aiming to elevate their proficiency in the 21st Century Classroom Level 2, our free 1-credit professional development courses delve into the utilization of Blackboard Ultra and effective strategies for delivering exceptional online instruction.
Upcoming Anthology Events
Innovative Educator Series - The One That Made Accessibility Effortless
Findings from the 2025 Anthology Faculty Survey highlight gaps in institutional support, but also reveal where LMS tools can help. In this session, we’ll show how tools like Anthology Ally integrate into your everyday workflows—making accessibility part of the process, not an added burden. Join us, Friday, December 12, 2025 ; 12 – 1 p.m. ET.
Ultra Support
Faculty Resources
For one on one consultation regarding the use of Blackboard to design and deliver courses that meet MATC's 2st Century Classroom Standards, contact your faculty coach in the Center for Teaching Excellence or schedule an appointment with Online Learning's Faculty Liaisons. For high-level troubleshooting of errors or activity that requires investigation, Contact the Online Learning. A Blackboard administrator will be in contact with you.
For self-directed or just-in-time training on Blackboard Ultra or other educational technologies, see these resources:
- Blackboard Ultra Essentials Success Toolkit
- Ultra Faculty Support Website (Forms, Tutorials, Support Contacts)
- Anthology's Innovative Educator Webinars On Demand
Student Resources - Share with Your Students!
See our Staff Resources Guide to Blackboard Ultra to review the training and support options we provide to students. In addition to options for live and self-paced online learning orientations, students can access support through the Student Online Learning Support Site.
Share our self-paced Online Readiness module and live orientation webinar schedule with your students to help them learn about the tools, tasks, and strategies to start their studies strong. If you share the Online Readiness module as a link in your course, use this specific URL: https://www.go2orientation.com/learn/course/matc-online-readiness?client=matc. This will take the student to an MATC login page where the student will log in with their MATC network account!
Log into the Online Orientation with an MATC network account to access a self-paced overview of the tools and processes successful online students use in their classes.
When logged into the Online Orientation, click on the Student Success Workshops link for on-demand training on generative AI, study skills, life skills, and more!
RSVP to join a Google Meet session lead by experts in the Online Campus. These sessions are perfect for viewing a live demonstration of Blackboard navigation and asking questions.
