Copy test questions to Ultra question banks in May update

As the spring semester concludes, the May update to Ultra brings several enhancements to assessments, grading, engagement, and content creation. 

Test questions are some of the most valuable resources in a course. Instructors invest significant time and effort creating and refining banks of test questions. These banks help instructors create dynamic, robust assessments or easily reuse questions across various assessments. In the May update, instructors can copy questions from existing assessments into questions banks with the Reuse Question option in the Question Bank. Questions can also be copied from question bank to question bank using this method.

When tracking student submissions on an assessment, instructors may need to send timely and contextual outreach. In this update, instructors can sort submissions by type and select students to send a message. For example, an instructor may wish to send a message to students who haven't submitted the assignment yet. Selecting these students will craft a message interface for instructors to create a custom outreach. Selecting "send as email" ensures the message is sent external to Blackboard. Messages are confidential so students don't know who receives the communication.

Grading improvements include updates to rubrics and exemptions. To streamline grading, performance levels and criterion feedback are now hidden by default. However, a quick toggle can easily reveal these longer descriptions when grading. Additionally, when using the rubric, instructors can now quickly navigate using the tab key or up/down arrows. Finally, instructors can access the exemption feature within an by clicking on an individual cell in the gradebook grid view. Exemptions can also be applied from the submissions page and student detail view. 

Content improvements include faster file uploads and specifying how links open. Instructors and course builders who need to upload many resources into a course may find the new drag and drop folder to upload files to be an efficient way to quickly bring content into a course. Instructors should be mindful of quota and file format limitations. Opening links in a new window is generally considered best practice, especially for external websites to avoid browser security features blocking content from loading. However, there may be situations when an instructor or course author prefers linked content to open in a panel in the Ultra course. Instructors can now specify how a web link opens.