This guide pertains to Ultra Course View.
If your course is in Original Course View, see the Original Course View tutorial collection.
Preparing to Migrate Course Content to Ultra
Prior to migrating course content to an Ultra Course shell, faculty are encouraged to follow these steps:
- Complete training on Ultra to learn terminology, features, and navigation
- Review the Sound Principles of Course Design Ultra shell found in Blackboard on the Workshops and Orientation tab on the Bb homepage to understand best practices and course design principles for presenting content and graded activities in an Ultra course shell.
- Review Ultra Example courses found in Blackboard on the Workshops and Orientation tab on the Bb homepage to see examples of Ultra courses you can use as a guide in in building your own Ultra course shell.
- Watch the Migration Prep video.
- Prepare course content housed in Original Course View for transfer over to Ultra using the below Migration Prep steps. It is recommended you copy course content from an Original Teaching shell into the Original Sandbox shell provided to you to complete Migration Prep in the sandbox shell. The teaching shell should remain a historical account of how the course was taught to the students enrolled in it.
- Review these Migration Considerations to determine what, if any, of these features should be used in your course.
- Migrate Content from Original to Ultra
- Complete the Post-Migration Review and New Ultra Feature Considerations.
Migration Resources
Use the attached Migration Prep Guide found on the right side under Attachments to make notes and reminders specific to the course you are preparing to migrate.
Your first step is to copy course content from your desired teaching shell into your sandbox shell for Original Course View. Do not make adjustments to the teaching shell as this serves as a historical account of the course students completed.
As you prep content for migration, you may find you need to move or delete content items.
Join CIS Ultra experts for consultation and assistance in one of our Virtual Drop-In or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) sessions.
Once migration is completed, and if you have another course you need to migrate, you'll want to bulk delete the Original Sandbox Shell.
Migration Prep
- Course Menu & Navigation: The goal is to streamline navigation and reduce the number of menu button items to be exported to Ultra.
2. Announcement Clean-Up:
- Omit any announcements specific to a specific class or semester that won't apply to the next course.
- Remove references to season or specific time – announcements should be generic in nature.
- Leave only those announcements that apply to all offerings of the course.
3. Discussion Forum Prep:
- Delete student threads that carried over with the course copy from the prior course.
- Using the chart below, determine how discussion forums are setup in your course. Ensure the "Allow Members to Create New Threads" is configured appropriately based on your forum type.
| Discussion Prompts Within the Forum |
Discussion Prompts Within Threads |
| One central discussion prompt is provided within the forum. Students respond to this prompt by creating their own threads. |
Multiple prompts are listed in separate instructor-created threads. Students participate by writing their responses as replies to the threads. |
| Students can create threads to respond to the prompt. The "Allow Members to Create New Threads" is checked within Forum settings. |
Students cannot create threads to respond to the prompt (they reply on the already-provided thread). The "Allow Members to Create New Threads" is not checked within Forum settings. |
| Migration to Ultra Result: Discussion forums are created on the Discussions tab in the Ultra course. |
Migration to Ultra Result: Discussion forums are created as folders in the Ultra course. |
4. Content Review & Organization
- All content items that pertain to a module/week/topic should be organized in one location to combine materials together and streamline navigation. This includes graded items such as assignments and assessments.
- Do folders have text placed on the outside of the folder? if so, this will not migrate over to Ultra. If verbiage is pertinent, copy/paste content into a new item located inside the folder.
- Materials/Resources/Information needed to complete an assignment should be housed with the assignment.
- Course Links Removed: Review course for links that help users to navigate to another area of the course. Course links will not migrate over and result in greater clean-up needed in the Ultra course.
5. Content Clean-Up | Flatten Navigation: Ultra limits content to 3 layers thus content housed in folders more than 3 layers deep cannot exist in Ultra and must be moved up a layer (e.g. no more than 3 clicks to reach content item). Review course for content housed in folders more than 2 layers deep (e.g. folder within a folder within a folder). If found, move content in the final folder layer up a level to the prior folder & omit the final folder.
6. Groups | Group Activities:
- Have groups been built in the course along with Group Assignments? Make note of group setup and which activity/activities in the course have been created as group assignments to serve as a reminder to verify this setup once content has been migrated to the Ultra shell.
- If groups are used in the course, do teams have small group discussions within their group Discussion Board? If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss setup within the Ultra course shell.
- Does the course us a sign-up sheet (e.g. students sign up for a topic to present on or a time slot to present in)? If so, sign-up sheets do not exist in Ultra. Consider a consultation with CIS to discuss alternatives.
7. Assessments
- Is there anything unique or special about tests or assignments in your course? If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss the setup within the Ultra course. Examples: a 500-level course where graduate students must complete additional coursework for grad-level credit; Completion of an activity that uses a Pass/Fail or Complete/Incomplete schema; configuring the Grade Center to automatically drop the lowest score or use the highest score.
- Do assessments in your course require students to submit proof of their work for partial credit? NOTE: By default, all tests have "Allow Students to Add Content at the End of Assessment" turned on, allowing students to submit proof of their work for partial credit. If a separate submission link is in the Original course to submit proof of work, this will not be needed in Ultra. Omit this submission link and adjust instructions accordingly in Ultra.
- Is there a semester-long project that is worked on throughout the course? If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss setup within the Ultra course shell.
- Does any test in the course use any of these question types? These are not currently available in Ultra.
- Ordering
- Likert Scale
- File Response
- Quiz bowl
- Jumbled Sentence
If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss alternative options within the Ultra course shell.
8. GRADE CENTER
- Unhide any columns in the Grade Center you wish to retain. Hidden columns in the Grade Center do not migrate over to Ultra.
- Is this a 500-level course? If so, it should contain a graded activity for graduate-level students only in order to earn grad-level credit. Consider a consultation with CIS to discuss setup within the Ultra course shell.
- Are there any Pass/Fail or Complete/Incomplete activities in the course or desired to be setup in the Ultra course? Complete/Incomplete is a new grading schema in Ultra.
- Does your course use weighted grades? If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss setup within the Ultra course shell.
- Are there any unique grading needs that are challenging to complete in the Bb Grade center? If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss setup within the Ultra course shell.
9. COURSE TOOLS
- Does the course use 3rd party software or other vendor-integrated tools (e.g. Connect, MindTap, MyLab, FeedbackFruits, etc)? If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss setup within the Ultra course shell.
- Does the course use any of the following Bb tools: Glossary, Wiki, Blogs, or Surveys? These tools no longer exist in Ultra. Consider a consultation with CIS to discuss alternatives for the Ultra course shell.
- Does the course use TaskStream, Scorm, Portfolios, or any other unique tools? If so, consider a consultation with CIS to discuss setup within the Ultra course shell.
NOTES
- Menu Buttons in Original Courses come into Ultra as Modules.
- A Library link exists in all Ultra shells. Determine if the Library link in the Original course shell is unique to that course or goes to the general library link. If the link is unique to the course, update the link in the Ultra shell to the preferred one.
- If you have more than one Original Course to migrate to Ultra, when you are ready to move to migrate your next course, Bulk Delete your Sandbox shell, then re-copy content into it from another teaching shell.