From the 9 January 2026 Blackboard will be refreshed with some visual and navigation changes aimed to improve your experience of using Blackboard to learn. Nothing will change in your courses themselves, the course content or any assessment processes due to this change – the changes are mainly some tweaks to menus and the overall navigation. The new look may appear from late in the evening on 8 January.
To view the new look of Ultra, see this embedded video, or find it at the top of this Blackboard help page: Navigate in Blackboard
What’s changing?
1. Courses will appear in a full screen
When you enter a course, it will now fill the screen rather than layer on top of the Blackboard Home page. This reduces the clutter on the screen significantly, making better use of the space.
2. There is a new “Home” button to use to leave a course
The pink “X” button to leave a course has been replaced with a “Home” button, which takes you back to the Blackboard home page. This reduces the risk of closing courses unintentionally.
3. Course menu repositioned
Within a course, the horizontal course menu is now located directly above the course banner, prioritising the course content in your field of view.
4. Course titles overlayed on top of the course banner
The banner image for your course now stretches across the breadth of the screen, and the name of your course is overlayed on top of this image
5. New Course Switcher
To make it easier to move quickly between courses without having to return to the Home page, a Course Switcher has been added to the top of the screen in each course.
6. Streamlined Home page menu
The left-hand menu on the Blackboard Home page has been slightly redesigned. Now, your profile image will appear at the top of the list, and the option to sign-out has been placed at the bottom of the menu, separated from the other options.
