Ultra FAQ
Wichita State University will be fully transitioning to Blackboard Ultra courses starting for the Summer term, 2024. Here is what you need to know:
Ultra courses are modern and future-ready environments that support the student experience. Ultra has undergone major development in the last two years, and it can now support all course content types. All of Anthology's LMS development is now being done in Ultra only, and the Classic environment is quickly becoming dated.
Summer courses provide a limited yet comprehensive pilot opportunity for this change. In addition, by making the change between Spring and Fall semesters, instructors have several months of development and training time available to them. In addition, students who attend the University in the Summer term tend to be familiar with WSU systems and are aware of how to get help and technical support.
Any course you once offered in Classic can stay in Classic as an historical archive. Using the copy tool in your Ultra course, you will be able to copy material from a Classic class into your Ultra class. Do not make any changes to your Classic versions prior to copying into Ultra.
Yes. You will be able to see your Classic courses for at least two years from the semester they were offered. For example, a Classic class that is offered in Spring, 2024 will be available to you at least until Spring, 2026.
If you have not already converted to Ultra, it is extremely likely you are still in Classic. Classic courses have a black menu bar that runs from the top to bottom on the left side, and most Classic courses open up on the "Announcements" page.
Yes. Please use this request form for your development shell requests. OIR recommends that you request a development shell for each of your courses.
No. Office of Instructional Resources (OIR) staff is here to support you with training, troubleshooting, and design assistance through the process, but instructors will need to develop their own Ultra courses. Keep in mind, however, that you can use your previous Classic course versions as content repositories. It is straightforward to pull Original content into Ultra courses using the course copy tools in your Ultra course.
Please refer to online training in this SharePoint site. If you have other questions, please email the Office of Instructional Resources at OIR@wichita.edu
Yes, but if you are using materials from a small publisher, please send an email to OIR@wichita.edu and let us know the name of your publisher. Ultra courses are integrated differently, and your material may require us to make changes on the administrative side of Blackboard. Please let OIR know as soon as possible if you suspect there might be problems. It is also a good idea to reach out to your publisher rep to let them know you are moving to Ultra.
Please direct concerns about this decision to your department chair or your college dean.
Yes, but they will need to be relinked using the Panopto tools for Ultra. Please reach out to OIR@wichita.edu for assistance if you need it.
Students have been taking courses in Ultra since 2021, and many students are quite familiar with the environment. Studnets also have access to online Ultra training here in OIR's suite of training pages.
Yes. To transfer your course material from Classic to Ultra, you need to open the destination (Ultra) course, and use the course copy tools there to "pull" material in from your Classic course or courses that serve as the information repositoy.
Yes. If you would like to offer your course in the Microsoft Teams environment, you can do that using an Ultra integration. Ultra also allows you to offer Microsoft Teams meetings through your Blackboard shell.
Yes. The bookstore will take care of getting your AccessNow text set up in your Ultra course, in much the same way that they did for your Classic course.
Please send your question to OIR@wichita.edu and we will do our best to answer it.