In Blackboard Ultra, merged courses use a single parent course for instruction and display only one course tile to students, but instructors must still verify availability and dates, and manually manage sections if needed.

🎓 Blackboard Ultra Course Merge: Post-Merge Checklist

Use this quick checklist after your courses are merged in Blackboard Ultra.
Target time: 5–10 minutes

🧭 How Merged Courses Work in Ultra (Quick Visual)

Instructor View:
Parent Course (you teach here)
⬇
All content + all students combined

Student View:
One Course Tile (entry point)
⬇
Access to all merged content

👉 Even if students are enrolled in multiple sections, they will typically see only one course tile

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✅ 1. Enter the Parent Course

• You will see one course on your dashboard

• This is the parent course

👉 All teaching, grading, and communication happens here

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✅ 2. What You’ll See on Your Dashboard

• You will typically see only the parent course

• Section (child) courses may be:

  • hidden

  • or unavailable

👉 This is expected behavior in Ultra
👉 No action is needed

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👀 3. What Students Will See

• Students may see only one course tile

• They will not see multiple sections—even if enrolled in more than one

👉 This is normal in Ultra

✔ That one course provides access to all merged content
✔ No content or enrollment is missing

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👥 4. Roster & Section Visibility

• The Roster no longer shows section/course IDs

• All students appear in a single combined list

👉 Section distinctions are not visible in the roster

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📊 5. Grading by Section (Good News!)

While sections aren’t visible in the roster, you can filter by section in the Gradebook:

• Go to the Gradebook

• Select the Grades tab

• Open Filters

• Under Merged Courses, select a section (e.g., ALP)

👉 This allows you to view and work with one section at a time

✔ Helpful for grading
✔ Helpful for reviewing student progress by section

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🛠 6. Optional: Creating Groups

(keep your existing groups section after this)

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🛠 5. Need to Work by Section? (Optional)

If you need to separate students by section:

• Create Groups (e.g., “Section 01”, “Section 02”)

• Manually assign students

👉 Ultra does not support automatic grouping by section

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🧩 6. ALP / Co-Requisite Courses

• Students may be enrolled in multiple sections (e.g., ALP + Composition)

• They will still see only one course tile

👉 This is expected and does not indicate a problem

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🆘 If Something Looks Wrong

Contact OLT if:

• Students cannot see the course at all

• Students cannot access content after clicking into the course

👉 There is no need to manage section courses directly

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🔄 What Changed from Blackboard Original?

Blackboard Original	Blackboard Ultra
Multiple course tiles visible	Single course tile (auto-managed)
Roster shows section IDs	No section identifiers
Instructors managed child visibility	Blackboard manages this automatically
Section awareness built-in	Section awareness must be recreated (groups)