Blackboard Learn with the Ultra Experience

Blackboard Ultra is a virtual environment optimized for learning and delivers a simpler, more powerful experience. With a modern, intuitive, fully responsive interface, Ultra better engages participants, and eases the burden on presentors. Ultra utilizes modern browser technology and does not require special software or administrative privilages to run.

Joining a session is now as simple as opening a link on most devices.

Blackboard Ultra Accessibility

To learn more about Blackboard’s support for assistive technologies visit Accessibility for Blackboard Learn with the Ultra Experience or visit general information about accessibility at Blackboard.

Best screen reader experience

  • Full-screen reader support of all key workflows.
  • Global keyboard shortcuts for common actions. There are additional keyboard shortcuts. To learn more, go to Keyboard Shortcuts.
  • Screen reader support for whiteboard activities and uploaded files, without requiring complex conversions.
  • Live closed captioning.

Screen reader browser support

For the best Blackboard Ultra experience with your screen reader use Firefox® and JAWS on a Windows® system. On a Mac® use Safari® and VoiceOver.

  • Windows 10
    • Firefox with JAWS v17: Provisional
  • Windows 7
    • Firefox with JAWS v17: Compatible
  • macOS
    • Safari with VoiceOver: Certified
    • Firefox with VoiceOver: Provisional

Keyboard navigation

Industry standard keyboard interactions are used throughout Blackboard Ultra. Keyboard navigation patterns differ between browsers (Edge, Firefox, Safari, Chrome), but the interactions within any particular browser are common and consistent.

What is Closed Captioning?

Closed Captioning is an accessibility feature of Blackboard Ultra that enables session attendees to view the transcribed audio information. All of the webinar programs provide Closed Captioning via the Blackboard Ultra. The transcribed text can be viewed during the live session and in a recording of the session. The Blackboard Ultra experience includes live closed captioning. This provides an accessible learning experience for participants who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as for participants who have issues related to oral learning or whose native language is different from the moderator's.

Blackboard Ultra Browser Support

Blackboard Ultra is regularly certified against the following combinations of browsers and operating systems. These combinations also reflect the areas of strongest support.

Supported Desktop Browsers
Browser Version
Chrome 56+
Edge 30+
Firefox 50+
Internet Explorer Unsupported
Safari 11+
Supported Mobile Browsers
Browser Version
Android Browser 4+
Chrome 56+
Edge 30+
Safari 11+

For more details visit Blackboard browser support policies and help site or check the test links below.

Note: Internet Explorer is NOT supported!

Operating systems

A variety of modern operating systems including common desktop, tablet, and handheld devices like Windows 10, Apple OS X, IOS and Android. Blackboard maintains a complete list of tested operating systems.

Note: Windows XP is NOT supported!

Tests

Ultra Network Requirements

IT administrators may have limited how devices on their networks can make connections and detailed information is available for Ultra networking for IT Administrators.

UDP networking

Ultra works best when allowed UDP traffic on ports 49152 through 65535 for the domains: *.bbcollab.com, *.bbcollabcloud.com, *.bbcollab.cloud. If that is not available UDP traffic on port 50000 will also work.

Web Sockets

Whitelisted *.bbcollab.com, *.bbcollabcloud.com, and *.bbcollab.cloud domain to allow HTML5 Web Socket traffic to connect to session servers.

Error Messages

The J10 and J11 error messages indicates your system is blocking the special HTML 5 web socket connections that Blackboard Ultra uses. This type of error messages is usually the direct result of a network firewall configuration by your workplace IT and that means that the only solution is to have your IT operations make modifications to allow your device to join the session. To participate in our webinar using the Blackboard Ultra service your device needs permission for WebRTC over the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and HTML5 Web Socket traffic to properly connect to the session servers.