Blackboard annual course release

Each year, new Blackboard courses are created to enable units to be taught to a new cohort of students.

This coming academic year (2026/27)

  • Units will be released in June 2026 as copies of last year’s courses, so staff can review and refresh their content. The exact date of the release of these units will be confirmed closer to the time.  
  • Library Resource Lists will be available from early June. 
  • Re/Play links cannot be refreshed until July, so these will need to wait until then.

Future approach

  • Most years, copies of the previous year's units will be released in June, allowing staff time to review and update their content. This process has been known as “rollover” in previous years.  
  • To ensure consistency, in some years we will undertake a unit course renewal. In these years, Blackboard courses will be created without copying over old content but instead will only contain the faculty templates.  
  • Content will then need to be selected and copied into the renewed units. This allows for the development and deployment of updated faculty templates, which can then also utilise any new functionality which is being developed in Blackboard. 
  • The decision on when to renew will be made at faculty level and communicated well in advance. Each faculty will need to renew every three years to enable new features in Blackboard and ensure old content is not needlessly copied.
  • Clear timelines and communications will be provided, so staff know whether the upcoming year is a copying or renewal one for them.

Previous approach

In previous academic years, when we used the Blackboard Original platform, units were released in August as copies of the previous year’s courses for staff to review and update.

  • 2024/25: Units were released early in June 2024 to give staff more time to prepare. This was due to the changes as part of the Structure of the Academic year project.
  • 2025/26: With the move to Blackboard Ultra, units were released in April 2025 as templated course shells, requiring staff to build and migrate content into new templates.

Definitions

Course copying

This is the process where a course for the new academic year is created by the DEO as a copy of the previous year’s course. You can then review and update content as needed. This has previously been called a rollover of old content.

Course renewal

A renewal means your course will need to be built from a new faculty template rather than a copy of last year's course. You will need to select and move content into the new course. This helps maintain baseline standards and enables staff to take advantage of new Blackboard features.

Rationale

The rationale for why we will sometimes renew instead of course copying every year is that renewing course materials periodically ensures: 

  • Updated templates and design standards
  • Removal of outdated content
  • Ability to use new functionality in Blackboard.

Support

Training, guidance, and resources will be provided for both course copying and renewal processes, including guidance on moving content and using new templates.