BbT26 Recap
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Dallas for Building Blackboard Together 2026
Blackboard was founded in 1997 to help transform the internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning. This conference was where we showed that mission is still what drives us: a roadmap built from customer feedback, and product delivered on that roadmap.
Major Announcements
Announcing Cursive – A New Way to Think About Plagiarism Detection
Institutions have been stuck choosing between unreliable verification and no digital writing at all. Academic integrity has rested on three pillars for years: plagiarism detection, AI classification, and the return of the in-class bluebook. None of these pillars verify authorship. None of them measure originality, authenticity, or effort. That’s the gap Cursive closes.
Cursive is now part of the Blackboard portfolio of learning solutions, bringing a fundamentally different approach to writing integrity for all institutions: one built for process, not policing.
Cursive is currently available in the United States. Learn more about Cursive or book a demo to get an in-depth look.
Support Experience Reimagined
We are launching a new Support Portal, moving away from a manual intake process that relies on call and response to uncover the root of your problem. We’re replacing that with intelligent intake, powered by AI, designed to quickly understand your setup, assess your problem, and get you the help you need.
One person will own your issue from start to finish. No more hand offs from tier to tier. To make this effective, support reps will be backed by a network of internal experts across product, engineering, and services — so you get expert answers without your point of contact changing. You always know who owns your problem, and where it stands. With powerful analytics built in, the new support experience with be a loop that learns so that ever interaction leads to continuous improvement.
Announcing Scholar by Blackboard – Learner-Centered AI
Grounded in a learner's real courses, Scholar shows them what to work on next — and gives them the tools to act on it. Together, we want to understand three things: the evolution of how learner’s study, what tools they choose when they have full agency, and, most importantly, what actually wins them back to the institution.
Stay tuned over the next 6 months as we share more about what we learn from our work in this initial cohort. We're starting deliberately small, with a select cohort of Blackboard institutions this Fall.
New Brand – The Evolution of Blackboard
At BbT, we introduced our new look and feel to better reflect who we are now. A clearer, more direct expression of the values that have always been true of this organization: grounded in education, honest about what works, and genuinely committed to the people who show up to teach and learn every day. Read more about our evolution or check out our new logo and brand guidance.
Product Updates
Ally
PDF Auto Tagging
PDF auto-tagging builds the structure — headers, tags, reading order — so assistive technology can actually navigate the document, making document remediation faster, easier, and more accessible. And once a PDF is tagged, Ally will keep highlighting remaining issues and guide instructors on how to fix them in order to continue to improve the file for students. Hours of manual remediation, now minutes, right in an instructor's workflow. Instructors are still in control, still approving every change — just no longer carrying it alone. This feature is available for all institutions using Ally.
New Course Accessibility Report
The new course accessibility report is focused on helping instructors get insights and determine actions faster with more information, more suggestions, and a clear path to improving their course accessibility for all students. The new CAR makes it easier to understand breakdowns of scoring across content type and a streamlined look and feel will help support instructors when they need it the most in their daily workflow.
LMS
AI Innovation
There are two new innovations in learner-centered studying: Auto-generated Flashcards and Pulse Quiz.
Flashcards allow instructors to identify strengths and gaps in absorption of learning in their course. Adoption and usability is easy, Flashcards are auto-generated from course descriptions and content. AI will do the first draft, and with a human in the loop, instructors can add cards, edit existing ones, or drop ones they don’t need.
The best part, Flashcards are available in Blackboard Core giving you a new pedagogical tool at no extra cost.
Pulse Quiz is a quick-fire quiz, generated individually for each student, on the fly in AI Conversations. Pulse Quiz content is grounded in the context of the course, giving instructors the opportunity to assess learning. The new Pulse Quiz feature is available for institutions licensing AVA.
Gradebook
We spent a year collaborating with instructors to rebuild the Gradebook around speed and clarity. Faster performance — more rows, more columns, an experience that actually keeps up with your instructors. Clearer insight — feedback, notes, exceptions, exemptions, all surfaced right when instructors need them. Streamlined editing, a unified to-do view, the ability to grade and post in one clear motion – designed so that instructors can focus on what matters most.
New Content Editor
Simpler to author in, more powerful formatting, and accessible from the ground up. Three clear menus — Edit, Format, Insert. A toolbar built around what instructors actually use. Lists and tables that finally behave the way you'd expect. And accessibility built into the foundation rather than added on afterward. Early access started in May, beta opens in August, staggered production release from September.
Big Moments
Fireside Conversation
Learning Management, at Last
Matt Pittinsky – Incoming CEO, Blackboard Co-Founder
Lev Gonick – Enterprise Chief Information Officer at Arizona State University
Matt and Lev discussed the LMS turning 30, with the conversation being driven by a foundational question: “Why, after 30 years, has the LMS changed so little?” They discussed how the LMS can be designed around the learner (rather than the course), the impact of AI on assessment, and building capabilities that support the holistic learner experience. The conversation was followed by a customer panel featuring Marc Booker from University of Phoenix, Jennifer Jackson from Boston University, and Niki Whiteside from San Jacinto College.
Opening Keynote
“Know It Before You Mess With It”
David Labaree - Sociologist of Education, Stanford Professor Emeritus
David walked us through how the American education system actually works and the impact of prioritizing the credential over learning.
Notes from the Community
Awards Ceremony
We honored 30 Catalyst, Impact, and Visionary Award winners from 17 countries at Building Blackboard Together.
What People Are Saying
“I had the opportunity to attend #BBT26, an inspiring and enriching learning experience. We explored Blackboard's latest features, new tools, and enhancements to customer support, but most importantly, it was great to experience once again the essence that has always made this conference so special.”
“I genuinely believe we may be on the cusp of a renaissance for Blackboard—one that reminds me why I love working in this industry.”