Student Guides and Documentation

Accessing Alternative Formats for Students

Updated on

Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View supports alternative file formats for Blackboard content items and attached files.

About Alternative Formats

Have you ever found content in your course that was difficult to read, or you wish came in a different format? A software called Blackboard Ally creates alternative formats of your course content that you can download directly from your course. 

Ally creates these alternative formats:

  • OCR PDF (for scanned documents)
  • Tagged PDF (currently for Word, Powerpoint and OpenOffice/LibreOffice files)
  • Semantic HTML
  • Audio
  • ePub
  • Electronic Braille
  • Translated Version
  • BeeLine Reader

Alternative formats aren't just for a select group of students. Alternative formats benefit everyone and anyone can use them. For example, maybe you have a lot of course material to read and get eye strain, or maybe you are an auditory learner. Download the MP3 audio file instead. These formats are made available with the original file. 

Accessing Alternative Formats for Content Items

image showing how to access a course document in Learn Ultra

To access alternative format in your Learn Ultra course, locate the content you wish to view and open it.

Image of a course document in Blackboard Learn Ultra with an arrow pointing to the Alternative Formats button.

Alternative formats can then be accessed by clicking on the Alternative Formats (the A) button at the top of the page.

image showing list of available alternative formats and the download button.

You will now see a list of alternative formats available for the selected class document.

  1. Select the format you wish to use.
  2. Click on the Download button at the bottom of the page to save the alternative format to your computer.

Accessing Alternative Formats for File Attachments

Image showing how to access alternative formats for an attached file in Learn Ultra

Alternative formats for attached files can be accessed by clicking the Alternative Formats (A) button to the right of the file name.

image showing list of available alternative formats and the download button.

You will now see a list of alternative formats available for the selected class document.

  1. Select the format you wish to use.
  2. Click on the Download button at the bottom of the page to save the alternative format to your computer.
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