Blackboard Learn is the learning management system that Anthology and, since March 2026, Blackboard sells to institutions. The company’s own history page says Blackboard launched Ultra in 2016 as a next-generation LMS built as a SaaS platform, and that it is now referred to simply as Blackboard LMS.[7] For licensing, the useful split is by deployment model: the SaaS tiers, the Managed Hosting plans that Blackboard retired, and self-hosted software.
Deployment models
The support catalogue lists the SaaS Deployment for Blackboard Learn as in Full Support since September 2014, and states that SaaS deployments receive frequent updates and are covered by Full Support.[3] The table lists Learning Core SaaS, Learning Essentials SaaS and Innovative Classroom SaaS beneath the SaaS Deployment entry.[3]
Self-hosted and Managed Hosting deployments have been wound down. The catalogue says that as of 2023-12-31 Blackboard no longer provides Full Support for self-hosted deployments, and instead provides Extended Support for the most recent release, with all previous releases becoming No Longer Supported. Managed Hosting deployments were no longer supported after 2022-12-31.[3] A customer still running self-hosted Learn is therefore on a licence that is supported only on a commercially reasonable basis during local business hours, as covered below.
SaaS Standard, Plus and Advantage
A support article announced that SaaS Plus and Advantage, together with the SaaS Standard offering available since 2014, give Learn customers a choice of three tiers.[2] The article says at launch the two upper tiers were available for higher education institutions in North America only.[2] The specifications document sets out the differences.
| Feature | Standard | Plus | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage in the initial-term annual fee | 1 TB unless the Order Form says otherwise | 1 TB | 1 TB |
| Building Blocks | Pre-installed set only; cannot remove or install others | Customer may install after testing on a Non-Production Test Environment | Same as Plus |
| Non-Production Test Environment | Up to 20 concurrent users, 20 GB storage | Same | Same |
| Staging Environment | Not included | Optional add-on, 100 GB | Included, 100 GB, up to four production clones a year |
| Direct Data Access | Not included | Optional add-on at additional cost, 700 GB | Included, 700 GB |
| Service Delivery Team | Not included | Not included | Included at about 10 hours a week on average |
| Learning Insight Solution | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
The table summarises the specifications and the support article.[1][2] Additional storage is separately charged in every tier, and data restoration is charged per restore incident.[1]
Building Blocks
Building Blocks are extensions installed through the Administrator Panel. For Plus and Advantage the specifications require the customer to install or update and test them on the Non-Production Test Environment before changing production. If an issue arises and Blackboard’s SaaS support team isolates it to a Building Block, the team may disable or upgrade the Building Block to restore service, and the customer must work with the Building Block developer on a fix before Blackboard re-enables it.[1] For asset management this means that a customer’s own integrations are a licence and support dependency as well as a technical one.
Test, staging and archive environments
Each environment has a fixed size and a service-level position. The Non-Production Test Environment is designed for no more than 20 concurrent users with 20 GB of storage, is not designed to replicate production and does not qualify for service level guarantees. Staging Environments include 100 GB, not counting production clones, up to four clones of production data per year (the cloned data is not backed up), and a 99.7% availability guarantee. The Learn SaaS Archive environment is designed for no more than 20 concurrent users, includes 1 TB of storage in the annual fee and support for up to two bulk course archive imports a year, and does not qualify for service level guarantees.[1] The Master Agreement separately provides that self-hosted and SaaS licensees receive one Test Copy, a copy or sandbox for non-production testing that is not supported or warranted.[5]
Direct Data Access
Direct Data Access is the SaaS equivalent of the Open Database used by self-hosted and Managed Hosting customers. It is a replicated, read-only, non-production database reachable from approved IP addresses, with a single username and password, 700 GB of server storage and access to the full database schema with some restrictions. Content files such as Word documents are not copied. It is included in Advantage and an additional-cost option for Plus.[1][2]
Service Delivery Team
Advantage includes dedicated Service Delivery Manager and Service Delivery Engineer resources, sized so that the aggregate rate averages 10 hours per week, plus monthly utilisation reports. An upgrade add-on for Advantage customers adds a further 10 hours per week on average, so that a customer choosing the 10-hour upgrade has a total commitment of 20 hours per week.[1]
Flexible Deployment Option
The specifications record that the Flexible Deployment Option, which let customers take major updates once or twice a year, is no longer available. Customers that had selected it by May 2019 could take major updates twice a year until the FDO release in the fourth quarter of 2020, and after 2020-07-31 all Learn SaaS customers are on Continuous Delivery. Maintenance, bug fixes and security updates were always deployed continuously.[1] A Plus-only Update Support add-on, which provided a staging environment and a Platinum Project Manager during major update periods, remains in the document for customers that selected the option.
Service levels and credits
Exhibit A states that Blackboard will use commercially reasonable efforts to make the SaaS Software available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, with a minimum targeted uptime of 99.9% per calendar month. Availability excludes scheduled maintenance, issues outside Blackboard’s reasonable control, force majeure events and third-party software integrations requested or deployed by the customer.[1] Credits are 1 day of service fees (1/30 of the monthly fees) for up to 4 aggregate hours below 99.9% availability, 2 days (1/15) for 4 to 48 hours, and 5 days (1/6) for 48 to 96 hours, with another 5 days for each further block of 96 hours.[1]
Four conditions shape whether a credit is paid. The customer must request the monthly performance report within seven days of month end and claim a credit within seven days of receiving it, or the credit is forfeited. The customer must be in compliance with the Agreement, including contracted limits such as Active User Capacity and storage quota, and be operating the current version. Credits are the sole and exclusive remedy and the service level failure is not a breach. The total for any calendar month cannot exceed one month of fees, and credits are applied to the next period’s fees.[1] The compliance condition links the metrics article to service credits: a customer above its contracted Authorized Users or storage may lose its credit.
Other provisions in Exhibit A include a daily backup with a one-month retention period, and a statement that if a customer takes no steps to enable or access the SaaS Software within 90 days of the Order Form effective date, delivery is deemed complete.[1] The specifications also say that these terms are subject to change by Blackboard from time to time, with or without notice, effective on posting.[1]
Managed Hosting plans (legacy)
The October 2020 Managed Hosting terms define three plans. Gold has a Production Environment, 200 GB of primary data storage, 8,000 Active Users and 5 Mbps of bandwidth. Platinum adds a Test Environment, a Staging Environment during major update periods and a Platinum Project Manager, with 500 GB, 8,000 Active Users and 20 Mbps. Diamond 1 has Production, Test and Staging Environments and Service Delivery Team resources at 10 hours a week on average, with the same 500 GB, 8,000 Active Users and 20 Mbps. In each case figures apply unless the Order Form states otherwise, and additional storage, bandwidth and Active User capacity are separately charged.[4] Managed Hosting availability is measured against 99.7% per calendar month, and credits depend on usage being within contracted Active User Capacity and storage.[4]
A customer that moved from Managed Hosting or self-hosted Learn to SaaS did so under a schedule that states it supersedes and replaces the customer’s existing Learn licence schedule and Managed Hosting schedule on access to the SaaS environment.[6]
Self-hosted Learn
Self-hosted Software is licensed on a Designated Configuration, and for Learn the licence is for one production copy and one Test Copy for one installation at the customer’s Designated Server Site, with installation elsewhere requiring Blackboard’s prior written consent. The Master Agreement notes that the Software may use Java Software licensed to the customer under Oracle’s Standard Binary Code License Agreement.[5]
Under Extended Support from 2023-12-31, the self-hosted deployment has self-service web support, email and telephone support during local business hours only, commercially reasonable service levels, and break/fix for Severity 1 and 2 issues only where commercially reasonable and none for Severity 3.[3] The catalogue also states that clients may not change the Learn database schema, may build read-only queries from schema documentation and that unauthorised database changes are unsupported.[3]
Learn API
The Learn API licence is a limited, non-exclusive, revocable, non-sublicensable and non-transferable licence to Blackboard’s public Learn-related APIs, which may be Building Block APIs, REST APIs or web services. Blackboard reserves the right to limit the number or frequency of API requests.[5] A customer that builds integrations on the Learn REST API should read this alongside the Building Block rules above.
Out of scope
The article does not cover Learn pricing, the Anthology Illuminate analytics tiers, or product features of Ultra. Companion products are covered in Ally, Adopt and other product licensing.