Keep a Blackboard AI practice conversation in the language you teach

Blackboard’s 15 October release lets instructors enforce a language throughout an AI Conversation. According to its documentation, the persona keeps using that language even when a student requests a switch. The setting covers the opening, questions, replies and closing summary, including activities based on course material written in another language.[1]

The change is available in Ultra courses. AI Conversation itself must already be enabled by the institution, with the relevant course-role privileges assigned. The walkthrough below follows Blackboard’s current documentation; we have not run it in a teaching account.[1][3]

Give the language a job

Here is an illustrative exercise we devised: a student must rearrange a rehearsal with a French-speaking venue manager. The original room is unavailable, and the student needs to establish a new time, ask about equipment and confirm the agreement. The task gives each reply a purpose beyond demonstrating vocabulary.

Describe the manager as patient and concise, and set the response complexity for the class. The student’s goal could be to finish with a workable arrangement in French. Avoid supplying a complete model dialogue in the scenario: leave the student something to discover and express. These are suggested teaching choices, not a built-in Blackboard lesson.

Build and preview the exchange

1. On Course Content, select the plus sign, then Create → AI Conversation under Participation and Engagement.
2. Choose Role-play. Enter the scenario, the student’s role, the AI’s role and the goal; then select Next.
3. In Conversation Settings, open Advanced options and choose the language to enforce. Add a time limit or message cap if the exercise needs one.
4. Define the persona and response complexity, then Save. Select Preview chat to try the activity as a student.

In the preview, try the ordinary difficulty the exercise is meant to contain: ask about a different time, leave an equipment request ambiguous and request a switch to English. Check that the persona’s replies leave room for the student to negotiate while retaining the intended language. This is a suggested preview routine, not a report of measured product performance.

Blackboard advises instructors to preview the persona because its traits shape the exchange. Edit the accompanying reflection question as well. For this exercise, a useful prompt would ask the student to identify one misunderstanding, explain how they clarified it and give the final arrangement. On submission, the instructor can review both the conversation transcript and the reflection.[2]

The same language control applies to Socratic conversations and the new Pulse Quiz. The latter generates practice questions from selected course content and requires an AVA licence plus separate activation. Its reported tally of correct answers is not automatically transferred as a grade; the instructor reviews the submission.[1]

For the rehearsal exercise, the reflection provides the return to the classroom: two students may reach the same booking through different questions. Comparing those routes gives the teacher a specific exchange to discuss, and the students another way to express what they meant.

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