Students can use the "Create Thread" button in a class discussion area, but if they try to save a draft of the thread, they will see a "courseId={unset id}" error. They can submit threads, they just cannot save draft threads. Group discussions do not have this issue. If you wish to allow students to save drafts of threads, create discussions as Group discussions rather than class discussions. Students can be allowed to create forums within Group discussions if you wish. (01.13.11) (Resolved 03/22/12)
Internet Explorer 8 and 9 users experience issues when attempting to submit answers in quizzes or surveys. We have reported this issue to Blackboard and engineers are working to resolve the issue. In the meantime, we recommend that students use Firefox 4 or above on Windows, or Safari on OS X, for quizzes and surveys. (12.16.10) (Resolved 02/14/12)
For individual (private) Journals, students will only see their current week's or month's journal entries, and they do not see an Index Panel for selecting a previous month's entries to view. To make a previous month's (or week's) entries visible to the student who wrote them, the instructor can either mark them as "New" or comment on them. Group journals do not experience this issue. Other workarounds that avoid this problem:
(1) Group Journal workaround: Create a Group Set with a single member in each group, set it to auto-enroll, and give the group a Journal feature. This will result in each student having his or her own private Journal that they access through their private Group link.
(2) Individual Journal workaround: Create a separate journal for each month of the quarter, and instruct students to write their journal entries in the appropriate month's journal.
This issue is targeted for a fix in a future release of Blackboard (9.1 Service Pack 6). We have requested a patch for this issue for our current release (9.1 Service Pack 3). (10.13.10) (12.16.10) (03.18.11) (Resolved 05.31.11)
When grading individual assignments in the Grade Center, when you click "Save and Next" you may see an error message says you should contact the System Administrator. This issue has been reported to Blackboard, and they are working on a patch to resolve the issue. You can work around this issue by clicking "Save and Exit" instead of "Save and Next" after entering a grade. A patch is forthcoming for this issue. (02.28.11) (Resolved 03.24.11)
When grading individual assignments in the Grade Center, you may see an error message that appears to say you are not currently logged in. A login screen will be presented. Clicking the Cancel button removes the error message and returns you to where you were in the Grade Center. This issue has been reported to Blackboard, and they are working on a patch to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, you can work around this issue by typing the score directly into the Grade Center grading cell, and use the context menu next to the grade to add comments. (12.16.10) (Resolved 03.24.11)
When building content in Edit Mode, the "Test" menu item is displayed on the "Add Interactive Tool" menu instead of its usual location, which should be "Create Assessment". This change seems to have resulted from our most recent update. We have reported this issue to Blackboard and are working with them to resolve it. Tests can be added to courses and will work correctly. This issue should be fixed soon. (04.12.11) (Resolved 04.20.11)
Note: This issue was resolved following the most recent update to Blackboard in March 2011. Campus Pack Journals and Blogs are producing intermittent Java errors that may relate to a required upgrade in the Campus Pack product. We are investigating this issue. Until this issue is resolved, we recommend using the built-in Blackboard Journal and Blog tools rather than the Campus Pack products. If you need assistance determining the alternatives, please contact the Help Desk. (01.13.11) (04.06.11) Campus Pack was phased out in Fall Quarter of 2011, and is no longer being used. (01.25.12)
Note: This issue was resolved by the most recent update to Blackboard in March 2011. Intermittent Java errors while attempting to build Mashup content (YouTube videos, Flickr photos, etc.) were seen with Service Pack 2. These were reported to Blackboard and are being worked on by their technical support engineers. The errors appear to have persisted into Service Pack 3. These errors are intermittent. If you receive an error while trying to build Mashup content, please contact the Help Desk and report the complete text of the error message. (Copy and paste the text of the error message and send it to HelpDesk@wwu.edu). (12.16.10) (03.24.11)
Note: This issue was resolved by the most recent update to Blackboard in March 2011. YouTube recently changed a part of their API, so that the search feature of the Mashup tool no longer communicates properly with YouTube's servers. Existing mashups still work. Blackboard is aware of this issue and is planning to fix it in a future version. Workaround: Open up a second browser window and access YouTube directly, then copy the Embed code from the video you wish to display in your course. You can use the YouTube embed code by editing the HTML of any content item in your course or adding a new item, and pasting the embed code from YouTube. Important note: You must click "Use old embed code" in order to avoid visual display problems in your course. Please see the image below for how to get this code. (01.26.11) (03.24.11)
Because of an operating system upgrade on our Blackboard servers, Access ".mdb" files from Access 2000-2003 are not currently downloadable from Blackboard. If you have an .mdb file in your Blackboard course, you will need to replace it with an .accdb file (the format in Access 2007-2010) rather than .mdb. If you have questions about how to do this, please contact the Help Desk. Note: the .mdb file type is now supported as of the most recent updates to Blackboard in March 2011. (01.24.11) (Resolved: 01.25.11, 03.24.11)
When using the Visual Text Box Editor, users report that clicking on the file attachment icons and selecting a file from their computers results in an "Invalid argument" error from Blackboard when they hit Submit. This issue has been reported to Blackboard, they have acknowledged it as a bug related to a security patch they recently released, and they are working on a replacement security patch that will address this issue. In the meantime, users are advised to use one of two workarounds: you can use the Build Content/File feature and attach files that way rather than using the Visual Text Box Editor, or you can upload files to the Course Files area (under Course Management), then use the file attachment icons and choose "Browse Course" rather than "Browse Computer", locate the file in your Course Files area, and attach it. For more information and instructions for safely adding content to your Blackboard course, please see our Safe Content guide. (11.15.10) (11.29.10)
Users reported seeing errors that said Blackboard was "out of disk space" for a brief time over the weekend of November 6th. One server was affected. The issue has been corrected and had to do with log files that Blackboard adds to periodically, that had overflowed the available space. This is not normally an issue that would arise during the quarter in our experience. If you see an "out of disk space" error, please click the Help button to see which Blackboard server you are on, write that information down, and then contact the Help Desk. (11.08.10) (Updated 11.29.10)
It is not possible to link directly to external (non-Blackboard) content from a Course Menu item. To add a Course Menu link to an external URL, place the external URL in a course document, such as a page, and link to that page from the menu. (09.30.10) (Resolved 12.15.10)
We are still awaiting feedback from Blackboard regarding our intermittent issues with quizzes. Our experience so far has been that a student using Internet Explorer is more likely to have issues than one who is using Firefox 3.5 or above (the current version on lab computers is Firefox 3.6). We have also found that PC/Windows users are more likely to have issues than Mac users. It has also been reported by at least one instructor that turning off "forced completion" is helpful. Our feedback so far from instructors seems to indicate that following these steps helps avoid issues with quiz submission errors. We have reported this to Blackboard, the case has been escalated to the top level of technical support available, and we expect further advice from them shortly. If your students report being unable to complete a quiz, please email us to let us know, and we will follow up with you when the issue has been fully resolved. (10.11.10)
More details: Several instructors are reporting that their students see error messages when they attempt to submit quizzes. We are working with Blackboard on this issue currently. If you are planning to implement a quiz for your students within the next week, please contact Blackboard Help first so that we can advise you further about optimal settings for your quiz that may help avoid the problems for your students. (10.06.10)
Announcements that are scheduled to disappear after a certain date are still visible to students after that date in some views. If you want an announcement to disappear after a certain date, you must manually delete it. If you wish to keep a copy of the announcement in the course, you can copy it to a document (such as a course page). You will need to make that document unavailable to students in order to hide it. (09.30.10)
This is a bug in Blackboard. When attempting to open a document in a course you may be asked for authentication.
Firefox has a garbled display for faculty in the Course Menu.
This prevented some students from submitting test results.
This required that the user save and then separately open the document or spreadsheet.
Emails could not be sent directly from the Announcement editing page.
The warning received is Please submit valid file when attempting to submit an assigment in the latest version of Firefox (3.5.x). The Blackboard patch fixed the issue.
This is NOT happening to all users. If this happens to you please type in http://courses.wwu.edu/which.html into the browser address bar while still logged into Blackboard and let us know the message it gives you. Email this message to bbhelp@wwu.edu. Apparently caused by incomplete install on one of the servers.
were marked unread as a result of the upgrade. Also - archived, hidden discussion boards became visible. Workaround - remark the read items; delete the archived discussion boards. More research in progress. Also - see our article on using List and Tree View.
After logging in, occasional users are being presented with a white screen and an endlessly spinning status bar notation. After half an hour or so the user is usually able to log in normally.
Checking the "Email this announcement to all users" did not work but reported no error.
Attempting to upload an assignment using the Firefox 3.x browser did not work. A blackboard patch resolved this.
Any attempt to search for keywords in a discussion forum results in a database error.
As of the last security upgrade we have an intermittent problem viewing uploaded files. The files are good, but students and / or the instructor may not be able to view them for a period of time. Then later the issue for a given user may clear up while other users lose the ability to view the files. Work around: if it is essential that the students get access to the file in the next day or so you may want to consider emailing the document to the class. We have contacted Blackboard on this issue and are hoping for a quick fix.
Please note that there is nothing wrong with the files so you can continue to upload the files. Your own ability and your student's ability to view the file is likely to change throughout the day.
The Name of an Assignment cannot contain special characters - only letters, numbers, spaces, and the underscore can be used. If you use other characters you will probably not be able to open the files your students submit based on this assignment as those file names will be based on the name of the assignment you created.
Recently if you added an announcement from the control panel and select "EMail this to users" no email was sent. Blackboard has sent us a fix which we successfully installed.
Most recent issues resolved for 7.3:
Attempting to delete an item that has attachments may fail with no error reported. Please delete the attachments first, then the item if this is a problem.
When sending email from Blackboard you will sometimes get an error "Unable to Send Email". This is a false error. If you get your copy in your inbox, your students probably got their copies as well. Blackboard knows about this issue but has not provided a fix.
If you attempt to upload a file in Blackboard, on windows, using Firefox, and you have the Adblock Plus extension installed, Firefox will hang. The Noscript extension also blocks some Blackboard features. Either run Firefox in safe mode or use Internet Explorer or see more information on Firefox Extensions.
If you use timed tests in Blackboard, sometimes your students may report that their the timer didn't work. Usually this is due to a setting in their browser that prevents the status bar from showing. To enable the status bar and allow timed tests, do the following:
The Assignment Manager is recommended over the Digital Drop Box. There are fewer incidents of lost assignments. Please see Assignments vs. Digital Drop Box for more information from Blackboard about this.
If you are using the new Journal Building Block and find that you cannot Add Item, go to Control Panel > Manage Tools > Content Type Availability and select the item you want to add from the list.
Grade Threads - Please do NOT use the "Grade Threads" button from within a course discussion thread. It has been reported by other users that this can bring down the servers. It is reported that the instructor can successfully grade the thread through the Control Panel --> Gradebook.
Discussion Forum and Archiving Threads - Blackboard has replaced "Archive Discussion" with "Hide Discussion". This allows you to mark a discussion so that it's "out of the way" and not normally seen. Those wanting to find it can look through the hidden threads and still see it. Their new terminology:
Locked Thread |
A thread that is visible for reading but cannot be modified. Users may not post to a locked thread. |
Unavailable Thread |
A thread that is hidden and inaccessible to all users except forum Managers. |
Hidden Thread (was "Archived") |
A Thread that is locked and not visible by default. Users may view hidden threads by enabling the Display Hidden Threads feature. |
Need more info? See Blackboard's Quick Tutorial on Discussion Boards. Also see More Information on Discussion Forums
See Browser Compatibility Chart.
Note that the Learning Objects add-ons (Journal, Teams, Expo, Search) have special browser limitations, see Browser Compatibility Chart.
Firefox - cutting and pasting in WYSIWYG text windows. This is a firefox issue for security purposes. Find out how to apply the fix / workaround here. Or use IE (Windows machines) or Safari (Macs).
Safari bug - Using Safari will cause you to post blank messages in the Discussion Forums. There is not yet a fix for this from Blackboard so we recommend Mac users use Firefox.
Safari editing - if you do not have the latest Java plug-in installed in your browser (it may prompt you to install this) you will have problems updating material on Blackboard. Make sure you have the latest browser and plug-ins.
IE Browsers - "click to activate and use this control": This affects Flash, Adobe Reader, QuickTime, Windows Media and Sun Java Virtual (i.e. Blackboard) machine controls within a web page. Read more and download the fix.
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2013 Western Washington University : page updated
02.26.2013
