June 9, 2010

• Known Compatibility Issues with Internet Explorer 8 and Blackboard – Internet Explorer 8 when used with Blackboard has some known compatibility issues which are listed below. This is not an exhaustive list and other currently unknown compatibility issues may occur. As a workaround, “Compatibility View” in IE8 can be used, but an alternate browser is recommended. (i.e. Firefox).
  • A security warning may appear when logging into Blackboard. This warning will say “Do you want to
    display only the webpage content that was delivered securely?” This error may also occur when accessing the Grade Center for Instructors.
  • Students may experience an elongated timer that may cover the Save and Submit buttons. This will
    only be evident with certain exams in which the timer feature has been enabled.
  • Students may receive an error saying “Please enter a valid file” while trying to upload a file using the
    assignment submission tool.
  • Instructors attempting to upload a Grade Center file may receive “Please enter a valid file.”

• Navigation List color changes breaks reordering – if you are use to changing the color (style or weight) for your navigation list links using the following HTML 3 code: <font color=red> xxx </font> this breaks the drag and drop re-ordering.  You need to switch to HTML 5. The following example would make the word Syllabus – bold, italics, and red: <span style=”font-style: italic;font-weight: bold;color: red;”> Syllabus</span> . The style attributes are separated by semi-colons so if for example you just wanted to change the color the code would be:  <span style=”color: red;”> Syllabus</span>.

• TestGen and ExamView issues:  to correct any issue you have with these publishers test bank software be sure you have updated to the latest version. TestGen (Pearson) needs to be v7.4.4 (go to help menu and click check for updates). ExamView (Cengage) needs to be v 6.2 – you will need to log in to get this update. I do not have access to either TestGen or ExamView; if you have difficulties updating you will need to contact your book rep for assistance.

• RESPONDUS PATCH:  Respondus 4.0.2.03 has been released, with a fix for the authentication failure.
  This is a hotfix not a general update, so it is not visible in Help > Check for Update.
  The full install in our admin area is now version 4.0.2.03 ( http://www.respondus.com/downloads/Respondus4Campu s.exe , OR you can download a manual patch to update existing installs from this page:
  http://www.respondus.com/download/respondus40patch .shtml This information has also been updated on module in Blackboard (College Connect Tab).If you are still using Respondus 3.5 version, it is recommend that you install 4.0.2.03 version. This will not delete your saved tests as they are typically saved in a folder on your C: drive.

• COURSE IS AVAILABLE BUT STUDENTS DON’T SEE IT LISTED IN MY BLACKBOARD COURSES MODULE: The instructor  most likely changed the Course Duration. The Course Duration needs to be set to continuous. DO NOT SET start and end dates.  To check/fix  Course Duration: Control Panel > Customization > Properties — in Section 3 – Set Course Duration check Continuous. If you accidentally set a start and end date be sure to un-check those boxes.
• DOWNLOAD GRADEBOOK TO EXCEL FILE: Click on the button entitled “Work Offline” located at the far right of the Grade Center. A pull-down list will allow you to “Upload” or “Download” a grade book. To save a copy of your Gradebook in Excel, a new window will open that asks if you wish to download it as a comma or tab delimited file, it will be easier to open in Excel if you choose the “Tab” option. Choose your format and click “Submit”. The file will be created within Blackboard. You will be taken to another page where you can click on the “Download” button and choose where to save your new file.
  Note: It is strongly recommended that you backup your grade book periodically throughout the semester in case a grade is deleted by mistake. You must turn in a copy of your grade book at the end of each semester.

• UNABLE TO DRAG AND DROP TO REORDER ITEMS IN A CONTENT AREA: There is some malformed HTML code on the page within one of the items that is preventing the reorder feature from working. Remove the offending code, and the reordering feature will begin working again.  If you’re not sure where the offending code is you can use the Mark Up Validation Tool in the text box editor (second line – last icon). If that doesn’t clean up the problem, you can switch to HTML view as you are editing the item to try to fix the problem. You can also just delete the offending item, and re-enter it. Typically the offending code is within a course menu item – list view – if you used HTML code in the ‘button’ name. Remove that code and you will be able to reorder.  Then you reapply the HTML coding if you really want to use it.NOTE: about malformed HTML that most often if there isn’t a big red alert about your HTML, the errant HTML is in the title of an item, not the text. For example if a course used course used course links in the announcements and were linking to items with “bad” titles. The net result will be that the announcements will be “messed up”.

• COURSE IS AVAILABLE BUT INSTRUCTOR/STUDENTS DON’T SEE NAVIGATION LINKS - There are lots of new ways to navigate in a course.   You can move up out of folders using the breadcrumb trail.  You can change the main menu. You can collapse or expand parts of the blackboard screen. If you log into a courses and don’t see any course main menu, look for a small arrow (greater-than sign) at the left side of the window, about 2″ down, and click it.  If you see only the title of the course and no sections in the main menu, click the double-down arrow next to the title of the course. Be sure to load your student-self to see exactly what the student is seeing. If it looks correct to you then the student may have collapsed a menu.

• BAD HTML WARNING – If you receive “Bad HTML” warning Edit the item – click the HTML icon in the WYSIWYG (Visual Textbox) editor. Then click Save. This will correct the warning.

• CHAT – Is now operational.

• ATTACHMENTS NOT OPENING WITH IE8 – There is a known issue between Blackboard 9, Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft Office files (.doc, .docx, etc.) that results in users not being able to click to open attachments in Blackboard. This impacts file attachments to content areas, files attached to the grade center, files attached to the discussion board, etc for both students and instructors.
  The problem is described below along with three resolutions. This only affects Internet Explorer.
  Instructors and students may attempt to open a file by clicking on the link.
  • When clicking on an attached file in Blackboard 9 when using Internet Explorer, you should see the Information Bar appear at the top of the page:
    • (Solution 1) To access the attached file, the user will need to click on “Allow” and then “Download File…” or simply “Download File” depending on the browser settings on the Information Bar. This will result in the File Download window appearing at which point the user can proceed to Open or Save.
    • (Solution 2) If you have administrator rights to your computer you can adjust the browser settings on the computer from which Blackboard is being accessed, the problem can be resolved through changing the following browser settings. Follow the steps below.
      • Open Internet Explorer.
      • Click on ‘Tools’.
      • Click on ‘Internet Options’.
      • Click on the ‘Security tab’.
      • Click on ‘Custom Level…’.
      • Scroll down and locate ‘Downloads’ and select Enable for ‘Automatic prompting for file downloads’.
      • Click ‘Ok’.
      • Select ‘Yes’ on the Warning window that appears.
      • Click ‘Apply’ and then ‘Ok’.
    • (Solution 3) If the first two solutions do not work for you, or if you are not able to change your browser settings, use Firefox!

• BROKEN CONTENT COLLECTION LINKS – Be sure to use the Check Collection Links to repair broken links to the content system. From the Control Panel, select Packages and Utilities then Check Collection Links.

• RESPONDUS USERS -  To fix Issues related to Respondus download the newest version of  Respondus 4.0.2.02. It is available from the link on the Teach tab. Be sure to read the installation directions provided by Inez Ferrell – Everyone will need to have at least 4.0 installed and then you can do the update. The update tool does not work with Respondus 3.5.

• ONLINE ORIENTATION - The redirect has been fixed you can use either http://tncc.edu/blackboard/orientation.htm or the full URL http://learn.vccs.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_3_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FcourseMain%3Fcourse_id%3D_56733_1 .

• COURSE LINKS - Check any course links you created, it appears that you may have to relink them manually. A course link is relative to the course. These are internal course links that “jump” other parts of your course.

• VIEWING AS A STUDENT – Folks are reporting that if you make a change as the instructor (such as making a section of your course available for students) and then log out and in again as your “student self” there is no change. To see the change you have to clear the cache. Directions for clearing cache: http://nl.tncc.edu/ddl/?p=1072&print=1

• CHAT – There appears to be an issue with Chat feature. We have filed a ticket with the system office. Work around: Use Adobe Connect. If you need a Adobe Connect room – contact Alex Gabriel (gabriela@tncc.edu – x2977)

• PASSWORD CHANGES – Typically password changes take 15 minutes. In this peak period changes are taking several hours. If you have made a password change be sure to clear the cache before attempting to login again and be sure you are using an approved browser. Approved broswers: http://nl.tncc.edu/ddl/?p=1323&print=1

• ANNOUNCEMENTS - Faculty: When your course is set to unavailable, Announcements will only appear when you have the Edit mode ON. If you have trouble deleting Announcements try this: Move the first announcement down to the bottom of the page. Repeat this until the first one is back at the top of the page. You should now be able to delete your Announcements.

• ANNOUNCEMENTS AS EMAILS / NOTIFICATION LINKS – When sending announcements as emails, the email no longer contains the text of the announcement. It contains a link back to Blackboard which requires the student to be logged in before following the URL into Blackboard. If the user isn’t logged in, they will get an error.

• ASSIGNMENT TOOL – in some cases student’s attachments are not getting submitted when students are submitting assignments. In this version of Blackboard students MUST click the attach button after they’ve browsed for their file. If they don’t click the attach button, the assignment will be submitted without the attachment. Please make your students aware of this new process in Blackboard.

• ATTACHMENTS BEING PREVENTED FROM OPENING – This is an Internet Explorer issue, not a Blackboard issue. It can be resolved by changing a setting in IE: From IE, click Tools > Internet Options > Security tab > Internet > Custom Level. Scroll to the “downloads” section and change “automatic prompting for file downloads” to “enable”.

• BROWSERS - Make sure you are using a certified or compatible browser for your operating system.  http://nl.tncc.edu/ddl/?p=1323&print=1
  
• GRADE CENTER SCROLLBAR IS MISSING – When using Internet Explorer 8 the Grade Center may not display correctly. The solution is to turn on Compatibility Mode in IE8. Under the Tools menu enable Compatibility View (check).

written by Ruth Smith

TIP: Subscribe to Threads

• Ever notice the “Subscribe” button at the top of a forum? Did you know that if you subscribe to a thread you will receive e-mails when a new post is made to the discussion board.
• This is particularly useful for “Help” forums. If you subscribe to this forum it will send you an email when a student has a question!
• By default, it is off when an instructor creates a forum; it is one of the options in the Forum Settings. Its a good idea to enable this feature, be sure to let your students know about it too!

written by Alex Gabriel

TIP: Re-ordering Discussion Board Threads If you’re having trouble re-ordering Discussion Board Thread with the new drag and drop feature in Bb 9 click the ‘re-order’ icon in the upper right corner of the Discussion Board window.

written by Alex Gabriel

Q: I used a course template to update my course while waiting for the new quarter course to be auto-created. In the course template, I particularly made changes on the course menu or navigation menu so it had completely different course menu links than the default ones. Then, I copied from the course template to a new quarter course. I found out that the course menu in the new quarter course contains both course menu links from the course template and from the default. Is there any way to copy exactly what I have in my template course?

A: Yes. The Course Copy function basically will bring the elements you want to copy from the source course into the destination course and it doesn’t overwrite the elements in the destination course. The best way is going to the destination course and delete all the course menu links before doing the Course Copy steps. To delete the course menu links, you will have to:

• Go to the destination course
• Click Control Panel
• Click Manage Course Menu
• Remove the elements you do not need in the Course Menu
  Note: Please be sure that the course menu link you want to delete does not contain any file.

Once you have deleted all course menu links in the destination course, it is now ready to do the Course Copy steps.

Q: Can I copy individual documents from one course to another in this area?

A: No and yes. From this feature, you can only copy whole sections of material, based on the following categories: Announcements, Assessments and Pools, Gradebook, Calendar, Categorical Information, Content, Discussion Board, Users and Groups, Settings, and Staff Information. The Content category refers to all content areas—such as Course Information, Course Documents, and Assignments. From within each content area, you can individually copy documents or folders. Look for the “copy” button next to each item.
For the best results, it is highly recommended to selevt all elements to copy. After it’s being copied, in the destination course, you may delete any unwanted files.

Q: Can I copy files from another instructor’s course?

A: Yes, but you must be listed as an instructor in both the “To” and “From” course. If you request us to process it, we must have an authorization from the instructor of the source course.

Q: Can I copy content to multiple courses at one time?

A: No, you can only copy to one course at a time.

written by Alex Gabriel

• Be sure to turn Edit mode ‘On’

written by Alex Gabriel

• How do I copy my entire course from one semester to another?
• Should I copy my entire course?
• How do I  avoid copy problems?
• What do I do after I initiate the course copy?
  

How can I copy my entire course from one semester to another?

You can copy over course materials from a current or previous course site to a new course site.  You must be an instructor of record in both courses to use this feature. Copying Course Materials into an Existing Course will add content to a Course, but it will not remove existing content.

1. Click Packages and Utilities in the Control Panel area.
2. Click Course Copy.
3. Fill in form and click Submit.

Should I copy my entire course?

There are 2 items you should not copy each semester: The Technical Help button and SRI button. By default the course shells are created with the most current Technical Help and SRI information (SRI is used by Distance Learning Classes only and initially set to ‘off’).  If you copy the entire course you will duplicate these buttons; over time a course can have many repetitions of this information.

To ensure you have the most up-to-date information do  NOT select ‘Technical Help’ and ‘SRI’ in the copy process.

How do I avoid copy problems?

1. Be sure you are using a ‘Certified Browser’

Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

Certified: fully tested and supported.
Compatible: partially tested but should function properly.
Unsupported: either impossible or not tested.

2. Copy problems may be alleviated by cleaning up the gradebook by removing duplicates, particularly ‘Total’ columns.

3. To avoid problems with Test/Survey/Pools you*must* copy the grade center, test/survey/pool and the content area where the test was deployed all at the same time.

4. Content Collect user

What do I do after I initiate the course copy?

Blackboard will process your request and will email you when the course copy is complete, depending on the size of your course and  during a busy time (1st week of classes) this process can take anywhere from an hour up to twenty-for hours.  Do not attempt to copy again before receiving the email notification.

Once you receive the email that your course was copied:

• review the copy error log
• verify the correct home page banner is being used
• adjust the course menu as needed
  
• check and fix all links, if necessary
• update announcements, tasks, and calendar events
• make the course available

Other known issues/resolutions from Summer 2010: http://nl.tncc.edu/ddl/?p=2756&print=1

written by Ruth Smith