ADA Compliance

As you work on creating or modifying an online course, be sure your course acknowledges the importance of and compliance with ADA requirements. Here are some suggestions:

• Introductory text within the course should indicate your willingness to assist the student and work with campus support services to provide the necessary accommodations to meet the special needs of the student.
• The course should include a statement that tells students how to gain access to ADA services (Access Services at JCCC).
• The course should provide information on JCCC’s support services (Counseling Center, Library, Help Desk, Access Services, and so on) and provide links and information to enable easy access to institutional resources that provide student support.

Other course design tips are available at http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/search/label/Course%20Design. This tip is based on the Quality REACHE rubric (see http://cite.nwmissouri.edu/QualityReache/).

Online or Network Etiquette

As you work on creating or modifying an online course, share with your students your expectations regarding online etiquette (netiquette or network etiquette), specifically with regard to discussions and email communication. There are many sites that you can use to learn about netiquette and many that you can link to as an introduction to netiquette for your students. Review the following for background information:

http://web.jccc.edu/edtech/notes/store/30/Netiquette.htm
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/
http://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/netiquette.tools/

Two links you might want to include in your course for student use are:

http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
http://www.studygs.net/netiquette.htm

Other course design tips are available at http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/search/label/Course%20Design. This basic guideline of this tip is derived from the Quality REACHE rubric (see http://cite.nwmissouri.edu/QualityReache/).

Instructor Response and Availability Standards

As you work on creating or modifying an online course, be sure to share with your students standards for your response and availability. Here are some suggestions:

• Share with your students your availability by indicating turn-around times for grading various assessments, assignments and responding to discussion board postings and email messages.
• Be sure information on response times and availability is indicated in the course syllabus or a “Read Me First” module so students know what to expect regarding instructor responses and grading.
• Indicate for students your availability regarding the degree of participation in discussions (e.g., will you be active, an observer only, or respond only late in the discussion after students have interacted).
• Indicate your availability using other media (phone, in-person, online chat), if applicable.

Other course design tips are available at http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/search/label/Course%20Design. This information is derived from the Quality REACHE rubric (see http://cite.nwmissouri.edu/QualityReache/).

Daylight Savings Time in March

It may seem early to plan for Daylight Savings Time (it doesn't start again until March 9, 2008 in the U.S.) but we've already had a faculty member try to set a due date (for a Spring course) on March 9, 2008. When saved the hour the assignment is due automatically increments by an hour. The last notice from Blackboard indicated they're working on the bug, but no fix yet.

So, if you try to set a time for an event (entry in calendar or assignment or assessment due date) on March 9, Blackboard changes the time to an hour later. Here’s an example: if you type in a time (like 11:00 PM) or use the drop down menu to choose a time, it may appear correct until you save it, then the time is set forward without warning to 12:00 AM (which would be on March 10). As far as we know now, this anomaly only occurs on March 9. If you don’t expect the behavior, you may be frustrated and waste a lot of time trying to figure it out.

The work-around is to simply set the time for the due date an hour earlier than you really want. That’ll work until Blackboard fixes the problem. J

Easy to Understand Grading System

The course design tips that have been shared over the past several days are all derived from the Quality Matters or Quality REACHE rubric, which has been shared with JCCC faculty enrolled in the iTeach Online Workshop (and its predecessor WebCeTera) since the Fall of 2005 (when we were still using WebCT 4.1). Here’s another “tip.”

As you work on creating or modifying an online course, the Quality REACHE rubric (based on the University of Maryland FISE Grant funded Quality Matters rubric, http://www.qualitymatters.org/Rubric.htm) suggests that a course’s grading policy should be transparent and easy to understand. Such a guideline can be accomplished in several ways:

• The grading policy should list all graded course activities (assessments, assignments, projects, group work, discussion postings and other interactivity with other students and the instructor) and should clearly identify the points/overall value of each activity and how it contributes to the final grade.
• The grading policy should be established and available to the student at the beginning of the class.
• The course should include a rubric that clearly describes what the student needs to do, what each activity, assignment and assessment is “worth,” and how points, grades or percentages earned for each activity equate to a final course grade.

Other course design tips are available at http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/search/label/Course%20Design. The Quality REACHE (QR) rubric and other information about QR is available at http://cite.nwmissouri.edu/QualityReache/.

Are Instructional Materials in an Appropriate Form for Online Access?

As you work on creating or modifying an online course, the Quality REACHE rubric (based on the University of Maryland FISE Grant funded Quality Matters rubric) suggests that instructional materials should be presented in a format appropriate to the online environment and that all materials should be easily accessible to and usable by the student. Suggested ways in which this recommendation can be approached include:

• All instructional materials should be easily accessible and available in alternative formats if not readily viewed by a standard web browser (e.g. current versions of Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox). If the course uses files (like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat) that are not in a “native web format” (i.e., HTML, JPEG, PNG) then students should be provided with information on how to access the files if they do not already have the necessary programs or plug-ins installed. Suggestion: always provide the content in a file format that can be easily accessed using a web browser.
• If course resources (e.g. outside readings, CD/DVD-based content, supplemental web sites) are not housed within the LMS, links to or information on how the student can access the resources should be easy for students to locate within the course.
• If software plug-ins are required to access course content, then the plug-ins required should be listed within the course, along with instructions on how to obtain and install them.
• Large text files and learning modules should be broken into smaller “chucks” and presented with a table of contents or other navigation system to enable easy access and reference.

Other course design tips are available at http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/search/label/Course%20Design. The Quality REACHE (QR) rubric and other information about QR is available at http://cite.nwmissouri.edu/QualityReache/.

Learning Objectives that Are Measurable

When designing a new online course or modifying an existing one, be sure the learning objectives of the course describe outcomes that are measurable. This is best accomplished using the following guidelines:

• First, be sure that you have listed measurable learning objectives in an obvious location (usually they’re identified in the course syllabus and/or at the beginning of each learning module).
• Second, be sure to precisely describe what students are to gain from the content/instruction and “what” will guide you in accurately assessing your students’ accomplishments. Appropriate terms should be used such as “identify,” “define,” “develop,” “perform,” “explain” and “select” as opposed to less measurable terms such as “understand,” “appreciate,” “be aware of,” and “know.”
• Second, objectives should describe student performance in specific, observable terms. If this is not possible, (e.g., internal cognition, affective changes), there should be other clear indications that the learning objective can be meaningfully assessed.

Other course design tips are available at http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/search/label/Course%20Design. The Quality REACHE (QR) rubric and other information about QR is available at http://cite.nwmissouri.edu/QualityReache/.

Helping Students Understand the Structure of Your Course

As you create or update your online course for the next semester, don’t forget to include a statement that introduces the student to the course and to the structure of the student’ learning activities within the course.

One or more of the following methods may be used to accomplished this goal such as:

• Include a course Syllabus, that identifies the types of activities the student will be required to complete (written assignments, online self-tests, participation in the discussion board, group work, etc.).
• Include a schedule or calendar that identifies the structure and pace of student learning; e.g., assignment and test due dates, due dates for required discussion postings, if applicable, and so on.
• Early in the course clearly indicate if the course is self-paced or follows a schedule of due dates for expected activities and assignments.
• Sequence the course so it is clear to the student which tasks are expected first, which are expected in week 1, week 2 and so on.
• If there is a linear structure to the course , make it clear. If learning activities can be accomplished in a random order be sure to provide instruction and guidance at key points during the learning process. Either way, be sure the purpose of each activity and any required activity is clearly defined.
• Identify the preferred mode of communication with you, the instructor (e.g., email, discussion board, etc.), and the preferred mode of communication with other students (i.e., “I Need Help!,” “Student Lounge” topic in the discussions area, etc.).
• Identify testing procedures (e.g., are all assessments online, may assessments be taken under the supervision of a proctor, are some on-campus assessments required, etc.).
• Be sure the procedure for submission of electronic assignments is clearly defined and explained.

If you missed the last course design tip, check out “Where to Start” at http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/2007/11/where-to-start.html.

Where to Start

As you revise your online courses, be sure to include navigational instructions that make the organization of the course easy for your students to understand. Some suggested ways to address this issue:

• Be sure your course includes a “welcome” statement that identifies the course, how the student should get started, and which content elements the student should begin reading/viewing. The inclusion of a syllabus link on the “homepage” is seldom sufficient. Provide additional ways (beyond the syllabus) for your students to “orient” themselves to the course on their “first entry” or


• Include a “Start Here” button, link or icon that leads the student to a module with introductory information, or a “Getting Started” paragraph tells the student what to do first and offers a course overview or


• Provide a “course tour” with a course overview, guide to exploring the course’s web site/course shell, and an indication of what to do first or


• Offer a “Scavenger hunt” assignment that leads students through an exploration of the different course tools and an introductory (Read Me First-type) module and


• You can always offer a “Read Me First” quiz (worth a few points) that covers the information you think is essential for the new student to know about your course, if they are to succeed.
  

Java

Problems still occur when Blackboard users have more than one version of Java installed. The best solution for most Java problems is to be sure only one version is installed. Our testing indicates that Blackboard is now compliant with the newest version of Java, e.g., Java 1.6.0_03. We still recommend to all users of Blackboard that if you have more than one version installed, you remove ALL versions of Java, go to http://www.java.com/ and install the latest.

We also recommend that once you have a single version of Java installed, you turn off the Java auto updates. Sun Java doesn't "update" when a new version is released, instead it installs a completely new version which is how Blackboard users end up with multiple versions installed…which cause various features in Blackboard to malfunction.

If You Need to Uninstall Multiple Versions of Java

If you have updated to a version of Java beyond update 6 and are having problems, you can uninstall all versions of Java by following the instructions at http://students.jccc.edu/documents/javauninstall.htm. Then you can go to http://www.java.com/ and install the latest version of Java.

How to Disable Automatic Update Notification in the Java Control Panel

Java will continually prompt you to update to the latest version unless you turn off the automatic update feature. Here’s how to turn it off.

1. Click the Start button, then select Settings, and then Control Panel.
2. Double-click on the Java Control Panel icon to open it.
3. Select the Update tab.
4. Uncheck the check box that says Check for Updates Automatically.
5. Click the OK button at the bottom of the window and the Java Control Panel will close.

If Students Report Assignment or Assessment Time Changes

The following is (partially) old news, but it may impact assignments and assessments submitted recently by your students IF the start date, end date, due date or cutoff date was on Sunday, November 4, 2007 AND you modified the assessment or assignment in any way. Just FYI, from Blackboard Support:

Blackboard has identified an issue which causes the start and end dates of assessments and the due and cutoff dates of assignments to count back one hour each time a Section Designer adjusts any settings in that assessment or assignment. This issue only affects assessments and assignments that have a start, end, due date or cutoff date of Sunday, November 4, 2007. For instance, if the assessment (or assignment) is set to end at 8:03 PM and the Section Designer makes any adjustments resulting in pressing the "save" button, the new end time for the assessment will roll back to 7:03 PM. Saving the same assessment one more time will result in the end time changing again to 6:03 PM. In rare instances, the date may also flip back.

This affects all systems using CE 6.2, CE 6.2.1, CE 6.2.2, Vista 4.2, Vista 4.2.1 and Vista 4.2.2 with a Time Zone setting inside the United States, including Indiana (East). This only affects Sections with an assessment or assignment using the date of November 04, 2007, March 9, 2008, and November 2, 2008 (or any date where the time changes due to DST). Times in March will roll forward one hour with each save. Times in November will roll back one hour with each save. This issue does not affect any other dates.

Blackboard is currently investigating this issue. A fix for this issue will be included in a future release and we hope to have this available prior to March 9, 2008, the next scheduled occurrence of Daylight Savings Time. In the meantime, we suggest that Blackboard system administrators inform their users of this issue and, in the event an assessment or assignment needs to be edited, the user increment the time for the November 04, 2007 element by one hour before saving so that the desired time is reflected when it is saved. If you have further questions or concerns please contact Blackboard Client Support.

Changes After Service Pack 2 installed

JCCC installed Service Pack 2 recently (Mid-October) and here is a summary of some findings:

1. The icons on the My Blackboard screen meant to alert the student/faculty member when there is something “new” do not consistently work in Service Pack 2 (SP2). Within the course itself, New Activity icons (the green asterisk) do not consistently identify when new postings appear. For instance, if you copy content from one course shell to another and then check the Discussions and Assignments tools, both with be marked with the New Activity icon even before any students enter the course. In Discussions the icon seems to appear if the instructor has used the topic description even if initial postings have not been entered. The only way to get rid of the New Activity icon is to open each discussion topic (even if nothing is posted) and then click the Teach tab (or Student View tab), which refreshes the screen. The same erroneous New Activity icons appear in the Assignments tool.
2. Descriptions for the Course Content Home Page icons that use special characters (semi-colons, ampersands, colons and pound signs) now display properly (text following any of the special characters is no longer truncated).
3. Descriptions for Learning Modules can now include special characters (semi-colons, ampersands, colons and pound signs) in their descriptions and the text displays properly (text following any of the special characters is no longer truncated).
4. SP2 fixed the problem generated when an instructor/designer accessed the Student View in Blackboard which generated an "unexpected system exception error" if student access to the course had not yet been enabled.
5. However, when instructors/designers access the Student View, they may see instructor/designer tools and not just student tools and options. Further, the Assignments, Who’s Online and Assessments tools when accessed on the Student View tab, may display an “unexpected system exception error.”
6. Icon descriptions on the Course Content Home Page (Build tab) when using Internet Explorer are no longer rendered one word per line.

When the Blackboard Assessment Window Freezes

We’ve had several instances where students have reported that in the middle of taking an assessment, the Assessment tool freezes. When this occurs, the Blackboard screen blanks out or the student clicks the Save button (to save an answer) but the Question Status doesn’t changed to Answered or the assessment just freezes. While we’ve reported this to Blackboard, it’s extremely difficult to replicate. One suggestion is to alert your students that if this behavior occurs, they can right-click in the Assessment window (the window that includes the question on the left and the question status on the right) and then select Refresh from the drop-down menu that appears. This may help so they can complete the assessment.

Campus Edition (CE) 6.2.2 & Office 2007 Files

Since the introduction of Office 2007, files with x extension (e.g., .docx and so on) are treated as zip files by Blackboard CE. Service Pack 2 for CE 6.2 addressed this problem, but there may be some lingering problems. So please note the following:

1. If the Office 2007 files were already in your course prior to the upgrade to Service Pack 2, they’re still treated as zip files by Blackboard (they actually are zip files because that’s the new format for Office 2007 files—they’re compressed).
2. New files uploaded after the installation of Service Pack 2, will show the .docx extension and work fine.
3. One workaround for downloads (not files that you want to open in Blackboard) is to simply download the Office 2007 file with the zip extension and then rename it with the appropriate x extension: e.g., for a Word document change .zip to .docx.
4. If you’re trying to open the file within Blackboard (using a link), try this. First in Internet Explorer 7 go to Tools, Internet Options, select the Security tab, with the Internet icon selected select the Custom Level button. Scroll down to the setting that says "Open files based on content, not file extension". If this is set to "enable", then IE7 will treat the Office 2007 files as .zip files (what they really are). If this is set to "disable", then IE will look at the file type extension (like .docx) and do the appropriate action based on the extension (that is, open Word 2007). So, we recommend you set the setting to "disable" and click OK. When prompted “Are you sure you ant to change settings for this zone?” click Yes. Then click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.
5. An even better option is to tell your students, if using Office 2007, to save the files they submit in Office 2003 format. When you post documents in your course, do the same thing. That way the file(s) can be opened with either Office 2003 or 2007 installed.
   

Bugs Reported & Response

Periodically, we’ll alert you to issues with Blackboard CE and discuss their current status. We do this so you don’t “bang your head against the wall” trying to accomplish a task that is broken.

Problem: Once an announcement is posted, it cannot be edited. The instructor and/or designer can delete and recreate but not edit an existing announcement. Further, there is no control over the order in which announcements are displayed. Many of our faculty members have commented that the listing of announcements should be in reverse chronological order, e.g. most recent announcements at the top of the list and the oldest at the bottom. At minimum, it would be nice to give the instructor the option to select chronological or reverse chronological order.

Blackboard Support Response: This is a known issue which has been reported to our developers. Currently this issue is slated for a Future Release fix. We don't have a set date as to when this issue will be fix, however when a resolution has been made available it will be published in the release notes.

Problem: When creating a WebLink, the Description text box does not allow HTML—unlike the Description boxes in all other tools. Further, you cannot, as an alternative, invoke the HTML Creator.

Blackboard Support Response: I believe the function to add HTML into the description for weblinks was disabled after Vista 3.0.7. There were a few issues with the HTML function in the description field for weblinks. This feature is function as design.

JCCC’s Response: This may be functioning as designed, but it's inconsistent with capabilities in other areas of Blackboard where Description fields may invoke the HTML Creator. Please submit as a feature enhancement. Thank you.

Problem: In previous versions of CE 6, you could click the “New” link next to a topic, view all those new postings in a single window, reply to any of the messages and after posting you'd return to the window with all the new postings displayed. That's no longer the case and it makes it impossible to effectively use this feature, because the minute you reply to any message, the window of new postings closes and you can no longer tell which messages are “new.”

Steps to Replicate:

1. Enter a course's Discussions tool.
2. Select a Topic with the New messages displayed.
3. Click on the New link and the new messages are displayed in a window.
4. Read through some of the messages and reply to one of the messages (before completing the review of all the messages).
5. Once you post the reply, a screen appears that offers only an option to close the window (not to return to the window with all the new messages displayed).
6. You no longer can determine which Discussion postings are unread.

Blackboard Support Response: I have escalated this case up to our developers. Once they provide a resolution timeline, I will update the case notes. If you have any further information or questions, please let me know.

Problem: When a student sends an email message with an attachment and the instructor attempts to save the attachment (file) to their local workstation, the process does not work and a message is displayed that “This page is not intended for display.”

Steps to Replicate:

1. Go to Mail.
2. If you don’t have an email with an attachment you can open, send one to yourself
3. Open the email
4. Click on the View Attachments link
5. Select the checkbox in front of the attachment and click on the Save to Folder button
6. Click on the My Computer icon
7. Receive error message: “This page is not intended for display.”

Blackboard Support Response: This is a known issue, in which our Developers have identified. It is scheduled to be fixed possibly in the next service pack. Once I've verified the fix release, I'll update the case.

Mail Tool and the Demo Student

We logged a case with Blackboard and indicated to them that “when sending mail to all students; the demo student does not receive the message.” The response from Blackboard Support was:

“This is actually functioning as designed. To have the mail sent to the Demo student, check the box next to the Demo Student's name so that [the] mail will show up in the Demo Student's [mail] box as well. This is not quite as convenient as simply checking the box for all students, but it does send the mail to the Demo student. Let me know if you need anything else.”

The Difference Between New and Unread Messages

After reporting problems with the “New” and “Unread” numbers of postings (in Discussions) and messages (in Mail) not reflecting the actual totals of new and unread postings and messages, Blackboard Support responded with the following explanation of the difference between the two concepts in Blackboard. Since it’s “right from the horse’s mouth” I’m repeating their responses verbatim (but with a few grammatical corrections):

This issue has been reported to our developers by a few institutions. According to them the discussion tool is functioning as design[ed]. Here is the explanation on New, Read and UnRead:

New and Unread are different concepts.

"Unread" only is used to indicate there are messages never read before. The number before "unread" represents how many messages have not been read in this thread.

There are two different kind[s] of meaning[s] [for] "New":

#1. "New" after the discussion topic is used to [indicate] if there [were] messages posted after this user accessed this topic last time or not. The number before "new" represent[s] the number of messages posted after this user accessed this topic last time.

#2. "New” after the message subject is used to [indicate] this message has never been read before.

The number of "unread" messages under the topic does not have to [be] equal to the number of "new" (#1 [above]) messages for this topic because it is possible and reasonable for [the] user to read the messages which they have interest in only and leave some messages unread, [so for] this topic for him/her, it is not "new" any more.

In other words, “New” refers to new messages or postings and any posting or message can be “New” only once. If you fail to read a “New” message, it is not “New” the next time you access the thread but may still be “Unread.”

SoftChalk and Setting Column Widths

If you use SoftChalk LessonBuilder to create Learning Modules, you may find that including tables enables you to better layout data (place text and images). By default, when you create a new table the column widths are uniform in width. You can modify column widths (to create varying width columns) in 4 easy steps.

To set the width of a table column:

1. Click anywhere in the column,
2. Select the Table command on the menu bar,
3. Roll over the Column option, and
4. Choose the Set column width option.

Keep in mind that only the most recent version of SoftChalk (Version 3.03.07) has this option. If you don’t see it, open SoftChalk and if your computer has Internet access, the application will automatically upgrade itself.

Printing from a SoftChalk-created Learning Module Page

Faculty members using SoftChalk to create Learning Modules for use in Blackboard have found that when the student uses the Blackboard Learning Module Print function, the top of each printed page repeats the table of contents (TOC). Here’s the response from SoftChalk regarding this problem.

"What is happening is that when you print a page using the WebCT/Blackboard print function, Blackboard is just grabbing the "text" of the html page. When you created your lesson pages, you included the page navigation at the top of the page and the "drop-down" Table of Contents link in the sidebar. Normally when the student views the page, this information is formatted as the navigation bar across the top of the page and also as the drop-down TOC link in the sidebar. The navigation bar displays as it does because of the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) that is "behind-the-scenes". But when WebCT/Blackboard displays the page for printing, it doesn't reference the CSS, so all of the text for the navigation bar and the TOC sidebar link appear as a list of items at the top of each printed page.

"You could easily get rid of the TOC appearing on the printed page by just removing the TOC drop-down link in the sidebar of your lesson. You will have to decide if it is more important to have the TOC as a drop-down link in the sidebar, or have the TOC info print when the student uses the Blackboard print function.

"In our next version of LessonBuilder, we plan to include a new "print all pages" option that will appear on each lesson page. Then, your student could click that link and it would print all of the lesson pages with the correct formatting. But until then, I would suggest that you might want to remove the sidebar TOC drop-down menu."

The Uploading Multiple Files Bug

Faculty members have reported a bug that does not enable the Get Files button (in the File Manager) to upload and overwrite multiple files in one action. The radio button that normally would appear to enable you to “replace the existing file” is not displayed and a “Null” option appears instead.

Blackboard Support have indicated that “This is a known issue. Our developers are working on a fix for this issue, which will be due out sometime in November possibly.”

In the meantime, you can still upload and overwrite files, but must do so one file at a time.

Fixes in Service Pack 1

Blackboard’s Service Pack 1 (SP1), which was installed on JCCC’s production server (according to Blackboard) “resolves several Assignment (tool) related issues and lists 33 issues in total on the resolve(d) issues report.”

The following issues specifically related to the Assignments tool were resolved in SP1 and these situations should no longer occur:

• An Instructor would receive an error when trying to access an Assignment Dropbox in which Assignments had been deleted or a Dropbox for a course in which a student, who had submitted assignments, had them graded.
• There are no longer exception errors occurring when attempting to create or edit the Cutoff Date for an Assignment or when leaving blank the Cutoff Date for an assignment.
• If un-enrolling a user and then re-enrolling the same user, the data previously entered, such as grades, are retained as well as the Assignments (which prior to the upgrade were marked as Missing Attachments). Further previous Comments are now displayed.
• When the Instructor goes to the Assignment Dropbox, selects the All tab, and tries to sort the list by the "Assigned to" column, it will now sort “the list properly.” For example, clicking the “Assigned to” link in the Assignment Dropbox does now sort the Student list in alphabetical order. Note: testing at JCCC has found that the sort does now work, but it’s in alphabetical order by the first name not the last name. So it still is not useful or efficient for the instructor. We’ve reported this as a new bug.
• If an Assignment has already been created and marked gradable (numeric), if the Instructor or Designer attempts to change the Setting to Grading Form, that is now an option (we have not yet tested this at JCCC but it’s indicated as a fix in the Blackboard docs).
• Students are now able to attach files with ampersands (&) in the filename to an assignment submission. Previously, If they tried the action would not complete and an exception error was displayed.

Additional bug fixes in SP1 include:

• Accessing a student Assessment Submission for an Assessment with calculated questions no longer generates an exception error.
• Students who have been un-enrolled from a cross-listed Child Section of a Course, but not from the Parent Section, or who have been un-enrolled from both, but not from a Group within the Parent Section, were unable to view their Courses on the My Blackboard page.
• When the Course Menu is expanded or collapsed, most icons displayed a pop-up label of "course tool" rather than the tool name (e.g. “Mail”). This was problematic for students using JAWS or other assistive technology. Further, it made it hard for all users when the menu was collapsed to determine which icon represented which tool. (reported by JCCC).
• The newest version of Java (JRE 1.6.0_01) was not supported properly by the browser checker; therefore, there were multiple warnings throughout the Blackboard when attempting to login or when attempting to use Blackboard Java applets.
• When using the newest version of Java (JRE 1.6.0_01), when accessing the Chat tool a message indicated that the user could start a second Chat Session, even though the user had not yet started a Chat session.
• Following a SP2/HF1 upgrade (to CE 6.2 hotfix 1), invitations to Chat were not received. On loading the chat applet, the participant list was empty and messages were not processed.
• With Java 1.5.0_07 installed or higher, on a hyper-threaded machine, attempting to use the My Computer applet to upload a file using the Content Manager resulted in a system lock up.
• After selecting the Reviews icon to view a peer's review, the student was able to see the reviewers' username even when peer reviews for a Journal type Discussion topic were supposed to be anonymous.
• When using Grading forms, if the comments exceeded 1000 characters an exception error was displayed.
• With Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and Java 1.6.0_01, in a Discussion forum and when using the Content Manager, it was not possible to upload files using the My Computer applet.
• After updating from CE 4.1 to CE 6.0, the glossary terms no longer would hold apostrophes.
• Learning Modules containing the character # in the title or filename did not display on the Teach and Student View tabs.
• If the sender had mail forwarding turned Off in the My Tools tab options (accessed from the My Blackboard by selecting the Settings link), the email would not be forwarded to the recipient's email address regardless of whether the recipient had mail forwarding set to on/off. If the sender had mail forwarding turned On using the My Tools tab options, the email would be able to forward to the recipient's email address regardless of whether the recipient had mail forwarding set to On or Off.
• After upgrading to Application Pack 1, Service Pack 1 (CE 6.1.1), there were performance problems. It would often take 20-30 seconds to load a page. This would occur for users in courses that had a high number of Groups and Assignments.
• When using Internet Explorer 7, the Open in WebDAV Folder feature did not work.

We have tested only some of these bug fixes at JCCC.

Returned Email from Blackboard

In Blackboard, an instructor or student can have mail (received using the Mail tool) automatically forwarded to an external email client, such as Hotmail, gMail or Outlook. The net result is that when a message is received by the student or instructor (in Blackboard), a copy of the message is sent to the external email client’s inbox. This is a helpful way for the student or instructor to be alerted that a new message is waiting inside Blackboard. The copy sent to the external mail client includes the complete text of the message, so you can even read the message before logging into Blackboard.

The problem occurs, when you try to reply to the message using Outlook (or any external mail client). If you try, you’ll receive a returned mail message from Blackboard. This is functioning as designed. Blackboard allows for email to be forwarded externally but does not allow for external email to enter the Blackboard Mail system. As email is forwarded from the system it is stamped with a generic reply address from the Blackboard server. Attempts to reply to this generic address will result in a bounced email message. Blackboard’s Mail tool is completely self-contained. To send a message to any recipient in Blackboard, you must log into Blackboard and use the Mail tool.

To autoforward your email from Blackboard to an external mail client, complete these steps:

1. Log into Blackboard.
2. On the My Blackboard screen select the My Settings link (upper right corner of the screen).
3. Select the Edit Profile button (bottom left of screen).
4. In the E-mail field type the email address to which you want your Blackboard mail forwarded.
5. Next select the My Tools Option tab (top of the screen).
6. Scroll down under the Mail heading and select the checkbox in front of the Forward all mail messages to the e-mail address in my profile option.
7. Click the Save button at the bottom of the screen and you’re all set.

Files that Won't Open and Pop-up Blockers

Have you encountered a file in Blackboard that won’t open? If so, check for a pop-up blocker that’s preventing access to the file or for Internet Explorer’s yellow bar at the top of the screen (which indicates the window has been blocked). Typically, if you have speakers and the sound is not muted, you’ll hear a beep when your computer encounters these situations.

For more on pop-up blockers, check out:

• Trusting pop-ups in Blackboard at http://web.jccc.edu/edtech/notes/get.asp?DocumentID=126 (either a PDF or Flash version),
• Popup Blocking in IE (Internet Explorer) at http://www.jccc.net/home/download/9644/popup-blocking-ie.swf (Flash movie) and
• Allowing pop-up windows for JCCC web applications (Word Document) at http://www.jccc.net/home/download/9643/pop-up-blocking.doc.
  

Accessing Microsoft Office 2007 Files

In case you missed the earlier posting on Microsoft Office 2007 files and how to access them (if you’re using Office 2003), check out:
http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/2007/02/opening-office-2007-files-from-students.html

Blackboard Client Support Services shared the following information recently on a WebCT user list:

“In Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft added new Open XML formats to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. Files that are created in the Open XML format are not readable by earlier versions of Microsoft Office (such as Microsoft Office 2003, or Microsoft Office 2000). In order to view and manage files created by Microsoft Office 2007 you will need to install the following compatibility pack. This download will enable users on earlier versions of Microsoft Office to open, edit, save, and create files in the new Open XML format.

“The download is available on the Microsoft website and it can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&DisplayLang=en

“Microsoft has created a knowledge base article that discusses required updates, issues that may be encountered, and changes that are made to the Office programs when the compatibility pack has the installation is complete. The article can be viewed here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074

Resetting an Assessment for a Student

If you need to reset an assessment for a student (for whatever reason), here are the steps to follow:

1. Open the course, go to the Teach tab and select the Assessment Manager tool.
2. Select the Not Submitted tab or All tab (not the Graded or Not Graded tab).
3. Select the assessment link you want to reset.
4. Scroll down to find the student’s name.
5. Click the ActionLink that follows the name and from the pop-up menu select the Reset Entire Submission option.
6. When prompted to “Reset this submission?” click OK. Your student can now re-take the assessment (so long as it is still during the time period when students have access to the assessment—based on settings you established for the test).

Copyright Notices

Just a reminder that you should include a copyright notice in your online course somewhere if you are using any copyright materials. The following language may be used. It is borrowed from the University of North Carolina site on the TEACH Act at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/legislative/teachkit/notice.html.

“The materials on this course web site are only for the use of students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course and may not be retained or further disseminated.”

Michael Robertson (JCCC's DL Mentor) suggested an easy way to add the statement to your Course Content Home page as a footer. If you wish to do this:

1. Open up the course and click on the Build tab.
2. Select the Page Options button in the upper-right of the course content area.
3. Click the pull-down menu and select Edit Footer.
4. In the html edit box paste the following:
   

   “The materials on this course web site are only for the use of students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course and may not be retained or further disseminated.”

5. Then click the Save button.

Further, anytime you use a copyright work (after seeking permission, based on fair use or the TEACH Act), be sure to include a copyright notice following the format:

Copyright © 2007 by Harry Potter Rowling. Used by permission, all rights reserved.

Media Files and SSL

In an earlier posting, we mentioned that for security reasons, we have turned on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which prevents Windows Media Player from playing some types of media files (MPEG primarily) that are embedded in Blackboard. This problem was discovered after our initial switch to Blackboard CE 6 over 2 years ago. We reported the problem to Blackboard but it’s really an issue that Microsoft must address and we doubt there’ll be a solution anytime soon.

The only work around techniques available at present include:

• Have your students download, install and use Apple’s QuickTime rather than Windows Media Player for playback or
• Include instructions for the student to right-mouse click and download the video to their desktop and then play it from there.

Some Work Around Techniques You Should Know

Hiding Courses
You can hide courses you do not want shown on your My Blackboard screen. To do so:

1. Log into Blackboard and on the My Blackboard screen select the Edit Course List icon (looks like a pencil in the upper right corner of the Course List panel).
2. Find the course name (see note below) and click the Hide Link button that follows the name. If you want to hide several courses at once, select the checkbox that precedes each course name, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the Hide button.
3. When finished, click the My Blackboard tab to refresh back to your My Blackboard screen.

Note: as you search for the course(s) you want to hide, you’ll see that the course names are truncated at about 30 characters. Move your mouse pointer over a title, let it rest there and you’ll see the entire course name displayed. For some additional notes about why your course listing may not be in alphabetical order, check out http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/2007/05/when-my-blackboard-courses-are-not-in.html.

Grade Book Columns
By default every Grade Book in Blackboard includes two columns that cannot be deleted: Midterm and Final. So don’t waste energy trying to remove them.

Calendar Entries
You can create three types of calendar entries: Personal, Private and Public. Private calendar entries cannot be copied from one course to another. Personal and Public entries can be copied. If you want to make notes to yourself about activities you need to perform at specific times during each semester and you want to copy them to a new semester, make the entries Personal and not Private.

Once you copy content to a new course shell (including calendar entries) you can use the Manage Course --> Date Rollover feature to adjust calendar entries from the old dates (probably last semester’s dates if you’re copying content from the previous semester) to dates appropriate for this semester’s course. However, this feature only adjusts dates that are linked to assessments and assignments. It does not adjust dates that are used in selective release or stand alone dates in your Calendar.

By the way, the Date Rollover really works best if you first CLEAR all calendar entries except one semester’s worth, e.g. you only have last semester’s dates in the course shell when you rollover dates to the new semester. You do have an option to clear a range of dates from your Calendar (go to the Calendar tool, select the Delete a Range button and set the range you want to delete).

You can adjust those dates manually using the Adjust Individual Dates button, which is available once you select the Manage Course --> Date Rollover feature.

For additional “strange calendar behaviors” check out http://ce-annotations.blogspot.com/2007/08/strange-calendar-behaviors.html.

Learning Modules, Folders, and Course Design

The heart of any online course is the content and the interaction between students and their instructor. We’ve frequently found cases where the layout and design of the course make it more difficult for the student to learn and the instructor to manage, so here are a few suggestions.

1. The Learning Module tool is the most efficient way to deliver most content. If you create folders on the Course Content Home page (rather than using the Learning Module tool) you may encounter more potential problems (bugs) while managing the course and your students don’t have the benefit of the built-in navigation available when you use a Learning Module.
2. Never have more than 6-8 icons on your Course Content Home Page, it adds confusion for the student (they will be overwhelmed by choices) plus it will require the student to scroll to see all the icons. Using folders rather than Learning Modules probably will force you to exceed this limit, so try use the Learning Module tool instead.
3. Whether you choose to use folders on the Course Content Home page or Learning Modules, you REALLY should set up a folder structure (under Class Files) where all files associated each learning Module (or home page folder) are in a separate file folder. Organizing content by module, chapter or week into separate folders means you’ll be able to find and update files easier. You should never leave all files for the entire course in a single folder.

Strange Calendar Behaviors

Please be aware of the following changes in behavior in the Calendar tool subsequent to the upgrade to CE 6.2.1 (App Pak 2 with Hotfix 1 applied):

1. It’s common to copy a course from a previous course shell and then want to move the calendar entries to new dates in the new course. When you change the date for a Calendar entry (by simply modifying the date), the screen refreshes and brings you back to "today's date" (such as the 14th if today's the 14th of August) but in the month from which you came (e.g. the original month in which the date occurred before you edited it), but not on the specific date of the original entry you edited. So, if you’ve got three items on January 18th and you want to move them to August 16th (and today is August 14th), each time you change the date of an item on January 18th Blackboard “leaves“ you back on January 14, rather than on the 18th. If you’re moving an item from February 20 to September 25th, after the change you’ll end up on February 14th.
2. Some faculty have reported not being able to edit calendar entries after a course copy. No underlying cause has been found yet.
3. New Calendar entries default to today’s date no matter what you do. If you move to a date in November and try to add a Calendar entry on November 2nd, the default date will be today’s date, not the date you selected in November. You can change it each time, but there’s no sense in navigating to the new month and date, since you’ll need to set the date each time you add an entry.
4. If you try to set a time for an event (entry in calendar or assignment or assessment due date) after 10:59 PM on November 4, Blackboard changes the time to an hour earlier. This is the date that Daylight Savings time ends in the Fall of 2007. If you type in a time (like 11:00 PM) or use the drop down menu to choose a time, it may appear correct until you save it, then the time is set back without warning to 10:00 PM. This anomaly only occurs on November 4. If you don’t expect this, you can be frustrated and waste a lot of time trying to figure it out.
5. If you create calendar entries (not linked to anything like an assessment or assignment) and copy the course to a new course shell, Public entries and Personal entries will copy to the new course shell. Private entries do not copy over. They are not visible even if the “This Course + Personal” view is selected.

Blackboard CE 6.2 Bug Report

(Updated 8/12/2007) In an effort to alert faculty to potential problems as they prepare for the Fall 2007 semester, here’s a list of bugs we’ve encountered with Blackboard after the upgrade to CE 6.2:

1. When using the “&” character as a folder description or in the description of an icon (e.g. using the Edit Properties option from the icon’s ActionLinks) the “&” disappears and (sometimes) all characters following the “&.” Blackboard is aware of this problem. A similar problem occurs when including the “#” sign, semi-colon and colon. This “bug” can cause items to disappear, such as a folder or icon description, an icon. a Learning Modules or pages within a Learning Module.
2. At least one faculty member has reported problems with double quotes so that “quoted materials” appears as “quoted materialsâ€?
3. Faculty members are reporting “Unexpected system exception errors” whenever they try to access the Student View tab. We now believe this is related to courses being set as inaccessible to students until the first day of classes (August 16). When the release date has not yet arrived, the Student View generates an unexpected system exception error. When the release date has passed, no error is generated. This situation did not occur with earlier versions of Blackboard CE 6.
4. For JCCC faculty, if you need to see the student view for your classes (using the Student View tab) prior to Blackboard fixing the System Exception Error problem, here’s the only work-around that comes to mind. Go into your course and hide all menu items (Build tab, Manage Course and then select Course Menu). Next hide all icons (use the Hide option on the ActionLinks icon) on your course ‘s Home Page. When finished, email the Help Desk and ask them to open your course to student access. This way you can use the Student View tab, your student cannot see the hidden materials, and you can also add a page header to the course’s Home Page with a message to your students (to do so go to Build Tab, select Page Options and then Edit Header).
5. We have three instances where course content will not copy. Cause still unknown.
6. For security reasons, we needed to turn on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which after initial testing appears to prevent the Windows Media Player from playing MPEG files (and some other media files) embedded in Blackboard. This problem was discovered after our initial switch to Bb CE 6 over 2 years ago, so at that time we turned SSL off. However, for security and copyright (Fair Use) reasons, SSL must be turned “on.” We’re working on a work-around.
7. On the Build Tab you may find that icon or folder descriptions are displayed one word per line. The text displays properly on the Teach tab. This is a new bug with CE 6.2 that was not present in CE 6.1.1. We have reported it to Blackboard (Bb) support. Our testing seems to confirm that the student will see the description with proper formatting.
8. JCCC staff in the Academic Technology Support (ATS) group had set student access dates for each course section-by-section prior to the upgrade to CE 6.2. However, with the upgrade, Blackboard retained the section-by-section settings and then added a new “term” related setting that superseded them. The new CE 6.2 “term feature” establishes dates for each term and those dates (by default) over-ride the section start and end dates. While Bb announced the “support” for terms (which still does not display on the My Blackboard screen, where it’s needed), only upon careful reading of the admin manual did ATS discover that "term support" means the start and end dates for the term effects all sections of all courses in that term. ATS has since set the system to default back to access dates based on each section rather than the term settings. This correction (at JCCC) was made at 6:41 PM on Friday, August 3, so you may have students who accessed your course between the upgrade on August 1st and the correction on the 3rd. If you reset your course materials (assessments or assignments) and eliminate student activity, be sure to advise your students, otherwise you may have students who completed work between August 1-3, 2007 and now wonder why that work has disappeared and doesn’t count.
9. After the upgrade to CE 6.2 hotfix 1, the Blackboard Server had to be rebooted daily. Background jobs (indexing, garbage collection, and so on) were writing error logs to the server and filling up disk space to the point where response time came to a standstill. There are six background jobs that are run by the Blackboard system and four of them are new with the App Pak 2/Hotfix 1 upgrade. Since we did not have this problem before the upgrade, we assumed one or more of the four new background jobs were causing the problem. These new jobs we set to kick off automatically at Midnight, so ATS shut down the Blackboard server every evening around 1 AM and then restarting it, to avoid the slowdown caused by the buildup of log files. Ultimately, we discovered that by staggering the start times of the jobs, the problem appears to be fixed.
10. There are some strange behaviors taking place when entering new Calendar entries. We’re receiving reports from faculty on the following:
    
    a. After entering a new calendar entry, the screen refreshes and brings you back to the first day of the month from which you came, but NOT on the specific date from which you came. So, if you’ve got three items on January 18th to move to August 16th, each time you change the date of an item on January 18th Blackboard “leaves“ you back on January 1, rather than the 18th. If you’re moving an item from February 20 to September, after the change you’ll end up on February 1.
    
    b. Some faculty members have reported not being able to edit calendar entries after a course copy.

What is WebDAV?

In essence: WebDAV stands for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning". It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers. " (from http://www.webdav.org/)

What that means is you can create a "network folder" on your Windows or Macintosh desktop that points to the file storage area for your Blackboard CE courses. This area is accessed using the File Manager or Content Manager. With a WebDAV-enabled folder, you can drag-n-drop mulitple files and folders between your computer and the Blackboard My Files or Class Files storage space without having to zip up all your files into one big file as was required with older versions of WebCT.

If using Dreamweaver 9, part of Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3), WebDAV no longer works automatically with Blackboard CE 6. However, Adobe has provided a fix, you just need to download and install it. The staff of the Ed Tech Center have verified that it works. For information check out Adobe’s site at http://www.adobe.com/go/kb402079

For additional information on WebDAV, check out Blackboard CE 6’s online help and the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV

Space Usage and File Uploads

Based on usage and capacity, JCCC has set the upper limit for file storage space on the Blackboard server. For Blackboard designers/instructors at JCCC the limit is set at 2 gigabytes. For students the limit is set at 200 megabytes.

If you attempt to upload a file and the upload fails, students and instructors can log-in to Blackboard CE (https://owa.jccc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://online.jccc.edu), select the Content Manager tab on the My Blackboard screen, and then check the "Space Usage" progress bar in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

If your screen shows you at 100%, it’s time to clean house. These settings can be increased, of course, but they're set to assure that the combined total of all users does not exceed the maximum storage space on the Blackboard server.

Current List of Blackboard CE 6.1.1 Bugs

Periodically I try to alert you to problems we’ve encountered with Blackboard CE so you’ll know it’s the system and not user error. This list is not complete but at least covers most of the more common and problematic issues we have open with Blackboard Support. By the way, for JCCC faculty members, if you have major issues not listed here, please alert your Ed Tech Center Designer.

We have experienced:

1. Cases where course content from one semester fails to copy successfully to the next semester’s course shell.
2. Unexpected System Exception errors that occur for a variety of reasons (opening a course, switching between tabs, and so on), none of which are clearly indicated in the server logs or displayed on the screen for the user’s benefit.
3. Problems for end users with:
   a. multiple versions of Java installed,
   b. recent versions of Java installed (you should be using version 1.5 with updates 6 or 7 installed, but not Java 1.6)
   c. Internet Explorer 7 or latest version of Mac Safari installed
   d. Windows Vista installed.
4. Search tool failures with incorrect or no results reported.
5. Failure of the Banner XML file to import Summer Non-Credit Courses.
6. Failure of the garbage collection routines to work so the database gets more and more bloated, which we believe contributes to slower access times.
7. Failure of the Media Library/Glossary tool if a single image is attached to an entry in one of the tool’s collections.
8. Crash with an exception error if a Learning Module has more than 20 headings or entries included.
9. Lose of embedded images in assessments when the assessment is exported and then imported into another course shell.
10. Calendar tool entries entered by an instructor for a specific course being displayed as institutional entries in all courses; which is very confusing for students.
11. A limit on the number of characters allowed (1333) when an instructor grades and adds comments to an assignment.
12. Failure of the mail forwarding feature to work when a student or an instructor wants email received in Blackboard CE to be forwarded to their external email accounts.
13. Confusion when the Submitted and Not Submitted tabs in the Assignment tool show the reverse information.
14. WebLinks that do not import when a Learning Module is exported and then imported into another course shell.
15. Course names that are truncated (so as to be indecipherable) or are not in alphabetical order throughout the application (e.g. when setting calendar dates, publishing content from Respondus, importing or copying content from another course and when setting the order of courses displayed or hidden on the My Blackboard screen).
16. No ability for the instructor to edit Assignment Drop Box comments posted for students after they are posted.

We know there are many more bugs, we currently have about 70 cases open with Blackboard support, but these seem to be the major items that effect students and instructors.

Preparing for Change

If you’re concerned about the possibility of a change in your LMS (from one version to the next or from one vendor to another), here's what I would suggest. As you create or modify your course materials, use SoftChalk (content pages, inline quizzes, pop-up glossary/definitions, sidebars, crossword puzzles and more), Respondus (assessments), or StudyMate (educational games). Each of these applications enable you to easily import content into any of the more common LMS products.

As an example, SoftChalk is an easy to use web page authoring system (operates very much like Microsoft Word). It enables you to "package" content (e.g. multiple web/html pages) which can then be imported into Blackboard CE or Angel or Desire2Learn. Once imported, you can unzip the packages file and organize the pages to offer course content. SoftChalk enables you to add features to a web page that you normally could not include without programming skills. SoftChalk requires no programming skills.

There's online training available for SoftChalk (http://www.softchalk.com/lb_demo.html) and JCCC has a site license which enables our faculty to install the software on any home or office computer as long as you're employed by the college (available at https://acsdb.jccc.net/softwaretracker/ with your JCCC log-in, the same site that gives JCCC faculty access to Respondus and StudyMate). Further, your ETC Designer (JCCC faculty members only) can assist you as needed.

So, if you’re concerned about LMS changes in the future, move your content to SoftChalk, Respondus and StudyMate. You’ll be able to easily improve the design of your course materials and prepare for any eventuality.

Course Specific Calendar Entries Showing Up as Institutional Entries

As some faculty members add course specific Calendar entries in Blackboard CE 6.1.1, those entries are showing up as institutional entries that appear on everyone’s Calendar. According to Blackboard Support, the fix for this problem is in Application Pack 2 (CE 6.2), which has not been released so it has not been tested yet by JCCC’s technical support staff. Until the fix is released and tested, we’ll need to periodically run a script provided by Blackboard that deletes these "fake" institutional entries, but the actual cure won’t be in place until Fall semester (at the earliest) when we install AP 2.

If you see institutional entries that are confusing to your students (JCCC issues no institutional entries at this point), let me know and we’ll schedule the script to be run again to clear those entries.

Calendar Entry Bug

If you open the Calendar tool, change the month to June, click on any date in June, then click on Add Entry, the "Start Date" defaults to that particular numeric day, but the month is set to July, not June. The strange part is if you go to any other month, say September and try to make an entry for that month, the default date shows up correctly.

Also if you're on a day of the month that the next month doesn't include (i.e. January 30, 31; March 31; May 31; and so on) and you go to the next month, it will skip ahead to the next month that includes that numeric date.

It’s a known bug and has been reported by other schools to Blackboard.

Deleted Students Break Grade Book & Assignment Drop Box

Simon Fraser University reports: “If a student who had an assignment submission is un-enrolled from a section, then the Assignment Dropbox will produce an Exception error. Re-enrolling the student and denying access should temporarily resolve this until Blackboard provides a fix.”

Note that the following information has been reported regarding Blackboard Vista 4.1.1 which has the same code base as Blackboard CE 6.1.1 which we use at JCCC.

The following information is a response from Blackboard Support: “The confusing part [of this bug report] is that an instructor won't necessarily know what has caused the problem (individual user unenrollment or group deletion) - they will just know that they can't access the Assignment Dropbox.”

“Back in March [Blackboard Support] put out a “Known Issues from the Field” update regarding the issue [e.g. a student has submitted assignment data in a section, is subsequently unenrolled from that section, and then receives an Exception error]. [Recently] a new Support Bulletin giving a brief explanation of [a] second issue [was released]: If a group is created using Group Manager, and the group submits a group assignment, and the group is then deleted, it will break the entire Assignment Dropbox (for both students and instructors)."

“The problem is slightly bigger than this. If the instructor goes to try to access the assignment in the Grade Book they should also get an Exception error there as well, although it is far less likely for the instructor to try to access the assignment via the Grade Book than the Assignment Dropbox. So this aspect has not been as highly reported.”

“We know this is a big problem and are currently pushing to get this included in an upcoming release (can't make any promises, of course). We keep an informal list of our highest priority issues within development and this is one of them. As soon as I have an update, even if it's a workaround or a script, I'll be sure to let everyone know.”

This bug should be very rare at JCCC because with Banner integration, students who drop a course after the semester starts are marked as access denied not unenrolled. I’m sharing it with you to assure that we don’t act on any faculty requests to remove students from a course.

When My Blackboard Courses Are Not in Alpha Order

Here’s a problem you may encounter using Blackboard CE 6.1.1 and the explanation. First, JCCC’s installation of Blackboard operates in an integrated environment with SunGard Banner and Luminus.

When we initially import all courses into Blackboard from an XML export from SunGard Banner (as occurrs for each new semester), the courses are initially listed in alphabetical order on the My Blackboard screen. However, as new courses are added in Banner and those transactions are sent to Blackboard; new course shells are added to the appropriate instructor’s My Blackboard screen. Those new additions are then appended to the end of the list...not in the alpha sequence. We reported this problem to Blackboard and their response was:

“[The courses] are not in alphabetical order because you are allowing students to order the courses how they want to. I tested switching this [setting] to false and the courses go back [in]to alphabetical order.”

In essence, if you enable the ability to Hide courses on the My Blackboard screen (this is a server wide setting), that feature is coupled with the ability to enable the user to reorder courses on the My Blackboard screen. In Blackboard’s “eyes” the two are linked.

We’ve submitted a feature enhancement request that students and faculty be enabled to hide courses but still automatically order the courses on the My Blackboard screen in alpha order.

In the meantime, here is a work-around: Once you select the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the My Blackboard screen (which displays the screen where you can hide and re-order courses in your list), you can scroll to the bottom of the page and locate a "Restore Default" button. If you select that button, Blackboard will automatically re-sort the entire list into alphabetical order. The new additions added at the bottom will show up in proper alphabetical order again.

However, using the “Restore Default” button also causes any hidden courses to become unhidden. If the user wishes to hide them again, they must repeat the "hide" process, but at least all courses are again in alpha order.

Beware of Deleting Your Attachments to an Assignment

Recently an instructor accidentally deleted an attachment from an assignment in Blackboard by clicking the little icon next to the attachment. She thought it was an ActionLink icon. That icon deletes the attachment without a confirmation box. We’ve duplicated the event. Worse, in this case the instructor did not have a copy of the file anywhere else. She assumed a copy was put into her Class Files area (accessible using the File Manager), but that is not the case (We confirmed that as well).

We’ve requested that assignment attachments be placed automatically in the Class Files area and that a warning with an exit option appear before the attachment is permanently deleted. Blackboard considers this a “feature enhancement” so we’ll need to wait on a future release, if they decide to include these changes. In the meantime, be forewarned! Keep a backup of all attachments you use in assignments.

Blackboard Bug Update: Broken Discussions Tool Navigation in a Course

We reported to Blackboard support a course with broken navigation in the Discussions tool on February 20, 2006. The symptoms were that students could not access the navigation required within the Discussions (either from course content links or from the course content menu) in order to select a topic or open a discussions thread. The instructor or designer could navigate using the Build and Teach tabs. Many of the Discussion topics had date criteria set, but within the date range the topics were still not accessible.

As of yesterday (April 17, 2007), Blackboard Support indicated that there is data corruption within the selective release in this course shell. They indicated the specific topic to open and delete all Date Range criteria. When selecting Selective Release, there appeared to be two identical date range entries. When both were deleted, the course functioned properly.

When asked what caused the problem and how to avoid it, Blackboard Support indicated: “This is another issue in the code. A CR was opened to change the code to prevent the issue from occurring. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid this from an end user perspective.”

How To Cross-Listed Course Shells

Blackboard CE includes a cross-listing feature where content and student activity from two or more course shells can be combined. Once a course is cross-listed, for all practical purposes, the individual course shells are not used and in essence cease to exist for the student and instructor. You should only cross-list courses when you want them to be treated as a single section.

Cautions
Just a few cautions about cross-listing courses:

• You cannot cross-list a course once student activity has occurred in the course shell.
• You cannot un-cross-list a course once it has been cross-listed without serious problems as far as content and student activity.
• You’ll want to add content to a cross-listed course after it is cross-listed. The “parent” course shell (created when two or more courses are cross-listed) is different from any of the “child” course shells that are cross-listed, e.g. it is a “new” course shell, and it will not include content from any of the “child” courses. Note: since the “parent” course shell is new, you can copy content into it from any other existing course shell.

How To Cross-List
Typically, only credit course sections are cross-listed but you can cross-list credit and non-credit courses together. Here’s the process for cross-listing two or more courses.

1. Course shells in Blackboard are based on courses entered in Banner so that’s the first step. An Integration Partner value must exist on the course sections (SSASECT form) in Banner for Blackboard course shells to get created.
2. All course shells to be cross-listed (for non-credit and credit semester in which the cross-listing will occur) need to be created before the cross-listing can occur. This is handled by Information Services using an XML Course and Faculty Assignment Extract from Banner and faculty are alerted when the course shells for a new semester are created using the jccconline.jccc.edu list.
3. If two credit courses are to be cross-listed, no further action is required. If one or more credit and non-credit courses are to be cross-listed together, the instructor of the courses to be cross-listed (or the appropriate administrative assistant for the program area) must email the Help Desk with the complete name (including CRN, course number and title) of each course that is to be cross-listed. Be sure to indicate that this request needs to go to the attention of Jeff Morgan and/or Philip Mein (in Academic Computing Services), not the Ed Tech Center staff.
   
   It is important that it be very clear which courses are to be cross-listed together because if course ABC and DEF and HIJ are listed together, then students in any one of those courses will have access to all course materials in the “parent” course that is created by the cross-listing.
4. Once Academic Computing Services staff cross-list the course, they will notify the instructor.
5. Once notification is received by the instructor, course content may be added to the parent course shell. The instructor’s Ed Tech Center Designer can assist with the process as needed.

What Students and Instructors See
If cross-listing operates as “designed,” students will see only the name of the course in which they are enrolled but upon entering the course, they may see a non-descript title such as “Cross Listed - Group 555 – Cross Listed.” That is what the instructor will see on her My Blackboard screen, e.g. the non-descript title.

Restricting Student Posts in the Discussions Tool

Students often don’t “catch on” at first about how to post their response to a discussion board message within the appropriate thread of messages. They’ll often create a new thread rather than responding within the thread (e.g. to post within a given discussion thread, the responder must have the message to which they’re responding open and then press Reply. The instructor can take control of this situation and only allow student replies (within a given Discussions tool topic) to the messages the instructor posts. Here’s how. When editing a Discussions tool Topic on the Teach tab, scroll down to Topic Behavior Options. There are now three options to choose from:

· Students can post messages and reply to messages
· Students can reply to messages but cannot post messages
· Students can post messages but cannot reply to messages

To restrict students from originating a new thread, the second option is beneficial though the wording is inaccurate. It should read “Students can reply to messages but cannot create a new thread under this topic.”

Thanks to Michael Robertson for this tip.

Italic Scores in the Grade Book

When using Blackboard CE 6 do you ever wonder why midterm and final grade columns sometimes show numbers in italics and parenthesis, such as (225), and others are not, such as (239), e.g, no parenthesis, and no italics?

When a score is in italics it means that some of the column scores (used in the formula to determine the value in the calculated column) have not been posted yet. Once all columns have a score (number) posted, the calculated score changes to non-italicized.

Italics within parentheses indicate that some of the grades being used as input for the calculation in the column are missing, so the calculation is incomplete.

Public Domain & Copyright Free Images

Using copyrighted music or images without permission with few exceptions (which we’ll cover in future postings) is a violation of copyright law and a good way to end up in legal trouble. Here are some sources to find multimedia you can use. Be sure to check the specific requirements on each website to make sure the images are free for use for your particular project.

1) US Government Graphics and Photos
This is a government created directory of government graphics and photos. Most of the links are to sites with images in the public domain. A few are not, however, so read carefully to find their copyright and usage guidelines.

My personal favorite source on this list is NASA. Most NASA images are not copyrighted, but they do have some restrictions on commercial use. NASA usage guidelines are found here. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html
http://www.firstgov.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml

2) Creative Commons
Creative Commons provides an interesting way of making very clear what rights are granted with each work displayed. Read their documentation for more precise information on what each license grants.

They also list a very informative legal guide for podcasters , which explains the Creative Commons licensing and other legal concerns for podcasters.
http://creativecommons.org/

3) Morgue file
The Morguefile is a source for free-to-use images that can be used for both commercial and noncommercial applications. They ask that the photographer be credited, wherever possible, and you are not free to sell prints or credit the work as your own.
http://morguefile.com/

4) Yotophoto
Yotophoto is a search engine for copyright friendly images. Image searches show a thumbnail, which lists the image source and the copyright restrictions, if any. This is easy to use and a great tool to find specific images.
http://yotophoto.com/

5) Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is an offshoot of Wikipedia. Like Wikipedia, anyone can contribute content, and anyone can edit it. The images listed are theoretically free of copyright restriction, but it is possible someone uploaded an image that they did not create.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Welcome

Thanks to Marziah Karch for gathering this information.

Security Settings and Opening PowerPoint or Other Files

Sometimes when students indicate they cannot see a PowerPoint presentation (meaning they click the links in your course and the presentation doesn’t open) it may be due to the security settings in their browser. When using Internet Explorer, the user may get a notice from IE that a download has been prevented because of potential risks. The cue is a yellow strip with warning text that appears at the top of the browser window. If this occurs the user can click the yellow strip and choose the option to proceed with the download. At times this action will kick the user out of the course but when they log back in they’ll be able to open the presentation. If the student holds the Ctrl key (Windows users) while clicking the link to the presentation, it should open without the yellow warning strip. Holding the Ctrl key while clicking a link is a way of telling the browser “I’m aware of the risks associated with this type of action but want to open this file anyway”.

Thanks to Davy Jones for the tip.

When Image Counts

Online instruction doesn’t need to be faceless. Blackboard CE includes a feature (My Profile) that can include a photograph, a nickname, your non-Blackboard email address. This information can be entered once and then available in all the courses in which you are enrolled as an instructor or student—so long as the course has the Roster tool added. To enter or update your personal profile in Blackboard CE follow these steps:

1. Go to the My Blackboard screen.
2. Select the My Settings link at the top right of the screen.
3. Be sure the My Profile tab (top left) is selected.
4. Click the Edit Profile button.
5. If you go by a nickname (such as “Davy” rather than “David”), you can enter your nickname in the First Name field (it’ll be used in all courses in which you are enrolled rather than your legal first name).
6. You can also enter an external e-mail address (in the E-mail field) to which you can forward your Blackboard Mail tool e-mail.
7. To add an image to your profile, select the Browse… button.
8. Select the My Computer icon to navigate to a location (on your computer) where you have an image (.gif or .jpg) of yourself stored. The recommended image size is 320 x 240 pixels. If the image is larger, it’ll be resized by Blackboard.
9. Once you locate the image’s filename, double-click it and the image will be uploaded.
10. Be sure the Public check box above the image is selected if you want the image visible to others.
11. Click the Save button to save the changes you’ve made.
12. Next click the Done button to return to the My Blackboard screen.

Your profile will be visible in any course that includes the Roster tool.

When the My Computer (Get Files) Applet Fails

Students and faculty have reported difficulty in uploading files into Blackboard CE (such as when a student tries to submit an assignment in the Assignment Drop Box or attach a file to a Discussion posting or to an email message using the Mail tool. Often the Get Files button works once and then subsequently fails or just doesn’t work at all. In other cases the My Computer Applet (in the Content Manager and the File Manager) freezes when instructors try to upload files. In each of these cases, we’ve found the “culprit” to be a version of Java higher than Update 7 or the installation of multiple versions of Java (e.g. upgrade 6 and 10 installed on the same computer – because the Java installer doesn’t automatically delete the earlier version).

The problem typically happens only with the My Computer applet when using Internet Explorer. Most frequently the user is not able to continue using Blackboard CE until they close the browser and log back in.

According to a Blackboard Support Bulletin, from a technical stand point, the clients affected seem to be those using a Windows XP system with hyper-threading turned on while browsing the site using Internet Explorer and running Java 1.5.0_07 (called Upgrade 7) or higher. That’s why we’ve suggested to JCCC faculty, staff and students that they stay with upgrade 6 and not upgrade Java further, but this also means turning off the automatic upgrade feature…yet another hurdle for users to jump.

According to Blackboard, they are “currently working to identify a resolution for this problem. Microsoft has released a Knowledge Base article describing the problem. For more information regarding the underlying cause of the problem please reference this bulletin (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327809/en-us).”

Blackboard suggests as a workaround that users either:

1. Turn off hyper-threading on their system (not recommended by JCCC due to its complexity) or
2. Change the Windows “view” from Windows XP to “classic”

The second option is quick and requires less technical knowledge. It appears to resolve the issues listed above, even on hyperthreaded/dual-core machines running Java update 10 or 11.

To switch the Windows “view” from Windows XP to “classic” you would:

• Right click on the desktop
• Select Properties
• In the Themes tab, select "Windows Classic" in the theme dropdown
• Click Apply

If you have students who experience problems uploading or attaching files, you may want to suggest they try these steps.

Opening Office 2007 Files from Students

Sooner or later, your students are going to start submitting files created using Office 2007 rather than Office 2003 (the current version supported on campus). If you do not have access to Office 2007 (like most computers on campus), you can still open Office 2007 documents if you first install a Compatibility Pack from Microsoft.

You can download it from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

If you’re a user of Microsoft Office XP or Office 2003 programs (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint), you’ll need to install all high-priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading and installing the Compatibility Pack.

After installing the upgrade you’ll be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in those new formats.

Blackboard and Windows Vista

Many computer manufacturers are now delivering new computer systems with Windows Vista pre-installed, so you may be wondering if Blackboard CE is compatible with Windows Vista. Here’s what Blackboard support has indicated:

Blackboard has been conducting ongoing tests with Beta versions of the MS Vista product as part of the MS Beta program for some time now. However, there are often substantial differences between Beta software packages from Microsoft and their final versions. ...Microsoft's own early certification program kicked off only 3 weeks ago with the intention of getting their partners (Blackboard included) certified within 90 days of the release of Vista. Bb is not alone in this program as Apple, Adobe, SAP, and other vendors are all still working to certify and update their applications to accommodate the Vista OS.

So until we can complete certification by going through a full QA test cycle with the final version of MS Vista we can’t say that MS Vista is certified or compatible to use when running any version of Blackboard Academic Suite. Once Bb has certified this new operating system, a Support Bulletin will be issued on Behind the Blackboard and the associated end user documentation will be updated.

In some preliminary testing by Ed Tech Center staff, we found the following problems when using Windows Vista and Blackboard CE 6. We suspect there will be additional issues discovered as we test further.

For the testing we used Windows Vista Enterprise with Aero scheme, both Internet Explorer 7 with Java 1.5.0_06 and Firefox 2.0.0.1 with Java 1.5.0._06.

The following is a summary and each item and with the exception of number 6, the issues should be obvious and reproducible. Overall, we didn’t experience problems doing typical “user” activities, such as using the Mail tool, the Calendar tool, viewing content, and so on.

1. WebDAV does not work.
2. Webfolders do not work.
3. Get Files (to upload files) displays only one line of files in IE7 with Java 1.5.0_06. However, it works when using Firefox.
4. The Windows Vista Aero screen mode changes to Vista Basic View after logging in to Blackboard CE.
5. PowerPoint slideshows display in PowerPoint 2007 (when installed) but not within the Blackboard browser window.
6. There are intermittent buggy screen displays such as when the left menu completely covers the screen from left to right.

more information becomes available, we’ll pass it on.

Backing Up and Deleting Courses

In case you’re wondering about standard operating procedure regarding when courses are deleted off the JCCC Blackboard CE server:

1. Production “credit” course shells will be removed from the server about 1 month into the next subsequent semester, however, spring courses will not be removed until 1 month into the following fall semester.
2. Each semester the academic director of the Educational Technology Center will alert faculty members about 2 weeks into the semester that courses will be deleted unless they request otherwise, e.g. to accommodate contract incomplete grades, self-paced courses, etc.
3. Self-paced courses (950 sections) are the exception, they’ll stay online for a full year and a month after the start date, and then they’ll be removed.
4. Before any course is removed a backup will be made by Academic Computing Services and stored. If backups are needed in the future, IS will retrieve the backups as needed.
5. As an added precaution, faculty members are encouraged to backup their own courses after the end of each semester or after they make any significant changes to the course (e.g. add an epack, add a new module, make a significant revision, and so on). The backup made by faculty members should not be stored only in the course shell, but should be downloaded to the instructor’s workstation and then copied to media such as a CD or DVD. The instructor’s Ed Tech Center Designer can assist you with this process if needed.
6. “Z - Dev courses” (those used for course development, will not be automatically deleted. Faculty members should periodically review their list of “Z – Dev Courses” (to determine if the development course shell is still needed) and when appropriate, request that the course data be backed up and deleted.

If the instructor needs a refresher on how to create a course Backup, there’s a Flash movie and PDF printout covering the process available at http://web.jccc.edu/edtech/notes/get.asp?DocumentID=177.

Instructors should be aware that the way to download the backup file to your computer is a little circuitous, but not hard.

1. Once the Status of the backup is "Complete", you use the ActionLinks next to the name of the Backup file and choose "Save as File."
2. Unfortunately, the only choices for where to put the file are My Files or Class Files (My Computer is not an option). We recommend choosing My Files.
3. After saving the file (make a note of the filename), go back to the My Blackboard screen and click on the Content Manager tab - this accesses the My Files area.
4. Find the backup (by filename), and use the ActionLinks to choose Download.
5. You can now choose a location on your computer to save the file.

If you need assisance creating a CD or DVD copy of the backup file, please contact your Ed Tech Center Designer.

Difference Between Assessment Custom Instructions & the Description

In Blackboard CE’s Assessment tool, you can create both “custom instructions” and an assessment “description.”

Blackboard CE’s “Custom Instructions” may be different than you initially expect. It’s easy to expect “Custom Instructions” to show up on the Assessments page before students begin assessments. The fact is, “Custom Instructions” don’t appear until the assessment is started.

In order for notes or instructions regarding the assessment to show before the assessment is begun (on the Assessments page) enter them using the “Description” field (near the top of the assessment properties page) rather than the “Custom Instructions” field (at the bottom of the assessment properties page). Assessment properties are accessed by clicking the ActionLink icon and then selecting the Edit Properties option.

“Custom Instructions” appear inside the assessment (accented in green).

The description appears on the Assessments page, outside the assessment or before the assessment is begun.

To enter either a Description or Custom Instructions select the Edit Properties option using the ActionLink icon.

The Description field is near the top and the Custom Instructions section is near the bottom.

Thanks to Davy Jones, Senior Analyst in the Educational Technology Center for this tip.