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.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
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.
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.
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