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.