After Service Pack 3

Official issues fixed with Service Pack 3 (SP3) include:

• Installation issues to adopt Application Pack 2 have been resolved
• Garbage collection has become more robust
• Known issues in cross-listing have been eliminated
• Assessment and question component have been stabilized
• Installer related issues have been resolved
• Safari 3.0 compatibility issue has been fixed
• Issue with "new" messages feature of Discussion Board have been resolved
• An important security issue has been fixed

In bold are the issues that directly affect students and instructors. We installed Service Pack 3 on the JCCC Blackboard production server on Monday, March 15.

Keep in mind that one bug still persists and may be important as you copy course content from Spring 2008 to Summer or Fall 2008 course shells. Courses with group sign-up sheets on the homepage cause the copy process to abort. After looking at this issue in detail it appears the only workaround is to delete all group sign-up sheets before copying course content (the problem persists even if you place the sign-up sheet in a folder ). After copying the course content, then go back and add the group sign-up sheets back into the course.

What's the Difference between a Discussion Board, Blog and Journal

Tracy Newman has provided a short definition of the differences in Blackboard between these three similar tools:

Threaded Topic in Discussions Tool

Users post and reply to messages. Replies that are associated with the same post are grouped together, creating message threads that can be expanded and collapsed.

Blog Topic

Participants post a chronological series of entries on a particular topic. Participants can add comments to any blog entry. Newest entries come first in the list.

Here is the comments screen for the Second Post entry:
Journal Topic

A place for students to write. Journals can be kept private between the student and instructor or shared with the class.

Here is a screenshot of what the journal screen looks like for the instructor. In the left panel, you can choose which student to review. Clicking on a name gives you that student’s journal in the right panel. It looks like a blog except that oldest entries come first. You can add comments, just like a blog.


Any of the three tools can be added to any Blackboard CE 6 course.

CE 6.2.2 Bug Updates

The following bugs were reported to Blackboard Support over the past several months and then were referred to the Blackboard Development staff. FYI, the case number, description and latest response from Blackboard support is listed below.

#479817 - Answers not saving during quiz/test.
Case Description: Students are taking an online quiz/test and when clicking the "Save Answer" button the question is not saved. This appears to be a random event as sometimes the answers are saved and other times the server is slow or does not save the answer. Students taking a timed test are not able to complete the test/quiz in the allotted time due to this issue.

Support Response: Our developers have deemed this to be a bug within the software. The fix for this issue is tentatively scheduled for Vista 8.0 SP1. If changes are made to the schedule, I will update the case.

JCCC Note: I have requested information on when Vista 8 SP1 will be released. We’re on Campus Edition 6.2.2 which is equal to Vista 4.2, so I’m not sure how their numbering system for future releases works.

#406008 - Course Tools Menu Automatically Collapses to Just Icons
Case Description: Based on release notes, the Course Tools menu bar should not collapse to just icons when opening the Mail tool or Learning Modules tool, but that’s not the case. The menu collapses when using the Mail, My Files, Grade Book, and File Manager tools.

Support Response: After reviewing the CR which was submitted for this issue, I noticed DEV actually rejected the Change Request. They have stated this issue will be addressed possibly in a future release. Which also can mean, it may get lost in obscurity. Let me know how you would like to proceed with this case.

#476514 - Calendar Changes After Upgrade to CE 6.2.1
Case Description: 1. It’s common for our faculty 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 month in which the original date entry 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 (if today is August 14th). This is a change in behavior since CE 6.1.1.2. 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.3. 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.

Support Response: Our developers have stated the calendar is functioning as designed. When adding a new entry, the start date will show the current day's date. You would have to change the date to required date for the event.

#478596 - Get Files on Mac Cannot Upload Multiple Files & Overwrite Existing Files
Case Description: When using the Get Files button to upload multiple files AND overwrite existing files already in the Class Files area, Blackboard does not give the option to "Replace Existing" files. Instead the filename appears as "Null" and Blackboard offers only these options: "Select another location," "Rename," and "Skip."

Support Response: This is issue is tentatively scheduled for resolution with the release of Vista 8.0 SP1. If any changes occur from our side, I will update the case.

JCCC Note: Subsequently we reported that this same problem happens with Windows users.

#478109 - Inconsistent Discussions Tool New Activity Icon Behavior
Case Description: New Activity icon appears when no postings occur and when a new topic is added (with a description of two words or more or when a period is added to the end of one word descriptions) even when the topic has no postings. This makes it very difficult for instructors and students to use the Discussions topic New Activity icon as an alert that new postings are present for the student to read.

Support Response: No updates have been posted by our developers. Once I receive feedback, I will update the case.

#479657 - No Web Folder option for Firefox
Case Description: When using Firefox 2 you no longer get the “Open as Web Folder” option from the File Manager ActionLink. See attached screen capture.

Support Response: As of right now, DEV has not provided any updates on this issue. Once I receive an additional information I will update the case notes.

Use the Discussions Tool Topic Description for Your First Posting

In Blackboard 6, the Discussions tool can include categories (such as Module 1, Module 2, Module 3, or Graded Discussions and Ungraded Discussions). Then under each category, you can create topics that separate the various issues/themes you want your students to discuss (such as “Global Warming” or “I Need Help!” or “Student Lounge” or “War on Terror”). In WebCT 4.1, you could create an initial posting to define the purpose of that area or topic of discussion. Each semester, you’d need to re-enter that initial posting.

With CE 6 you can now use the Topic’s Description (select the ActionLinks icon and then the Edit Properties option) as your initial posting. Then when you copy the course to the next semester, the description is copied and you don’t need to re-enter it each semester.

Student View Tab Problems

JCCC currently has Blackboard CE (Campus Edition) 6.2.2 installed. With this version, there are problems with the Student View tab, which exist when student access to the course has yet to be enabled. By default, unless you request otherwise, all Blackboard hosted online courses are not available to students until the first day of the semester (e.g., January 16, 2008). Therefore, until student access is enabled on January 16th, the following “issues” exist with using the Student View tab. These problems go away when student access is enabled. Blackboard has indicated that these issues are resolved in Service Pack 3 (e.g., CE 6.2.3) which JCCC has access to, but has not tested yet (it was released in late December 2007).

1. Despite the Release Criteria (selective release) settings for an item (e.g., Learning Module or other course element) items will show up on the Student View tab even though the selective release criteria has not yet been met.
2. Other schools have reported that the Group Sign up buttons do not appear (the Sign Up for Group column is not present). I do not have access to a course that uses this feature, but we assume this report is accurate since it’s been reported by several other Blackboard schools.
3. An “unexpected system exception error” will appear if a course has either assignments or assessments and the Assignments and Assessment tools (respectively) are selected from the Student View tab. The problem disappears when the course is made accessible to students.
4. Calendar entries are not visible on the Student View tab when the course is inaccessible to students. The entries do become visible once student access to the course is enabled.
5. In the Discussions tool, when the “Students can reply to messages but cannot post messages” setting is selected and you open a message (posted by the instructor) using the Student View tab, the Reply option (button) does not display as long as student access to the course has not been enabled. As soon as the section is open to students, the Reply option is available on both the Student View tab and when a student logs in.
6. An “unexpected system exception error” will appear when attempting to access the Who’s Online tool from the Student View tab if student access to the course has not yet been enabled. The problem disappears when the course is made accessible to students.
7. Some tools, e.g., Discussions, Chat and Announcements, display options on the Student View tab that are not visible to true students. For example, the Discussions tool displays options for creating topics and categories as well as the ability to reorder those elements. The Chat tool includes the Create Chat or Whiteboard Room button. The Announcements tool contains the Create Announcement button.

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/).

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.

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.”

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.

New Discussions Tool Feature

The section instructor can now lock a Blackboard CE 6 Discussion topic and still post to that topic. In other words, after you terminate student contributions, you (the instructor) can continue to comment on postings and post those comments. The steps required are:

• On the Teach Tab, select the ActionLinks icon and select the Edit Properties option.
• Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the “Topic Behaviors Options” link to expand the list of options.
• Select the “Lock this topic for Students (Section Instructors can post in a locked topic)” option button and
• Click the Save button.

CE 6 Now Supports Personal Settings

By default Blackboard CE 6 displays 10 entries per page when using many tools, such as the Mail tool, Discussions tool, and Assignments tool. When the default number of entries is exceeded, students often think new messages are lost or missing (because they're not displayed). In each tool, you can click the Paging Preferences icon (looks like three small dog-eared pages and it’s located in the bottom right corner of the screen) and set the default as high as 999 entries per page. When you edit this setting, it applies only to the list of entries in the current tool. If you or your students want to change the setting globally, follow these steps.

1. From the My Blackboard screen select the My Settings link (upper right corner).
2. When the My Settings page appears, select the My Tool Options tab.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and change the Paging option to the number of entries you want displayed by default. We suggest using 999, the maximum, to minimize the need to “page” through postings and entries.
4. When finished, click the Save button.

On that screen (before clicking Save) you have several other options including the ability to:

• Forward Blackboard mail to an external email address.
• Show all or just unread messages in the Mail and Discussions tools by default.
• Show the oldest or most recent Discussions postings at the top of the screen.
• Start the HTML Creator in each course by default.
• And more….

Using the CE 6 Tabs Properly

When new mail messages, discussion postings, or assignment are submitted in Blackboard CE, a New Activity icon (white asterisk on a green background circle) appears. However, the New Activity icon is based on items you’ve viewed or new items received on each tab (Build, Teach and Student View). When you view the new activity on one tab, the New Activity icon disappears on that tab only (e.g. the corresonding New Activity icons are still visible on the other tabs).

Blackboard CE 6 has three tabs serving three specific purposes. The Build tab is used when building the course. The Student View tab is used 1) to see how the course displays to students and 2) for in-classroom use of Blackboard (so you don’t accidentally open up the Grade Book in class). Once the course is built one should teach the course using the Teach tab. By remaining on the Teach tab throughout the semester you will always know which items you’ve opened or not. If you switch back and forth between tabs when doing routine “Teach” activities, you’ll may find “new” items identified on each tab (Build, Teach and Student View) depending on what you’ve already opened on that tab! This can be confusing if you’re unaware of the pattern.

Of course one problem of using only the Teach tab all semester is the lack of access to the File Manager among the Teach tab tools—forcing you to use the Build tab for any file maintenance or uploading. Also, the Calendar tool on the Teach tab does not allow the instructor the option of creating a new calendar entry and linking it to a Learning Module. That option is found on the Build tab only. As a result, there are times when you will need to use the Build and Student View tabs. Generally, try to remember to return to the Teach tab before tackling postings in the Discussions tool and Mail tool so you can avoid opening items already viewed.

Students Timing Out While Working on Assignments

Our JCCC Blackboard CE 6 server has a timeout setting to prevent an inactive “log-in” from consuming system resources (this also helps avoid hacking by a malicious party). The timeout is set to 70 minutes. If students are working online using the HTML Creator or entering text in a text box (e.g. in Discussions, Mail or Assignments) and do not interact with Blackboard for 70 minutes, they’ll be logged off the system automatically. Switching to another tab or saving a message or a posting in draft form re-starts the 70 minute cycle. It’s just when the student types in a text box or in the HTML Creator without using any other Blackboard features, that Blackboard will consider the account as inactive.

To avoid this problem, an alternative is for your students to compose their assignments in Microsoft Word (or another word processor) and then copy and paste the text into Blackboard. If you have your students submit their assignment as an attachment the timeout is usually not an issue.

If the student’s account “times out” before they finish the assignment, they’ll lose their work.

By the way, if a student is taking an assessment, the 70 minute cycle restarts each time an answer is saved or if the student moves from one question to another.

WebCT Good News/Bad News #5

These (sort of) daily “Good News/Bad News” messages are meant to inform you of what works and what doesn’t in CE 6.1.1. If you have comments, you’re invited to email me directly (jbacon@jccc.edu) or share on the dlfaculty@jccc.edu list.

CE 6.1.1 Good News: Miscellaneous Tools

1. (Discussions) A course instructor or teaching assistant can now lock and unlock a topic and still post in the Discussions tool.
2. (Glossary) When you create an export CE 4.1 file and then use that file to import an entire course into CE 6.1.1, 4.1 courses with a Glossary of 1000 or more items can now be imported properly (they didn’t in CE 6.0.2). However, with CE 6.1.1 the import will not work if the exported file is too large. The best work-around is to delete course backups before creating the 4.1 export file. With the export file "slimmed down" the import still appears to fail (the import progress bar never moves to the "finished state") but if you wait a few minutes and then jump to another tab, when you return you'll see that the Glossary entries have been imported and are available.
3. (File Manager) When uploading or downloading files the browser (Internet Explorer) does NOT freeze and require a reboot.
4. (File Manager) When using Safari 2.0.3, if you select the Get Files button in the File Manager, the My Computer icon appears and works.
5. (Folders) Any icon alignment changes made in folders does show correctly on the Build tab.
6. (Grade Book) The Histogram (under column statistics) displays all grade ranges.
7. (Grade Book) The default sort order (alphabetic) in the Grade Book is now correct.
8. (Grade Book) Rearranged columns (on the View All tab) are now reflected when viewing Column Settings for the Grade Book.
9. (HTML Creator) When loading the HTML Creator in Mail or Discussions, the tool does not grab control of the cursor, but leaves the cursor in the top field of the form.
10. (Course Import from 4.1) When importing a course from CE 4.1 to CE 6, the "Do not have permission to copy or move" error no longer appears.

CE 6.1.1 Bad News: Discussions

1. Discussion posts do not always update the Unread totals, so indicators of the number of Unread and Read messages may be incorrect.