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.

Backing up your Blackboard Course

Using Blackboard CE, you (the course instructor) can backup each of your courses and save the archive file to your local computer. Should you back up your courses? At JCCC, a full or incremental backup of the Blackboard production database is made daily. if you request it, you can also have your courses backed up daily by contacting the Help Desk with the CRN of each course. Still, many faculty like the assurance of having their own backup, especially if they are about to make major changes or additions to their online course materials or have just completing making changes. If you want the extra "insurance" we recommend that you archive your course before and after you make any major changes as well as at the end of the semester. The backup should then be downloaded to your local machine. Although faculty do not have access to restore a backup to the production server, the JCCC system administrator can do so; this is a precaution so that current student activity is not inadvertently overwritten by a someone restoring a course backup without first considering the effect on current student work and activity.

There is a tutorial movie that covers this process at Creating a Blackboard CE Course Backup Movie. The steps include:

1. From the Build or Teach tab in your Blackboard CE course select Manage Course.
2. Select Backup.
3. To create a new archive, select Back Up Course.
4. To save the backup as a file, use the ActionLink of the backup and select Save as File.
5. You will then be asked to choose where to save the file. You may save it in either My Files or Class Files. The default file name will include the full course title, as well as the date and time the backup was created. You may change this filename if you wish, but be sure to leave the file extension .bak at the end.
6. Once the Save as File action is complete, you should download the file to your computer.
7. From the Build tab in your course, choose File Manager.
8. In the File Manager, navigate to the location where you saved the backup file (My Files or Class Files). You will see the backup file that you created.
9. Use the file’s ActionLink and select the Download option. If prompted whether to Open or Save the file, choose Save to Disk. If prompted, decide where on your computer to save the file, and select Save or OK.

Thanks to Jeff Kosko for this tip.

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.

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

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.

Always Use Lowercase for Filenames

Blackboard CE 6.1.1 has a nasty habit of renaming files that you upload or import using all lowercase. Further, there’s a known bug that if you have two filenames that are identical (except for the case, the course will generate a general exception error when trying to copy it into a new course shell). So the morale of the story is name all your files using only lowercase letters. Due to Blackboard CE 6.1.1’s renaming of an imported or uploaded file:

WICKED.PDF becomes wicked.pdf
Wicked.pdf becomes wicked.pdf
and
Wicked.PDF also becomes wicked.pdf

Then you’ve potentially got multiple files with the same filename and your course is headed for trouble…if it already has a file created under a previous version of CE that includes upper and lowercase letters in the filename.

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.