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.

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.”

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.

Clarification Regarding Search Tool Date Ranges

When searching for items within a course (such as student contributions or postings) you can search by a date range using the Search Tool.

When you search by a date range, you’re prompted for a Start and End date (there’s no option to specify the time of day). When you enter a date, Blackboard assumes you want an item that is date stamped 12:01 a.m. or after on the date specified. So if you enter a date range of August 15 to August 15, you’ll retrieve no listings since no items would be date stamped between 12:01 a.m. and 12:01 a.m. on the specified date.

In order to successfully search for activity on a given date (e.g. August 15, 2006), use the desired date as the Start date and the next day (e.g. August 16, 2006) as the End date.

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.