Known Issues/"Bugs" in Blackboard v.6

Last updated November 05, 2004

• Logging In
  • Users bookmarking the login page must log in twice
     
• My Boise State Tab
  • Permanent announcements always display despite availability
  • Courses always display in "My Courses" module for TAs
     
• Discussion Board
  • Deleting a discussion board post also deletes all child posts
  • Discussion board attachments don't show when previewing a post
     
• E-Mail
  • Formatting of e-mails sent through Blackboard
  • Publicly display email addresses in group pages
     
• Course Content
  • Announcements more than 7 days in advance don't display on entry page
  • Extra line breaks in announcements
  • Macintosh can't paste linked text into text boxes
     
• Tests, Surveys, and Pools
  • No partial scoring on multiple answer questions
  • "@" sign for correct answers in matching questions on an old test
  • Incorrect answers to ordering questions on an old test
  • No "Select All" button for adding pool questions
  • Questions imported from a pool don't take on the assigned point value
  • Pools in most course sites have no logical sort order
  • Survey questions display point values
  • Gradebook weighting is hard to remove once it has been implemented
     
• Text Box Editor
  • Text editing box only works on Windows with Office 2000 or higher
  • Edit → Copy and Edit → Paste don't work in the text editor box

Logging In

Users bookmarking the login page must log in twice

This problem occurs when a user has Bookmarked or made a Favorite of the actual log-in page on Blackboard, rather than the main entry page. The cookie which Blackboard uses to keep track of who you are does not start correctly if the main page is skipped, thus forcing users to log in twice. Always enter Blackboard through http://blackboard.boisestate.edu.

My Boise State Tab

Permanent announcements always display despite availability

When an instructor creates an announcement, marks it permanent ("Always show this announcement?"), and sets availability dates for the future, the announcement will display regardless of date on students' My Boise State page. Clicking on the displayed announcement notification, students are taken to the announcements area, but cannot see the announcement. This is a bug where the announcement's permanence trumps the availability dates set, only on the My Boise State page. Announcements display normally within a course site.

Courses always display in "My Courses" module for TAs

Most users have the ability to control whether they want to display course sites in which they are a user. However, course sites for which a user is a Teaching Assistant will always display in the My Courses module, regardless of edit/preference settings.

Discussion Board

Deleting a discussion board post also deletes all child posts

In previous versions of Blackboard, it was possible to delete a single discussion board post and allow any associated replies to remain. In Blackboard 6, removing a discussion board post to which replies have been posted will also remove all replies. If an instructor wishes to remove a post's content but retain its replies, "edit" the post in question and delete the message within the text box.

Discussion board attachments don't show when previewing a post

When previewing a discussion board post for which there is an attachment, the paperclip icon and link signifying an attachment do not display. However, the attachment is there upon submitting the post.

E-Mail

Formatting of e-mails sent through Blackboard

E-mails sent through Blackboard will have extra line breaks when received, inserting large empty spaces into the e-mail. Senders may get around this by using shift+Enter rather than Enter when typing an e-mail. Recipients will then receive a more normally formatted e-mail. Additionally, it is not possible to copy/paste any special formatting into a Blackboard e-mail message, such as colors or bulleted lists. They are plain text only.

Publicly Display Email Addresses In Group Pages

We have discovered that the only way for the email addresses to be publicly displayed in the Group Pages is for the individual student to submit specific "privacy options" settings within the "personal information" area.  In order for a student's email address to be publicly displayed in the Group Pages they will need to do the following:

1. While logged into Blackboard, click on the "My Boise State" tab
2. Click on the "Personal Information" link on the left side of the screen.
3. Click on the "Set Privacy Options" link. 
4. Listed under "(1) Personal Information" are several items that can be made publicly available. Check the "Email address" item (this will also make the email address publicly available on the course Roster. 
5. Listed under "(2) User Directory Status," check "List my information in the user directory."
6. Click "Submit."

Course Content

Announcements created more than 7 days in advance don't display on entry page

When an instructor creates an announcement and sets the availability date more than 7 days in the future, that announcement will not display on the main course entry page. The main course entry page's default display is "View last 7 days." Users need to click on the "View last 30 days" or "View all" tabs to see any announcements which were not created within the last 7 days, regardless of release date. Instructors should create announcements as needed to avoid this bug.

Extra line breaks in announcements

When modifying an announcement, the text box editor will insert extra line breaks in the message. This results in extra blank space each time an announcement is modified. This is a known issue in Blackboard 6. There are two ways to stop blackboard from adding line breaks when editing an announcement:

• When editing, manually delete the line breaks and then re-enter them normally. It won't change them when you Submit because they are "new" content.
  
  OR
  
  
• Go into the HTML version of the editor and delete all instances of <BR>.

Macintosh can't paste linked text into text boxes

When a Macintosh user highlights and copies a section of text in which there is a hyperlink, it will not paste correctly into a Blackboard text box. The text will paste, but the linked portion of text will no longer be linked. Linked text must be created manually in the text box by Mac users.

Tests, Surveys, and Pools

No partial scoring on multiple answer questions

For Multiple Answer question types in a Blackboard assessment, Blackboard will not give partial credit to partially correct answers. For example, if users correctly select two of the options, but fail to select the third correct option, Blackboard will score the question with a zero, rather than two-thirds the question's point value. If instructors don't want to check each quiz attempt manually to correct any incorrect MA scoring, the solution is to not use MA questions. One alternative is to use a Matching question. The left-hand "answer" column would be the range of answer choices. The right-hand "answer" column would have only two options, "Yes" or "No." The question itself would be worded to direct students to assign "Yes" or "No" to each answer choice. "Yes" and "No" can be assigned to multiple answers.

"@" sign for correct answers in matching questions on an old test

For tests which were in course sites migrated from Bb5 to Bb6 in August 2004, the correct answers for matching questions may have been corrupted. As part of the migration process, the answers to matching questions were not retained. The "@" sign symbolizes "no match" - any attempt to answer the question will result in 0 points. Instructors who have matching questions with an "@" for an answer need to modify those questions before the test is deployed and assign the correct answers.

Incorrect answers to ordering questions on an old test

For tests which were in course sites migrated from Bb5 to Bb6 in August 2004, the correct ordering for ordering questions may have been corrupted. As part of the migration process, Blackboard retained the "display order" as the correct answer, rather than the "correct order." Instructors who have ordering questions with incorrect answers need to modify those questions before the test is deployed and assign the correct order.

No "Select All" button for adding pool questions

Blackboard 6 has removed the "Select All" feature from the step in test creation which draws questions from a pre-existing test or pool. This can make test creation cumbersome, requiring instructors to click individual boxes up to 20 times per page. However, Wytheville Community College has written a bookmarklet that will "Check All" boxes on a page, and which works when selecting test/pool questions to add. The bookmarklet and usage instructions are found on their Tips and Tricks page.

Questions imported from a pool don't take on the assigned point value

In Blackboard 6, it is possible to set a default point value for tests using the Creation Settings. However, when importing questions from a previously existing test or pool, these questions do not take on the default point value. They retain the value assigned to them in the old test or pool. Point values for imported questions must be changed manually, for each question, after importing them. There is no feature in Bb6 that can assign point values to multiple questions at the same time, aside from the Creation Settings, which does not work in this instance.

Pools in most course sites have no logical sort order

When viewing the list of pools in the Pool Manager, or viewing a list of pools during the process of creating a new test or pool, the pools are not listed in logical order for most course sites. This can make it difficult to search for pools if an instructor has many of them. In a few course sites, pools are sorted in order of original creation date. At this time, there is no way to manually sort pools in any order.

Survey questions contain point values when taken

Surveys are Blackboard assessments which do not contain correct answers or point values, and do not associate results with specific users. However, when taking a survey, users will see a random but uniform point value assigned to each question. (i.e., all questions will be worth 5 points, or all questions will be worth 2 points, etc.) When viewing detailed Assessment Attempt Details for the survey, the instructor also sees a random point value for each question. However, the survey "scores" correctly in the gradebook. No point values are assigned, only a checkmark to indicate that a user has taken the survey.

Gradebook weighting is hard to remove once it has been implemented

Once an instructor has set weighting by either category or item in the gradbook, there is no obvious way to remove the weighting other than redistributing points. Changing all weights to 0% results in an error message that the total weighting does not equal 100%. The solution is to create a new gradebook item or category, assign to it 100% of the weighting, and then remove the unwanted item/category from the gradebook. It will also remove the 100% weighting it is associated with, zeroing out the gradebook weighting.

Text Box Editor

Text editing box only works on Windows with Office 2000 or higher

The Text Box Editor works best on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, with Office 2000 or newer installed, using Internet Explorer. Some users who do not have that configuration will only see a stripped-down version of the text box. These people include:

• Those using a Mac
• Those using a non-IE browser (AOL, Netscape, Mozilla, Safari, Firefox, Opera, etc.)
• Those using an older operating system (Windows 95, etc)
• Those who do not have a recent version of MS Office installed

Although the full options are not available, users are still able to make posts and customize them if they know HTML, using the "HTML" option below the text box.

If you can see some options in a grey bar above the text box (such as font size, font type, bold, etc), but no second bar of options beneath it, click on the small black down-arrow on the left side of the grey bar. This will expand the second row and show you the options.

Edit → Copy and Edit → Paste don't work in the text editor box

When copying and pasting content into the text editor boxes, users cannot select "Copy" or "Paste" from the browser's "Edit" menu. To copy and paste text within a text box, use the combination keystrokes Ctrl+C for Copy, and Ctrl-V for paste, while the cursor is active in the text box. Alternatively, on the second line of options in the "full" text editor box, there are icons for Copy and Paste that will also work.

Blackboard Assistance at Boise State email:  blackboard@boisestate.edu    phone:  (208) 426-2583 (8-5 Mon-Fri)  office:  Education 420