[Open] Blackboard annotate intermittent issue

Posted on by digitaleducation

Blackboard is continuing to investigate an intermittent issue with document rendering in the Annotate tool, which is affecting users globally.

When this happens, students submitting assignments with attachments might see an error message asking them to try again later. Please note that this does not stop the submission, but it can be confusing as students cannot view the document’s content during the upload process. However, students can confirm that their submission has been successful by looking at their digital receipt.

Blackboard developers are collaborating with their partners to fix it, and a solution will be included in a future update.

If you have any questions or encounter this issue and need support, please email us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Questionmark OnDemand Scheduled Maintenance 18 April 2025 09:00 – 15:00

Posted on by daniel.sinclair

Questionmark will be carrying out scheduled maintenance on Saturday 18 April between 09:00 and 15:00.

The purpose of the maintenance is to deploy system updates to ensure the ongoing reliability, security and up time of the platform.

During this time users may experience service disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

If you have any questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

Student access to Turnitin submission points – reminders for assessment period

Posted on by digitaleducation

Ahead of the assessment period, we would like to remind you of two issues that may interfere with student access to their Turnitin submission points:

  1. The “Open in New Window” setting in Blackboard for Turnitin submission points
  2. The use of Internet browsers with strict privacy settings (eg Safari with its default factory settings).

For Administrators: Blackboard ‘web link options’ for Turnitin submission points

We recommend that instructors and administrators edit their Turnitin assignments to open in the same window as the Blackboard page, as opening in a new window may be treated as a “pop-up” window and blocked by some browsers. To do this:

  • Click on the chevron next to the Turnitin assignment and select Edit
  • Scroll down to the Web link options section and change “Open in New Window” to “No”

  • Click Submit at the bottom of the page.
  • You will see a pop-up asking if you would like to change the Turnitin submission to open in a new window; click Cancel.

  • You will exit the Edit page; click on the assignment to check that Turnitin opens in the same tab.

For Markers and Students: Internet browsers with strict privacy settings

We are aware that people are sometimes seeing the error message ‘Invalid or missing state’ when trying to access Turnitin. This issue has been reported to Turnitin and is linked to the privacy settings of the users’ internet browser.

Please make the following information available to students and staff in your school, to assist them if they encounter this error.

If using Safari, we recommend that users try accessing Turnitin via Chrome or Microsoft Edge in the first instance, as Blackboard and Turnitin submissions have been successfully tested with these University-supported browsers.

If switching browsers is not a suitable solution for you, we recommend updating your browser’s security settings to enable JavaScript and third-party cookies specifically for accessing Turnitin submission points.

The ‘Invalid or missing state’ message comes up when launching a Turnitin assignment in a new browser window with third-party cookies and/or JavaScript blocked. This issue can be resolved by adjusting the browser’s Privacy & Security preferences by adding “api.turnitin.com” and “api.turnitinuk.com” to the sites that are allowed to use JavaScript / third-party cookies. This change will ensure that Turnitin’s required background scripts are not blocked.

Once you have completed reviewing your browser’s Privacy & Security preferences, please close your active browser and re-open a new browsing session so that any changes can take effect.

If you experience any problems, please contact the DEO via digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

[OPEN] Mis-classification of some Blackboard Ultra assessment columns

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

We’ve received reports that some Blackboard Ultra assessments created via the integration with SITS/eVision – specifically, the BBOther or Turnitin submission types, which use calculated columns – are being labelled in the Gradebook as ‘Non-markable items’.

This does not affect the functionality – marks can still be mapped and extracted by the normal method. However, it may cause confusion in the marks view, where these columns show as ‘Non-markable items.’

Anthology is currently investigating the issue. We apologise for any inconvenience and will provide updates as soon as we have more information.

[Closed] Blackboard Annotate: intermittent document rendering issue

Posted on by digitaleducation

Blackboard is currently investigating an intermittent document rendering issue affecting the Annotate tool. Instructors using Blackboard assignments and attempting to annotate papers via the online interface may be affected.

The supplier is actively working to restore the service to optimal performance, and we are closely monitoring the situation. We will provide updates as we have them.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Questionmark OnDemand Scheduled Maintenance 15 March 2025 09:00 – 15:00

Posted on by daniel.sinclair

Questionmark will be carrying out scheduled maintenance on Saturday 15 March between 09:00 and 15:00.

The purpose of the maintenance is to deploy system updates to ensure the ongoing reliability, security and up time of the platform.

During this time users may experience service disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

If you have any questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

[OPEN] Ultra assignments with Turnitin: submissions can match across integrations in the same course

Posted on by digitaleducation

Please note that, if a Blackboard course has both Blackboard assignments with Turnitin enabled and Turnitin LTI submission points in it, and a student submits similar work to both, the similarity scores for the later submission may be higher, due to it matching the earlier one. This can occur when, for example, a student’s summative submission is based on their previous formative submission. The supplier is aware of this issue and is currently working on a fix.

You can avoid this issue by ensuring that, within one course, you either use Turnitin LTI submission points or Ultra assignments with Turnitin enabled, but not both.

If you have experienced this issue and need assistance updating the similarity reports, please get in contact with us by emailing us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Ultra assignments with Turnitin: paper deletions will take longer

Posted on by digitaleducation

Please note that Blackboard Ultra assignments with Turnitin enabled do not have an interface to for managing permanent deletions from Turnitin’s Paper Repository. This means that, currently, every permanent deletion request needs to be referred to Turnitin, and may take several days to process. (This is not the case for standalone Turnitin LTI assignments, where paper deletions can be managed from within the Turnitin interface.)

The same applies to restoring any papers deleted in error – these will also require referral to Turnitin, and require additional time to process.

If you need help on how to deal with paper deletions, please get in contact with us by emailing us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Introducing New Interactivity Features in Re/Play

Posted on by david.c.morgan

Re/Play now includes interactive elements to enhance your presentations. With these new features, you can add text, buttons, and hotspots directly onto your videos, helping to guide your students and link to additional content seamlessly.  

Getting Started 

Open your presentation and click Edit Interactions. This brings up an editor, with a grid to help you accurately place and customise your interactive elements. All elements can be repositioned. For text and hotspots, you can also resize them—hold the Shift key to move without resizing.  

Types of Interactions 

  • Text: Add text overlays by choosing a preset size and colour and set the alignment. For enhanced readability, pair your text with a background hotspot or button.  
  • Buttons: Create clickable buttons with sample text and a chosen size and colour. You can set these to pause the video when clicked, and easily link them to another presentation, a specific time within the current one, or an external URL.  
  • Hotspots: Highlight areas with hotspots that come in circle or rectangle shapes. Customise their appearance, adjust opacity, and set them to pause the presentation as needed. Hotspots can be annotated using a textbox and offer flexible linking options.  

Best Practices 

  • Plan Your Layout: Use the grid to ensure interactions align with your content.  
  • Keep It Simple: Focus on the most relevant interactions to maintain a clear, engaging presentation.  
  • Enhance Accessibility: Tag interactive elements and use chapters to make them easily identifiable for students.  

We hope you enjoy experimenting with these new tools to create more engaging and interactive learning experiences. You can find more information on our Re/Play support pages. If you have any questions or need further support, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.