Author Archives: Dan Wilson

Hiding marks and feedback until ready for release

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Before exams, coursework or timed assessments are marked, schools should please ensure that Blackboard Grade Centre columns are hidden from students until marks and feedback are ready to be released. To prevent students from seeing marks too early, you should also ensure Total and Weighted Total columns are hidden. Check a column header for a circle with a red line through it which indicates the column is hidden from students.

Demonstration column

If it is not hidden, and you need to hide it, click the down arrow next to the column header and select Hide from students (on/off).

The menu to hide columns from students

If this option isn’t available, or if the column has a green tick next to it, you will need to hide it in a different way:

Total column

  1. Click the dropdown arrow next to the column name.
  2. Click Edit Column Information.
  3. Scroll to the bottom and set Show this column to students to No.
  4. Click Submit.

For more information on administering Electronic Management of Assessment workflows, please see our EMA guidance page.

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

Some temporary loss of access to Blackboard – Monday 15 August 9-11pm

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Some students may have lost access to Blackboard between 9 pm and 11 pm on Monday evening, due to central student records incorrectly showing these students as having left the University. At 11 pm, IT Services re-enabled the student enrolments manually and have temporarily disabled updating Blackboard from central student records while the root cause of the issue is being investigated. We apologise to any students who may have been affected.

[Open] Turnitin ZIP file submission currently unavailable

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Update: Our recent testing shows ZIP file submissions are now working as normal, however the supplier is still investigating.

Turnitin ZIP file submissions are currently unavailable. During this time, staff may find they are unable to upload ZIP files to Turnitin and instead receive an error message. Turnitin have been informed and are working on a resolution. In the meantime, our testing has shown the Multiple File Upload and Single File Upload options appear to be working correctly, so files which need to be uploaded urgently can be done so through those methods.

If you have any questions, please contact the Digital Education Office.

Bulk uploading marks and feedback processing page not completing

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When bulk uploading marks and feedback, some users have reported that the processing page appears to never complete. Our testing has shown that, despite this, the upload itself does actually complete and can be accessed via the “Uploaded Packages” page. We therefore recommend that you leave the processing page for slightly longer than the usual upload time before clicking on the ‘Click here’ link to access the “Uploaded Packages” page.

Blackboard has been informed of this issue.

If you find you are experiencing any issues with the bulk upload tool, please contact us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

[Closed] Turnitin Similarity Report and Feedback Studio degraded performance

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This issue has now been resolved.

Turnitin are reporting degraded performance affecting Similarity Reports and Feedback studio. During this time you may find you are unable to load, or experience slow loading times for, Feedback Studio.

Students remain able to submit work and view marks and feedback.

We apologise for any inconvenience and will blog again when this issue has been resolved. You can also track this incident on the Turnitin status page.

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

Turnitin emergency maintenance today, Wednesday 6th April, 11 am

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Edit: Turnitin have advised us that the emergency maintenance is taking longer than anticipated.

To resolve the issue affecting Turnitin Feedback Studio, Turnitin have advised us that there will be emergency maintenance taking place today, Wednesday 6th April from 11:00 BST and is expected to last for an hour. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

You can stay up to date with Turnitin system status by visiting the Turnitin status page.