Category Archives: Blackboard

[Open] PowerPoint files with grouped images display incorrectly in Blackboard Annotate

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An error has been identified in Blackboard Annotate that can affect the display of submitted Microsoft Power Point (PPTX) documents containing grouped images. The error rearranges the images displayed in the Annotate interface, affecting the marker’s view of the document.

Blackboard developers are aware of the error. However, they cannot fix the issue, as it depends on third-party software beyond their control.

This error affects the DEO’s “Blackboard Online” workflow, and we have updated the recommendations in our EMA – Blackboard Online Workflow guidance to remind users that Blackboard Annotate works better when files are submitted in PDF format. While students can still submit documents in other formats, we cannot guarantee that footnotes, grouped images, and styling will be displayed correctly.

Change in Blackboard pop-up support

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The tool we use to provide pop-up support and guidance within Blackboard is changing on Thursday 1 August. This means that the pop-up messages you sometimes see in Blackboard may look a little different, but can still be easily removed by clicking on the ‘x’ in the top right-hand corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please note that this also means you will no longer see ‘Eesysoft course reports’ within Blackboard. If you require additional data that was previously available within the course reports, please contact the Digital Education Office on digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Additionally, you will no longer see an option for “UoB support” within Blackboard. This previously appeared in the bottom right-hand corner of Blackboard when you clicked on the question mark in a speech bubble, which is shown below. You will still see the question mark and can access Blackboard’s help pages by selecting ‘Blackboard support’ and going into ‘Blackboard Help’.

Question mark in Blackboard leading to Blackboard support

 

 

 

 

Please refer to our online guides or contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk if you have any queries.

SafeAssign Maintenance 31 July

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On Wednesday 31 July, between 09:00 – 11:00 BST, SafeAssign will undergo a maintenance update.

Learn clients will experience impacts for up to seven hours. All submissions during this time will be queued and will be processed at the end of the maintenance period.

This downtime is essential for a backend infrastructure update, as Blackboard is transitioning to a new infrastructure.

If you have any questions about this update, please refer to the Blackboard status page or email us at digital.education@bristol.ac.uk.

Resource List link – updated

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Please refer to our more recent blog post on this topic.  

Due to the deprecation of the Resource List tool by Anthology (Blackboard), you will need to replace the old links with the new Talis Aspire Reading Lists tool to access the reading lists from within your courses.

To replace a link in the left-hand menu in an Original course, click the ‘plus’ symbol at the top of the menu and choose ‘Tool Link’. “Talis Aspire Reading Lists” will appear within the drop-down menu. Once created, click the link to set up your reading list (you may be asked to authenticate the tool on first use); you will then see your reading lists and you will be able to add the required list to your course.

Talis Aspire left hand menu

You can also add a link within the content area of your course via the ‘Build Content’ drop-down menu.

Talis Aspire build content menu

If you are using an Ultra course, you can find the Talis Aspire Reading Lists link under ‘Course Tools’.

Talis Aspire Ultra Course Tools

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

[Open] Turnitin issues with Firefox and Safari

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We have been made aware that some instructors and students are seeing the error message ‘invalid or missing state’ when trying to access Turnitin when using Safari or Firefox. We are currently investigating the issue with Turnitin; in the meantime, please use Chrome or Edge, as these browsers do not appear to be affected. 

We apologise for any inconvenience.

[RESOLVED] Advisory message about Blackboard email services outage: check emails sent last night.

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We were informed of a temporary outage of Blackboard email services after close of business yesterday (08 May 2024). This issue affected all Blackboard email services globally, including any Blackboard notifications that were also sent as emails and the production of submission receipts.

Whilst the service has now been restored, we advise you to check and resend any Blackboard emails you attempted to send yesterday.

[Resolved] Issue with Blackboard receipts

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Blackboard has successfully resolved the issue with their receipting tool. Consequently, students submitting work to a Blackboard Assignment should now receive a confirmation email containing the details of the submitted work and a link to the document.

Please note that the issue only impacted student submissions to Blackboard Assignments on Tuesday, 7 May. Nevertheless, all receipts were securely stored in Blackboard, and students were able to access their submission records by navigating to the Submission Receipts section within My Marks.

[Closed] Issue with Blackboard receipts

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We have identified an issue with our Blackboard receipting tool, which is currently not always sending out email receipts to students after they have submitted their work. The receipts are always being stored in Blackboard, however.

As a temporary measure, we therefore advise students to check the “Submitted” section of “My Marks” after submitting their work. If a receipt is not recorded there, they should attempt to submit their work again and then contact their school if the issue persists. However, if a receipt is present, they should take a screenshot, note the time, and be assured that their work has been successfully submitted.

We are prioritising this matter and have raised it with Blackboard as an urgent issue. We will provide updates as soon as the issue has been resolved.