Category: Blackboard

[Open] Footnotes in Blackboard submissions can be rearranged unless in PDF

Posted on by digitaleducation

An error has been identified in Blackboard that can affect the display of submitted documents containing footnotes and formatting styles. The error rearranges the footnote order, affecting the marker’s view of the document. The Blackboard developers are aware of the error, and are working on a fix. In the meantime, we recommend that students submit documents in PDF where they contain footnotes.

This error affects the DEO’s “Blackboard Online” workflow, and we have updated the recommendations in our EMA – Blackboard Online Workflow guidance accordingly.

[Closed] Blackboard access disruption for some Internet Service Providers

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

Blackboard has performed maintenance work this morning to improve the reliability and robustness of their network. For some Internet Service Providers (ISPs), this work is taking time to propagate through their networks, resulting in some people having difficulty in accessing Blackboard globally. The issue should resolve itself in time. In the meantime, if you are having difficulty accessing Blackboard, you may be able to resolve this by using a different ISP; for example, you could:

  • use a mobile phone as a hotspot
  • use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
  • move to a different location (such as on campus) to connect to a different network.

[Closed] Persistent Blackboard access disruption

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

The Blackboard access issue from yesterday, which was fixed by Blackboard at source, is persisting for some users today – notably, people attempting to access Blackboard on campus. IT Services is investigating why this is the case, supported by Blackboard. In the meantime, you may be able to access Blackboard using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or by using a mobile phone as a hotspot.

If you are still encountering problems on your own device, you can attempt to resolve them by flushing your DNS, using the instructions found on the IT Services status page.

[Resolved] Intermittent Blackboard access disruption

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

From around 8 am today, a global Domain Name Server issue disrupted access to Blackboard (and linked) services for some users, while others were unaffected. Whether or not you were affected was due to the route taken through the Internet from your computer to the Blackboard servers. Blackboard put a fix in place soon after the incident was observed, but due to the nature of the issue, this has taken some time to propagate to all users. Blackboard has informed us that a normal service should be restored for all users by 5 pm today.

[Closed] Intermittent Blackboard access disruption

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

Access to Blackboard (and linked) services is currently experiencing some intermittent disruption, due to a global DNS issue. Blackboard is investigating the issue – updates can be found on its status page.

If you are having access issues, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or restarting your router (if you have access to it) may help.

[Resolved] Students not receiving submission receipts (and other Blackboard issues)

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

Between around 12.00 and 1.15 today, a global Domain Name Server issue affected the blackboard.com domain, meaning that some services that need to access this domain were unable to. These included accessing Turnitin and Qwickly Attendance through Blackboard, and there was also a delay in submission receipts arriving (due to domain checks in mail servers). This issue has now been resolved, and all services should be working normally.

Access to the University’s Blackboard environment was unaffected.

Changes to sender address used for Blackboard announcement emails

Posted on by Hanrahan Highland

A change has occurred to the address that announcement emails in Blackboard are sent from. Previously, email announcements were sent from “no-reply@bristol.ac.uk <donotreply@blackboard.com>”. This has changed to include the email address of the announcement creator, eg “an.other@bristol.ac.uk <no-reply@bristol.ac.uk>”. If you have any email filters set up to detect these emails, they may need to be updated.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this change.