The issue with extracting marks from Blackboard to eVision was resolved yesterday, 29 April, at around 5 pm. It was caused by a University-wide issue with Microsoft web applications.
Please accept our apologies for the disruption.
Category: EMA
[CLOSED] Marks extract from Blackboard issue
Update: This issue was resolved at around 5 pm on 29 April.
You may be experiencing an issue with extracting marks from Blackboard to SITS/eVision, which we believe is being caused by the current IT Services issue with a range of web-hosted applications (noted under “Exam Timetables Down” on the IT Service Status page). We are investigating this and will provide updates here as we have them. In the meantime, it may be necessary to manually enter any marks that are needed in eVision urgently.
Please accept our apologies for this disruption.
[Resolved] Turnitin delay in similarity report generation
Turnitin has informed us that the issue causing a delay in Similarity Report generation has now been resolved.
Starting at 9.30 AM today, an unexpected service incident occurred in Turnitin causing a delay in the generation of Similarity Reports. The impact of this issue was limited, and most Turnitin users were unaffected. Students were still able to submit work, although they may have experienced a delay in receiving their report.
If you have any questions or concerns about this issue, or if you believe you have been affected, please get in touch by emailing digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.
[Closed] Turnitin delay in similarity report generation
Turnitin is currently experiencing an unexpected service incident, which may result in delays in the generation of Similarity Reports. Students are still able to submit work, but they may experience a delay in receiving their report.
The supplier is aware of the issue and is working to restore full functionality to Turnitin.
If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us by emailing digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.
[Closed] ‘Submit on behalf of’ button in Turnitin is currently unavailable
We are aware of an issue affecting the display of the ‘Submit on behalf of’ functionality in Turnitin’s assignment inbox. The issue has been reported to Turnitin Support Engineers, who are currently investigating.
In the meantime, if you need to upload a paper on behalf of a student, there is a workaround available for non-anonymous assignments: selecting the three dots in the Options column for the student and clicking Upload.
For further details, please refer to the guide to Submitting on behalf of a student.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
[RESOLVED] Mis-classification of some Blackboard Ultra assessment columns
We’re pleased to confirm that the following issue has been resolved:
Mis-classification of some Blackboard Ultra assessment columns
Please note: ULTRA calculated columns created via the SITS/eVision integration in the past couple of weeks may still display the same issue. You could do either of the following:
- If marks have not yet been mapped and extracted and you need the correct classification in Marks view, please resend a new uniquely named column from eVision.
- If the mis-classification of older columns is not critical to your work, you can leave them as they are and map + extract marks using the usual method.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
If you have any further questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk
[Open] Blackboard annotate intermittent issue
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.
Student access to Turnitin submission points – reminders for assessment period
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:
- The “Open in New Window” setting in Blackboard for Turnitin submission points
- 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.
[CLOSED] Some Blackboard Assignment Email Receipts not being received
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. However, the receipts are always being stored in Blackboard.
As a temporary measure, we 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.
UPDATE: Issue has been resolved. We are investigating the cause with Blackboard. Students making submissions should now receive receipts via email. Students who submitted work between Wednesday 15 Jan and Friday 17 Jan should still check receipts as described above. Please report any new instances of issues receiving receipts to digital-education@bristol.ac.uk
Useful start of term Digital Education links for staff
- Refreshing Blackboard courses – preparing your Blackboard course for a new teaching block
- Make your Blackboard course available to students
- New Unit Teams for TB2 are now available to activate if you wish to use them
- Ensure your Re/Play set up is right for Lecture Capture
- Online assessment – including planning and running tests, and electronic management of assessment workflows
- Daily DEO drop-ins
- DEO training – on Develop
- Tools and software
For queries, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.