Category Archives: Service announcements

[Resolved] Re/Play edits failing to save

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This update relates to problems with Editing in Re/Play

The issue whereby some edits made in Re/Play returned a ‘fail’ error was acknowledged as a bug by the supplier. A fix for this bug was implemented on the 18th March. DEO testing and monitoring suggests that this fix was successful.

The supplier has notified us that sometimes the fail message was returned in error, when edits had in fact saved successfully. If you received an error message previously, it may be that your edits have already been saved. You should be able to see from the video playback whether your edits have or haven’t saved successfully. Please contact us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk if you are unsure, or need further guidance.

Please note that if you edit the video while the captions are being generated, this can cause the captions to fail. They will then need to be requested again which can be done through the My RePlay area in Blackboard. Captions are automatically generated when the recording is made available to students. It can take up to 24 hours for the captions to generate.

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

[Open] Issue affecting ‘Forced Completion’ setting in Blackboard tests

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An issue has been identified with the “Forced Completion” setting in Blackboard Tests.   

When Forced Completion is set to ON, the auto-submit feature necessarily also becomes active and cannot be switched off. This behaviour is expected and as designed. However, if you then switch Force Completion OFF again, the option to deactivate auto-submit remains unavailable.  

Blackboard are investigating the issue and we will post further updates when available.  

In the meantime this can be resolved by: 

  1. Removing the force completion setting and clicking submit. 
  2. Re-entering the settings page and clicking submit a second time. 
  3. Re-entering the settings page for a third time, where the option to change auto-submit should be available again. 

The Digital Education Office generally recommends that Force Completion is set to OFF. If it is ON, then students must finish the test in one go. If a student leaves the test for any reason, eg closes their browser by mistake or loses Internet access, they will not be able to re-enter it. Staff would then need to clear the attempt, in which case the student would have to start again. This can lead to significant additional administrative work for staff and as well as cause undue distress for students.  

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

[Closed] Blackboard Mobile App Access Issue

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We have been informed that there is currently an issue with users accessing Blackboard via the mobile app. When searching for a university, in order to sign in, you will see the following message: “There seems to be an issue on our side. Please try again later.” Blackboard are urgently working to restore access.

You can still access Blackboard on a mobile device by using a web browser.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Questionmark OnDemand Scheduled Maintenance 18 March 2023 09.00-1500

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Questionmark will be carrying out scheduled maintenance on Saturday 18 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] RePlay Timeout message

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We are aware of reports of a timeout error message when accessing Re/Play from a Blackboard course menu link (eg to the unit collection of recordings) and searching for recordings through My Re/Play. The supplier has been informed and we are awaiting confirmation of the remedial action required. Recordings added or shared by other methods (eg added via the build content tools in Blackboard) and room recordings are currently unaffected.

We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

[Closed] Turnitin degraded performance affecting Similarity Reports

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Turnitin are reporting degraded performance affecting Similarity Reports. The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented. During this time you may experience slow loading times for similarity reports.

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