Category Archives: Uncategorized

[Open] Turnitin error: ‘Invalid or missing state’

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We are aware that some users are seeing the error message ‘Invalid or missing state’ when trying to access Turnitin. This issue has been reported to Turnitin; the following workarounds should re-enable access.

If using Safari or Firefox, we recommend that users try accessing Turnitin via Chrome or Microsoft Edge in the first instance.

If the error persists, we ask that instructors edit their Turnitin assignments to open in the same tab as the Blackboard page. To do this:

  • Click on the chevron next to the Turnitin assignment and select Edit
  • Scroll 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.

If you experience any problems, please contact the DEO via digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Updates to Padlet Moderation and Roles

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Padlet has recently made some changes which may impact on your usage.

Safety Net moderation
Padlet has introduced a moderation feature called ‘Safety Net’ to block inappropriate comments. This will not alter any existing Padlets, but will impact on new Padlets. By default, all new Padlets are now given the moderation setting ‘Auto’, which applies the feature.  If a post is considered to be inappropriate, the Padlet owner will be emailed for approval before the Padlet is made publicly available. If working in a live environment, the post will be flagged directly on the Padlet for the owner to approve.  If you find that Padlet is blocking comments you wish to include, the moderation settings can be altered in the ‘Content’ section of your Padlet’s settings.

Learn more about this in Padlet’s blog or read our guidance in order to learn how to change your moderation settings.

Change to roles in Padlet
Padlet has introduced a new role called “Commenter”, which will only allow visitors to comment on posts and not to edit or add new posts. Alongside this, anyone with the “Reader” permission will no longer be able to to comment.

Xerte upgrade 4th June – MCG feedback issue identified.

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An issue has been identified with Xerte, in which it fails to show feedback for multiple-choice questions in limited circumstances. To resolve this issue we are planning an upgrade to the latest version on 4th June between 8am and 1pm.

During this time, Xerte resources will be unavailable to staff and students. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.

[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.

[OPEN] Blackboard Full Grade Centre Not Downloading Correctly

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Blackboard’s “Work Offline” function, which allows you to download a spreadsheet of the Grade Centre, is currently not working as intended. When you attempt to download the Full Grade Centre of a course, some columns that are present online are not downloaded in the spreadsheet. This may affect workflows with offline or in-person assessments.

We have advised the supplier of this issue and they are investigating. In the meantime, the following steps can be followed as a workaround.

Workaround:

  1. Go to Full Grade Centre.
  2. Go to Manage.
  3. Click Create Smart View.
  4. Enter “ALL USERS” into the “Name” field.
  5. Select the box for “Add as favorite“
  6. Set “Type of view” to “User“
  7. Set “Select Criteria” to “All Users“
  8. Click “Submit“.

This should produce a Smart View that contains all of the columns in the course. Navigate to this smart view and download it as you would normally, choosing to display or not to display hidden info, selecting specific columns, etc., as required.

Updates to Mentimeter

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As we conclude 2023, we wanted to do a quick round-up of our Mentimeter news from the year. We’d also like to remind staff that we have a campus-wide license for Mentimeter, which anyone can sign up to.

This year we have seen our biggest surge of users on Menti, jumping to just under 2000 on our campus-wide license, and another 1000 still using their free accounts. We’ve had some great feedback from staff and students on their use of Menti and are looking forward to hearing about more best-practice examples in 2024.  

Below we have noted down some Menti news and new features that we thought users may find useful. As ever, if you have any questions about using Mentimeter, please contact the Digital Education Office. 

Menti Academy 

Mentimeter have developed a series of online self-paced courses for users to complete as part of their continued professional development (CPD). You can improve your presentation skills while at the same time learn more about using Mentimeter in your teaching and training. We have added a number of these courses to the Develop website so you can keep all your CPD in one place.  

Menti app in MS Teams  

You can now share your Mentimeter presentations directly in a Teams meeting without having to switch to a browser. Participants can also interact with your presentation in the meeting window, instead of having to go to Menti.com and enter a code. 

Image taken from mentimeter.com

 

More information about adding the app to Teams, presenting and participating can be found on this ‘Mentimeter for Microsoft Teams’ page. 

New functionality in Mentimeter

Gifs 

You can now add gifs to your presentations as well as images. This is a great add on to graphs and makes results look fun and engaging. Users can learn more about how to do this by going to this Mentimeter website page. 

Segmentation analysis

If your presentation contains several multiple-choice questions, you can use the segmentation function to display results grouped by how participants answered a previous question. Segmentation of results can be useful for spotting trends in responses. 

More information about using the segmentation functions can be found on this ‘Segmentation of votes’ page. 

Image showing how segmentation works in Mentimeter

Image taken from mentimeter.com

Participants voting on open–ended questions

You can now allow participants to vote on responses given to open-ended questions. Participants can post their responses as usual, then they can vote on each other’s submissions.  

More information about enabling the voting function can be found on this ‘Open ended questions’ page.

Mentimeter – campus wide licence 

You can easily move your free account over to our campus wide licence by going to our website page. Please ensure your UoB email matches your Mentimeter email exactly before you upgrade. You can change your email in Menti by going to the profile icon in the top right of the Mentimeter home page and clicking on Settings. 

If you have any further queries about using Mentimeter, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk 

 

Submit your teaching software requests for Teaching Block 2 (TB2) to IT Services by Tomorrow (Friday 24th November)

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The final opportunity to submit your teaching software requests to IT Services for TB2 is this Friday, 24 November. If you have already been using specific software in Teaching Block 1 and wish to continue using it in Teaching Block 2, there is no need to resubmit a request for those software applications.  

See more information and access the app on the IT Services Teaching and Student Software SharePoint page. Please also complete the feedback form to help IT Services improve the Teaching Software Request App for the 2024/25 academic year. Any additional inquiries should be directed toward IT Services.

Questionmark OnDemand Scheduled Maintenance, Saturday 16 September 2023 09.00-15.00

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Questionmark will be carrying out scheduled maintenance on Saturday 16 September 2023 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.

Questionmark OnDemand Scheduled Maintenance Saturday 15 July 2023 09.00-1500

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Questionmark will be carrying out scheduled maintenance on Saturday 15 July 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

Questionmark OnDemand Scheduled Maintenance Saturday 17 June 2023 09.00-1500

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Questionmark will be carrying out scheduled maintenance on Saturday 17 June 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