Greetings,
There are a few issues with
our current Blackboard system that I wanted to call to your attention, as well
as offer possible solutions. Below is a listing of those issues along with
appropriate resource information. Please let me know if you have any questions
regarding this email.
Assignment Inline Grader
The inline grader is the new feature in the Assignment tool that
lets you grade student papers without downloading them. If you haven’t used
this new feature in the Assignment tool, here’s a brief video: http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_inline_grading.htm
Issue #1: Please note that the inline grade will only work with
the following file types: MS Word (DOC, DOCX), PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX), Excel
(XLS, XLSX), and PDF (PDF). If students submit their assignments using anything
other than the file types mentioned above, you will not be able to annotate on
their assignment.
Issue #2: Please note that it is recommended that your students
save their assignments using straight-forward filenames that are free of spaces
and symbols (e.g., JpetersAssignment1). If students submit assignments with
filenames including spaces and symbols, they may not be viewable in the inline
grader (View this link for additional resource information: https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Administrator/001_Release_Notes_and_Technical_Details/Inline_Grading_For_Assignments_Release_Notes).
Can’t Copy and Paste
The new content editor in Blackboard does not allow you to copy
information using your mouse right-click controls. If you want to copy
information into a Blackboard content editor you will need to use the Windows
or Mac short-cuts (i.e., Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-V to paste for Windows users and
Cmd-C and Cmd-V for Macintosh users).
Issue:
Mozilla Firefox version 22 and above won’t even allow you to copy using the
windows short-cuts. In order to copy and paste using these versions of Firefox,
you’ll need to make the following modifications to your browser settings:
1.
In a new Firefox tab, type or paste about:config in the address
bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
2.
In the Search box at the top, type or paste clipb and pause
while the list is filtered
3.
Double-click dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled to switch its
value from true to false.
After following the steps above, shut down your browse and then
re-launch it to initiate the setting changes. If you need help with this, let
me.
Discussion Board Postings Not Appearing
Issue: Some students have reported that they can’t view certain
discussion postings in their course. This may be related to some students
copying and pasting their postings from MS Word into Blackboard. If this
happens to you or your students, follow these steps:
There seems to be a problem with certain browser versions and
not being able to view discussion postings that have been copied from Microsoft
Word. In order to overcome this issue, do the following:
1. Check the checkbox
to the left of each discussion posting that isn’t appearing
2. Click the Collect
button on the action bar
3. The postings you
selected should render on a new page and should be readable
Here’s a video tutorial for collecting posts: http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r9/movies/Bb9_Discussion_Board_Search_Collect_Posts_Item.htm
Here’s a video tutorial for collecting posts: http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r9/movies/Bb9_Discussion_Board_Search_Collect_Posts_Item.htm
Again, if you have any
questions or need further assistance with any of the issues noted above, please
don’t hesitate to contact me.
Jeff
