Blackboard News

The upgrade to Blackboard 9.0 Service Pack 2 has been completed and the system is now available for use.

On Saturday, November 14 we will be taking the Blackboard system down for maintenance from 8:00am until 2:00pm. During this time we will be upgrading the java on the servers and installing Blackboard 9 Service Pack 2 along with some important patches.

There will be no major user visible changes made but there will be some important fixes installed, including better support for Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4. There will also be some performance improvements and the ability for instructors to search for all users in a course has been re-added. Other fixes include the ability for instructors to download all of the assignments in a large course and to download the grade center when a Smart View is enabled, fixes for the visual text box editor covering part of test questions when a browser is maximized, problems entering dates when languages other than English are used,  and fixes for a problem where users can encounter inappropriate errors: “Assessment changed since the attempt was started.” or “Test previously taken. Test already completed.” when submitting tests and quizzes.

If you find that you’re missing your main course menu on the left of the screen (the menu that’s usually green and usually starts with Home Page and Announcements), here’s a tip:

If you go to your course site but don’t see the menu, then probably your menus are minimized. Look for a small “>” icon along the left of your screen and click on that to bring back the menus in your coursesite.

When your menu is normal (maximized), there’s a “<” icon that allows you to minimize that left hand column.

The power was out at Knight Library and a number of other buildings on campus from 1:20 until around 1:50. Blackboard was also unavailable during this time.

The blackboard system was down this afternoon from shortly before 2pm until about 2:20. We are currently investigating the cause of the crash. The proximate problem is that something overwhelmed the database server with requests. The system currently appears to be functioning normally.

The servers for SafeAssign will be under going maintenance from 5:00am PDT  October 10 until 5:00am PDT October 11 to increase the capacity of the service. The SafeAssign service will be intermittently unavailable during this time. If you are trying to submit to SafeAssign or retrieve reports from the SafeAssign service and get an error message during this time, please wait and try again later.

The rest of Blackboard will be unaffected and will remain available over the weekend.

Both instructors and students have had problems with Blackboard when using MS Internet Explorer.

First problem: if you can’t download attached files (e.g. syllabus) from the blackboard site, change your security settings:

Go to Internet Options, then Security, then Internet Zone, then Custom level…, then scroll way down to the Downloads section and set “Automatic prompting for file downloads: Enable” then click OK.

[Note: a few people view Blackboard in a different IE security zone, and so need to modify the above accordingly]

Second problem: instructors using IE 7 cannot make their coursesites available to students, but instead get an error message when they try. Best fix is for the instructor to switch to Firefox 3.5, or to upgrade IE to version 8.

Important note for UO Instructors:

Most coursesites created prior to our Blackboard 9 upgrade contain an erroneous note to the instructor, providing now-outdated instructions for making your site available. Make your site available not using “settings” (which no longer exists), but using the Control Panel’s Customization menu. Click it, then click Properties, and you’ll find the slightly obscure availability setting.

Also, if you are a PC user and use Internet Explorer 7 as your web browser, then you will not be able to make your site available. Upgrade to IE 8 or switch to Firefox 3.5 for the PC. Mac users are not affected. If you’re a PC user and absolutely can’t upgrade, contact blackboard@ithelp.uoregon.edu with the name of your site and we’ll make it available for you.

For more tips on using Blackboard 9 as an instructor, see http://libweb.uoregon.edu/scis/blackboard/help/bb9-instructor.html

We have just been notified by Facilities Services that the power outage scheduled for tomorrow morning from 5:30am until 6:15am has been rescheduled to 1:00am until 3:00am on Oct 1. Blackboard will be unavailable during this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Reminder on coursesite availability:

It’s the beginning of a new term. Welcome back to the UO!

This year the new version of Blackboard (BB LEARN version 9) has many changes.  View a brief help file at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/scis/blackboard/help/bb9.html

If you’re a student, then when you log in to blackboard you’ll probably see entries for some but not all of your courses. Blackboard only shows links to coursesites after the instructor makes the site “available” to students. So if you’re enrolled in a course but don’t see a link, it may be because the instructor isn’t quite ready to make it available, or it might be because she or he doesn’t plan to use blackboard this term. Check your enrollment in Duckweb, then check with your professor. You
may also see links to courses from last term — we typically leave old courses available for the first week of a new term to give you a chance to check your grades.

If you’re an instructor, notice that some of your courses may display as “unavailable”, e.g.

coursesite BB 101 (Fall 2009; 12345), Using Blackboard (unavailable)

The “unavailable” means that you can access it and add content. When you’re ready to have your students see it, go to Customization->Properties and change the course availability to “yes”.