Some instructors give timed tests in Blackboard. It turns out that such tests present problems with current browsers.

Background: when a professor gives a timed test, what’s supposed to happen is that the amount of time remaining is printed at the bottom of the student’s browser window and is updated as the test is being taken. When the student submits the test, Blackboard records how long it took, allowing the professor to reject or give partial credit for tests turned in after the deadline.

Unfortunately, several recent browsers — in particular, Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 — by default don’t print the time remaining at the bottom of the page.

If you are a professor who wants to administer a timed test, instruct your students to use an external timer and not to depend solely on the timer at the bottom of the page.

If you are a student who wants to take a timed test in Blackboard, you can in some cases enable the timer display by changing browser settings:

IE 7

Tools button-> Internet Options-> Security-> Internet or Restricted sites-> Custom level button-> enable ”Allow status bar updates via script”

Firefox 2.0

PC: Tools-> Options-> Content-> Enable Javascript: Advanced-> enable “Change status bar text”
MAC: Preferences-> Options-> Content-> Enable Javascript: Advanced-> enable “Change status bar text”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 9:16 pm and is filed under blackboard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.