Bb Users,
There are several updates in this message. Here is a summary. For more information, see below.
UPDATE SUMMARIES
- The Summer 1 courses (-083) will be appearing on the Bb home page on Monday 2/25
- IE browsers causing errors building tests/quizzes: WORKAROUNDS
- Safe Assignments no longer have “resubmittable” option
- Safe Assign reports display with missing spaces between words
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UPDATE DETAILS
- Summer 1 Courses Under My Current Courses (2/25)
To keep up with the eMBA course schedule, the first summer session’s courses will be added to the Bb Home page’s “My Current Courses” list on Monday, Feb. 25th. Many departments’ staff assignments are still subject to change (significantly) between now and then. If you taught a course during the first summer session last year, there is a very good chance that you have been temporarily assigned to teach the same course. Departments often copy staff assignments from the previous year with the intention of editing them. - Error Adding Quiz/Test Questions
Adding questions to an assessment (quiz, survey, test, etc…) in Blackboard using either IE 6 or IE 7 browsers, sometimes causes an “Object not found” error. We are working with Blackboard to correct this issue. In the meantime, we have the following workarounds:
o Download the Firefox browser. As far as we know, Firefox does not cause this problem. It is available for free at www.mozilla.com
o Send your test questions to the Blackboard Help Desk. While we work on correcting this problem, we would be happy to build your assessments for you.
- Safe Assignments no Longer Have Resubmittable Option
When setting up a Safe Assignment, there is no longer an option to make that assignment “resubmittable.” Blackboard removed this option after reports of abuse by students*. Bb is looking into a way for instructors to designate how many resubmissions are allowed. Until then, students will have to ask the instructor to clear their submission so that they can submit again. - Safe Assign Reports Display Missing Spaces
If you look closely at a Safe Assign report, the text of the student’s paper will have a random handful of spaces between words deleted so that the words run together. Bb has assured us that this is a display issue and does NOT affect the content comparison or matching score. They are working on a fix, and hope to have one by the end of March.
Keep an eye on the Blackboard Updates for up-to-date information on these and other announcements.
-Jennifer
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JENNIFER CLISTER
Blackboard Manager & Analyst
305-284-3949
* Safe Assign Abuse Note
Since a student could submit an infinite number of papers to an assignment that was set to "resubmittable," some unscrupulous students would sell access to the resubmittable assignment, so other students could run their papers through the plagiarism detection process before turning them in for their own classes. Some students were also using the infinite resubmissions to test the plagiarism detection algorithm for weaknesses in an attempt to find ways to plagiarize without being detected.
