Known Issue: Finding Courses in Blackboard Learn Course List

• December 3rd, 2021
• in Known Issues

As part of UA’s transition to Blackboard Ultra base navigation, we are making some changes to course term set up to show upcoming and current courses accurately. While these changes are underway, course lists may not show as expected. To find courses from another semester, click on Current Courses at the top of your course list and select the semester from the dropdown menu. If any courses do not appear in their assigned semester, please email cit@ua.edu with the course information.

Courses that are not in the current semester may appear as private. This is the same as unavailable; instructors still have access to private courses but students do not. Instructors can make their course available:

1. In the Course Menu under Course Management, click Customization.
2. Click Properties.
3. Choose Continuous or select dates under Set Course Duration.
4. Click Submit.

Instructional Technology News – November 29

• November 29th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,

We’re in the home stretch! This is Melissa from The Center for Instructional Technology with some news and tips for this final week of fall semester classes.

Zoom Log in – Change to Log in with SSO

UA Zoom users should now log into Zoom through single sign-on using their myBama credentials rather than a unique username and password. SARS users should continue to log into Zoom with their existing usernames and passwords to continue to use the SARS + Zoom meeting functionality. Additionally, no changes will be made to HIPAA-compliant accounts at this time. Instructions and additional information are available on the OIT website: Log Into Zoom with SSO

Get ready for finals

Preparing to offer a final exam via Blackboard? CIT encourages you to:

• Book an appointment for an online exam settings review to help ensure a smooth experience for you and your students.
• Follow these recommendations to avoid common problems associated with Blackboard Learn tests: Testing Tips for Instructors
• Share tips for being prepared and getting connected with students: Testing Tips for Students

Final grades due December 14 at midnight

Final grades are due 12/14 at 11:59 p.m. Any missing grades as of the 11:59 p.m. deadline will result in grades of “N” being assigned as placeholders. Instructors will then be required to submit grade change requests to correct all “N” grades.

Helpful grading information:

• Entering Midterm or Final Grades in Blackboard Grade Center
• Importing Midterm or Final Grades from Blackboard into MyBama
• Assigning Non-Attendance Grade Reason in MyBama
• Non-Attendance Grading Information and Grading Help (from Registrar)

Reporting a non-attendance grade? Find the date the student last accessed your Blackboard course using the Performance Dashboard or by viewing the Last Access column in the Grade Center grid.

We’re here to help

Your colleagues in The Center for Instructional Technology provide training, support, workshops, webinars, and consultations for UA’s instructional technologies and technology accessibility. You can reach us at cit@ua.edu or 205-348-3532. Join us at an upcoming webinar or schedule a consultation with us.

Want more updates from CIT? Subscribe to our news updates and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Known Issue: 404 Error received when opening Microsoft files in Blackboard with Microsoft Edge

• November 15th, 2021
• in Known Issues

Update 1/27 1:00 PM: In addition to the previously suggested solutions, Edge users may also disable the Open Office files in-browser option. Here’s how:

1. Open the Edge browser.
2. Select Settings and more (three dots to the right of the address bar) > Settings > Downloads.
3. On the Downloads settings page, set Open Office files in the browser to off.
4. Restart Edge and try to access the Office link again.

Related Behind the Blackboard article: Errors Opening Office Documents in Microsoft Edge with the “Open Office files in the Browser” Option Enabled

Microsoft Edge users may receive 404 errors when attempting to open Microsoft Office (ppt, doc, etc) documents that are attached to items, assignments, etc in Blackboard Learn. Documents can be downloaded by right-clicking “Save Link As,” or another browser (Chrome, Firefox) can be used.

Instructional Technology News – November 11

• November 11th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,

Melissa from The Center for Instructional Technology here with some early November news and tips.

Email Address in Blackboard

Students who are also employees have both @ua and @crimson email addresses. These students can now specify which address they would like to use for Blackboard Learn communications. Students should use their @crimson email addresses for all academic and student-related communications. Additional information and steps for determining and changing the email address associated with a Blackboard account are available on our website: Email address in Blackboard.

Get ready for finals!

Preparing to offer a final exam via Blackboard? CIT encourages you to:

• Book an appointment for an online exam settings review to help ensure a smooth experience for you and your students.
• Follow these recommendations to avoid common problems associated with Blackboard Learn tests: Testing Tips for Instructors
• Share tips for being prepared and getting connected: Testing Tips for Students

Access to Crimson Google Accounts Will End May 2022

After the Spring 2022 semester, Crimson Google accounts will no longer be available to UA students and alumni. Individuals should export or migrate all content they wish to keep to OneDrive (current students) or a personal storage space (UA alumni and former students should export content). All content remaining in Crimson Google accounts will be deleted on May 16, 2022. Additional information, including suggested steps for migrating content, is available on the OIT website: Crimson Google Accounts

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra updates

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra has seen several updates this fall! We’re particularly excited about the new whiteboard, which offers better formatting, interaction with breakout groups, annotation persistence and more.  Users can also now adjust their recording playback speed, going faster to save time or slower to catch more of what is being said: Recordings for Participants

We’re here to help

Your colleagues in The Center for Instructional Technology provide training, support, workshops, webinars, and consultations for UA’s instructional technologies and technology accessibility. You can reach us at cit@ua.edu or 205-348-3532. Join us at an upcoming webinar or schedule a consultation with us.

Want more updates from CIT? Subscribe to our news updates and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Pearson Scheduled Maintenance – November 20

• November 10th, 2021
• in Announcements

Pearson will perform scheduled maintenance on Saturday, November 20, 12:00 – 8:00 a.m.. Students will be unable to access Blackboard Learn-integrated Pearson content during the entire maintenance window, including all MyLab, Mastering and MyLabsPlus, Enhanced Revel, MyEnglishLab, and Pearson English Portal content.

Additional information is available via the Pearson System Status webpage.

Known Issue: Low speaker volume in Blackboard Collaborate when using iOS 15 and Safari 15

• November 9th, 2021
• in Known Issues

From Blackboard:

Collaborate – Low speaker volume in Collaborate when using iOS 15 and Safari 15
Date Published: Nov 08, 2021

Category: Product:Known Issues & Error Messages; Version:Web Conferencing
Article No.: 000076023

Product: Collaborate

Service Pack(s): Web Conferencing

Description: Collaborate users on iOS 15 and Safari 15 are experiencing low speaker volume that may make it hard to hear the Collaborate session.

Resolution/Workaround: Apple has confirmed a known issue with their WebKit and are planning a fix for an upcoming iOS 15 release.

Related Behind the Blackboard article: Collaborate – Low speaker volume in Collaborate when using iOS 15 and Safari 15

Real-time information about Blackboard status, as well as updates about schedules maintenance and past incidents, is available on the Blackboard status page.

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Turnitin SSO Login Issues

• November 9th, 2021
• in Known Issues

Some UA users may have been unable to log into Turnitin Monday, November 8, 7:43 PM – Tuesday, November 9, 6:01 AM. Turnitin has resolved this issue.

Real-time information about Turnitin status, as well as updates about schedules maintenance and past incidents, is available on the Turnitin status page.

From Turnitin:

We’ve fixed it!

Due to an unexpected service degradation, users may have been unable to login to Turnitin, TurnitinUK, iThenticate, SimCheck, Similarity and Originality, using Shibboleth SSO Authentication today. We are pleased to advise that service has been restored.

The incident occurred between the following times:

PST Monday, Nov 8, 2021 17:43-04:01
GMT Tuesday, Nov 9, 2021 01:43-12:01
AEDT Tuesday Nov 9, 2021 12:43-23:01

Please accept our apologies if you were impacted by today’s incident.

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Blackboard Learn Performance Issues Nov 4

• November 4th, 2021
• in Known Issues

RESOLVED – 10:22 AM – Blackboard has applied a fix to resolve the performance issues for UA. Users still experiencing slowness should clear the browser cache and report remaining problems to cit@ua.edu. Root cause analysis will be shared as soon as available.

Blackboard Learn is having slowness and performance issues when accessing the site, beginning at 8 AM on Thursday, November 4. Blackboard is investigating the problem and we will share an update and resolution as soon as they are available. Blackboard Status Page

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Panopto Video Playback Fails in Safari

• October 25th, 2021
• in Known Issues

Update, Tuesday, November 1 at 12:45 PM:

Panopto deployed a fix to resolve this issue. Additional information, including a full root cause analysis, is available on the Panopto Status page.

Panopto is investigating a partial viewing outage that impacts the Safari browser, causing video playback to fail. As a temporary workaround, they recommend using Chrome and Firefox.

The Panopto engineering team is preparing a fix for this issue. Updates can be found on the Panopto Status page.

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Respondus 4.0 Test Manager Users Unable to Connect to Server

• October 7th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News, Announcements, Known Issues

Update, Friday, October 8 at 9:00 AM:

CIT has applied a settings change recommended by Respondus Support. Instructors should follow the revised “How to Publish your Test to Blackboard via Respondus 4” and “How to Export a Blackboard Test to a Word Document” how-to guides in the Respondus Blackboard course.

NOTE: This issue does not affect Respondus Lockdown Browser or Monitor. The issue only affects the use of the Respondus 4.0 test management tool.

Users may receive an error message when trying to upload a test to Blackboard, or when retrieving test questions from Blackboard, via Respondus 4.0. The error message may say one or both of the following:

• “Error accessing course list; either the login failed or it has no access to any courses.”
• “Authentication failed. Please select [Edit Settings] to double-check your server settings.”

We have contacted Respondus Support to troubleshoot this issue and will update this Known Issue when it is resolved.

Workaround: Upload Questions to Blackboard using a formatted Excel spreadsheet.

For more information, email cit@ua.edu or call 205-348-3532.