Known Issue: Blackboard Learn Login Issue

• September 30th, 2021
• in Known Issues

CIT is aware that some users are experiencing issues with logging into Blackboard via the direct URL and through myBama. These issues with accessing and loading content are happening in Safari, Chrome, Edge, and Respondus Lockdown Browser, which relies on Safari or Chrome to function. This appears to be related to newer browser updates and happens more commonly on machines running older operating systems.

While a solution is being investigated, affected users might:

1. Run the browser checker to see whether Blackboard Learn supports your browser. Update to a supported browser if prompted.
2. If you are unable to update Safari/Chrome/Edge or updating doesn’t resolve the issue, use the Firefox browser. If your device is not compatible with the latest version of Firefox, you can install an older version. Firefox is also available in library and other campus computer labs.

Still experiencing the issue? Blackboard recommends updating your OS certificates OpenSSL versions 1.0.0 through 1.0.2:

1. Download these four pem files:

• Active
  • ISRG Root X1 (RSA 4096, O = Internet Security Research Group, CN = ISRG Root X1)
    • Self-signed: pem
    • Cross-signed by DST Root CA X3: pem
• Active, limited availability
  • ISRG Root X2 (ECDSA P-384, O = Internet Security Research Group, CN = ISRG Root X2)
    • Self-signed: pem
    • Cross-signed by ISRG Root X1: pem

2. Follow the steps to import the pem files into your browser. You will need to repeat the steps for each file:

• Windows:
  • Add a Root Certificate in Google Chrome  – The pem file is the certificate referred to in step 12. It has a different file name than the example in the screenshot.
  • Add a Root Certificate in Mozilla Firefox – The pem file is the certificate referred to in step 9. It has a different file name than the example in the screenshot. If you don’t see Options in the Firefox menu, look for Settings instead.
• Mac:
  • Add certificates to a keychain using Keychain Access on Mac – The pem file is the certificate file referred to in Step 2 (“Drag the certificate file onto the Keychain Access app”).

Pearson Scheduled Maintenance – October 23

• September 30th, 2021
• in Announcements

Pearson will perform scheduled maintenance on Saturday, October 23, 12:00 – 8:00 a.m.. Students will be unable to access Blackboard Learn-integrated Pearson content during the entire maintenance window, including MyLab, Learning Catalytics, Enhanced Revel, MyEnglishLab, and Pearson English Portal content.

Additional information is available via the Pearson System Status webpage.

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Turnitin Service Disruption

• September 28th, 2021
• in Announcements, Known Issues

Turnitin has advised that service has been restored. Instructors or students experiencing issues should contact cit@ua.edu.
The incident occurred between the following times: September 28th, 12:54 – 1:36 PM.

RESOLVED – As of 12:55 PM Central on Tuesday, Sept 28, Turnitin is currently experiencing a service disruption. Users accessing Turnitin through Blackboard Learn may be unable to submit, view submissions, or create assignments. For updates, visit Turnitin’s Status Page

We will share any details we receive, including when Turnitin returns to service.

Instructional Technology News – September 23

• September 23rd, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,

Melissa from The Center for Instructional Technology here with a few reminders and tips in advance of the upcoming midterm grade entry deadline. Want more updates from CIT? Subscribe to our news updates and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Midterm grades due October 6 at midnight

Midterm grades are due 10/6 at 11:59 p.m. Instructors are required to submit midterm grades for all 100- and 200-level courses. Midterm grading should be used to submit grades assigned for non-attendance.

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.

Testing tips for students

If you administer midterm exams via Blackboard Learn, you might share these testing tips with your students:

• Use a wired Internet connection.
• Close/quit other computer programs.
• Read the test instructions. Details may include a time limit, number of attempts, and backtracking options.
• Minimize use of the mouse scroll wheel. Scrolling the wheel may inadvertently change your answer.
• Save your answers. Click the Save Answer button for every question.
• Click Submit.

Additional tips for being prepared and getting connected: Testing Tips for Students

We’re here to help

Using Gradescope to evaluate handwritten assignments? Giving a test with Blackboard Learn? Looking to secure an exam with Lockdown Browser?

Your colleagues in The Center for Instructional Technology provide training, support, workshops, webinars, and consultations for these and other instructional technologies and technology accessibility. Request online support, email us at cit@ua.edu, call us at 205-348-3532, join us at an upcoming webinar, or schedule a consultation with us.

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Blackboard Learn Math Editor Display Formulas Overlapping

• August 25th, 2021
• in Known Issues

Update, Wednesday, September 29 at 4:45 PM:

Blackboard recently applied updates to font packages for the MathType Editor to resolve the overlapping symbols issue.

Users still experiencing symbol overlap should follow these steps to make the MathType Editor recognize the new packages:

• Create a new MathType formula using a font size of 16px or lower and save OR
• Open a currently corrupted MathType formula, adjust the Font Size in the MathType editor to 16px or lower and save.

This will fix the issue for new MathType formulas created going forward. For Math formulas that are still appearing corrupted, please enter the MathType editor and resubmit to correct. No font size change is needed.

The Blackboard Learn Maths Editor is displaying formulas with symbols overlapping each other and making the formulas hard to read, affecting both students and instructors.

Instructional Technology News – August 18 – Welcome to Fall 2021 and Happy #FirstDayUA

• August 18th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Dear instructors,

Welcome to the fall 2021 semester at The University of Alabama! Your colleagues here in The Center for Instructional Technology are available to help with your instructional technology and accessibility needs. We provide training, support, workshops, webinars and consultations for  UA’s instructional technologies which include Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, Flipgrid, Gradescope, Hypothesis, Panopto, People.ua.edu websites, Respondus, Turnitin, Turning mobile responseware and Zoom.

Learn more about each of these technologies on our website. A few noteworthy items to bring to your attention:

Blackboard Learn

In case you missed it, Blackboard Learn recently moved to the cloud! With the move came a new look, Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation. Ultra provides a new way to navigate course content that will save you time and help you stay on top of what’s important. Visit our website to see highlights of Ultra Base Navigation. We ask your continued patience as we continue to work through Known Issues following the recent upgrade.

Panopto

Before a course will appear in your Panopto list of courses, you must provision that course for use with Panopto. You can provision your course by clicking on the “Course Videos” button that appears in your Blackboard course menu and following the setup instructions. We’re happy to share that Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) generated captions are now automatically added to Panopto videos. Accurate captions enhance learning and ensure access for all. Be sure to review and edit captions for accuracy.

Hypothesis

Following a successful pilot, Hypothesis is here to stay! Hypothesis is a collaborative annotation tool. It makes reading active, visible, and social, enabling students to engage with their texts, teachers, ideas, and each other in deeper, more meaningful ways. Visit our website for Hypothesis highlights and resources.

Gradescope

Gradescope is another tool recently adopted after a successful pilot. Gradescope can be used for evaluating handwritten responses, programming, diagrams, formulae, and other coursework that can be challenging to assess virtually. Additional information about Gradescope and steps for adding it to your Blackboard course are available on the CIT website.

Reach out for help.

We’re here to help. 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 us? Subscribe to our news updates and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

We wish you all the best this semester!

Instructional Technology News – August 16

• August 16th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,

Melissa here from The Center for Instructional Technology. As you may know, our team recently migrated UA’s instance of Blackboard Learn to the cloud. While the migration was successful, there are a couple of Blackboard-related Known Issues I’d like to make sure you’re aware of. I also ask your patience as your colleagues in CIT work to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.

1. Certain Banner events – users getting added to or dropped from courses, instructor course assignments, etc. – continue to process. Until this issue is resolved, your Blackboard course and user lists may not reflect the same data that is in myBama.
2. The Blackboard Learn Section Maintenance tool typically accessible via the Faculty/Academics tab in myBama is not functioning correctly. Until this issue is resolved, instructors wishing to combine two or more Blackboard courses must contact CIT to request the creation of supersections. Please include the course registration number (CRN) of each course you wish to combine in your request.

Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we work to resolve these issues and bring Blackboard Learn back to full functionality.

Melissa

RESOLVED – Known Issue: Banner Event Processing

• August 16th, 2021
• in Known Issues

As of Monday, August 16, at 4:25 PM, CIT is aware that certain Banner events – users getting added to or dropped from courses, instructor course assignments, etc. – continue to process. Until this issue is resolved, your Blackboard course and user lists may not reflect the same data that is in myBama.

Instructional Technology News – August 13

• August 13th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,  

I am pleased to let you know that UA’s instance of Blackboard Learn has successfully moved to the cloud! Blackboard Learn, and the other affected instructional technologies, are now available. Thank you for your understanding and patience as we performed these necessary upgrades! 

Notes and next steps: 

• I invite you to log into Blackboard Learn and check out the new Ultra Base Navigation. Step-by-step guides and a video introduction of the new Ultra look are available on our website. 

• If you use digital resources from a third-party in your Blackboard Learn course, please test them and confirm their functionality as soon as possible. If you find that anything is not fully functional, please let us know.  

• Certain Banner events – users getting added to or dropped from courses, new course and supersection creation, etc. – will continue to process over the weekend. If your course list does not appear as expected on Monday, please contact us after confirming your schedule in myBama. Note that access to some courses, including those supported by The College of Continuing Studies, is not available until the first day of classes. 

• Panopto users: Before a course will appear in your Panopto list of courses, you must provision that course for use with Panopto. You can provision your course by clicking on the “Course Videos” button that appears in your Blackboard course menu and following the setup instructions. 

Join us next week for a live, virtual “Meet Ultra Base Navigation” workshop where we provide an overview of the new Ultra look. Details about these and other workshops are available on our website. We’ll be in touch next week with more beginning of the semester reminders as we approach First Day UA! 

Thank you,  

Melissa 

Instructional Technology News – August 9

• August 10th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,

Meg here from the Office of Information Technology. While our CIT team is busy migrating Blackboard to the cloud, I want to share a few IT items to help you (and your students) be prepared for the Fall 2021 Semester.

Crimson email is now powered by Microsoft O365.

Early this summer OIT migrated student and alumni Crimson email accounts from Google to Microsoft O365. We did this to increase collaboration among students and faculty/staff by hosting email together in one environment. Hosting student email in O365 allows for students, faculty and staff to be in the same email directory, and it allows for more functionality with tools like Microsoft Teams.

Students can use a variety of methods to access their email. Here’s four options:

1. Log into myBama.ua.edu and click the Crimson Email link
2. Visit mail.crimson.ua.edu on the web
3. Add the account to the Outlook desktop app
4. Add the account to the Outlook mobile app

Students should be accessing their email regularly to receive important campus updates. If your students have any questions about email, please direct them to the OIT website where we have more information and answers to frequently asked questions – oit.ua.edu/crimson.

Connect to Eduroam wireless internet.

This summer we changed how individuals connect to the Eduroam wireless internet network. Individuals must connect with an email address and myBama password.

For faculty and staff, that’s your myBama username@ua.edu email address. Students can connect with their Crimson email address. Returning students and faculty may need to re-establish a connection upon arrival to campus. More information about campus internet service is available on our website.

Download free software.

OIT offers many software packages to students, faculty and staff. Visit oit.ua.edu/software to download software tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, MATLAB, McAfee Antivirus, Microsoft O365 and more.

Move content from Google Drive to Microsoft OneDrive.

Beginning May 2022, OIT will no longer support Google Drive for Crimson accounts. Students should begin using UA’s preferred cloud storage service, Microsoft OneDrive. Step-by-step guidance is available on our website for moving content out of Google Drive and into Microsoft OneDrive. If you share any materials with students via Google Drive, please make the switch to OneDrive.

We’re here to help.

Visit oit.ua.edu for more information about IT services.  You can also reach us at the IT Service Desk, itservicedesk@ua.edu or 205-348-5555.

Continue learning, even while Blackboard is unavailable.

The CIT team is hard at work updating Blackboard Learn. Melissa will be in touch later this week when Blackboard service resumes. In the meantime, we’ve added several webinars and workshops to our website to encourage students and instructors to continue learning, even while Blackboard Learn is down. I hope to see you in one of the Outlook and OneDrive workshops tomorrow!

Thanks,

Meagan