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Blackboard Known Issues

We've identified the following issues with our installation of Blackboard 9. If there is a resolution to the individual problem, it will be listed below.

File "Not Found" Error

In many cases, faculty and students may have trouble accessing documents or other materials in a transferred course site. You may get the following error message:

Not found: The specified resource was not found, or you do not have permission to access it.

There are two possible causes for this:

  1. The file is in a folder that was copied from an existing Blackboard course site. The problem is that the Copy function in Blackboard is actually just sharing out the files and folders from one site to another. Anyone who does not have permission to both course sites will not have access to the files that reside inside folders copied this way. We are working on a systemwide fix to resolve this issue, but for now, faculty members can simply download the offending file and re-upload it to the new Blackboard course site. This should allow students in the new course to access the file in question.
  2. This issue is sometimes caused by the new FILE structure in Blackboard. It can sometimes be resolved by having the faculty member going to CONTROL PANEL > FILES and then clicking on the course id to access the class files for the first time. Once the class files are accessed by the instructor, all enrolled individuals should have access.
SafeAssignment: Users will occasionally receive a "Resource Not Available" Error

In some cases, the SafeAssign server will reject user attempts to access the service. This can happen either when students are posting their assignments or when faculty members are retrieving them. In these cases, the probable cause is that SafeAssign has stopped working on one or more of the servers running the service. The service will most likely be back up and running shortly. If you have the time to wait, the best thing to do is to contact bbhelp@wm.edu and let them know that you are having trouble with accessing SafeAssign so we can reset the service more quickly. If you need access immediately, you can try to go directly to one of the other servers running SafeAssign by signing in to one of the following server addresses:

Once you log into one of these servers, you will need to accept the warnings about untrusted connections (don't worry--it's really safe). You may need to try several of these servers before you find one that's working.

SafeAssignment: Students cannot see their detailed grade for SafeAssignments in My Grades tool area:

While students can see the posted SafeAssign grade in Blackboard by going to TOOLS > MY GRADES from the course site, or to MY GRADES directly from the Blackboard home page, in order to see the details of a SafeAssignment, such as file attachments, students need to access the SafeAssignment by clicking on the View/Complete Assignment link in the content area where the SafeAssignment resides.

SafeAssignment: Previous Course Sites' Assignments no longer available

This is a known problem. There is currently no fix for this but we have contacted Blackboard about it.

Missing Files Issue

In some cases, files with certain non-alphanumeric characters may not transfer from one Blackboard site to another. Course items with missing files will still appear, but the attachments will not be there.

This is a problem with the Blackboard software, and the best solution for future document handling is to ensure that any files you upload to Blackboard use only legal alphanumeric characters in their names. No spaces, no underscores, no apostrophes, etc. If you have a recently transferred site where there are missing files, contact [[mxblum,Mike Blum]] at and we will work with you to restore your missing documents from the original course site.

Faculty Member can access files but students can't

In a very few cases (20 course sites), when courses were copied from Blackboard 8 to Blackboard 9, course content was not copied from one course site to another, but links to the original document in the original course site make it possible for the faculty member to continue accessing the course documents from the original site. In these cases, any users with Instructor permissions will be able to access the documents but users with Student access will not.

 This can only be resolved by our system administrator. Contact [[mxblum,Mike Blum]] and we will resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

Discussion Board Attachments Missing

In many cases, attachments to Discussion Board items will be missing after your course has been transferred. 

This is a database problem and currently there is no way to relink those attachments to their corresponding Discussion Board items. At present, we are able to give users separate copies of the previously attached files. Contact [[mxblum,Mike Blum]] to retrieve Discussion Board attachments.

Automatic Group Creation

The auto-create tool for separating multiple course sections within a single site is currently not working. We are still working to resolve this issue.

For now, faculty members can create groups manually within the Groups feature in Blackboard.

Word/Office documents don't work in Internet Explorer

When using Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office documents may fail to download when the user clicks on the link. 

We suggest use of Firefox or Google Chrome browsers on Windows machines. If you need to use Internet Explorer, you can right-click on any link to any file in Blackboard and select the "Save As..." option to download the document.

Course Catalog Module

We are working to turn on the Course Catalog Module to enable users to find classes that have a self-enroll option. This issue is still unresolved.

Issues with CampusPack Blogs/Wikis

Some old wikis from Bb8 may not import properly into Bb9. There can be several issues causing this:

  1. If you receive an error message, then your Wiki most likely has attached files associated with it. Contact Mike Blum at mxblum@wm.edu and we will move your Wiki manually in these cases. 
  2. Your old Wiki may not allow you to access it or add new information. In these cases, you may need to Synchronize the Course. Go to Control Panel > Course Tools > Manage Campus Pack > and then click on the Synchronize Course link.
  3. Certain student users may not have access to old Blogs: In these cases, there is most likely a permissions problem. Instructors can go to the Blog, click on the Permissions link on the top menu of the blog page, and give permission to the person or group who needs access.
Homepage

Old courses imported from Blackboard 8 don't have a Homepage by default. 

If you would like to add a Homepage to your site, do the following:

  1. Click on the large green plus box at the top of your course menu and select "Create Module Page."
  2. Name the Module Page and make it available to users.
  3. Select the module page on the course menu and click the "Add Course Module" button.
  4. Select the modules you'd like to include and hit "Submit."
  5. Now you can make the Homepage your default entry page by going to Control Panel > Customization > Style, and under section 4,  "Select Course Entry Point," choose your new Homepage from the list.
Tegrity not displaying properly

This is an issue with the Tegrity software. You can contact Tegrity here.

Agilix BackPack not working

Currently Agilix BackPack does not work with Blackboard 9. This is an issue with Agilix and we have no way of resolving the issue. Faculty members or administrators should contact Agilix directly.