This is a list of known problems with the QUT Blackboard system, with a status on the issue and a workaround (if available). If you discover a problem with QUT Blackboard and wish to report it, please see the Help section for contact information.
| Issue |
Description |
Workaround (if available) |
| Safari users sometimes cannot view video files |
Users of the Safari browser who are attempting to view video files will occasionally receive an error message of "Error opening movie The movie could not be opened". |
Go to the Safari menu and click Empty Cache, then click Empty. Then attempt to view the file again. |
| Announcements page gives an Access Denied error to non-enrolled users |
When a user is not enrolled in a unit site AND Announcements is not the front page of a unit site OR Announcements is navigated to from another page in the unit site, users get the error "Access Denied Either you are not enrolled or you do not have the appropriate access rights to access this area." |
No workaround available, but a fix is currently being investigated. |
| Attempting a Test occasionally gives a "Fatal error" error message |
Submitting a Test gives a "Fatal Error" and generates an Error ID. |
This error involves a survey question from OLT migrated to the Test resource on Blackboard. The workaround is to set any of the answers to the question as a correct response, with no scoring (i.e. give the "correct" response a Score of zero (0)). A fix is currently under investigation. |
| Blog and Wiki cannot Browse to add media files to entries |
In any entry on a Blog or Wiki resource, the Insert Media function does not include the ability to Browse for media files to upload. |
Developers are aware of the error and it is on their list of future fixes - no current estimate on release date though. A workaround for this would be to upload the files as standard non-media via the Upload File functionality available within the tool, but this does not allow for embedding, and is still subject to quota limits. |
| Send Email produces "Unable to Send" message |
Send Email function occasionally gives an error message of "Unable to Send", but some recipients still receive the e-mail. |
This is a known problem where a user's e-mail address in Blackboard's Users database does not match the e-mail address listed on QUT Virtual. If you encounter this error, please log a job with the IT Helpdesk for a fix; Blackboard administrators have to identify and manually fix the entry. |
| Add Question Here function generates error |
Using the Add Question Here function in Test/Survey generates an error with an Error ID. |
Troubleshooting this error indicates that the issue has to do with out-of-date software, so run updates on your computer. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the Canvas as a workaround. |
| Buttons missing from forms |
Certain key graphical buttons (e.g. Submit, Cancel) are missing from forms (e.g. Add Item). |
Under testing, this appears only to be happening when browser-based or third-party image blocking software is operational. Either turn this off, or add QUT Blackboard addresses as exceptions. There are also cases of this happening after an update to such software, and the solution is the same. |
| When copying or moving, the Unit Map fails to load. |
Clicking the Browse button on a Copy or Move screen should bring up a small window with a Unit Map. However, if the destination site contains any Content Areas, Folders or Learning Units that have an apostrophe followed immediately by a lower-case U or lower-case X in the Name field, the Unit Map will not load. |
1. This problem is confined to Internet Explorer - switching to Firefox will display the Unit Map as normal.
2. Rename relevant Folders and Learning Units by replacing the regular apostrophe character with the HTML equivalent (an ampersand character, followed immediately by #39;).
|
| Edit View link has disappeared. |
The Edit View link at the top right of content areas is sometimes not there. |
1. Go to Control Panel and access the content area via its link in the Content Areas box.
2. Alternatively, try navigating away to a different page and back (using links, not the back and forward buttons on your browser). This can cause the link to reappear.
|
| Support staff receive an "Access Denied" message when trying to enter a site. |
This happens when the site has Guest Access switched off. Users with the Client Support and Quality Assurance roles should be able to access the site, but can't. |
Get one of the site's coordinators to add you to the teaching team (using Control Panel > Manage Teaching Team). |
| Uploading a file with an apostrophe in the name to Wiki gives an error. |
On the Wiki tool, using the Insert File tool to upload a file returns a scripting error in Internet Explorer and does not upload in Internet Explorer and Firefox. |
Remove the apostrophe from the file name and attempt the upload again. |
| E-mailing an Announcement causes duplicate e-mails to be sent. |
When using the
Email this announcement to all unit users option, two or more copies of the e-mail are sometimes sent. This does not happen consistently, and there is some indication that the problem is not unique to QUT Blackboard. |
The Send Email function (in Control Panel, under Student Tools) is not affected by this problem. |
| Students see an exclamation mark for a Test they have completed. |
Sometimes, a student's grade for a Test will appear as an exclamation mark ('Needs Grading') in the student's view, although it appears as a grade when viewed through Gradebook.
Note that if there is an exclamation mark in both student and staff views, it is not an instance of this error, and is likely a valid "Needs Grading" status. |
The student can click the exclamation mark to view the grades for all their test attempts, which display correctly.
If you want to fix this problem for a student, go to Gradebook, click the student's grade for the Test, and clear any attempts that are marked as "In Progress", apart from the most recent attempt.
|
| Chat and Virtual Classroom time out after five minutes. |
If you stay in a Chat or Virtual Classroom session for longer than five minutes without doing anything, a pop-up message will appear, saying "The connection has been lost. Try again later," after which your Chat window will close. |
You can simply re-enter the Chat Session when this happens.
Alternatively, more often than every five minutes, perform an action that uses the connection. The most common such action is posting a message (even a message of one character will do). Moderators can also do the following: make sure you (or another active user) is selected in the participant list, then click the  button. This won't have any visible effect, but will renew the session timer.
Another alternative is to use the AV Chat tool instead. |
| The Item Download function for an Assignment won't work if the Assignment's name is too long or contains special characters. |
An Assignment's Item Download function (available through Gradebook) will generate an HTTP 404 error if the name of the assignment is longer than 72 characters or
contains any of the following special characters: # (hash symbol), / (slash), \ (backslash), % (percent sign), ? (question mark). Use of a semicolon (;) can also cause problems.
|
This problem can be fixed by renaming the Assignment (removing special characters and making sure the name is less than 72 characters in length). Note that you must rename the Assignment item in the Content Area (i.e. where students would click to upload their assignments) - not in the Gradebook. (Renaming the Gradebook item will have no effect.) |
