Known Issues |

Current Blackboard Known Issues

Original Courses: Bb Annotate does not maintain full content in Word files

Issue

When an instructor views an assignment attempt and the uploaded file is a Word document, not all of the file will render or be visible on the screen.

Workaround

If an instructor is unable to see the entire submission, download the attempt and open the file locally on your computer, then grade as normal in Blackboard.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue and are working on a resolution. At this time, there is no known date that this will be resolved, but we will continue to update this page if there are any changes.

Original Courses: Disabled students are showing in reports

Issue

When an instructor runs a report in a course, certain reports also include the names of students who are disabled in the course. Disabled students are students who registered for the course, then dropped from the class.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: Edited words in content editor do not keep their fonts

Issue

When part of the written text in the Content Editor is edited (Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough), the edited words will reset to Arial font format. However, they will remain with the original font in the Font list when highlighted.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: Embedded content not scaled properly on mobile devices (New: 1/24/2024)

Issue

When content (i.e. image or video) is embedded into the textbox editor, and a user opens the course on their mobile app or mobile browser, the embedded content will not scale properly and the image or video will be cut off.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround. This does not affect Ultra Courses.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: Feedback to student not saving or canceling (New: 11/8/2023)

Issue

When an instructor tries to edit the feedback to the student in the textbox editor, the "Save" and "Cancel" buttons do not work.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: Grade history doesn't load when selecting "Show all items" (New: 4/15/2024)

Issue

When looking at the View Grade History menu (Full Grade Center > Reports > View Grade History), and clicking the "Show all " option at the bottom of the screen, the page will load for some time, then provide an error message.

Workaround

Set the number of items per page to 100, and scroll through all pages.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: Last test question answer cannot be saved on iOS app (New: 4/18/2024)

Issue

When taking a test in an Original course using the iOS mobile app, the answer to the last test question will not save.

Workaround

When possible, take the test on a computer.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: Launching LTI from gradebook ignores "launch in a new window" setting (New: 7/21/2023)

Issue

When an instructor launches an LTI item for grading through the "Grade User Activity" option in the gradebook, Blackboard will launch the LTI tool in the same window, ignoring the "Launch in a new window" setting.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: SafeAssign cannot be turned off once assignment is created

Issue

When the SafeAssign option is enabled for an assignment, it cannot be turned off for the assignment once it has been saved. If the assignment is edited and SafeAssign is unchecked, the setting will not save.

Workaround

If an assignment needs to have SafeAssign turned off, you have two options:

Delete the assignment and create a new one. Please note: If you delete an assignment that already has submissions, the submissions will be deleted along with the assignment.
Check the box that says "Exclude submissions from the Institutional and Global References Databases". This will still run the assignment through SafeAssign, but it will not be saved to the SafeAssign database and will be treated as a draft in SafeAssign.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: View feedback link is missing for students (New: 2/21/2024)

Issue

When an instructor gives feedback for a graded assignment, students are unable to see the bubble indicating that there is feedback for them to view.

Workaround

Overriding the feedback and grades from the instructor's perspective will solve the issue.

Potential Resolution Date

Original Courses: Unable to see grade details in mobile app (New: 4/11/2024)

Issue

When a student is using the mobile app and attempts to view feedback or more grade details in an Original course, the page will not display.

Workaround

View the grade details and feedback from a computer.

Potential Resolution Date

Mobile App/Browser: Images in Discussion Boards in Original Courses are not rendering properly (New: 2/8/2024)

Issue

When using a mobile device and accessing discussion boards, embedded images are not displaying properly. On Android devices, images are not displayed. On iOS devices, images appear too large for the screen and cannot be viewed all at once.

Workaround

If the image is essential to viewing, use a computer instead of a mobile device.

Potential Resolution Date

Mobile App/Browser: Inconsistent behavior of back button from integration launches (New: 2/14/2024)

Issue

After an integration is launched in the Mobile app, the back button does not work as expected. When a user clicks on the back button after launching a tool, it takes them to the course list. When they re-open the course, it takes them to the integrated tool. Using the back button again will take them back to the course.

Workaround

Use the back button multiple times, or access Blackboard through a computer.

Potential Resolution Date

Mobile App/Browser: Keyboard does not open consistently when touching grade pill to enter grades (New: 3/4/2024)

Issue

When using a mobile device and attempting to grade, clicking on the grade pill does not automatically open the keyboard to enter the graded. It may take several clicks to open the keyboard.

Workaround

Click on the grade pill multiple times, or use a computer to enter the grades.

Potential Resolution Date

Mobile App/Browser: Unable to access course videos from mobile app (New: 2/14/2024)

Issue

When accessing a course using the mobile app or browser and are not connected to internet or data, there is no offline content available to view.

Workaround

Access the content on a device connected to internet or data, or on a computer.

Potential Resolution Date

Mobile App/Browser: Vertically misplaced content bar (New: 2/19/2024)

Issue

When accessing your course via the mobile app or a mobile browser, a floating bar appears at the top of the screen with the content area name. The bar will stay while content scrolls above and below the bar.

Workaround

Ignore the bar and access content like normal, or use a computer to access the content page.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Altering question order freezes assignment screen (New: 10/5/2023)

Issue

In an Ultra Assignment where there are multiple questions, when an instructor changes the order of the questions, the screen will freeze. When the screen is closed and re-opened, the new order is presented.

Workaround

Close the frozen screen and re-open it. The new changes should be saved.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Alternative formats not showing for download only documents (New: 3/12/2024)

Issue

When uploading a file to an Ultra doc and selecting the "Download Only" option from the menu, the accessible alternative formats are not listed.

Workaround

Use the "Download and View" or "View Only" option for the alternative formats to be available.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Anonymous grading feedback disappears (New: 12/14/2023)

Issue

When adding feedback to an anonymous grading test before adding the grade, the feedback text is saved. Once the user logs out and then signs back in, the feedback disappears.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known work around. The TU Blackboard team can work to retrieve the feedback if necessary.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Attachments in emailed announcements are not clickable (New: 4/9/2024)

Issue

When an instructor creates and sends an announcement via email and has an attachment included in the announcement, the attachment cannot be clicked on when looking at the email.

Workaround

Open the attachment via the announcement in the course.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Calculated formula values change each time they are viewed (New: 4/11/2024)

Issue

When seeing the student's attempts in a test with a calculated formula question, the values assigned to each student change when navigating through submissions. This does not affect the grade, but the variable's shown values.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Cengage content accessible through gradebook when the content item is hidden via release conditions (New: 3/25/2024)

Issue

When Cengage content is created in the course and the item is hidden with release conditions, students can still access the content through the gradebook column.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Changing grade category for discussion or journal does not change icon (New: 3/12/2024)

Issue

When changing the grade category for a discussion board or journal, the icon for the item does not change to match the icon for the new category.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Copied content from Original with Adaptive Release does not work (New: 1/17/2024)

Issue

When content from Original courses that have Adaptive Release are copied into Ultra courses, the Adaptive Release dates do not work, as they cannot be edited with Release Conditions.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Copied question banks remove alt-text from images in questions (New: 4/15/2024)

Issue

When copying a Question Bank from one course to another that contains question images, any alt text for images in the questions are wiped.

Workaround

Re-add the alt text manually.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Documents inserted in table will not display title correctly (New: 2/16/2024)

Issue

When creating a table and adding a document into the table, the name of the document, and the table itself, will not display correctly.

Workaround

Use a shorter title name, or do not add the document into the table itself, and add it below the table.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Downloaded student activity report contains incorrect information (New: 4/9/2024)

Issue

When viewing a downloaded Student Activity Report, the data for the Attempt Count column is shown in the Hours to Submission column and the Attempt Count column is listed as empty.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue and a patch is scheduled for the update on May 2, 2024.

Ultra Courses: Editing a learning module takes more time to load than expected (New: 2/23/2024)

Issue

When trying to edit a learning module, the page takes longer to load than expected.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Fill in the blank questions marked incorrect when answer requires semicolon (New: 4/9/2024)

Issue

When students answer a semicolon as part of their answer to a fill in the blank question, the semicolon is converted to a comma and the answer is marked incorrect.

Workaround

Include the correct answer with a comma instead of a semicolon, or manually re-grade the question.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue and a patch is scheduled for the update on May 2, 2024.

Ultra Courses: Gradebook grid view shows new submission when items have been graded (New: 2/21/2024)

Issue

When viewing the gradebook in grid view, and submissions have already been graded, instructors will still see a "New Submission" label listed under the grade.

Workaround

This only happens on the grid view. At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Grade pill unclickable in Firefox when grading submissions (New: 9/15/2023)

Issue

In Ultra, when an instructor attempts to grade student submissions by clicking in the grade pill, the grade pill is unclickable and the grade cannot be entered there.

Workaround

This only happens in the Firefox browser. Instructors can choose to use the Chrome browser to grade, or use the override feature be entering the grade on the submissions list and not on the grading page.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Graded discussion feedback disappears after second instructor saves feedback (New: 4/10/2024)

Issue

When one instructor adds and saves feedback on a discussion board, then a second instructor saves additional feedback, the feedback from the first instructor disappears.

Workaround

Have only one instructor added feedback, or provide feedback outside of Blackboard.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Granular course copy removes folder and learning module structure (New: 2/19/2024)

Issue

When using the granular course copy feature, and copying folders or learning modules that contain tests or content links, the tests and content links are placed on the main content page and removed from the folder or learning module during the course copy. All other content stays in the correct folder or module.

Workaround

Instead of doing a granular course copy, do a full course copy and delete the unneeded items. Optionally, you can do the granular course copy and move the content as needed after the copy has finished.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Headers on Ultra Documents are not labeled properly in HTML code (New: 3/25/2024)

Issue

When creating content on an Ultra document and using the Headers options, the header is given the incorrect heading code in the HTML code for the document. This can affect how the document is read via screen readers or other accessible devices.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: High contrast mode will not highlight selected answer on test (New: 4/18/2024)

Issue

When taking a test, if the user has high contrast mode enabled on their computer, the selected answer for the test question will not be highlighted properly in high contrast.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: HTML characters in inline grading comments translated to plain text (New: 3/12/2024)

Issue

When adding comments using the inline grading comment feature, the characters "&", "<", and ">" will be translated from html to plain text, instead showing '&lt', '&amp', and '&gt'.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Incorrect message displayed when copying rubrics (New: 7/24/2023)

Issue

In Ultra, when copying a rubric, a message is displayed saying "When you create a copy, existing grades will be converted to overrides." However, the grades are not actually overridden, and the message is displayed incorrectly.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Incorrect message displayed when looking at the question analysis (New: 3/12/2024)

Issue

In Ultra, when looking at the question analysis tab for the first time, the message displayed shows that it has insufficient data, even though it may have enough and still be processing.

Workaround

Close the page and re-open it to see the correct message or information.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue and a patch is scheduled for the update on May 2, 2024.

Ultra Courses: Keyboard scrolling functionality is lost after screen interaction in assessment (New: 12/15/2023)

Issue

After opening an assessment (i.e. test or assignment), using the arrow keys will scroll the page up or down. However, after interacting with the page, including by clicking anywhere on screen, the keyboard scroll function is disabled.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Moving to another student's submission in anonymous grading shows incorrect answers (New: 4/9/2024)

Issue

When an instructor is grading with anonymous grading turned on, and navigates through the student submissions, the answers do not correspond to the student shown, but instead to the previous student.

Workaround

Leave and reopen the grading panel each time you need to start grading a new student.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue and a patch is scheduled for the update on May 2, 2024.

Issue

When an instructor is grading with anonymous grading turned on, and navigates through the student submissions, the answers do not correspond to the student shown, but instead to the previous student.

Workaround

Leave and reopen the grading panel each time you need to start grading a new student.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue and a patch is scheduled for the update on May 2, 2024.

Ultra Courses: Points possible cannot be set to zero unless column is displayed as points (New: 2/23/2024)

Issue

When creating a column or a test/assignment, the grade cannot be set to 0 unless the grade display option is set to Points. If it is set to Complete/Incomplete, Letter, or Percentage, the points will revert to 100.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Removing a group set causes group submissions to be lost (New: 2/23/2024)

Issue

When an instructor removes a group set that has assignment submissions, all of those submissions are lost. The grade will remain, but will only be visible to students.

Workaround

Make the group set unavailable instead of deleting it.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Rubric point range can be changed if rubric grade is overridden when anonymous grading is enabled (New: 3/12/2024)

Issue

When using 'point range' type rubrics in an Ultra Course with Anonymous Grading enabled, the criterion grades can change from what it was set if grading with the rubric and then overriding the total grade for the rubric.

Workaround

Do not override the grade as a whole, change the point ranges to match the score you want to give.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Rubric scores don't save on first save attempt (New: 4/3/2024)

Issue

When grading an assignment using a rubric, sometimes the selected criteria is not saved and appears empty.

Workaround

Select the criteria again and re-save the item.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Screen Reader not reading attachment titles (New: 2/2/2024)

Issue

When a user is using a screen reader, the title of an attachment will not be read as they navigate the page.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Select All button in grade center messages feature does not work as expected (New: 1/24/2024)

Issue

When an instructor is viewing an assignment and has sorted by "No Submission" and uses the "Select All" option when sending a message reminder to students have not submitted, the message will show all students, regardless of submission status.

Workaround

Instead of using the "Select All" feature, manually click the checkbox for each student before sending the message.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Some discussion boards post grades automatically (New: 2/26/2024)

Issue

Even when the option for "post automatically" is not selected, some discussion board grades will automatically post to students.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Space added in front of content in tables during conversion process (New: 4/18/2024)

Issue

When a course is converted from Original to Ultra, any table that has been created will have an additional space added before the content in each cell in the table table during the conversion process.

Workaround

Remove the spaces manually.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Students cannot submit test when internet is reconnected (New: 4/3/2024)

Issue

When students submit a test attempt while disconnected from the internet, the attempt will not submit. After reconnecting to the internet, they are still unable to submit their attempt.

Workaround

Make sure to check the internet connection prior to starting the attempt, and when possible, use a wired internet connection when taking a test.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Test made unavailable during in-progress attempts will stop saving without warning student (New: 1/26/2024)

Issue

When a test is made unavailable, either manually or due to availability restrictions, and there are attempts in progress, the in progress attempts will stop saving the answers entered by the student(s) with no indication to the student. When the student finishes the test, all questions answered after the test is unavailable will not be saved at all.

Workaround

Instead of using the availability restrictions, using the due date feature and turning off the ability to start an attempt after the due date will prevent this issue from occurring.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Tests or Assignments graded under "Final Grading" instead of using points per question remains as "Needs Grading" (New: 9/15/2023)

Issue

When an instructor grades a test and adds the final grade to the final grade box, rather than entering points for each question on the test, the test will remain in a "Needs Grading" status.

Workaround

Add graded points per each question.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Unable to delete attachments from assignments (New: 10/14/2022)

Issue

When an attachment is added to the content on an assessment using the "Add Local File" feature in an Ultra course, the "Delete" option will disappear once the attachment is viewed by any student.

Workaround

Use the "Add Text" function instead to be able to edit or delete content.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Unpredictable search behavior in Gradebook (New: 3/25/2024)

Issue

If an instructor attempts to search for a student using the search bar on the Students list in the gradebook list view, the search bar results are unpredictable and not correct.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Ultra Courses: Uploaded questions in tests show extra symbols when downloaded (New: 4/9/2024)

Issue

When a file containing a multiple-choice question is uploaded to create a test, and then the results are downloaded after the test is completed, the downloaded file will show extra symbols in each of the answers.

Workaround

At this time, there is no known workaround.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue and a patch is scheduled for the update on May 2, 2024.

Browser Issues

Mac and Safari - Additional Login When Opening Files

Issue

When using Safari on a Mac, users are getting a pop-up asking them to login. This is because of 3rd party cookies/cross-site tracking.

Workaround

Open Safari Settings, select Privacy and uncheck Prevent Cross-Site Tracking. Some users have also had success downloading the file or using Firefox on their Mac.

Potential Resolution Date

Blackboard Inc. is aware of this known issue. At this time, no resolution will be provided.

Microsoft Edge causing 404 Error when opening content

Issue

Users who are using Microsoft Edge as a browser may receive a 404 Error when attempting to open content within their browser.

Workaround

The TU Blackboard team always recommends using Firefox or Chrome when accessing Blackboard. However, if you need to use Edge, the following workaround should allow you to open the documents within your browser without getting the error.

Open Edge settings
Select Downloads
Set Open Office Files in Browser to Off

Potential Resolution Date

At this time, there is no known resolution date. However, Blackboard Inc. is aware of this issue and working to resolve it.