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January 20th, 2012 by nantinLatest Safe Assign Update: back to normal
December 23rd, 2011 by nantinThe latest bulletin states that the remaining backlog has been processed and all papers "stuck" in the sysem has been reprocessed. Also if there is a paper that has not been processed it may be corrupted and should be resubmitted.
We are here to help. The TLT Instructional Technology Support Staff are available 9-5 Monday through Friday (except holidays)through out the year.
One on One Blackboard Consultations
December 16th, 2011 by nantin
Do you want to learn more about the best way to implement an online discussion, quiz or survey? Do you just need the basics or a refresher for the upcoming semester? We are available to help!
Please request a consultation under Upcoming Events at tlt.stonybrook.edu or call Blackboard Support at 631-632-2777
Safe Assign Lag update 12/14
December 14th, 2011 by nantinSafe Assign assured us the system is stable and that the quality of matching sources is unaffected but to expect turnaround times at around 3-5 days.
We recommend that instructors continue to grade papers but to let students know that the grades are contingent upon a sound Safe Assign report. Please note that students, as well as instructors, can see their own Safe Assign reports when they are available.
In addition for the end of Spring 2012 Safe Assign states: "We are already underway with efforts to produce significant improvements in our processing capacity ahead of the peak submission season in Spring 2012. We remain confident that with this additional effort that we can return queue lengths to normal levels in that span."
https://tlt.stonybrook.edu/FacultyServices/Software/Pages/SafeAssign-Performance-Update.aspx
Safe Assign Lag-time update
December 12th, 2011 by nantinThis morning we are seeing catchups from late Thursday submissions. This is from their web site:
SAFEASSIGN PERFORMANCE UPDATE:
SafeAssign is experiencing regular delays due to load on the system. In one sense, the cause of these delays is quite simple: the rate of papers being submitted exceeding the speed with which SafeAssign can process papers. Submissions go into a queue, and are processed in a first-in, first-out order. When the submissions are entering the queue faster than they are processed, a backlog builds up. Normally, SafeAssign catches up on that backlog when the submission rate drops below the processing rate. However, because of record high usage we’ve been pretty consistently running over capacity 24 hours a day for several weeks now (except for the US Thanksgiving weekend). So the system never fully has the time to catch up, resulting in turnaround times of 12-24 hours in many instances.
Given projections from historical usage, the significant delays of 12-24 hours or more will continue through the first week of December and then rapidly ease off in mid-December as the semester closes. Clients should expect that they will not see any significant improvement in turnaround times before mid-December. Please do not re-submit papers that have not received a matching report to prevent creating an even larger backlog.
From a development perspective, the current focus on SafeAssign is scalability and improving turnaround time of submissions. We hope to be able to deploy further improvements in this area early next year.
Safe Assign Report Lag
December 6th, 2011 by nantin"SafeAssign Services are temporarily experiencing delays due to high usage. This might result in longer paper processing times. Blackboard regrets any inconvenience this may cause."
We are seeing more than 24 hours in processing time but not longer than 48 hours.
There are still delays.
Today I am seeing longer than 48 hours. This normal for this time of year.
Sincerely,
Nichole
Pasting From Word to Blackboard
November 22nd, 2011 by jjaiswalWhy is there a special way to paste from Microsoft Word?
When you copy and paste directly from Microsoft Word to most text boxes in Blackboard, extra formatting data is carried over. Internet Browsers have difficulty displaying Microsoft Word’s version of formatting and may make the text look funny or disappear depending on what browser/operating system you are using the viewer is using.
This issue is prevalent to Blackboard’s WYSIWYG text editors such as Discussion Boards, Blog, Wikis, Create an Item or Assignment as well as creating Test questions and Announcements. Also note this is not limited to Blackboard but other technologies as well such as SharePoint.
Solutions:
I. Paste from Word using the “Paste from Word” Tool
1. Select and Copy your text like you would normally.
2. Then PASTE your text into Blackboard by going to the Mashup Tool > Paste from Word and then paste your text into the text box that appears.
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II. “Wash” the Text in NotePad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac)
Type up your text in Word then paste to NotePad or TextEdit THEN copy the text that is in Notepad/TextEdit and paste THAT into Blackboard.
III. Back up Your Text
Start out typing in Blackboard. Then copy and paste text into Word as a backup.
Other Options:
1. If you like to use Word to check your spelling, try Blackboard’s Spelling correction tool:
2. Is your Announcement or Post a work in progress? For Announcements you can restrict the date. For a Blog or Discussion post you can save as a draft. When creating Items or Assignments you can make them Not Available for students.
Grade Center Errors and Grading Schema
October 21st, 2011 by jjaiswalIn Blackboard there has been a error occurring with Grade Center not completing its loading process.
This happens when a column has a faulty Grade Schema being used.
Schema’s are the associations that the Grade Center makes to convert letter grades to numbers and number grades to letters. ex: A+ = 100-97.
We have information on the Stonybrook Undergraduate Grading Schema and Stony Brook Graduate Grading Schema and have our Grading Schema tutorial for more information.
Blackboard Pdfs in Mac OS X and Safari
September 19th, 2011 by jjaiswalIn Blackboard there have been a number of errors when trying to view PDFs on a Mac using Safari. When trying to view a PDF you might see an error like this:
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Blackboard has tagged this as an issue to be resolved in a future service pack upgrade, but to keep the semester rolling we are recommending that students and faculty use an alternate browser to access Blackboard. Two that function well are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. They are able to view and download pdfs without the error that is being experienced in Safari.
McGraw Hill Building Block (in Blackboard) unavailable Sat. 9/10 4:30am-6:00am
September 8th, 2011 by Diana VossWe’ve received notification from Blackboard that McGraw-Hill Higher Education will be performing scheduled maintenance this weekend on their Data Centers. The maintenance will begin on 09/10/11 at 4:30 AM and last until 09/10/11 at 6:00 AM (US Eastern Daylight Time). During this period the McGraw-Hill building block will be unavailable.