August 2009 workshops

TLT has scheduled Blackboard workshops for August 2009!  This series will be held online, using Adobe Connect.  You can participate from the comfort of your own home or office!  All you need are speakers or headphones for your computer, so you may hear the presenter.

To register: https://tlt.stonybrook.edu/FacultyServices/Pages/On-campusCalendar.aspx
Scroll down to the desired workshop and click "Register!" 

Topics include:
- Basics and posting content
- SafeAssign and the Assignment tool
- Blogs and wikis
- Tests and surveys
- Grade Center (aka Gradebook)
- What’s new in Blackboard 8.0?

For those who are unable to attend, you may contact us to set up a one-on-one consultation (either in person or online).

SafeAssign and Adobe Acrobat 9.0

SafeAssign is currently not accepting PDFs generated by Adobe Acrobat Professional 9.0.0 or any more recent versions (9.1.2 is most recent).  We have reported this issue to Blackboard and are awaiting a response.

In the meantime, if you are running Acrobat 9:

  • do not convert your documents to PDFs using Acrobat 9.  SafeAssign accepts Word documents (.doc or .docx), rich-text (.rtf), plain-text (.txt) and Web pages (.htm or .html).
  • downgrade to Acrobat 8.x if you must use PDFs.

We will update this entry when we resolve this issue.

 

Firefox 3.5 and Blackboard Assignments - RESOLVED

If you use Blackboard and Firefox on a Windows computer, do not upgrade to Firefox 3.5. 

When submitting an Assignment with a file attached, an error will appear asking to "Please enter a valid file."  Blackboard has been notified of this issue, but until they provide us with a fix, please either refrain from upgrading to Firefox 3.5, or use a different browser. 

Please note:

  • This bug pertains only to Assignments.  SafeAssign is unaffected.
  • The problem only occurs in Firefox 3.5 for Windows.  Macs are unaffected.

================

EDIT 7/6/2009: We’ve installed a fix on our servers.  This problem is resolved.

If you are a system admin experiencing the same problem, ask Blackboard Support for a new version of file_002dpicker_jsp.class and replace it in blackboard/webapps/taglibs/WEB-INF/classes/blackboard/web/interfaces/standard/taglib/

We are running 7.3.230.2 on solaris.  Feel free to reference our case ID (603123) when you contact Blackboard support.

4th of July weekend support

TLT Blackboard Support will be unavailable Friday, July 3, 2009 due to the holiday weekend.  We will be back in the office on Monday, July 6.

Happy Independence Day!

American Flag and fireworks

June workshops a success!

TLT’s Blackboard workshop series for June 2009 wrapped up this morning.  We had 21 attendees from several sections of campus.  Thank you to all who participated and made this series a success!

If you were unable to attend our June workshops, we’re starting a new round on July 14, meeting at 4PM weekdays.  Register now, space is limited!

In addition to the usual workshop topics, we will also feature a hands-on demonstration of the new features in Blackboard 8.0, to which we are upgrading this August.

Contact us at blackboard@stonybrook.edu or 631-632-2777 with questions or concerns, or to set up a one-on-one consultation!

SafeAssign is currently down

SafeAssign service is currently unavailable.  We are reporting the problem to the vendor and hope to have a resolution soon.  Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Edit 4:02PM: SafeAssign service has been restored, but there may be intermittent delays in processing submissions.

Summer 2009 workshops!

TLT has scheduled numerous Blackboard workshops for Summer 2009! 

Register now!
Scroll down to the desired workshop and click "Register."  Please note that two of these workshops will be held online using Adobe Connect.

Topics include:
- Basics and posting content
- Discussion board and other tools
- SafeAssign and the Assignment tool
- Blogs and wikis
- Tests and surveys
- Grade Center (aka Gradebook)
- Respondus
- What’s new in Blackboard 8.0?

For those who are unable to attend, you may contact us to set up a one-on-one consultation.

To follow up on our e-mail sent on May 21st, we are upgrading to Blackboard 8.0 on August 25, 2009.  This version of Blackboard contains several new features that we hope will appeal to faculty members.  We will be holding workshops demonstrating these new features, both online and in person.

All faculty should have access to our test server, currently running Blackboard 8.0: http://bbapdemo.ic.sunysb.edu
Use your NetID and password to log in.  Copies of your courses will appear.  We recommend using your Fall 2008 courses, as Spring 2009 courses were last updated in February.  Play around and send us your feedback!

As we work on updating our website with Blackboard 8.0-specific information (also scheduled to go live on August 25, 2009), you may download our print-friendly documentation.

As always, don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Welcome to Summer 2009!

Students! Don’t see your courses in Blackboard?

Your courses might not show up for one or more reasons:

  1. Did you just register today? It takes 24 hours for newly registered courses to appear in Blackboard.
  2. Your instructor hasn’t activated your course yet. Send them a link to this page!
  3. Your instructor doesn’t use Blackboard. Ask them!

Questions? Contact the TLT Student Help Desk at helpme@stonybrook.edu or 631-632-9602.

Instructors!  Are you using Blackboard this semester?

  1. By default, all new Blackboard courses are hidden from students.  To activate your course, follow these instructions.
  2. The e-mail tools is available to everyone in your Blackboard course.  Instructors may email students, and students may email instructors and fellow students.  Some instructors prefer to limit students’ access to the e-mail tool so they may only e-mail instructors.  To do so, follow these instructions.

Questions?  Contact Blackboard Support at blackboard@stonybrook.edu or 631-632-2777.

Power outage 5/22-5/23

The Computing Center experienced a power outage which caused many of Stony Brook’s IT services (including Blackboard) to be inaccessible.  The outage started the evening of Friday, May 22 and lasted until 4:30PM on Saturday, May 23.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Blackboard maintenance 5/26

Blackboard will be down for maintenance on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 from 8AM until 10AM.  Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.  Thank you for your patience.