Known Problems with Blackboard!

In an endeavour to try and create a better online learning environment, this page contains a list of known Blackboard "problems" (otherwise known as SAO complaints!). SAO has provided ths list to Blackboard (hereafter Bb) as our "wish list" of what we want fixed. Please forward any additional problems/complaints on to Sarah.
  • Image incompatibility between Bb and newsreaders. Images posted to Bb do not show up at all in the newsreaders and images added via the newsreaders are seen as pages of garbled text via Bb browser.
  • A single quote (or apostrophe) posted via a newsreader appears as two single quotes under Bb browser.
  • Bb browser only allows one image/file to be attached at a time.
  • Bb browser doesn't include the original posting in a "reply"

Problems with browser posts/newsreader appearance

The "standard" way to use the Bb newsgroups is with the Text Editor turned ON, which presents students with a WYSIWYG interface. However, a previous problem with the incompatibility between the newsreader mode and the browser mode affected text in newsgroup posts. Hence we instruct our students to turn the Text Editor OFF in Bb9.1 - see

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/sao/students/Bb/NGs-browser-TextEditor.html

This prevents newsreader students seeing a range of HTML characters (e.g. <P>) at the end of each line of text.

Within Blackboard 9.1, when creating a NG post, there is an option for Visual Editor to be ON or OFF. Once users turn OFF the Visual Editor, there is a range of text formatting options including smart, plain or HTML text. However, the software associated with this feature contains a number of bugs. Firstly, while “preview” displays a nicely formatted plain or smart text post, once submitted the posting often (though randomly) loses its formatting, particularly carriage returns and line breaks. Secondly, if you submit a posting with an ampersand (&) or less than (<) symbol in it, that also destroys the formatting.

These bugs are all minimised (but not fully mitigated) when browser users send posts with Visual Editor turned ON (but unfortunately newsreader users will see ugly HTML code!).

Problems using Newsreaders

There are a few problems with using Newsreader mode to access the Bb newsgroups.

Since S2-2009, we have noticed that in some newsgroups accessed via newsreaders you may see 'anonymous' posts. This appears to be a problem in Bb-V8 and the custom built newsreader software that ITS developed for us. Please disregard these posts - they are easy to spot as they have come from the previous semester!

Fortunately most of newsreader problems can be resolved by adjusting the settings of your newsreader. Many SAO students are using Outlook Express and Netscape or Thunderbird News for their newsreader. Please look at the following pages to troubleshoot any problems you encounter:

Outlook Express

Netscape Mail and News 7.1

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