Frequently Asked Questions about Blackboard

This webpage will help solve some of the common problems/quirks that affect SAO students using blackboard. Remember the ITS Blackboard Q&A page has supplementary information that you may find helpful.

• Challenge token null or page not found
• HTML characters appearing in posts
• Large chunks of random text appearing in posts
• Missing news messages in news reader mode

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Challenge token null or page

PROBLEM	When I try to login to Blackboard it fails the first time with the error message "Challenge token null" (or simply Not Found)
SOLUTION	This problem is caused by going to the wrong URL or webpage when logging into Blackboard. Make sure the URL you use to enter blackboard is: http://ilearn.swin.edu.au and not http://www.ilearn.swin.edu.au or http://ilearn.swin.edu.au/webapps/portal/

HTML characters appearing in posts

PROBLEM	When I view messages in my news reader I see lots of HTML characters like <P>
SOLUTION	This problem is caused by other people who are using the Blackboard browser to post messages who have not turned off their Text Editor feature (as described here). You cannot do anything to fix these posts, except to ask the person posting the message to fix their settings

Large chunks of random text appearing in posts

PROBLEM	When using Blackboard Browser, some messages have huge sections of random text
SOLUTION	This problem is caused by other students who post attachments via a Newsreader. Due to an incompatibility between Blackboard and the Newsreaders, you should only post attachments (images or other files) from the Blackboard Browser, never from a newsreader. If you notice posts like these, please ask the poster to only post images from Blackboard Browser.

Missing news messages in news reader mode

PROBLEM	I cannot see all the messages in the newsgroup in my newsreader
SOLUTION	This problem is due to another incompatibility between the Blackboard System and the News Reader. The solution is to adjust a setting in your newsreader. You need to turn off the functionality which controls how many headers you download at one time. The procedure to do this is explained here for Outlook Express.