WebCT GOLD Reported Problems and Known Issues
| Topic
[Date Reported] |
Issue | Action | Status |
| Login screen [2/10/2008] |
Logging in to WeBCT, users get a blue page asking for a login, titled "Blackboard Learning Systems Vista Enterprise License". | Return to the ISU WebCT GOLD login page. | Resolved by implementation of new login page. [2/25/2008] |
| Problems with TA access to the Assignment tool [2/09/2008] |
Individuals with the “Teaching Assistant” role in WebCT GOLD are not able to access the Assignment Dropbox. | Workaround: TAs will need to be enrolled in the “Instructor” role in WebCT GOLD. Anyone wishing to change their TAs back from the Instructor role to the Teaching Assistant role, may request the change by contacting webctgold@iastate.edu |
Resolved March [4/ 8/ 2008] |
| Daylight Savings Time [11/02/2007] |
Blackboard has identified an issue which causes the start and end dates of assessments and the due and cutoff dates of assignments to count back one hour each time a Section Designer adjusts any settings in that assessment or assignment. This only affects WebCT GOLD course sections with an assessment or assignment for any date where the time changes due to DST. Times in March will roll forward one hour with each save. Times in November will roll back one hour with each save. This issue does not affect any other dates. |
Blackboard is currently investigating this issue. Meanwhile, in the event an assessment or assignment needs to be edited, designers/instructors should increment the time for the November 04, 2007 element by one hour before saving so that the desired time is reflected when it is saved. |
Resolved [3/8/2008] |
| Files disappear [8/15/2007] |
Use of Colon and Semi-colon symbols in titles and descriptions cause everything after that to disappear. | A workaround that is suggested is to discontinue the use of colons or semi-colons in Titles and Descriptions. | Resolved by software upgrade. [1/4/2008] |
| New Discussions [8/15/2007] |
The “New Discussions” icon is displayed to all users in all courses regardless of new messages. | A fix is planned from the vendor soon. | |
| Get Files [8/15/2007] |
When using Internet Explorer 7, the “Get Files” window is very small. | Resolved by software upgrade. [1/4/2008] |
|
| Text Formatting [8/15/2007] |
When using Internet Explorer 7, “Build” tab, icon or folder descriptions are displayed one word per line. The text displays properly on the Teach tab. Testing seems to confirm that the student see the description with proper formatting. | Resolved by software upgrade. [1/4/2008] |
|
| Mail Attachments [8/15/2007] |
When users attempt to view Mail attachments, they are unable to save directly to their My Computer. | Click on the name of the attachment (do not check the box) and it will prompt you to save. At this point, users may choose to save this to their computer or a folder on their computer. |
An enhancement request has been provided to the vendor for a future product release. |
| Microsoft Office 2007 file format [8/15/2007] |
When Office 2007 files are added as attachments in WebCT GOLD (such as to an assignment, email or discussion posting), WebCT GOLD does not recognized the file format, treats them like zip files, and renders them unusable. |
Our advice at this time is to encourage all students and faculty who are using Office 2007 to save down (using the SAVE AS feature and change SAVE AS TYPE to the “Word 97 – 2003” – for example). This should eliminate some of the problems that instructors and students may be experiencing with Office 2007 uploads, downloads, and attachments. Microsoft has released an Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint 2007 file formats which allow you to open, edit and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint 2007. This tool works very well outside of WebCT GOLD if you do not have Office 2007 currently installed. Unfortunately this tool does not resolve the issues which are internal to WebCT GOLD and its incompatibility with Office 2007 documents at this time. |
Resolved by software upgrade. [1/4/2008] |
| Database crash [7/8/2007] |
Many users were unable to login. Due to a problem within the Oracle database system, users were being deactivated. | The WebCT GOLD system was brought down at about 4:45 p.m. Sunday, July 8. The database was restored from a backup that was created at approximately 8 a.m. Sunday, July 8. Restoration was completed by about 4 p.m. Monday, July 9. | Work that was done (e.g. assignments submitted) between 8 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. Sunday, July 8 may have been lost. |
| Chat and Who's Online Problems [6/19/2007] |
Chat and Who's Online are not working reliably | The ISU WebCT support team is working with Blackboard to resolve these issues. | Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| Problem with Assignment Dropbox and Group Submissions [4/23/2007] |
Assignment dropbox will not open | A hotfix, that was installed June 9, resolved several issues.
Application Pack 2 Service Pack 1 installed August 11. |
Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| Calendar [3/7/2007] |
Private calendar entries appearing in Institutional Calendar | Under investigation | Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| Mail tool [3/7/2007] |
Email forwarding to an external email account does not work | A hotfix was installed June 9, 2007 | Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| Microsoft Windows Vista [3/7/2007] |
MS Vista is NOT certified or compatible to use when running WebCT GOLD | Quality Assurance and Testing | Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| Media Library [3/7/2007] |
Audio files played from Media Library fail with the following error: “Request File Not Found” for users running MS Internet Explorer and Real Audio – Real Player | Targeted for Future Release | |
| Learning Modules [3/7/2007] |
Unable to sort discussion topics by author/subject; only affects discussion topics created within a learning module | Target for Future Release | |
| My Computer Applet [3/1/2007] |
When attempting to upload a file using the My Computer applet, Internet Explorer freezes and the user is unable to continue without closing the browser and logging back in. This is limited to users using a Windows XP system with hyper-threading turned on while browsing the site using Internet Explorer running Java 1.5.0_07 or higher | Microsoft has released a Knowledge Base article describing the problem ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327809/en-us ) Workaround: Change the Windows “view” from Windows XP to “Classic”
|
Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| HTML Creator [2/26/2007] |
When using the HTML Creator to compose email, occassionally the text is not sent when the Send button is clicked. Instead, the HTML editor text box is empty and you receive an error message "Please enter content in the Message text box." | This occurs in some complicated instances of a certain
combination of computer OS, browser version, Java version and user
WebCT preferences. Temporary Work-around: Before clicking the Enable HTML Creator button type a single character in the text box. Then click the Enable HTML button. If the character appears in the HTML text area, then the email should work. If the character does not appear, then click the Disable HTML button, then click the Enable button again. Do this until the character is visible in the HTML edit region. Usually going back and forth one or two times is enough. |
Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| Manage
Files, Assessments, and Assignments [1/31/2007] |
Errors when trying to use Manage Files, Assessments, or Assignments | WebCT GOLD server cluster was shut down and rebooted 2/2/2007. | Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 |
| Manage Files, HTML Editor, Assessments, or Chat | Errors when trying to use Manage Files, HTML Editor, Assessments, or Chat | You probably need to install—or troubleshoot the installation of Java on your computer. (Causes of these errors include using an incompatible version of Sun JRE or having multiple versions of Sun JREs installed.) | Resolved with software upgrade, 8/11/07 OK to upgrade Java version to 1.6.x |
| WebDAV [11/01/2006] |
WebDAV uploads to WebCT GOLD may not work as expected. For Macintosh systems WebDAV does not work at all. For Windows systems the WebDAV download works as expected. However for WebDAV uploads there is a 30 second delay before the upload actually starts. In some cases the upload times out and nothing happens. |
Macintosh systems From Blackboard Client Support (11/07/06): "WebDAV unfortunately broke [for] the Mac [with WebCT GOLD Application Pack 1, Service Pack 1]. This has already been identified and is being fixed in Application Pack 2." Windows systems We are working with the load balancer vendor to fix the problem since we have narrowed the problem to the load balancer. The same problem has been reported on other campuses using the same load balancer with WebCT. If WebDAV completely fails to work on a Windows system, you can try installing the netdrive program. This is a WebDAV-like program that assigns a drive letter to your WebCT section file directory location. Instructions for installing netdrive can be found at: http://www.acs.uwosh.edu/novell/netdrive.htm. Download netdrive from: http://webct.ait.iastate.edu/ISUtools/webhtml/netdrive.exe |
For Macs: Unresolved for Windows: Partially Resolved. 11/06/06 |
| import spreadsheets to the Grade Book [10/09/2006] |
Unable to import spreadsheets to the Grade Book After a Service Pack was installed over the weekend, instructors were unable to import spreadsheets to the Grade Book. |
From
Blackboard Client Support
(11/07/06)
: "This issue is in the next hotfix, which is currently in testing. When it has passed testing it will be made available, but unfortunately [Blackboard Client Support does] not know when that will be." From Blackboard Client Support (11/14/06): This issue will be corrected in the next hotfix "expected for release in the next few weeks." A Hotfix beta version was received by WebCT GOLD support (11/16/06) The beta Hotfix is currently undergoing testing by the GOLD support team. If no bugs are found in the testing process, the hotfix will be installed on the production servers sometime the week of November 20. The hotfix was installed Wednesday, November 22, at 7:00 a.m. Testing revealed that occasionally, a "Letter Grade" column type might not be updated by a spreadsheet import (see below). Otherwise, everything else seems to work as expected. If you encounter a Letter Grade column (for example "Midterm Grade" or "Final Grade") that does not get overridden by the Spreadsheet Import, please email webctgold@iastate.edu, or call 515-294-5357. This problem can be resolved by deleting the uncooperative column and recreating it prior to import. |
Resolved 11/22/06 |
| Off-campus users unable to login [10/25/2006] |
Off-campus users unable to login Many off-campus users were unable to access the WebCT GOLD system following the installation of the Load Balancer. |
Users' systems were still caching the old
IP number. User system reboots resolved some but not all of the problems. 10/25/06 – A temporary login URL was provided: https://webcttemp.its.iastate.edu 10/29/06 – Cached IPs expired. |
Resolved 10/29/06 |
| Who’s Online, Chat, and eMail [8/18/2006] |
Communication tool failures in WebCT GOLD Who’s Online, Chat, and eMail Forwarding are not working reliably. |
9/11/06 – Load Balancer Installed, but caused more problems than it fixed. 9/16/06 – Problematic Load Balancer uninstalled. 9/29/06 – New Load Balancer ordered. 10/05/06 – More memory was allocated to these tools. 10/09/06 – Daily system reboots helped extend the length of time until the tools failed. 10/25/06 – F5 Big-IP Load Balancer was installed. 10/28/06 – Two additional servers added to the WebCT GOLD cluster. |
Resolved 10/28/06 |
| Server restart [10/13/2006] |
WebCT Gold Unavailable and Restart: On Friday, October 13, 2006, at approximately 2:15 pm, WebCT Gold stopped answering web requests. |
WebCT Gold was down until approximately 2:35 pm, when the WebCT Gold server was restarted. | Resolved 10/13/06 |
| Server restart [10/12/2006] |
WebCT Gold was down at 11:30 pm on Wednesday On Wednesday, October 11, at 11:30 pm, WebCT Gold stopped answering web requests. |
By rebooting and restarting WebCT processes, Gold came back up for short times of 15 to 20 minutes, but would not stay running. Finally at 2:00 am Thursday WebCT Gold came up for good after shutting down the Oracle database and restarting it. | Resolved 10/12/06 |