How to Embed YouTube Video Into Blackboard

Here is something a little more fun than my recent posts to give us a change of pace for the weekend.

How to Embed YouTube Video Into Blackboard

1. Go to the YouTube page of the video you want to post
2. Click the Embed button
   
3. Uncheck Include Related Videos (or your students will go watch other videos!), then copy the code that appears on the YouTube page
   
   
   
4. In the Bb Visual Editor click the < > icon in to switch to HTML view
   
   
   
5. Press a Ctrl-v to paste in your code
   
6. Click Submit
   

Blackboard Browser Wars

Overall, Firefox tends to be a faster and more reliable browser to use for Blackboard than IE. However, we are seeing a problem with hiding users in Firefox that works okay in IE. In the Grade Center, when you click the chevron next to a student's name, then click Hide User the student will be hidden in IE, but not in Firefox. To work around this in Firefox you can hover over the Manage button, then click Student Visibility and hide your students there. This bug isn't slated to be fixed until version 9.2, so it will be quite a while before it gets fixed. We're currently on version 9.0 SP4.

We've seen cases where the scroll bars in the Grade Center weren't showing in IE 8, so those using IE 8 may want to try using Firefox instead. This bug will be fixed in the next Service Pack (SP5) update.

Another bug challenge we're seeing is the Mark as Read button doesn't work in the discussion board when using IE. This does work in Firefox. Grading discussion boards is faster in Firefox, so you may want to switch just for that reason.

You might want to suggest that your students use a different browser anytime they're having problems with Blackboard as the first possible solution.  This very often fixes problems.  Here is a list of the most compatible browsers for Blackboard that you can give your students.

My Tasks Error

If you or your students see this error, just ignore it.  It does no harm that we've been able to discover.  We have a call in to Blackboard for a fix.  Please pass this information on to your students, so they don't worry about it.

Send Blackboard Announcements by Email

When you create an announcement in Blackboard, usually an email is sent to your students that tells them they have an announcement to read in Bb. However, at the moment, emails are not being sent. So for now, it's best to use the "Send Email" tool in Bb to send announcements to your students. This has been reported to Bb and we hope for a fix soon on this.

Also, my workaround for getting rid of the "show courses" error message in the My Tasks module on the Welcome page only worked for some people. We're hoping Bb will give us a fix for this one soon as well.

The good news is that quizzes are working as expected and no one has reported any further problems with them!

Quiz Problem and My Tasks Error Message Solved

The quiz problems we've seen since last Thursday seem to have been solved.  Blackboard restarted 2 of our app servers today and that seems to have done the trick.  You should no longer be seeing the HTTP Status 500 error messages or just a white screen when clicking on a quiz to take it.  If you are still experiencing any problems with quizzes, please let me know.

Those of you that have been seeing the red "show course" error message in the My Tasks module on the Welcome page can possibly fix this error by going into any course.  In the Control Panel expand Customization then click Style.  Don't make any changes, but do click Submit to get Blackboard to reread the settings on this page.  Hopefully your error message will be gone.  If this doesn't work for you, please let me know.

Quiz HTTP Status 500 Error

The problem with quizzes just going blank that I reported in my last blog post has morphed into a new problem with quizzes.  The new error you may see when you click on a quiz to take it is:

HTTP Status 500 -

---

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: org.apache.struts.chain.commands.InvalidPathException: No action config found for the specified url.

---

This new error seems to occur in IE 7 and 8.  If you experience it in other browsers, please let me know.  We put in a request for a fix to Blackboard and hope to see a fix soon.

Quiz Whiteout Problem in Some Browsers

This is a good news/bad news post.  The good news is that the upgrade to Bb 9.0 SP4 is finished a bit early and you can go back to getting your courses ready for the fall semester.

The bad news is that in some browsers, you get a white screen when clicking on a test or quiz to take it (see the picture below).  This has been reported to Blackboard and we're looking forward to a fix as soon as possible.  Right now quizzes are working as expected in Firefox 3.6.6 and IE 7.  The browsers known to have problems are IE 8, Safari 5.0.1, and Firefox 3.6.8.

I'll post an update as soon as we find out any more information about this.

Poll Everywhere

As summer comes to a close and we start gearing up for a new semester, a cool new toy to play with will take the pressure off. The cool toy I have for you today is called Poll Everywhere. It's like clickers without the need for special hardware. Your students can use their phones to answer questions, either through a text message, or through a web site if they have a smart phone. Students in a computer lab can answer questions by going to the web site as well.

Poll Everywhere creates a PowerPoint slide you can copy into your presentation which will show the results live as they come in. For Higher Ed, they have a pricing plan that will allow many faculty to use it free. You can poll as many as 32 students for each class, for an unlimited number of classes.