There have been reports that people cannot login to Blackboard or the system hangs for a very long time, beginning around 8:30 a.m. We have reproduced the problem and are working on resolving it. Please check this blog for status updates. Thank you for your patience, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience.
Category: Warnings Page 10 of 12
Issue
When clicking external links in a course using the Internet Explorer (IE) version 8 web browser, you may be given a Microsoft prompt asking about accessing secure contgent or you may be taken to a “Cannot navigate to page” screen. (Note: this issue does not affect other browsers)
Solution
One option is to use another browser such as Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/).
Otherwise, at the dialog box when you click on an external link in IE 8, you are give two separate choices. If you click "YES" on this link then you get the problem navigating to the page. If you click "NO" the page will load as intended. If you click "YES", this will remain with you throughout your session. If that happens, close the browser and restart your session and it will prompt you again.
A permanent solution is to click on “Tools”, within IE menu structure, then “Internet Options”. A screen will come up with multiple tabs, click on the “Security” tab. Click on “Custom level” then scroll to “Display mixed content” under Miscellaneous and check”Enable” then click “OK”. (Please note: This option will not be maintained on public machines.) This option will allow you to view both secured and unsecured content within the IE 8 browser.
Blackboard Backpack, the application that allows you to download and view your Blackboard course content offline, will no longer be available after the upgrade to Blackboard 9. A representative from Agilix, it’s creator, said that it’s not compatible with BB9 and there will be no future releases.
Backpack will be disabled on July 19. If you have never used Backpack, you will not be affected.
On July 6, your students will be disappearing from last semester’s Blackboard courses. These courses have IDs that begin with 2009_20. So if you haven’t gotten around to archiving your courses and you want to keep a record of your students’ grades and discussion board interactions, now is the time to archive or download your Grade Center as an Excel file.
Other than student interactions and grades, all materials will remain in your course until you request its removal. This will happen 60 days past the last date of each semester across the UR Schools.
To download your grades, in Grade Center go to Manage > Download and save the full Grade Center. On the next screen, be sure to hit Download instead of OK.
See “Winterizing Your Blackboard Course” for more information on how to archive, the difference between archiving and exporting, and more.
Blackboard will be down from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday, May 7, for routine maintenance. Please plan accordingly.