We are aware of students being in Blackboard courses that they have either dropped or not registered for and are attempting to address the issue. Please let us know if you are impacted by this at blackboard@richmond.edu and it is not addressed by the end of the day.
Thank you!
As you begin the Fall 2018 semester, here are some important updates to Blackboard we’d like to share with you.
Automatic Course Creation
All courses will now be created in Blackboard automatically. There is no longer a course request system. Your courses will be displayed in the “My Courses” area on the page after the login screen. All created courses are set to unavailable and must be turned on by the instructor when ready. You can do this using the Qwickly module (http://goqwickly.com/demos/) on the home screen of Blackboard or by going into the course and going to Customization -> Properties -> Availability.
The Univeristy of Richmond updated to the New Box View service over winter break. A problem viewing documents as arisen so when a user goes into the Inline Grading interface within Blackboard Learn the New Box View service does not load. Instead the user sees a blank space in place of the iframe containing the New Box View service. Users see a blank space because disabling 3rd-party cookies blocks the New Box View from being able to convert and display documents within the iframe in Blackboard Learn. Therefore, the New Box View service requires requires the use of cookies to render documents within the browser.
Solution/Workaround
Some browsers (such as Safari) disable the use of 3rd-party by default but allow users to enable the use of cookies on a per-site or all at once. Users may follow these steps to allow Box’s cookies to be stored on their device and prevent this issue from occurring:
Browser Settings or Preferences > Privacy
Select “Always allow” (or similar)
Refresh the page with the viewer on it
Return to Browser Settings or Preferences and revert to the default of “Allow from websites I visit” (or similar)
If 3rd-party cookies must be disabled, some browsers allow for domain exceptions to be added. Please Allow [*.]box.com (Chrome) or https://box.com (Firefox).
If you are having a problem logging into Blackboard or seeing Blackboard at all, there are few things you can do to help alleviate the problem.
First, try clearing your browsers cookies and cache. Here is a link to a help resource on how to do that for the most popular browsers: http://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/home/ You also can press Control + Shift + Del on a PC or Command + Shift + Delete on a Mac.
If you are still unable to access Blackboard, make sure your browser is up-to-date. Because of security and safety issues, browsers release new versions almost every month so it is important that you get your browser to the latest update. You can check here to see what the latest update is for the most popular browsers: https://updatemybrowser.org/ Please note that Blackboard will not work with Internet Explorer 10. You must have Internet Explorer 11 on your system in order to access Blackboard.
If you have tried all the above and still are having a problem connecting, please contact the University Help Desk to help resolve your problem.
After the maintenance down time on December 29th, the following change will be reflected in the inline grading feature in Blackboard.
Blackboard’s current service for the implementation of inline grading is through the Crocodoc tool, and Box Inc. (who owns it) has decided to discontinue it. The end-of-life date for Crocodoc is January 15, 2018.
As a result, Blackboard has updated their inline grading capability to leverage the Crocodoc replacement, “Box View”. Box View offers several improvements over Crocodoc, including improved rendering fidelity and expanded support for new file types. The University of Richmond will update our server on December 29th and move to the new Box View.
During this time between December 29, 2017 and January 15, 2018, the Crocodoc service and ability to view previously annotated documents within a browser won’t be available but the rest of Blackboard will function properly. The document viewing capabilities are the only feature affected during the transition.
After the transition, users won’t be able to change the existing annotations made in Crocodoc as all annotations are read-only in the new Box View. The Crocodoc annotations are “burned” into a PDF and users can’t remove or change the annotations. Users can add new annotations with the New Box View annotation tools, but they can’t interact with annotations created in Crocodoc.
This table compares the two annotation services.
|
Functions and Details |
Crocodoc |
New Box View |
|
File types for annotations |
PDF, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, DOC, and DOCX |
Over 100 different file types |
|
Videos and images displayed |
No |
Yes |
|
Course areas |
Original Assignments |
Original Assignments |
|
Annotation types |
Text- and point-based comments, highlighting, and drawing |
Point-based comments and highlighting |
|
Download |
Users download a copy of a student file with the option to download in the original format or in a PDF version that includes the annotations |
Users can download a copy of a student file, but annotations won’t appear |
|
Print function |
No |
Yes |
|
Students |
Can’t add annotations to documents |
Can’t add annotations to documents |
We understand that may have come to rely on Crocodoc when they do inline grading in Blackboard. After we upgrade, the transition to the new Box View will be as seamless as possible. Crocodoc will not be available for a few minutes and then New Box View replaces Crocodoc in the affected course grading areas.
*Comparison view of Crocodoc and New Box View annotations on an assignment
While the Crocodoc service will technically reach end-of-life, the databases that contain student-submitted data and documents won’t be deleted or destroyed. Blackboard is working with Box to define a long-term strategy for the decommission of Crocodoc servers permanently. While we don’t have a timeline available yet, we have no expectation of a decommission of Crocodoc servers.
After the end-of-life date and during the migration, the Crocodoc service will display a “Service Unavailable” message to users.
New Box View will completely replace the Crocodoc feature in Blackboard, with the same general user experience and interface elements. Users will see some slight differences, primarily more streamlined buttons and options.
You shouldn’t expect significant change management for your users. Some users may not notice the change at all due to the similar nature of the UI between the two services.
*Comparison view of Crocodoc and New Box View annotations on an assignment
The transition won’t impact Blackboard’s rubrics or rubric data. Instructors will be able to use the same rubrics within the inline grading interface alongside the new Box View service. Rubrics are a separate feature that doesn’t share code with the Crocodoc or new Box View service.
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