Blackboard Known Issues/Problems
Last Updated 12/14//2007

Sub-system	Issue/Symptom	Resolution/Workaround
Login	Maintenance is performed between 4:30 and 5:00 am M-F.	Do not log in between 4:30-5:00am Monday - Friday.
Login	Error message – You have not provided valid authentication credentials	Check your browser settings at http://isapps.jmu.edu/tutorials/browser/ For Internet Explorer, click on the Browser Setting Checklist link for your browser version. On the browser setting checklist page, pay particular attention to step 3 (Security Tab Settings)
Login	Users behind a firewall may not be able to log in.	Disable your firewall, such as McAffee "Privacy and FireWalls", if you have one.
Announcements	Announcements do not remain displayed as long as their Display Until date indicates.  If older than 7 days, they must be viewed from the "View Last 30 Days" or "Last 30 Days" tabs	Make the announcement a Permanent announcement and still use the Display Until date to control its availability.
Assignment Feature	For instructors: Assignments with special characters in the Assignment name produce an error during Item Download.	Modify the name of the Assignment in the content area where the Assignment exists to remove the special characters, such as # / : . The Assignment name in the Gradebook can remain as the original name. This is an open case with Blackboard.
Collaboration	Virtual Classroom does not work with Java 6 (1.6)	This has been resolved and Collaboration now works with Java 6.
Content Areas	Instructors are unable to remove documents.	Modify the item and make it Unavailable. This is scheduled to be fixed in a future release of Blackboard.
Content Areas	Internet Explorer shuts downs when clicking on a link to a document.  The error is something like "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close."	- Start Internet Explorer - Under the Tools menu, select Internet Options - Click the Programs tab - At the bottom of the window, click the Manage add-ons button - Click on any (and all) AOL programs and under Settings click the Disable button - Click Ok - Click Ok
Communication and Assessment	Pop-up blockers prevent users from using the Lightweight Chat and/or Virtual Classroom tools.  They also prevent users from taking assessments that are set to open in a new window.	To simultaneously utilize the Collaboration tools and a pop-up blocker, you must hold down the CTRL key when clicking the Join button.  For tests/quizzes, press the CTRL key when clicking Yes to take the assessment. If this does not work, try manually disabling your pop-up blocker.
Course Tools	Pop-up blockers prevent instructors from using the Browse button on the Add Announcement page to choose an item to link to.	Temporarily turn off your pop-up blocker, create the link in the Announcement, then turn the pop-up blocker back on.
Discussion Board	Posts on the discussion board may not appear when using Internet Explorer	This is due to Internet Explorer caching the old page and a configuration change can be made in Internet Explorer. In IE6: Tools > Internet Options > General Tab > (Temporary Internet Files) >Settings > Check for newer versions of stored pages: Every visit to the page. IE7: Tools > Internet Options > General Tab > (Browsing history) Settings >Check for newer versions of stored pages: Every time I visit the webpage
Discussion Board	Thread subscriptions emails are unreliable	This has been reported to Blackboard and there is currently no resolution to this problem. Do not rely on being notified by email of new posts in a discussion board thread.
Discussion Board	When grading a forum, the posts will show for the students. But if there are any file attachments to the posts, the link to the attachments are not included. Thus the attachments are missed and may not be graded.	There is no resolution at this time. This is resolved in the next release of Blackboard (7.3).
Digital Drop Box & Group File Exchange	Files containing special characters cannot be opened/saved.	Do not submit files to the Digital Drop Box or Group File Exchange areas containing special characters in the filename, such as the pound sign (# / : ).
E-Grading	Comma-delimited files downloaded for e-grading produce an error when loaded to Ecampus.	The CSV file must be opened with Excel and saved again as type csv. See http://support.blackboard.jmu.edu/Faculty/e-grading.doc
Gradebook	Occasionally, an instructor will get an error when accessing the Gradebook.  The error says to contact the system administrator.	Closing the browser then starting over with a new browser window solves the problem.
LockDown Browser	Text size (font) is small when taking a test using the LockDown Browser	Before starting a test, it is a good idea to move around in Blackboard and make sure that the text size is readable. The LockDown Browser uses the font size that is set in Internet Explorer. (Menu Bar -- View, Text Size or Page, Text Size)
Online Journal	Journal entries do not word wrap when being read with Mozilla Firefox, etc.	The Online Journal works best with Internet Explorer.
Printing documents with IE7	When printing a document (Word, PDF, Excel, etc.) all that prints out is "The document in this frame cannot be printed as laid out."	This in an Internet Explorer 7 functionality issue.  The solution is to right-click on the link to the document, open it in a new window and print from there.