Infographic: Common Blackboard Exam and Assignment Issues

Contributed by Jenn Ray, Learning Technology Administrator

If you would like to share this infographic with your students, please use the following hyperlink to download the shareable PDF document: Infographic: Common Blackboard Exam and Assignment Issues. NOTE: You may be prompted to enter your UHCL account credentials to open this file from OneDrive.

Infographic: Need Blackboard Help?

Contributed by Jenn Ray, Learning Technology Administrator

If you would like to share this infographic with your students, please use the following hyperlink to download the shareable PDF document, which will enable them to use the clickable links: Infographic: Need Blackboard Help? NOTE: You may be prompted to enter your UHCL account credentials to open this file from OneDrive.

Editing Time Zone for Zoom in Blackboard

Contributed by Jenn Ray, Learning Technology Administrator

Since we began using the Zoom integration in Blackboard we have received occasional reports that meeting times are showing the wrong time zone. This has been reported by both Students and Faculty alike. Our UHCL Zoom account is set to the Central time zone, but the display on the Blackboard/Zoom integration page doesn’t always sync with the time zone the meetings are created for. Users can change their time zone on the Zoom LTI integration page by following the steps below:

Click the Zoom link in your Course Menu.

On the Zoom LTI page, click the pencil icon next to the current time zone.

Click the arrow for the time zone drop-down in the resulting window and select the US Central time zone (or preferred time zone).

After selecting the correct time zone, click Update.

Meetings should now display with the correct time on the Zoom LTI integration page. NOTE: This change doesn’t seem to transfer between devices/browsers. If you use multiple browsers, you will need to make the change in each browser.

Start-of-Semester Common Faculty/Staff Questions and Answers

Contributed by Jenni Willis-Opalenik, Ph.D., Director - Technology Learning Services

As an FYI for next term, here are a few significant inquiries that our team receives and some responses and reminders.

Can you please merge my Blackboard courses together (after the semester has started)?

Although it is possible to merge courses together once the semester begins, doing so is inherently a destructive effort that will delete any work or communication your students in the classes have submitted thus far. In addition, if you have already put content in the shells that will be merged, we can only copy over content from one of the existing shells, but not both. We strongly recommend that instructors submit merge requests at least a week before classes are made available to students.

We just hired a new instructor. Can you please give them access to the Blackboard shell(s) for their classes?

Instructor and student enrollments in Blackboard shells are based on multiple automated processes that run between eServices/PeopleSoft, Blackboard, and other local applications. As a result, we cannot manually add either new instructors or newly added students to credit course Blackboard shells. We also have to manual mechanism by which to expedite this automation. The automated processes begin only AFTER the hiring college/program/department enters the new faulty member as a primary instructor of record. Once the new instructor is in the schedule, they will have access to their Blackboard shell(s) within 72 hours. This same timeline applies to student enrollments after their schedule change/add is entered into eServices/PeopleSoft.

My TA keeps losing access to my class(es). How can we fix this?

It is CRITICAL that students serving as TAs do not enroll in the course(s) for which they will serve as TAs. Doing so will make it impossible for the IDT team to manually add the student's PCLAB account as a TA in the course(s). The student will need to have and use a UHCL staff computer account as a TA, instead of their student/PCLAB credentials. The TA's staff computer account should be automatically created within 48 hours of when their employment record is created or updated in eServices/PeopleSoft.

Blackboard Tip: Duplicate Grade Columns

Contributed by Izaak Diefenbach, Instructional Designer I (COE)

As we approach the end of the Spring semester, I want to look at an issue that a few instructors have asked me about. Over the last couple of weeks, I have gotten a few emails from professors who have graded an assignment, but the grades are not showing up in Grade Center. This is frequently caused by having multiple grade columns with the same name. For example, take a look at the screen shown on the left below. There are five columns for Chapter Summary assignments that do not have grades.

However, if you look at the screen capture on the right above, you will see five more columns with the same names as the columns above, but with grades this time. These five columns are hiding at the very end of Grade Center (I found them by moving the slider all the way to the right).

So, what caused the duplicate columns? Usually, this happens when an instructor uses content they’ve copied from another course, whether it is one of their old course shells or content they’ve copied from another instructor, then updates the assignments with new versions. For example, the course textbook is updated to a new version, requiring the chapter summary assignments to be updated as well. If the instructor creates new versions of the assignments but does not delete the old versions from the course, there will now be two grade columns in Grade Center, one for the original and one for the new version. Even if the assignment is hidden from students, the grade columns can still appear in Grade Center.

There are a couple of different solutions to this issue. First, you can delete the outdated assignment from the course. Find the assignment in the course, click the drop-down menu next to the assignment name, and select Delete from the menu (see below). You must delete the actual assignment. You can’t just delete the grade column. If the assignment still exists somewhere in the course, the grade column will not go away if you try to delete it.

If you want to save the assignment, even though you are not using it, you can hide the assignment from students, tell Grade Center not to count the assignment in the grade calculations, then hide the grade column in Grade Center.

Like the previous solution, click the drop-down menu next to the assignment name and select Edit from the menu this time. Next, clear the due date (if any) by unchecking the checkbox next to Due Date. Then find and select the Display of Grades option and uncheck “Include in Grade Center grading calculations” and “Show to Students in My Grades.” Then click the Submit button (see below). This will have the same effect as deleting the assignment, but it will still be there if you want to refer to it later. (Optional: you can hide the grade column from yourself as well by selecting the drop-down menu next to the grade column name in Grade Center and selecting “Hide from Instructor View.”)

Having duplicate grade columns can be confusing for you and your students, but it is an easy problem to fix. If you have any questions about these suggested solutions, please consult your designated Instructional Designer.

Reminder - Student Course Drops/Incompletes: Restoring Student Access

Contributed by Sam Houston, Learning Technology Administrator I

Two common issues can arise when trying to restore student access to a dropped or closed course. Please review the following information to avoid problems restoring student access to Blackboard courses.

• Student Drops: If a student adds and then drops a course, their account is marked unavailable in the Blackboard course. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to give the student's account access to the course again. This occurs because automated processes in PeopleSoft (e-services) process the last action, a "drop," so the account will continuously be marked unavailable in the course.
• Incompletes: If you have a student who received an incomplete in your course during a previous semester and would like us to add that student to your current semester course, please advise the student not to enroll in the current semester course officially. Instead, instructors should email supportcenter@uhcl.edu requesting that we add the student to your current semester course and advise your student to wait for our administrators to take care of the enrollment.

Locating and Showing Hidden Courses

Contributed by Sam Houston, Learning Technology Administrator I

Instructors can hide courses in their Backboard course lists. If you find that you are missing a course, you may have inadvertently hidden it from your view. Note: If you are missing a current merged course, please see our article, Has a Current Merged Blackboard Course Disappeared?, from our March 21, 2021 newsletter.

To look for and show hidden courses in your Blackboard course list:

Navigate to your courses page, click the drop-down menu next to Filter, and click Hidden from me.

NOTE: If “Hidden from me” is not in the drop-down menu, you currently do not have any hidden courses.

On the resulting page, click the ellipses (three dots) to the right of the course and click Show course.

Please note: If you show all your hidden courses, you should automatically be brought back to your default course view. However, if you choose to keep some courses hidden, you will need to click the drop-down menu next to Filter and click All courses to return to your default course view.

To hide a course from your view:

Navigate to your courses page, click the ellipses (three dots) to the right of the course, and click Hide course.

If you have any questions about the above information, please feel free to contact the Support Center at either 281-283-2828 or supportcenter@uhcl.edu, and a member of our team will be in touch to assist.

Blackboard Test Feedback Options and Audio/Video Feedback

Contributed by Henry Newkirk, Instructional Designer II (HSH)

In addition to posting a score or grade, Blackboard provides instructors the means to provide both general and specific feedback to students about their exam performance. In this section, I'll review some of those features.

When grading tests within Blackboard, instructors will see a section called "Feedback and Notes for Attempt" toward the bottom of the grading screen (as shown in this screen capture).



There are two types of information instructors can add to this section:

• Feedback to Learner: Assuming that you have your Test Options page correctly configured, students will be able to see any general comments that you provide them in this section. For example, instructors may want to offer some general comments on the student's performance, in addition to any question-specific feedback or scoring.
• Grading Notes: Grading Notes are never visible to students. However, instructors may want to record some notes for themselves to provide some context for how they assessed the individual student's performance. For example, an instructor might enter information and justification relating to the student's performance if a student challenges an exam grade or if the instructor will meet with a student to discuss and address their rationale for how they scored the learner's test.

In addition to the above options, an important choice is available when you create or edit a Blackboard test.

• Response Feedback: When creating or editing a Blackboard test, instructors will see a Response Feedback button located in the upper right of the Test Canvas screen (as shown in this screen capture).

If you provide question-specific feedback for your individual exam questions and you want that information to be visible to students after they complete the test, make sure that you click the Question Settings button. Then, on the Test Questions Setting screen, check the box located left of "Provide feedback for individual answers" and click the Submit button to activate that option.



Please refer to Blackboard's online help document Question Settings and Metadata for additional information about test question settings.

Audio/Video Feedback Recording Option

When grading exams, assignments, discussions, etc., within Blackboard, you can embed an audio or video recording of your feedback in the editor for students to watch or listen to when reviewing their grades. Students can watch or listen to your input alongside any text you include. Students can access the recording with grade details and any other feedback you leave; however, students can't download or save the recordings. Each recording is specific to the individual learner, so instructors can't record a single audio or video clip to use for all students. Instructors can record up to five minutes of audio or video feedback at a time while grading. Please review Blackboard's online support document Record Audio and Video for more information about this feature.

Test Results and Feedback Options

I'll close this week's article by reviewing the Test Results and Feedback Options that faculty can deploy when setting up their online tests. Keep in mind that students will take tests at different times. To maintain the security of your questions and answers, you can make a limited amount of feedback available until all students submit the test. You can then provide more details only after everyone submits their test. Once you have graded and provided your feedback, you can go where the test is deployed. Edit the Test Options for your exam to specify when and what type of feedback your students will receive.



Please review the lower half of Blackboard's support resource Test and Survey Options for more information about Test Results and Feedback to Students options.

As always, you are welcome to request a consultation with a member of our Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) team to learn more about Blackboard test feedback options or any other instructional design/technology topic. To request personalized assistance, don't hesitate to contact OIT's Support Center at 281-283-2828 or supportcenter@uhcl.edu.

Has a Current Merged Blackboard Course Disappeared?

Contributed by Samantha Houston - Learning Technology Administrator I

Did your merged course disappear from your course list in Blackboard? We see this behavior in Blackboard if one of your child course sections contains no active student users. The two leading causes of course sections without active users are:

1. All previously enrolled student(s) dropped the course; or
2. The class is canceled, thereby deactivating all student users.

When a child course section has no active students, Blackboard marks your instructor account unavailable in the child course. Since your account is inactive in one of the child courses, Blackboard also removes your access from the merged course. If you notice a course missing, please contact the Support Center (281-283-2828; supportcenter@uhcl.edu) with the merged course information (e.g., the course ID) so that a ticket can be routed to our team to resolve. Once we receive the ticket, we will separate the child course with no active student users from the merged course. As soon as the separation is complete, your account will automatically be reactivated, immediately restoring your access to the merged course in your current course list in Blackboard. NOTE: If students enroll in that section again, please let us know so that we can check the status of the shell in Blackboard and re-add the section to the existing merged course.

If you have any questions about the above information, please feel free to contact the Support Center at either 281-283-2828 or supportcenter@uhcl.edu, and a member of our team will be in touch to assist.

Post-Blackboard Outage Reminder: Manually Added Users (March 2022)

Contributed by Jenn Ray - Learning Technology Administrator I

As most of you are probably already aware of, we had a brief Blackboard outage on the afternoon of Monday, March 7. While most users’ access was restored by 6:00pm that same day, some users may remain affected.

Any user that was manually added to a course may still be unable to view that course. These users include:

• Teaching Assistants
• Embedded Tutors/Librarians
• Audit Students
• Students Resolving Incompletes
• Additional Instructors who are not Instructor of Record

If you have any users in these categories in your SP22 courses and haven’t already reached out to us about restoring their access, please send the Support Center the following information:
Course Rubric (Ex. MATH1234.01)

• The affected user’s name
• The affected user’s username
• The role that user held within the course (Student, TA, UHCL_ACCESS – which is a copy of the Instructor role for additional, non-instructor-of-record Instructors)

Upon receiving your email, the Support Center will create a ticket for us, and a member of the IDT team will get the affected user’s access restored.

NOTE: We have had a large number of requests already from some Instructors and from TAs reaching out about lost access. We can only assist TAs if the request to have them reactivated comes from the instructor of record for the course. Check your user list in your course to see if the user in question is available by going to Control Panel > Users and Groups > Users. Then, on the list look for the row for the user in question and check that they have the correct role in the course and that their Availability is set to “Yes”. If there are any changes that need to be made to availability and/or role, the information above can then be sent to SupportCenter@uhcl.edu.

Tech Tip: Adobe Flash End of Life (EOL)

For those of you who have previously included Flash-based materials in your Blackboard courses (e.g., SWF files, Flashpaper animations), please be advised that Adobe and all major web browsers recently discontinued support for all Flash-related tools and contents. Flash-based contents will no longer display in Blackboard and there is no workaround to make them do so. This is not a Blackboard issue, but rather a decision by the vendor/owner of the Flash technology, Adobe. NOTE: This end-of-life only impacts Flash -- NOT any of Adobe's other software products (e.g., Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Photoshop).

Name/Email Changes in Blackboard

Our team and our colleagues in the Support Center receive frequent inquiries about changing someone's name or email address in Blackboard. As much as we would love to assist in these matters, there is nothing that we can do in Blackboard regarding these requests. User data in Blackboard, including names, usernames, and email addresses are automatically populated from UHCL's Profiles application, which gets its data from E-Services/PeopleSoft. As a result, even if we manually change a name or email in Blackboard, when the next data update runs from Profiles to Blackboard, our change would be undone. For assistance with incorrect user data coming from PeopleSoft/E-Services, please contact UHCL's Student Enrollment Center.

Why are All of My Enrolled Students Not in My Blackboard Course?

At the start of every semester, there may be cases in which your roster of students in E-Services doesn't match the roster in your Blackboard course. The following information may help explain those discrepancies. As students add, drop, and change courses just before and just after the start of a new term, there can be a 2-3 day delay between when they submit a schedule change and when that change is reflected in Blackboard.  For example, students who add a course on Friday may not yet have access to the Blackboard shell for that class on Sunday, but they will likely see the course appear on Monday. Without getting too technical, schedule changes in PeopleSoft have to be processed locally and then each day's changes are updated overnight with UH Central/Main. Only after that update completes will the job be executed that eventually adds the student to or removes them from specific Blackboard classes.

Preparing Your Blackboard Grade Center

The Grade Center in Blackboard can seem like one of its most daunting tools. However, by planning ahead and getting the Grade Center configured early in the semester, you can make the end of the term a bit less stressful for yourself. It's important to ensure that, if you plan for students to track their course grades within Blackboard and/or you want to use the Calculated column option to compute students' final course grades, you have a Grade Center that is aligned with the grading information in your syllabus. Upon request, a member of our team can meet with you online to go over your syllabus information and graded activities/assignments in Blackboard, and help you make sure that all is well in your Grade Center. Some of the issues with which they can provide guidance are: cleaning up outdated/extraneous Grade Center columns; resolving problems mixing grading based on cumulative points with those based on percentages; ensuring that a grade column exists for all assignments/activities in your syllabus and schedule; and organizing Grade Center columns and hiding Grade Center rows for students who have dropped your course. To request Grade Center assistance, please contact the Support Center to have a help ticket created that will then be assigned to the most appropriate member of our team. It's best to get your Grade Center properly adjusted no later than the halfway point of each semester.

Understanding Adaptive Release Vs. Test Availability Exceptions

Do you ever need to make an online test or exam available to a student for an extended amount of time, or on a different date/time than the rest of your students? If so, make sure that you use a Test Availability Exception, instead of Blackboard's Adaptive Release feature, which can be confusing and somewhat problematic for faculty and students. For that reason, before using Adaptive Release, we recommend that you schedule a virtual appointment with your designated Instructional Designer to ensure that it is the best option to suit your specific instructional needs.

Helping Students Get Online Proctoring Assistance

Both of the proctoring services used at UHCL, ProctorU and Respondus LockDown Browser with Monitor, require some planning and familiarization by students in order to have a frustration-free virtual exam session. Faculty who administer tests with these services are encouraged to share the following resources with students 5-7 days before each exam: 

• UHCL Webpage: Online ProctoringResources – Under the Student Information menu, our team has posted critical "getting started" information, video tours, and other resources for both Respondus and ProctorU. Students should review the information for the proctoring service you require well in advance of exam day. 
• Respondus Technical Support Webpage - From this page, students can search the Knowledgebase for answers to common issues or they can use the Submit a Ticket link to submit questions to Respondus technical support. 
• ProctorU Support - From this page, students can submit a help request. In addition, if students log into their ProctorU account, they can access ProctorU's live chat to discuss their questions and technical issues. Although UHCL's support staff does not have access to either vendor's system, these resources have enabled most students to quickly resolve their proctoring issues. 

7 Things You Should Know About...

For this week's faculty support resources, we're focusing on another article from EDUCAUSE in which the authors describe the distinctions between emergency remote teaching and online learning at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic reflect on the past year-plus and where we are now. Please use the hyperlink in the reference information below to access this resource.

Moore, S., Trust, T., Lockee, B. B., Bond, M. A., & Hodges, C. B. (2021, November 10). One year later . . . and counting: Reflections on emergency remote teaching and online learning. EDUCAUSE Review. Retrieved November 22, 2021.

Crash Course Video: Using Categories in the Blackboard Grade Center

Contributed by Jenni Willis-Opalenik, Ph.D., Director - OIT Technology Learning Services

As we edge toward the end of the FA21 semester, many faculty are now turning their attention to the Grade Center in their Blackboard course(s). With that in mind, we offer the latest in our series of "Crash Course" video tutorials. In Crash Course - Grade Categories [9:27], we demonstrate how to create grade categories that align with your syllabus and grading criteria, and how to then use those categories to calculate course grades.

Blackboard Issue Alert - 404 Errors in Microsoft Edge

Contributed by Samantha Houston and Jenn Ray, Learning Technology Administrators

Last week we brought an issue to your attention where users were getting 404 errors when clicking on some things in Blackboard while using Microsoft Edge. At that time, the suggested workaround was to switch from Edge to Chrome or Firefox. While we still currently recommend either Chrome or Firefox when working in Blackboard, another solution to this issue was brought to our attention by one of our amazing faculty! Following these steps should resolve the issue so that users can continue accessing Blackboard content through Edge.

1. Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the Edge browser, then click Downloads from the Menu.
2. On the resulting menu, click the three dots icon again, then click Downloads Settings.
3. On the Downloads settings page, if you see the dot is to the right on the option for "Open Office files in the browser, click it so that the dot is to the left (switched "off").

As always, if you have any questions or if you experience this issue in another browser, please contact the Support Center (281.283.2828) and a member of our team will be in touch to assist.

Tech Tip: Where Are My Blackboard Courses For the New Semester?

Blank shells are automatically created late in the previous semester and should be available to you (except in cases of recent schedule changes) well before the new term begins. However, they will not appear as "Current Courses" in Blackboard until the new semester begins. For example, and as shown in the following screen captures from FA20 and SP21, to access the next semester's shells, begin by logging into Blackboard and clicking the Courses link on the left menu.

On the Courses screen, you have two options for displaying your next semester's shells: (1) click the Current Course menu item and change that setting to Upcoming Courses, or (2) click the Upcoming Courses link, located toward the right side of the screen.

Once you can see your new shells, you can click the star icon on the far-right side from the course name to add that course to your Favorites list.