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Blackboard: FAQ / Known issues

Find workarounds and information on known issues with Blackboard Ultra for faculty and students in this resource.

In this resource:


Where are my courses?

  1. Navigate to the Courses tab in the global navigation menu on the left side of your screen. 
  2. Then, use the Current, Past, and Upcoming tabs at the top to locate your courses.
    • Pin courses to the top of your Courses tab by clicking the star ☆ on the right to "favorite". 
      • ☆ Favorites should persist over the Courses tab and Activity Stream tabs.
    • You can also use the drop-down menu at the top-center of the Courses tab to access the sections. 

Courses tab: Current, Past, and Upcoming

Course visibility / sorting on the Courses tab is governed on start date and end date, typically set by Banner through the synchronization process between Blackboard and the Middleware and Banner. This can vary based on your role and access needs. Future developments to the LMS may improve this experience. This page will be updated when further information is available. 

Students: See this resource if you are missing courses.

Faculty: Ensure your course is deployed to Blackboard if your course is missing from Blackboard.

Safari

For the best experience, use Firefox or Chrome and disable extensions like adblockers. 

Please do not use Safari with Blackboard. In addition to the other known issues with Safari and Blackboard tools, the upgraded Ultra experience will not render properly in Safari, including complete absence of course content. 

Log in to Blackboard

Please login using the CUP Portal.

View our detailed resource on logging in. 

Navigation menu (sidebar) missing

The navigation menu may automatically collapse, or not appear at all when accessing Blackboard Ultra. 

  1. Move your mouse pointer to the left hand edge of the screen to the thin blue or grey vertical stripe (pictured in the red box in the image below).
  2. When hovering over the menu, a button with an arrow should appear. Click button to expand the course menu.

Zooming out inside of your browser may also restore the missing sidebar menu, which automatically collapses at certain browser window sizes.

  • You can zoom out in your web browser to gain the "docked" course menu experience, but this may make the text hard to read.
  • You may also experience relief by maximizing your browser window or otherwise resizing the browser window.

Zoom Keyboard Shortcuts (Chrome/Firefox)

  • Windows: 
    • Ctrl + / -
  • Mac:  
    • Command + / -

Course navigation menu missing (inside your course)

The behavior of the sidebar navigation may be different when inside of a course.

The course menu, containing links to weekly instructions, assignments, discussions, etc., may automatically collapse, or not appear at all.

If you cannot locate your navigation menus, you may experience relief by trying either available option below. 

(1) Global Navigation: Click the hamburger menu (☰) to access the main Blackboard navigation menu, which provides links to access your Activity Stream, Courses, and more.

(2) Course Menu: Click the arrow button to access your course menu and course content, which includes your course content weekly links, grades, and other tools used inside of your course. 

To gain the "docked" course menu experience, use the suggestions above for adjusting your browser zoom settings and/or window sizes.

Notifications (emails from Blackboard)

Your notifications will be on by default, and may include a daily digest email, or per instance alerts sent.

To reduce the frequency of the emails and alerts, customize these in the Activity Stream or in your settings. Comprehensive information is available in our resource below. 

Needs Grading: Sorting issues

In a recent release of Blackboard, the engineers have elected to change the behavior of the sorting for this tool. In the Blackboard (Bb) Learn 'Needs Grading' tool, there is a setting called "Show attempts that don't contribute to user's grade". 

The November 2019 release (3700.14.0) changed that setting to now be "checked" by default.

Previously the default setting was "unchecked". If you allow multiple attempts that require manual grading, you may now see more items listed in the 'Needs Grading' tool. Please visit the Grading multiple attempts help page for more information about this feature. 

This settings is one of the filter options in the 'Needs Grading' tool, so it will not be saved for future logins. This is a filter setting that you will have to change each time you go into 'Needs Grading' tool.

 

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