Blackboard: Let Us Know Your Thoughts And Problems

[Chris Graham]

Hi all,

We are going to be approaching Blackboard in the new year regarding their support for SCORM to see if we can move forward on a number of issues. These include the review mode not working, the correct answer not reported in grade center, attempts marked as incomplete... and so on. What we really need to add weight to our argument is evidence, and so we were hoping you can help out... If you have time we would be very grateful if you could answer some questions.

• Do you still use Numbas, and if so, in Blackboard or a different VLE? Or did problems with Blackboard prevent you from using the Numbas system?
• What were the issues that you encountered, and did you raise a feature request / bug report with Blackboard (if so please could you let us know the link or reference number)?
  
• What version of Blackboard are you using? Hosted on-site or cloud?
• What workarounds are you using to get over any of the above problems?
• If you are using Numbas in Blackboard, what features would assist you in your implementation?
  
• In order to assess the impact, it would be helpful to know the institution/organisation, and how many students (or potential students) you have using Numbas?

Any info that you can give will be greatly appreciate. I'll also take this opportunity to wish you all the best for the coming festive season.

Thanks,

Chris & The Numbas Team

[David Martin]

We have used NUMBAS in Blackboard as a formative tool and are keen to use it summatively. Obviously it has to be robust to allow that.

..d

[David Wishart]

Our usage case is exactly the same in that we have been using Numbas formatively and are looking to roll out a summative test using it in the near future. In answer to the questions posed.

Do you still use Numbas, and if so, in Blackboard or a different VLE? Or did problems with Blackboard prevent you from using the Numbas system?

Yes, we use Numbas via Blackboard. See next question regarding issues.

What were the issues that you encountered, and did you raise a feature request / bug report with Blackboard (if so please could you let us know the link or reference number)?

We are seeing a drop out rate where results are not saved despite successful test completion similar to that described by Christian here

What version of Blackboard are you using? Hosted on-site or cloud?

3100.0.3-rel.51+917ccd3 hosted on-site

What workarounds are you using to get over any of the above problems?

On the largest current module that we are using Numbas for, we are requesting that students take screenshots upon test completion just in case their results disappear. This is not such an issue for tests performed in our classrooms but is less than ideal for those done by the students at home.

If you are using Numbas in Blackboard, what features would assist you in your implementation?

Fine for now

In order to assess the impact, it would be helpful to know the institution/organisation, and how many students (or potential students) you have using Numbas?

I work mainly (I do also teach some full-time in house classes) for the distance learning department of a university just down the road from yourselves. The full time students that we have written formative tests for have complete cohorts of up to 100 students split into groups. The distance learning cohorts that we would like to use Numbas for summative assessments can be 300 per cohort.

[glenn....@gmail.com]

We are currently using numbas as a summative quiz tool in our Masters subject. We use it though our LMS Learn Ultra, but since it isn't directly compatible with Learn Ultra, I beleive it is hosted on a Blackboard site which is linked to Learn Ultra. (Disclaimer: I have had nothing to do with the setting up of the quiz, I am just the head tutor for the subject).

While Numbas is a great tool, which we havn't yet fiuly exloited its features, we have had no end of trouble with the implementation on Blackboard, with students doing the 1hr quiz then it not saving their reult and giving them zero and saying they were only online for 2 minutes. Obviously this causes a lot of frustration in students who this happens to. Maybe we haven't set it up properly, but given the trouble we have had with it, it is unlikely we will continue to use it in the future unless we can find a more reliable way of hosting it. . We have had this problem in each of the three times we have run it, possibly affecting up to 10% of students.

[David Martin]

Are you using that as a SCORM package or via LTI in Blackboard. Blackboard/SCORM is known to have major issues.

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[Christian Lawson-Perfect]

Glenn, I share your frustration!

The loss of about 10% of students' data seems to be a persistent bug in Blackboard, with no fix in sight. The Numbas LTI provider is much more reliable - if your IT people can set it up locally, it works as seamlessly as the built-in SCORM player. There's documentation, with information what you need and how to set it up, at https://numbas-lti-provider.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

On Tue, 23 Apr 2019 at 06:57, <glenn....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Ian D Loasby]

The University of Sheffield has just moved to Blackboard SaaS. I'm assuming its 3600.0.0-rel.11+318243c but ill check that with our central teams. 

I'm just about to start testing our SCORM packages for our student admission diagnostic tests.  

I'd say the 10% failure rate was about right. Sometimes we get a mark in the grade centre but can't view the submission, On other occasions, it has only recorded the first half of the candidate's answers.

 I'm still trying to get our central team to set up the LTI.

Is anyone else on BB SaaS? 

thanks

Ian

[David Martin]

I think we are now but I haven't tested SCORM packages on it yet. I'll talk to the learning tech and see what difference this will make. We many be moving to Ultra in the next year or so.

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[Ian Loasby]

we are on the ultra pathway to but not in the very near future 

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[Mario Orsi]

Hi Christian and all,

Similar issues with data loss etc. also in my experience with SCORM.

I have asked my institution about installing the LTI tool, but there is some resistance.

It would be helpful for me, and perhaps others in a similar situation, to gather more information to build a case for having the LTI provider installed - for example:

- how big of a job is it? e.g., roughly how many person hours to set it up?

- how much work is needed to maintain the tool?

- IT tells me that due to their current workload, the easiest solution may be to outsource this work to somebody external - is anyone providing this service? 

- anything else that would be useful for IT to know?

Thanks in advance for any contribution,

Mario

Dr Mario Orsi

Senior Lecturer | Healthcare Science (Clinical Engineering) Programme Leader

Department of Applied Sciences | University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)

Mario...@uwe.ac.uk | +44 (0) 11732 85451 | Room 2A10 (Frenchay)

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[Christian Lawson-Perfect]

Hi Mario,

In case you haven't already seen it, there's some information in the documentation for the LTI provider about what you need: https://numbas-lti-provider.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting-started.html.

If you're following the installation instructions precisely - installing on a dedicated server or virtual machine running Ubuntu - you should be able to complete installation and setup within a couple of hours. For ongoing maintenance, you'll need to occasionally update the software, which only takes a few minutes each time a new version is released (two or three times a year). It's not imperative that you stay absolutely up to date, though. Apart from that, it will run indefinitely without any interference.

We're currently contracted to run an instance of the LTI provider for a local institution, but I don't think we have the resources to offer that service more widely.

Christian

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[Caroline Ferguson]

We are using self-hosted LTI with Bb but uploading SCORM packages exported from the editor. We are noticing that after students submit multiple choice assignments, oftentimes it is showing up as “in progress”. From the instructor’s end, the assignment is “incomplete”. If the student goes back into the assignment and clicks on the “Continue” button, it oftentimes will resolve the issue and the students will be able to view their grades. Sometimes however, the student will have to repeat this process several times before the mark appears in Blackboard. Here is a video that shows us having to click on this button in order to view our grade. It is not happening for our assignments that have numerical problems, only for the multiple choice assignments. In the multiple choice assignments, show results page is set to “never”, whereas for the problem-based assignments, show results page is set to “on completion”. Have you encountered this issue before?

Thanks,

Caroline

[Christian Lawson-Perfect]

I can't think of a reason why this behaviour would depend on the part type.

From the video, it looks like the exam might not have finished saving its data back to the server before you closed the window. The interface should be clearer about this - we have a warning that pops up if data fails to save after a certain amount of time, but that presupposes the window is still open. I've opened an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/numbas/numbas-lti-provider/issues/72

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[Sam Jemison]

Hi

• Do you still use Numbas, and if so, in Blackboard or a different VLE? Or did problems with Blackboard prevent you from using the Numbas system?

With the C-19 issues and hugely increased focus on online learning I've pushed for using Numbas, which is mostly great. I/we are using it for weekly formative assessments. I'm using SCORM (which I have no other experience with). I would like to incorporate the SCORM formative tests on a permanent basis, for pedagogical reasons.

• What were the issues that you encountered, and did you raise a feature request / bug report with Blackboard (if so please could you let us know the link or reference number)?
  

Some students appear to complete the test and their grade is not saved, sometimes there are details in the grade centre, usually it just shows the test as 'started'. I had assumed the issue was with the student's usage/software/hardware, as they are mostly speaking English as an additional language and I cannot see what they are doing, it has been a difficult challenge and I did not think to report it to Blackboard.

• What version of Blackboard are you using? Hosted on-site or cloud?

9.1 2017 Q4 release of Blackboard Learn. I think its hosted on site.

• What workarounds are you using to get over any of the above problems?

Trying to get students to print as pdf and send to their tutor, however I do not officially run the module and am the only person familiar with Numbas so other staff find supporting on this issue more challenging. I am concerned that despite this being a very useful tool this will prevent me being able to further its use. I also do not want all of the students doing this due to the administrative workload. Also the students would not know they need to do this until they have left the exam and see their score is not recorded. I'm not sure if this means they then need to repeat the test and print as pdf, which has lead to non-submission.

• If you are using Numbas in Blackboard, what features would assist you in your implementation?
  

Reliability in terms of storing results in grade centre. The uncertainty on this issue limits 'buy-in' from the students (and staff!)

• In order to assess the impact, it would be helpful to know the institution/organisation, and how many students (or potential students) you have using Numbas?

Potentially this could be for around 200 international university students per year, across whichever modules I am teaching on until I have developed the resources and they can run without my support!

[Alexander Holvoet]

Dear All

I'm a teaching assistant at KU Leuven, Belgium. We are already using Numbas for formative assessments, and have occasionally used it for small-scale summative assessments. We are looking at methods to incorporate Numbas in larger-scale summative exams. We already have Numbas LTI Provider set up on a local server, which worked well for the small-scale assessments. However, we would like to have a backup method, in case this server cannot handle the load or a not-immediately-solvable crash occurs (we do not have a dedicated IT-team for this server, only the teachers themselves). I read in the documentation there's data loss when using the SCORM player on Blackboard.

Has the data loss bug been solved or improved in some way in Blackboard Ultra, compared to Blackboard Original? We are hoping of using this as a backup for the exam. Christian mentioned in this thread in 2019 that no fix was in sight?

Kind regards,

Alexander

Op dinsdag 19 mei 2020 om 17:04:08 UTC+2 schreef samuel...@gmail.com:

[Johan Slabbert]

Good day. 

Newcastle does offer a hosted service for Numbas which they support, monitor and keep updated (for a price). 

Maybe get a qoute from them. My experience with Ultra is limited but it is stil using the older SCORM version. 

The Numbas LTI hosted platform has many advantages compared to SCORM (my limited experience).. 

Johan Slabbert
Educational Technology Project Manager (University of Pretoria)

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[Christian Lawson-Perfect]

As far as I know, nothing has changed in Blackboard's SCORM player and we still get occasional reports of data loss from people who try it.

Unless you're running the LTI tool on a seriously small server, like a Raspberry Pi, I wouldn't expect it to fail under load - there's very little server-side work.

We use either paper copies, or running the exam standalone and taking screenshots or PDF transcripts of students' results, as a backup. We haven't had to use it yet, though. You could run the exam in Blackboard's SCORM player and make sure each student prints their transcript to PDF at the end, to cover any cases of data loss.

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[Alexander Holvoet]

Dear Christian and Johan

Thank you for the responses and ideas! We'll have a look into our backup options.

Kind regards,

Alexander

Op maandag 24 april 2023 om 09:10:50 UTC+2 schreef christia...@gmail.com: