Recently the University made a change to the Blackboard system so that the pages will be more secure for students. This allows us to protect student data and ensure students have a safer online experience in Blackboard.
Unfortunately there was an issue in the first week and a half of implementing this security change where some files uploaded to Blackboard between 7 October and 18 October became corrupted on the Blackboard site. It affected Word and Powerpoint files in the 2003 format or earlier which had certain URLs in their text (youtube.com or students.shu.ac.uk). The 2003 format is the old .doc and .ppt format. Files in the newer .docx or .pptx format were not affected. Some PDF files containing those URLs may have been corrupted as well.
Files that were uploaded before 7 October or after 18 October were not affected and should open correctly.
We recommend that you check any Word 2003, Powerpoint 2003 or PDF files you uploaded during the last week and a half to ensure that they are readable on Blackboard. If a file does not open correctly, please delete it and upload the original again and it should upload correctly from this point onwards.
We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience with this unexpected issue as we move to a more secure system. If you need support with this process, please contact us using the Bb-support tab in shuspace.
Hi. Thanks for the note. While I’m sure this couldn’t have been predicted, it did cause some disruption. How sure can you be that these problems won’t reoccur, and why did it have to coincide with the busiest time of the year?
Thank you.
John Freeman
J.P.Freeman@shu.ac.uk
Hi John,
I’ve talked to the technical teams and they have assured me that this particular error was down to an error in the configuration of the new system. That configuration has now changed which will prevent this particular error from occurring again.
As far as the timing, the change to the new system was planned for end of August/beginning of September originally, however there were delays in its implementation due to unforeseen circumstances. There was a recognition that there was an element of risk in doing it during teaching time, though this was balanced against the risk of failing to protect our students through providing a secure environment for them.
All of us involved in e-learning apologise for this disruption and the technical teams are prioritising addressing any other bugs that surface and could affect the student experience.
Interesting perspective, but it was not just old formats that were affected.
Are old formats still affected, or do students need to upgrade their systems?
This particular problem should have only affected the .doc and .ppt type formats, rather than files saved as .docx or .pptx. Based on what was happening, I’ve been told it is not possible for a file saved as .docx to have been affected. However, it is possible you encountered a different error, so I’m going to ask an e-learning advisor to follow up with you.
Note that it didn’t matter which programme the students used to open the file: the corruption was happening on the Blackboard system. So students do not need to upgrade any software. Old formats should work fine for any files uploaded before the problem started (7 October) and after 18 October.
My students have just reported that.pdf’s on one of my Bb sites freeze with incomplete downloads. I have deleted and re-uploaded the files but the problem persists. Is this a related problem, and if so when can we get a fix for it?
David Crowther
I’ll make sure someone investigates this with you as soon as possible to find out if it is related. It may be down to that specific PDF file rather than a widespread problem. The earlier problem which affected PDFs would not appear if you re-uploaded the file.