Common Classroom Questions

 

Quiz Scenarios

Your Internet connection goes down while you are taking an online quiz.

• Attempt to reconnect. If you can't, quickly call your instructor and ask him or her reset your exam. This will allow you to retake the quiz.
  
• If you are able to reconnect, log back into your class and begin the quiz again. Blackboard will remember the answers to the questions you had already answered and saved. To help avoid this problem try to use a stable Internet connection such as Cable, DSL, or a campus computer lab. These connections are usually more stable than dial-up modems, resulting in fewer dropped Internet connections.

 

Before being able to reconnect to the Internet, the quiz-testing period closed. You are now unable to get back into the quiz.

• Contact your professor and ask them to allow you access to the quiz. Make sure your e-mail or phone call is detailed as to what happened. The professor has the final decision as to whether you will be allowed to complete the quiz. If possible, make sure you begin a quiz well before the testing period closes. This will allow you time to reconnect and finish the quiz.

 

You are taking a quiz using the AOL or MSN browser and experience a problem.

• Connect to the Internet using AOL or MSN then minimize the browser window and open Internet Explorer (version 6.0 is preferred).

 

You are taking a quiz with matching questions. You use the scroll wheel on the mouse and your answers to the matching questions change.

• Use the browser scroll bar to scroll up and down while taking the quiz. Avoid using the mouse scroll wheel.

 

You are taking a quiz and your browser is loading an old page.

• Set your browser to check for a new version of the page each time it visits the page. If you are using Internet Explorer click on Tools in the menu bar and then click Internet Options. On the resulting screen click the Settings button under Temporary Internet Files. Set it to “Every visit to the page” and click OK. Click OK again. Now refresh the page.

 

You changed an answer while taking a quiz and Blackboard did not record the new answer.

• If you change an answer, make sure you click the Save Answer button again. If you are ever unsure if you saved an answer, click the Save Answer button again.

 

You had a problem during the quiz and need to contact your instructor, as directed by the Helpdesk, for an academic issue. What should you tell your instructor?

• Give your professor a detailed description of what happened (time you were taking the quiz, the exact problem, and steps you took to try and resolve the problem). The professor will analyze the information and determine a course of action.

 

Discussions/Chat Scenarios

In the Discussion area of the course, you accidentally enter your posting in the wrong discussion topic. What can you do?

• Blackboard features Discussions, where both the instructor and learners can communicate asynchronously. Once the posting has been sent or posted, no one but the instructor may remove the message, so look before you leap! Be sure to check your writing for clarity, spelling and grammar. Most of the time, the instructor can offer an informal or casual discussion (Coffee Shop) topic where you can post informal messages and interact with other course members.

 

You have been required to post a message in a discussion topic. You type the message in a word processing program and copy and paste the text into the message box in Blackboard. You want to make sure that your posted message appears correctly.

• Blackboard uses HTML (hypertext mark-up language) code to display all postings. When you paste your message to the text box, you may lose some of the formatting (bullets, bold, paragraphs, etc.). To retain the formatting, you will either need to either enter your own HTML tags or save the word document as a web page and then copy and paste into the message box. It is always suggested to preview the text before posting.

 

While in a synchronous chat room, you want to send another team member a private note without letting others read it. What can you do?

• Sending a private note in the chat room is permitted in Blackboard. While you are in the chat room, you click on that particular person's name (or multiple names) showing up in the top right window. This will highlight their name. Type and send a message in the normal way and the message will be sent only to the person you selected. Click on the name again to turn off the feature and post public messages in the chat room.