There is a new issue to report for all Mac users taking online math and science classes in Blackboard. A recent update has caused the loss of the WebEQ equation editor which used to appear as a function button in the Discussion Board text editor, as seen below.
So far, this appears to affect all browsers for Mac, including Firefox. Blackboard is aware of the issue, but there is no ETA on a fix or an indication that it will be repaired. Therefore, if you’ve signed up for an online math or science class for next quarter and intend to use your Mac for coursework, you should be prepared to do the following:
- Contact the instructor of the course to find out if they will be requiring you to use the equation editor in Blackboard.
- Prepare to use another computer for at least the Discussion Board content of the course, or if you have an Intel based Mac, consider using Bootcamp or other virtual machine software to install an additional operating system like Ubuntu or Windows, which are still loading WebEQ at this time.
This issue won’t be a problem if you’re a student, but faculty might come across it when trying to download a zipped file of submitted assignments from the Gradebook using “Item Download.” The error is triggered by spaces in the assignment title, such as “Project 6″ or “Research Paper.” The workaround seems to be removing the space(s) in the assignment name in the content area where the links are. You can use an underscore, hyphen, or just remove the space and then try the item collect routine again. A report from an English professor advises Mac users to remove the spaces and not use an underscore or hyphen – theallonewordapproach worked best for her Mac.
There is a problem with special characters… No, not your Uncle Floyd, but those unique characters that you might use in a file name (like # or &, etc.). In Blackboard, some of these special characters are reserved by the system as operator commands and are considered illegal characters for users. If you attempt to submit a file (like an assignment) using one of these illegal characters in the file name, you’ll likely receive an error message and your assignment will not be submitted. The illegal characters you should NOT use include #, &, $, @, /, \, !, ?, %, ^, *… you get the idea (the list is long and includes most special characters).
