Known Issues

From e-Learning Documentation

Revision as of 16:43, 21 August 2011

Last updated: 8-21-2011

Resolved Known Issues As issues are resolved, they are moved to this area.

General

Unable to Download PDFs in Firefox and Chrome

• Problem: After a recent Adobe update, some PDFs will not open within Firefox and Chrome. This problem happens anywhere on the internet, not just in Sakai.
• Workaround: You can right-click the name of the file and open it on your computer, or you can use Internet Explorer, or you can use this Firefox Plug-in.
• Status: Many people now have the plug-in installed and so this issue is not as common. --Jolaine 10:40, 15 April 2011 (EDT)

Users in Sakai Cannot Change Gatorlink Username

• Problem: Sakai users cannot change their gatorlink username due to a conflicting account being created.
• Workaround: There is no workaround. Username cannot be changed at this time.
• Status: Possible resolution at some point in the Fall semester.

Need Special Instructions to Set up Webdav in Windows 7 and Mac Snow Leopard

• Problem: Windows 7 and Mac Snow Leopard operating systems do not follow the set-up instructions in the Resources tool.
• Workaround : Go here for instructions on setting up a Webdav connection in Windows 7. No workaround for Mac Snow Leopard is available at this time.
• Status Fixed for Windows 7, Snow Leopard is under investigation.

--Jolaine 09:42, 28 January 2011 (EST)

Some Users See 404 Error When Logging In (Rare)

• Problem: If a user is enrolled in a Project Site/Course that is deleted, other enrollments are affected causing login problems.
• Workaround: Report the issue to LSS staff (call 352-392-4357 Option 3 or write learning-support@ufl.edu). The problem can be fixed manually but may take time. In the meantime, you can login at https://elearning2.courses.ufl.edu/portal/site/. To prevent the problem, do not delete any Project Site that has users enrolled.
• Status: Under Investigation

User Sees Different "My Workspace" than Majority (Rare)

• Problem: Some users may see extra tools on the My Workspace page - such as Syllabus, Roster, Podcasts, etc. that should not be there.
• Workaround: Issue can be reported to HD/LSS staff and can be fixed manually but may take time.
• Status: Resolved. (This problem is corrected for current and new users. This only applies to users who were early users of e-Learning in Sakai.)

Messages to Gatorlink Email from Sakai Captured by UF Spam Filter

• Problem: There are many places in Sakai where email notifications can be sent to users from within the system. Some of these emails are captured in the UF spam filter.
• Workaround: Check the "Junk E-Mail" folder in your email account and mark any posts from Sakai as "not spam."
• Status: Under investigation.

Auto-Groups Does not Work

• Problem: If using Auto-Groups to create groups of everyone in a specific role, it appears that the group was created successfully, but if you come back to the group later, there will be no members in it.
• Workaround: You can do the same thing with manually created groups.
• Status: Under investigation.

Assessments

Assessments Tool Does Not Display Well in IE

• Problem: If all questions as displayed or parts of questions are displayed on a single page they do not load. Assessment does not load at all if using IE 7 or 8 on Windows 7 (Microsoft Vista not tested) works fine on XP.
• Workaround: Use Firefox or display each question on its own webpage.
• Status: Under investigation

Assignments

Instructor Comments to Students Shows HTML Coding

• Problem: When instructors type comments to the students in the "Instructor's Summary Comments" box, the HTML coding shows to the students.
• Workaround: This problem is manageable as long as your comments are simple and do not use a lot of formatting or special characters. Options:
  • If the student submitted an attachment, make your comments on the document itself.
  • If the student submitted using the inline box, make your comments in the inline box. Enclosing your comments in {{double curly brackets}} will make them appear in red.
  • You may write your comments in a document and add it as an attachment to the Assignment.
• Status: Under investigation.

Some Grades Not Released When Instructor Clicks "Return to Student."

• Problem: On occasion, the "Return to Student" option does not release the grade to the students. The Instructor's work is saved, but the grade is not released.
• Workaround: On the Submissions page, check the box beside the name of the student and click Release Grades at the upper right corner of the screen.
• Status: Under investigation.

Turnitin Report Not Always Generated

• Problem: Some Turnitin reports are not generated.
• Workaround: The Turnitin company has verified that a MS Word document that has been saved in a different version will not generate a report. For example: a student begins a paper on a laptop computer that is running MS Word 2007, but finishes the paper on a machine that is running MS Word 2010. This paper will not generate a Turnitin report unless the student saves the final version as a MS Word 2007 document.

Many of the files that do not get a report have naming convention issues. Make sure students know that their files should not have spaces in the name and should only have one extension. Do not use characters in the file name other than letters, numbers, - or _. Sometimes the file actually does get submitted to Turnitin, but does not generate a report icon. To see if there is a report there, click on any other student's Turnitin report and at the top of that screen you will see a link that says "Paper # of #." Click that link. You will see a drop-down of all reports. See if the student's report is in the list.

• Status: Under investigation.

--Narasi 12:28, 6 July 2011 (EDT)

Content Editor

Content Editor Freezes in Internet Explorer 9

• Problem: When insert buttons are clicked in FCKEditor using IE9, the insert window opens but appears blank and frozen. There is no way to close or cancel the window without logging out of Sakai. This occurs in the following options: Insert Link, Insert Flash object, Insert Image, Entity picker , Insert Table, Insert Special Characters, Insert Smiley, Insert Anchor. View screenshot.
• Workaround: Use a different browser when using the rich text editor, for example Firefox or IE 8. Internet Explorer 9 is not a supported browser at this time, so avoid upgrading until this issue is solved. See Instructions for removing IE9 and restoring IE8.
• Status: Resolved in the planned release for August 9, "Ariel."--Jolaine 09:26, 29 July 2011 (EDT)

Entity Picker in Content Editor Not Fully Functional

• Problem: There is an option in the Content Editor called the Entity Picker . This option is supposed to allow you to link to live Discussions, Assignments and Tests & Quizzes, but does not function as intended. Our recommendation at the present time is not to use the Entity Picker.
• Workaround: None.
• Status: Under investigation.

Spell Check Not Available in Content Editor

• Problem: If you are using Firefox, the spell-check icon will be grayed out. IE will shows icon but will prompt for a IE plugin.
• Workaround: Compose the content in MS Word and use the spell-checker there. Cut and paste from Word into the Content Editor using the "Paste from Word" icon.
• Status: After the August 9th planned upgrade (Ariel), when using IE, the spell-checker plug-in will automatically pop up for installation. After that is installed, the spell-checker will work in IE. Still not available in other browsers.--Jolaine 09:28, 29 July 2011 (EDT)

Discussions

Can't open Attachments that have spaces in the file name in Discussions

• Problem: If someone adds a file attachment to a Mail or Discussions post, the file will not open if there are spaces in the file name.
• Workaround: Do not attach a document with a space in the file name. Use _ or - instead of spaces. One may also replace the "+" sign in the URL where the space is with a "%20" and this will display the page.
• Status: Will be resolved in the planned August 9th upgrade (Ariel). --Jolaine 09:29, 29 July 2011 (EDT)

Can't Limit Discussions to Groups if Students Have Viewed Them

• Problem: Students may be able to access and participate in groups they do not belong to. This happens if the groups permissions were put into effect after making all topics available to the site participants. User who visited topics prior to the group restrictions will continue to have access to those topics.
• Workaround: Make sure group permissions are set for group topics first prior to releasing these topics to the students.
• Status: Under investigation.

--Pchap 12:08, 20 May 2011 (EDT)

Gradebook and/or Gradebook 2

View Student by Section Does Not Show All Students

• Problem: If you View Students by Section in Gradebook or Gradebook2, in some cases you may not see all the students listed here
• Workaround:
  1. Go to Site Info and change your role from Instructor to Facilitator using the drop down. Click Update Participants at the bottom of the page.
  2. Go to Edit Class Rosters and check the "remove" box beside each roster. Click Update.
  3. Go back to Edit Class Rosters and click Add Rosters. You will see the sections to which you have access listed below. Click Select Anyway at the right side of the screen beside each section that you wish to associate to this site. Follow the prompts to finish the process.
  4. Go back to Site Info and Change your role from Facilitator to Instructor
• Status: We have applied a fix to address this problem on Aug 19th 2011, however, instructors will have to use the workaround to make this function work as desired.

--Pchap 12:43, 21 August 2011 (EDT)

UFID Column Causing Problems with File Import

• Problem: An update was recently made to the system that adds the UFID column and the Section number column to the file when Gradebook and Gradebook 2 are downloaded. This was done to provide the information for grade submission to Grade-A-Gator. The problem occurs if you try to import that file back into Gradebook or Gradebook 2. The imported file will convert the UFID to the student name and the import will fail.
• Workaround: Delete the UFID column and the Section column before importing the file.
• Status: Under investigation.

Gradebook Won't Export if Roster is Very Large (1000 students)

• Problem: If you have a large number of students, neither Gradebook nor Gradebook 2 can be exported.
• Workaround: Change display settings to show all students in the Gradebook. Once the Gradebook displays all the students perform the export using the table below as a guide.
• Status: Under investigation.

--Pchap 12:28, 2 February 2011 (EST)

Terminology Incorrect When Using the "Grade Using Percentage" in Gradebook 2

• Problem: In Gradebook 2, if you set the "Grade Using:" option to "Percentage," the creation of Gradebook Items (columns) still asks for "points" when it should say "Percentage of total grade."
• Workaround" The tool actually functions the way it should, it is just the terminology that is off. When grading by percentages all columns are worth 100 points. When you are creating a new column, in the field where it asks you to enter the "Points," enter the "Percentage of total grade."
• Status: Under investigation.

Can't Change from Points to Percentages Once Point Data has Been Entered in Gradebook 2

• Problem: In Gradebook 2, if you have set up the gradebook to use points and you have already entered points in columns, you cannot change it to grade using percentages. If you try, you will get an error message.
• Workaround: If you have to change from points to percentages in the middle of the semester, use Gradebook rather than Gradebook 2. Once you change Gradebook to percentages, the changes will be reflected in Gradebook 2.
• Status: Under investigation.

Mail

Can't Open Attachments that have spaces in the file name in Mail

• Problem: In mail attachments, spaces in the file name cause an error message and the attachment will not open.
• Workaround: If you are asking students to submit a file to you in the mail tool, let them know that there should not be spaces in the file name. Use _ or - instead of spaces. If you receive a mail with spaces in the file name, forward it to yourself within Sakai Mail. In the forwarded message, the attachment opens fine.

Another option is to adjust the URL on the "error" page. Cut and paste the URL of the error page into Notepad. Using "find and replace," replace the "+" with "%20." Cut and paste the correct URL into your browser window.

• Status: Resolved in the planned August 9 upgrade (Ariel). --Jolaine 09:31, 29 July 2011 (EDT)

Syllabus

Syllabus Redirect Does Not Work Consistently

• Problem: The Syllabus tool offers the option to "redirect" which lets you enter the url of a file in Resources or on the web. This option works fine as along as the file you are pointing to is an HTML file. But pointing to a PDF or MSWord file or other type of static text file doesn't always work.
• Workaround: Use "create" option instead of "redirect" option or if you want to use "redirect," point to an HTML file.
• Status: Under investigation.

Publicly Viewable Option Doesn't Work in Syllabus Tool

• Problem: When creating a Syllabus, there is the option to make the syllabus "publicly viewable" which means that you should be able to send a link to the syllabus to people outside the UF system and allow them to see the file. This is not working. Currently, people are still asked to authenticate into the UF system in order to see the file.
• Workaround: Place the syllabus file in the Resources and make it publicly viewable. The URL captured from the Resources (Actions > Edit Details > Web address (URL)) site does work as publicly viewable. If you still want the file to be available for students in the Syllabus tool, use the "redirect" option in the Syllabus tool to point to the file in Resources. If you use "redirect" the Syllabus file needs to be an HTML file.
• Status: Under investigation.

--Jolaine 10:04, 7 March 2011 (EST)

Test & Quizzes

Tests and Quizzes Stuck "In Progress"

• Problem: Under certain circumstances, tests can become stuck “In Progress” and never submit. This could happen if the student closed the browser or lost internet connection without hitting submit and never went back to finish. In your list of Published/Inactive tests, if there are any numbers in the “In Progress” column, those tests are stuck. View screen shot
• Workaround: You can force the submission of these tests by clicking Select Action beside the test and from the drop-down menu choose Settings. Under the heading “Submissions” click the box beside “Saved assessments will be automatically submitted after the due date passes.” You must have a due date in place for this to function. This process runs every morning at 4am, so after that time, stuck tests will be automatically submitted.
• Status: Under investigation.

--Pchap 16:50, 18 April 2011 (EDT)

T&Q Inputs "Null" in Feedback When Using Markup Text (Cut and Paste from Text Document)

• Problem: If you cut and paste from a text document to create the assessment, the word "null" will be inserted into all the feedback boxes. The word "null" does not appear to students if feedback is enabled, so this isn't technically a "bug."
• Workaround: None needed
• Status: Under investigation

Problems Presenting in Question Pools Larger Than 100 Questions

• Problem: Assessments that pull from Question Pools containing more than 100 questions are showing erratic behavior.
• Workaround: Use smaller number of questions per pool and/or sub pools.
• Status: Under investigation.

Audio Recording Questions not Working

• Problem: The "Audio Recording" type question does not work. The Audio Recorder will not begin recording.
• Workaround: The only workaround available at this time is to require students to create an audio file on their computer and upload it to a "File Upload" type question. This is only practical if you know students have audio recording software.
• Status: Errors are due to Java policies – Under investigation

--Rnarasi 12:59, 2 November 2010 (EDT)

Facilitators do not See Published Assessments in T&Q (Rare)

• Problem: Someone with the Facilitator role may not see the list of published assessments in Tests & Quizzes.
• Workaround: Give the user a different role, such as Instructor or Teaching Assistant.
• Status: This problem has been resolved for current users, but there are still some courses created on older versions that display this problem. As new courses are created, this problem should disappear.

Multiple Correct Questions and Partial Credit

• Problem: Multiple Correct Questions by default take away points for wrong answers. There is no option to change this. While its not exactly a "bug," it is something that should be addressed.
• Workaround: If you do not want students to lose points for wrong answers, manually give points for students if they lost points for wrong answers.
• Status: Under investigation