Here are the most common error messages and solutions to them.

• An error occurred while the system was processing this login request.
  • This error occurs when your username cannot be located in Blackboard. Double check your spelling of your username, or contact the LRTS Help Desk or the Student Help Desk for assistance.
    
• Could not login. Valid authentication credentials were not provided.
  • This error occurs when you have entered an invalid, incorrect, or expired password. . Double check your spelling of your password, or contact the LRTS Help Desk or the Student Help Desk for assistance.
    
• There was a problem with this login request. Contact the system administrator.
  • This problem typically occurs if your browser is set to not allow cookies, or you are not logging in from the "front page" of Blackboard. Go to: http://bb.grcc.edu and try to login again. If you continue to have problems, ensure that cookies are enabled in your browser.
    
• An error occurred in the authentication module: Error occurred while trying to lookup the current session.
  • This error is typically displayed when there is a problem with cookies in your browser. Your browser must be able to accept a cookie in order to use Blackboard.
    • If you are using Internet Explorer, please use these steps to enable cookies:
      1) Select Tools > Internet Options
      2) Select the Privacy Tab
      3) Click the "Sites" button
      4) In the, "Address of Web site" field, enter bb.grcc.edu, and click the Allow button.
    • This error can also occur when personal firewalls are installed on your computer. For example: Zone Alarm, McAfee Personal Firewall, Norton Personal Firewall, and others. Please use the configuration settings in these tools to allow cookies, or to set bb.grcc.edu as a trusted host.
• No Authentication credentials were provided with the request.
  • This error is displayed when active scripting is not enabled on your computer.
    • If you are using Internet Explorer, please follow these steps to enable active scripting:
      1) Select Tools > Internet Options
      2) Select the Security Tab
      3) Select the Internet Zone and then click the Custom Level button
      4) Scroll down until you reach the Scripting section, and ensure Active Scripting is enabled.

Please note that Blackboard is running on a multiple server platform with several application servers. Occasionally, one of the application servers may be taken out of service for maintenance.

If you would like to set a bookmark for Blackboard, please bookmark this URL: http://bb.grcc.edu

If you already have a bookmark set for Blackboard, please ensure that it is pointing to the correct URL. Right-click on the bookmark/favorite link for Blackboard, select properties, and modify the location or URL to point to: http://bb.grcc.edu

It's likely a browser issue related to personal firewalls, popup blockers, spameware, adware, security tools, etc., Please access the browser tip sheet at: http://www.grcc.edu/learnbbfaculty#browser

Many problems can be solved using refresh or reload browser buttons or by clearing cache or by disabling popup, adware, or other security tools such as Norton or McAfee.

In addition, Blackboard is not compatible with the AOL Browser.

If you are using AOL as your Internet Service Provider, please be aware that AOL's default browser is not supported by Blackboard. To access Blackboard using AOL, you will need to connect and log in as normal, using AOL's connection process. Next, minimize AOL's default browser and launch a fresh copy of Internet Explorer or Mozilla FireFox. This will allow you to successfully use Blackboard.

How do I enroll users into my course or organization site?

Course student enrollments are entirely managed by the Registrar's office. If you would like to enroll another staff or faculty member into your course, please contact Eric Kunnen

Organization site leaders can manage enrollmetns using the following instructions:

• As an organization leader, login to Blackboard,
• Click the Modify Content button,
• Select the check box to ADD My Organization Plus to your Blackboard Portal Screen and click submit.
• After you return to the My Bb portal screen you will see the new My Organization Plus module. This portal module contains an "Edit" function to allow organization leaders to manage the enrollment of organization sites. Note: The Browse button does not currently work in the My Organizations Plus module because of a change to Blackboard's API for Building Blocks. Unfortunately for now, the only way for leaders to add users to their organization sites is by typing the exact username into the "Username" field under the Add Users function or by using the Batch Add Users area.)

When I try to view a posted message from home I have to click on a link that says "Click Here to view alternate content for browsers that do not support IFRAMES." Downloading exe files with Internet Explorer removes ".exe" extension.

Do you have McAfee Security Suite or Norton Security Tools installed?

We've found that McAfee security suite which had an ad blocker was causing the problem. When we disabled the ad blocker, the IFrame error went away and the page loaded correctly.

Here is a tip sheet on browser configuration: http://www.grcc.edu/learnbbfaculty#browser

This problem relates to a setting in your browser.

In Internet Explorer 7:

The final grades for a course are in Peoplesoft and are saved for you as an official student record.

The record of exams, homework, daily assignments, and other types of grades throughout the semester (like you would normally use a paper gradebook for) that are located in Blackboard are not part of the official student record in Peoplesoft. Currently these are treated like a paper gradebook would be, that is, the professors' data.

The Download Grades function in Bb allows to save a local copy of the Bb Gradebook for future reference in case of a student complaint or what have you.

2) Backup your Course Content
Use the Export Course feature to backup your content. This will provide you with a copy of all of the content in your course that you can save to your local computer or the network for use in a following semester. Click "Export Course" from the Control Panel and save the export file to your computer or the network.

3) Archive your Course Content
Use the Archive Course feature to create an archive of your course which includes all student activity, grades, discussion board postings, etc.

SafeAssign in an anti-plagiarism tool where papers submitted to the tool are compared against a wide array of resources, both electronic and paper.

The full list of search sources are as follows:

A. The index of the Internet (provided by MSN Search and Google).

B. All major publicly accessible digital databases, such as MedLine, PubMed, Project Guttenberg (over 18,000 books) etc;

C. The FindArticles database provided by LookSmart (over 5.5 million articles from over 900 periodical publications, updated daily);

D. MyDropBox's proprietary database of term papers that paper-mill Web sites are offering for sale (over 300,000 term papers, purchased from over a dozen of major paper mill Web sites);

E. The entire family of ProQuest's ABI/Inform databases (over 1100 publication titles, about 2.7 million articles from 1971 to present time, updated weekly).

F. All previously submitted papers within the same institution.

What is the difference between developing my own web pages and using Blackboard?

Blackboard and personal web sites both offer faculty with web-based solutions for the online delivery of instructional materials.

Blackboard is advantageous for students and faculty because they can use a single login and password to access all course information for their GRCC courses - all in one place. In fact, if a student is using Blackboard Backpack, with 1 click they can easily download all materials to their notebook computer for annotation and note-taking.

This issue has been resolved in Application Pack 2 which is currently in available, however not yet installed at GRCC. Workarounds include: 1) With Internet Explorer, Right click and choose Save Target As, before saving the file, add .exe to the end of the filename and then save the file to your computer, 2) With Internet Explorer, Download and rename the file with an .exe on the end, or 3) Use Firefox.

Occurs in copied courses: Appears the Grade forum setting wasn't "set" in the copied course. That is, the check box was there, but it needed to be confirmed.

Instructions:
1) Click modify on the Forum
2) Ensure Grade Forum (with points possible entered) is Checked
3) Submit