This article covers the current known issues in Brightspace.
- Wrong timezone in e-mails from brightspace
- Multiple Grade Items for Remindo assignments
- Error message "Error retrieving credentials"
- Turnitin Online Grading - does not work properly if Track Changes are used in MS Word
- Turnitin Similarity Report setting under Turnitin More Options is set to Generate Reports on Due Date and leads to Error Communicating with Turnitin.
- Turnitin - Incorrect submitter name shown in Turnitin
- Turnitin - Error communicating with Turnitin
- PeerMark assignments - Course copy causes error in PeerMark assignments
- Kaltura Videos and Weblectures - Not loading
- Resolved
Wrong timezone in e-mails from brightspace
Issue reported: 03/04/2024
Summary: Sometimes you can receive an email from brightspace with an incorrect timezone.
Cause: The root cause is unkown.
Status: The vendor has confirmed this issue, and is planning to fix it.
Multiple Grade Items for Remindo assignments
Issue reported: 28/02/2024
Summary: Under certain conditions a second grade item will be created for a Remindo assignment that already has a grade item assigned to it.
Cause: Earlier this year existing Remindo LTI links were migrated to a newer and safer version of the LTI standard. This caused the auto-create grade item setting to ignore previously created grade items and create a new grade item when grades are transfered from Remindo to the Brightspace grade book.
Status: The vendor has confirmed this issue, but there is currently no fix planned.
If this issue affects your course, please submit a helpdesk ticket
Error message "Error retrieving credentials"
Issue reported: 11/10/2023
Summary: Some users may receive the following error message when trying to access a Brightspace page: "Error retrieving credentials".
Cause: caching issue with the visual table of contents.
Status: reported.
Workaround
Clear your cache. Below are links for each of the supported browsers with guidance to do so.
Windows:
Chrome: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache
Edge: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10607/microsoft-edge-view-delete-browser-history
MacOS:
Safari: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204098
Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache
Chrome: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Turnitin Online Grading - does not work properly if Track Changes are used in MS Word
Issue reported: 19/07/2022
Summary: if Track Changes were used in MS Word to edit a file which is then uploaded for Turnitin Online Grading, parts of the text may disappear. Furthermore, this might cause the Similarity Report not to have covered the full text.
Cause: Turnitin works with flat text, and does not handle Track Changes very well when converting to flat text.
Status: unresolved.
When does this occur?
This problem occurs if a student used the option Track Changes in an MS Word file. If an assignment uses Turnitin Online Grading and Similarity Reports, this problem occurs when the student uploads a file with Track Changes to the assignment. Unpredictably, parts of the text may have disappeared from the file when using Online Grading via Turnitin. Also, the disappeared text will be omitted from the Similarity Report generated.
Workaround
For optimal performance from Turnitin, students should hand in their MS Word files without the Track Changes. If students use Track Changes, this should be removed in the final version.
The file will be shown correctly and completely when viewing the file via the Brightspace Feedback option.
Turnitin Similarity Report setting under Turnitin More Options is set to Generate Reports on Due Date and leads to Error Communicating with Turnitin.
Please note that this issue had been initially fixed in the July release, however due to another found issue the supplier has rolled back the new Turnitin functionality to an earlier version.
The issue Turnitin - Similarity report stuck on in Progress does not longer occur.
1. Similarity Report setting under Turnitin More Options is set to Generate Reports on Due Date
Steps to Reproduce:
As an instructor:
- Create a new assignment
- Set a due date
- On the Turnitin Tab under More Options select: Generate reports on due date
As test student 1:
- Hand in your submission before the due date
As test student 2:
- Hand in your submission after the due date
As an instructor:
- Access the submission overview after the due date has passed.
Expected behavior: All submissions have a similarity report.
Observed behavior: All submissions that were done before the due date have a "ERROR communicating with Turnitin" message. For all submissions done after the due date, no error occurs.
Solution
Do not change the settings in an assignment where there are already submissions in the assignment. Please contact us via the Helpdeskportal if this is the case.
Turnitin - Incorrect submitter name shown in Turnitin
Issue reported: 20/05/2021
Summary: In some rare cases the name of the submitter shown in Turnitin Feedback Studio does not correspond to the name of the group who made the submission.
Cause: The root cause is still unknown.
Status: Both the supplier of Brightspace and Turnitin are aware of the issue and are investigating.
A group member will make a submission in a Turnitin enabled Brightspace assignment. This submission will be forwarded from Brightspace to Turnitin. When an instructor opens Turnitin Feedback Studio the name of a random user is shown instead of the group name in the header of the page and the info section.
What is the impact?
Instructors might be thrown off since the incorrect name is displayed in Feedback Studio. In the actual paper the name of the group and its members should still be present.
This issue will not affect grading. If a submission is graded, this grade and the feedback is still reported back to the correct group in Brightspace.
Turnitin - Error communicating with Turnitin
Issue reported: 18/11/2020
Summary: Instructors might see an exclamation mark with an error message "Error communicating with Turnitin" next to students submissions under certain circumstances.
Cause: the root cause is still unknown.
Status: the supplier is investigating the issue and is looking for a permanent fix.
When does this issue occur?
1. Turnitin More Options settings and/or Due Dates are changed after submissions have been made.
Steps to Reproduce:
This only applies when there are already submissions for the assignment
As an instructor:
- Click on Edit Assignment
- Navigate to the Turnitin tab
- Click on More Options in Turnitin
- Change the Similarity Report Settings and click on Submit.
OR
- Click on Edit Assignment
- Navigate to the Restrictions tab
- Change the due date and click on Save
Expected behavior: All submission still have a similarity report, or the similarity reports are being regenerated.
Observed behavior: All submissions might recieve a "ERROR communicating with Turnitin" message after the settings are changed.
Solution
To prevent this issue from happening in the future, instructors are advised not to change the Turnitin More Options settings or the Due Date after the first submission has been made in the assignment.
We strongly recommend not to change any settings of existing assignments with submissions. Please contact us via the Helpdeskportal if you have any question on this matter.
Kaltura Videos & Weblectures - Not loading
Issue reported: 08/09/2020
Summary: Some users might experience issue while trying to watch videos and/or weblectures in Brightspace. Either their screen remains blank or a "login.uaccess.leidenuniv.nl refused to connect" error message is shown.
Cause: the cause is still unknown
Status: the suppliers are still investigating the issue.
When does this issue occur?
Steps to reproduce:
- Navigate to course content where a video/weblecture is enclosed.
- Try to watch the video/weblecture
Expected behavior: The video / weblecture plays without trouble.
Observed behavior: Either a error screen appears, or the screen remains blank.
Workaround 1 - Hard refresh your browser
Clicking on the refresh icon in the address bar of the browser is NOT the same as a hard refresh.
A hard refresh clears the browser’s cache for a specific page, forcing it to load the most recent version that includes changes to stylesheets or other scripts. See below how to do a hard refresh per device and browser type:
== Windows
Chrome:
- Hold down the Ctrl key and press the F5 key.
Firefox:
- Hold down the Ctrl key and press the F5 key.
== Mac OS
Chrome:
- Hold down ⌘ Cmd and ⇧ Shift key and then press R.
Firefox:
- Hold down ⌘ Cmd and ⇧ Shift and then press R.
Safari:
- Hold down the ⌘ Cmd key and press R
Workaround 2 - Open the video via Firefox
Please try to watch the video via Firefox. It seems that this resolves the issue most of the time.
Kaltura Live Room - Waiting for Host
Issue reported: 31/08/2020
Summary: Some instructors might experience issues while launching a Kaltura Live Room from Brightspace. They'll recieve a "Waiting for Host" message.
Cause: The cause is still unknown
Status: The supplier, Kaltura, is investigating the issue
When does this issue occur?
Steps to reproduce:
- As an instructor and owner of a Kaltura Live room:
- Click on a Kaltura Live Room link you have placed in your course content.
- Click on Launch Live Room from your course's Kaltura Media Gallery
Expected behavior: The Kaltura Live Room opens with you as moderator.
Observed behavior: An waiting for host message appears, similair to the screen below.
Workaround 1 - Hard refresh your browser
Clicking on the refresh icon in the address bar of the browser is NOT the same as a hard refresh.
When you see the error message "Waiting for Host..", try to hard refresh you browser, to see if the Kaltura Live Room will start.
A hard refresh clears the browser’s cache for a specific page, forcing it to load the most recent version that includes changes to stylesheets or other scripts. See below how to do a hard refresh per device and browser type:
== Windows
Chrome:
- Hold down the Ctrl key and press the F5 key.
Firefox:
- Hold down the Ctrl key and press the F5 key.
== Mac OS
Chrome:
- Hold down ⌘ Cmd and ⇧ Shift key and then press R.
Firefox:
- Hold down ⌘ Cmd and ⇧ Shift and then press R.
Safari:
- Hold down the ⌘ Cmd key and press R
Workaround 2 - Chrome Specific: Switch to Guest Mode
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, click the Profile icon (could be your own image)
- Click Guest.
Now that you're in Guest Mode, please try to launch Kaltura Live Room again.
Workaround 3 - Open the Kaltura Live Room via Firefox
Please try to launch the Kaltura Live Room via Firefox. It seems that this resolves the issue most of the time for Instructors.
Still experiencing issues?
If the workarounds above did not work for you, please report an issue via this form in the helpdesk portal of Leiden University.
Resolved:
Issue reported: 17/11/2022
Summary: When grading with the Leiden A-F Grade scheme, it is not possible to save the chosen grade. The grade will automatically change back to an 'F' once it is saved.
Cause: unknown.
Status: unresolved
Workaround
We have created a new Grade Scheme: Leiden Scheme A to F. You can use this grade scheme instead of the old grade scheme.
Currently, we are working on copying all existing links of the faulty grade scheme to the new grade scheme.
This issue does not occur since 27 July 2022, since the supplier has rolled back Brightspace to an earlier version.
Now, when using TurnItIn in Assignments, you modify the Report Generation option within Turnitin More Options dialog as it was prior to the July release. Please note that this means the old known issue with the Generate on Due Date once again occurs.
Issue reported: 22/07/2022
Summary: A Turnitin Assignment with the setting: Generate similarity and collusion reports on the due date, will never generate similarity reports.
Cause: The root cause is unknown.
Status: Both the supplier of Brightspace and Turnitin are aware of the issue and are investigating.
When does this issue occur?
Steps to Reproduce:
- As an instructors create a Turnitin Assignment with setting: Generate similarity and collusion reports on the due date
- Set a due date
- Hand in submission as a student
- As an instructor wait until the due date has passed
Expected behavior: All submissions will have generated a similarity report after the Due Date
Observed behavior: All submissions are stuck on In Progress, similarity reports are never generated.
Issue reported: 18/11/2020
Summary: All student submissions might have low or 0% similarity scores.
Cause: Your personal Turnitin settings might prevent full collusion checks from happening. This means that student work is not being compared to each other within the current assignment.
Solution: You need to change your Turnitin settings, to ensure collusion checks are being done in future Turnitin assignments. Please follow these steps. It will take you about 10 minutes to complete these steps. Furthermore, you might need to change these settings in existing Turnitin Assignment. Do this only for assignmetns where students did not submit their work yet.
Unfortunately, we are not able to set these settings globally. However, in case you need assistance changing settings, we are more than willing to support you. Please contact us via the Helpdeskportal if you need assistance.
Issue fixed: 22/07/2022
We recommend all users to update their browser to the latest version.
Issue reported: 05/08/2020
Summary: Embedding Kaltura media in your course offering will sometimes result in an Access Denied error being shown instead.
Cause: You're experiencing this issue due to a security bug related to samesite cookies. This issue occurs in ALL "OLD" BROWSERS.
Solution: The issue is fixed in all new browsers. Please update your browser to the latest version.
Issue fixed: 21/08/2020
When does this issue occur?
Steps to reproduce:
- Go to the Content area of your course
- Try to open a Kaltura Video OR a HTML file with a embedded Kaltura Video.
Expected behavior: The Kaltura video is shown as normally.
Observed behavior: An Access Denied error message is shown (as shown below).
Issue reported: 23/01/2020
Summary: Font, color and style can not be copied and pasted within HTML files.
Cause: This issue is caused by a bug in the system.
Issue fixed: 25/06/2020
When does the issue occur?
Steps to reproduce:
- Go to the Content area of your course
- Click on Edit of an existing HTML document
- Or create a new HTML document and select one of the templates.
- Select and copy formatted text (e.g. headings, bold or colored text).
- Paste the formatted text
Expected behavior: The copied text retains it's formatting.
Observed behavior: The text is pasted without formatting.
Workaround - Copy paste HTML code
Although the workaround is cumbersome, it is possible to retain the formatted text when you copy and paste the HTML source code.
Please follow the steps below if you want to copy and paste formatted text:
- Create or Edit an HTML document
- Click on the HTML Source Editor Icon </>
- Copy the HTML source code
- Paste the copied code as desired.
1. Workaround - External HTML converter
There is another workaround available, which makes things slightly easier.
- Copy all content to a text editor such as Microsoft Word. This will include any and all hyperlinks in the content.
- Make all desired changes.
- Copy the text from your text editor and paste it into a HTML-converter, such as https://wordhtml.com/
- Copy the source code generated by the converter and paste it into the HTML Source Code Editor in Brightspace.
This workaround does not guarantee 100% success, but aims to simplify HTML editing. Using third party tools such as the HTML-converter is always at your own risk.
Issue reported: 24/04/2020 14:00
Summary: Users might experience an infinite loading screen, whilst trying to view recently placed documents or assignment submissions in Brightspace.
Cause: This issue is caused by an unexpected techincal issue at our supplier's end.
Issue fixed: 24/04/2020 18:15
When does the issue occur?
Please note that PDF's are loaded properly in Brightspace. The issue only concerns files like .docx, .ppt, .excel etc.
Steps to reproduce:
- Go to the Content area of a course
- Go to any Topic that would be a docx / ppt / excel.
Expected behavior: The document is visible in Brightspace
Observed behavior: An infinite loading icon appears on the screen.
Steps to reproduce:
- Go to the Content area of your course
- Click on Add
- Add a word/ppt/excel document from your computer to the drag and drop box (or click on browse) to place the document in your course.
Expected behavior: The recently uploaded file is visbile.
Observed behavior: An infinite loading icon appears on the screen.
This issue does not affect PDF files. Therefore, we advise instructors to upload files in PDF format.
If that is not possible, please take the following into account:
Although you and your students are unable to see the documents in Brightspace, students are still able to download the document and view it on their own computer. Don't forget to put the document on visible!
Steps to reproduce:
- Go to an Assignment in your course
- Click on a Submission to start assessing with Brightspace Annotation tools.
Expected behavior: the submission file of the student is loaded properly
Observed behavior: Either an infite loading icon appears on the screen or you'll see a message "Document conversion in progress.."
Please note that Turnitin Feedback Studio is not affected by this issue. Therefore, you can assess students' work without trouble in Turnitin.
For assignments that do not have Turnitin enabled: We advise you to assess students' submissions offline. Please see here for an extensive manual.
Workaround - Download document
Although you might be unable to see the file in Brightspace, you are able to download documents to your computer.
Please follow the steps below:
- If you see the the load icon keeps turning
- Consider to download the document to your computer so you can view the file.
Workaround - Assess with Turnitin Feedback Studio
If you have enabled Turnitin for an assignment, you are able to assess students' work in Turnitin Feedback Studio without any troubles.
Please see this extensive manual for more information on how to use Turnitin in Brightspace.
Workaround - Assess submissions offline
Although you might not be able to assess your students' work within Brightspace, you are still able to download their work and assess offline.
Please see this extensive manual for more information.
Issue reported: 25/08/2021
Summary: You may run into an error "Oops! We're having trouble connecting you. You might want to refresh the page, or try again later." when there are broken links in your course.
Status: Resolved on 07/09/2021
When does this issue occur?
This issue occurs in the following cases:
- When you delete an assignment, quiz, discussion, LTI link, course file but not delete the link within course content.
- When you perform a course copy of a course that has an assignment, quiz, discussion, LTI link, course file linked in content and you only select content under Choose Components to Copy
Please note that you might see the same error when your browser is not up to date or you have a blocker installed on your device. These are technical issues and not caused by the broken links.
Steps to reproduce
Please see this video for a clear reproduction of the issue as well.
There are several ways to reproduce the issue, but please follow the steps below to experience it yourself as well.
As an instructor:
- Navigate to course content and click on create new
- Click on Discussion and insert a name
- Click on Create and Insert
- Click on Go to Discussion
- Click on the arrow next to the name
- Click on Delete Topic and in the next screen on Yes
- Finally, click on Content in the navbar.
Expected behavior: No error occurs and you can access the course content without trouble
Observed behavior: An error appears stating: "Oops! We're having trouble connecting you. You might want to refresh the page, or try again later." and you are not able to access all course content.
Solution
When you come across this issue, you are able to resolve it by removing the broken link via the Course Builder. Please note that we are more than happy to assist you. Use the helpdeskportal to contact us.
To fix the broken links, go Course Tools > Course Admin > Course Builder. In the Course Builder you can find and access the broken links and delete them.
See if there are any broken link indicators as highlighted above.
To remove the broken link:
- Click on the item's drop-down menu button
- Clicking the option "Remove"
Please repeat these steps for all broken links. When you're done, your course will no longer show the error
Prevention
Deleting activities from course content
- Try to always delete activities as an assignment, quiz, discussion, LTI link, course file from course content rather than from the tool itself.
- Please note that if you did not link an activity in course content, the issue does not occur, thus the above does not apply.
Course Copy
- Check the source course you want to copy from before you perform a course copy, if the issue occurs in the source course you need to resolve it there first.
- Please be advised to choose copy all components when performing a course copy, in that way you know for certain no broken links appear in your new course.
How do I copy the content from one Brightspace course to another Brightspace course?
Issue reported: 22/12/2020
Summary: Users might experience issues with publishing feedback for assignments using rubrics. When publishing feedback a confirmation screen pops up showing: "the following students' submissions have not been evaluated on all rubric criteria", with a list of four named persons "and ... others".
Cause: a known defect known by the supplier.
Status: the supplier is fixing this issue, the ETA of this fix is not known yet.
Solution: For this issue, no workaround is necessary. You can select Publish Anyway, the mentioned students will not be notified or have access to these assignments in any way.
Issue reported: 22/11/2021
Summary: In some cases archived rubrics that were previously attached to an assignment show up for students, while they are not currently attached.
Cause: The root cause is still unknown.
Status: The supplier of Brightspace is aware of the issue and working to fix it.
Workaround: You can resolve this by navigating to the archived rubric > Options > Set to 'Rubric is hidden from students'.