Enterprise Portal: Blackboard Integration FAQ & Troubleshooting Tips

Q. I entered the Blackboard Instance URL. Why did I receive a "failed to verify" error when clicking the Verify button?

  • Ensure that the Instance URL entered comes from the Blackboard host URL.

Q. Why can’t I see a specific course(s) when I import my course list?

The course must be set to Available on Blackboard. Along with that, an instructor and a minimum of one student account must be enrolled.

Q. Will course sections come over with the parent course?

Child courses/sections will be synced under the parent course within the ExamSoft system. The section(s) must have students enrolled.

Troubleshooting

Note: If moving from one type of Blackboard system to another (IE: from self hosted to SaaS or Ultra), the sync list needs to be cleared before making the change. It can not be expected to sync the same courses from two different instances of Blackboard, as the backend ID will have changed (Blackboard reference ID).

Verification/Configuration:

Importing Courses:

  • Courses showing but missing some expected courses?
    • Make sure the courses are active and available

Syncing Courses:

  • Courses failing to sync?
    • Check error report in sync history
      • “Failed to update…” -
        • Try removing sections from courses and syncing again
        • Shorten the Course names and IDs on page two
        • Verify there are no special characters in names or IDs
      • “Course ID is already in use”
        • Course in the portal matches what is trying to sync. There is no current way to link up these and the manually created course ID and name must be changed
  • Students failing to sync?
    • Check error report in sync history
      • “Student email already in use”
        • Student exists in another database with the same email. They can not have two accounts with the same email in two different emails
      • “A different user already exists with that email”
        • There’s an admin account with the same email
      • Students not coming over at all?
        • Verify the correct role is set in the configure pane. If using custom roles for students then this must match what's in Blackboard
      • “Failed to update…”
        • Preview users (usually with an admins email address) will break the entire student sync. Remove the preview user from the course in Blackboard or change the email address in Blackboard. Officially, we do not support Blackboard preview users.
  • Sync stuck processing for hours?
    • Try triggering a manual sync. If it does not restart then you have to wait for it to finish. 
  • Students missing from the roster and not on the error report?
    • Verify student has same role as other students in the course
    • Verify the student is an available, active user in the course in Blackboard

 

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