There are important rules to follow when creating files to be submitted to Blackboard (Bb). Failure to follow these guidelines may result in an unreadable file submission.
Use the following in file names:
- Letters (ABCabc...)
- Numbers (0123456789)
- Underscores (_) can be used to represent a space
- Filename length no more than 32 characters
- Document File Extension (i.e. doc, ppt, etc.)
Avoid the following in file names:
- Special characters ( ~ ! @ # $ % & ' etc.)
- Spaces (there have been problems related to this, though they are technically supported)
- Long File Names (Limit to 32 characters or less)
- myfile1.docx (short filename, includes file extension, no spaces or special characters, properly named)
- peer_review_presentation.pptx (properly named, less than 32 characters, includes file extension, no spaces or unsupported characters)
If a student submits an assignment with an attachment that has an apostrophe in the name, when the faculty member goes into view the attempt the inline grading viewer will be stuck in “Loading… Please wait while we render this file”. It will stay on this page and not render the file, even though it is a supported file type. This may cause faculty from being unable to submit the score in the inline viewer too.
If a faculty member returns comments or feedback to students by attaching a file with an apostrophe or other special characters noted above in it. Students will not be able to view the document within Bb and may not be able to download the feedback file to their computer either.
Blackboard has the hanging "Loading..." message as a known issue and will address in the near future. However, naming files without special characters is not exclusive to Bb. It recommend that everyone make sures to use the above naming conventions to avoid conflicts with any software application.
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