Sakai 19 Known Issues

Known Issues/Workarounds

Assignments: If used with a group: 24-hour reminder email goes to all students instead of just group members

• Issue: In a course with a group: In Assignments, create an assignment, choose "Display only to selected groups", select group(s), choose the setting "Send a reminder email 24 hours before the due date", select "Post". The reminder is sent to all students in the site, not just the selected group(s).
• Workaround: None.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42380

Assignments: If you remove an Assignment with a future due date and you've chosen the 24-hour reminder email setting-reminders are sent to students

• Issue: In Assignments, if you remove an assignment that has both a due date in the future, and you've chosen the setting "Send a reminder email 24 hours before the due date", students will be sent a reminder for the removed assignment.
• Workaround: In Assignments, before removing an assignment with a due date in the future: remove the 24-hour reminder setting. Below the assignment, click on Edit, remove the check beside "Send a reminder email 24 hours before the due date", select "Post".

After removing an assignment with a future due date and the 24-hour reminder setting chosen: In Assignments, at the top click on the "Removed Assignments" tab. Select the checkbox beside the assignment, select "Permanently Remove Selected", click OK. The assignment will be permanently deleted; no reminders will be sent to students.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42380

Assignments: When saving an Assignment as a draft, the "Add Assignment to Gradebook" setting doesn't persist

• Issue: In Assignments, create an assignment, choose the setting "Add Assignment to Gradebook", select "Save Draft". The "Add Assignment to Gradebook" setting is not saved for drafts but is saved for posted assignments.
• Workaround: When editing a draft assignment, update the "Add Assignment to Gradebook" setting before posting the Assignment.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41968

Forums: After choosing to Grade a Topic, the instructor must select the Gradebook item

• Issue: When setting up a Topic in Forums, the instructor can select a Gradebook item to which grades will be sent. When you're ready to grade, and you click on Grade for a Topic, the Gradebook item should appear in the upper right. However, it doesn't, and you must select it from the drop-down menu.
• Workaround: Instructors will need to select the Gradebook item each time they go to grade a Topic.

Sakai documentation: SAK-33703

Lessons: Automatic Checklist links don't import (copy) to another site

• Issue: A new feature in Sakai 19 allows instructors to set up Checklists (in Lessons) in a special way so that items are automatically checked off when students complete them. For example, when a student submits a quiz, that item can be checked automatically in the student's Checklist (if the instructor sets up a special "link" within the Checklist). The feature works well, but when the course content is imported to a new site, the automatic "links" within the Checklist do not import, and the instructor must set them up again in the new site.
• Workaround: After importing a course into a new site, edit any Checklists that contain automatic links and set up the links again.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41593

Rubrics: Ratings/Comments not saved if you click on Add Attachments (in Assignments and in T&Q)

• Issue: When grading, if an instructor fills out a rubric with ratings and comments, then adds an attachment, when the instructor saves or updates changes, all rubric ratings and comments that were entered are wiped out. Only the total score is retained. The instructor isn't aware of the rubric ratings/comments being deleted unless they reopen the rubric to look at it after saving. This occurs in Assignments and in Tests & Quizzes. These are the only tools that you can grade with a rubric and attach a file for the student.
• Workaround: When grading with a rubric, save changes before attaching a file for the student.
  • In Assignments, after adding rubric ratings and comments, and optionally adding instructor summary comments, save your changes by clicking on either "Save and Don't Release to Student" or "Save and Release to Student". Your rubric ratings and comments will be saved. Now you can click on "Add Attachments" and add file(s) for the student. Again, save your changes.
  • In Tests & Quizzes, after adding rubric ratings and comments, click Update to save your changes. Select the student again, attach your file, and click Update.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41849

General: PDFs uploaded to Sakai may not open in Adobe Acrobat for Chrome users

• Issue: For most Chrome users, when you click on a PDF link (or attachment) in Sakai, the PDF will open in the Chrome browser (in a new tab) and you can view it. However, depending on your configuration, you may also see an option to "Open in Acrobat" -- when you click this, an error will appear, the PDF will not open in Acrobat, and you will be logged out of Sakai.
• Workaround: If it's important for you to view the PDF in Acrobat (rather than in a browser tab), you can set Chrome to Download PDF files instead of automatically opening them in Chrome. Then, when you click a PDF link in Sakai, the file will be downloaded to your computer and you can open it in Acrobat.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42109

General: Audio files created with Text Editor record button will not import to another course site

Note: This is not a new problem with Sakai 19. This problem existed in the prior version (Sakai 11) as well.

• Issue: After Importing a course with audio files that were created using the Text Editor's "Record Audio Clip" tool, audio files won't play for students (but will play for instructors).
  • For example, in Lessons, if an instructor used the Text Editor-Record Audio Clip tool to create an audio file, both instructors and students can play the audio file.
  • BUT after using Site Info > Import from Site in a new course site, in Lessons, the students won't be able to play the audio files in the new course site.
• Solution: Please contact sakaihelp@durhamtech.edu.
  • We'll download the audio files, convert them to a smaller size (file type MP3) using Audacity, and upload your optimized audio files to your new course site's Resources area.
  • You can then link to the audio files located in Resources.
  • The audio files can be imported with your Resources files in future; both instructors and students will be able to see the audio player and play the audio files in new courses.
• To Avoid Future Issues: Create audio recordings using Vocaroo or another tool, such as Audacity.
  • In the Sakai Text Editor, click on the Source button. Paste the embed code provided by Vocaroo. Save the changes.
  • Note: Vocaroo does not keep recordings forever, sometimes not even for a whole semester! After creating a recording in Vocaroo, below the link/embed code, it states "Download as"; click on the MP3 link, to download the MP3 audio file on your computer.
    • Upload the MP3 file into your course's Resources area, with an easily identifiable name, as a backup to use in the future. If needed: Here's a refresher on how to upload a file to Resources
    • If the MP3 file is too large to upload to Resources, make sure the file is in a location you can easily find on your computer in the future.
  • Accessibility Recommendation: Please upload a text transcript to accompany your audio clips.

Sakai documentation: SAK-33674

General Tip

Clearing the browser cache can often resolve problems

• Issue: When working on a dynamic website like Sakai, old content can get stuck in the browser cache and cause problems. (This is especially true right after a major upgrade.) If things start acting a little weird, clearing your cache is a good thing to try.
• Solution: How to clear your browser cache

Resolved Issues

FIXED: Rubrics: Ratings/Comments not saved if a comment contains > 240 characters

• Issue: When grading, if an instructor fills out a rubric with ratings and comments, and if one of the comments entered contains more than 240 characters (including spaces) when the instructor clicks save, nothing in the Rubric is saved except the total score. All ratings and comments that were entered are wiped out. The instructor isn't aware of this unless they reopen the rubric to look at it after saving. This occurs in Gradebook and in Assignments (and likely in Forums or Tests & Quizzes). Also, if the instructor formats the text, even fewer characters can be entered.
• FIX: A patch was installed on 8/5/19. You can now add more than 240 characters when adding comments to a Rubric rating. To make sure your comments are easily "readable", we recommend that you limit Rubric comments to 500-750 characters.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41841

FIXED: Assignments: When grading an Assignment, clicking "Add Attachment" appends two zeroes to student's grade

• Issue: In Assignments, click GRADE below the assignment. Click on a student's name, and enter a Grade, such as 85. Scroll down and click "Add Attachments". Whether you attach a file and click Continue or click X in the upper right to close the window, the grade will now have two zeroes appended on it: such as 8500. You can correct the grade and save.
• FIX: A patch was installed on 6/21/19. Instructors can add attachments without affecting the student grade.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41805

FIXED: Assignments: Inactive students receive reminder emails that an Assignment is due in 24 hours

• Issue: In Assignments, when creating or editing an assignment, instructors can check beside "Send a reminder email 24 hours before the due date". Reminders are sent 24 hours before the due date to students who have not submitted, as expected; HOWEVER, students who are no longer enrolled in the course are also sent reminder emails.
• FIX: A patch was installed on 6/11/19. You can now select the option on Assignments to "Send a reminder email 24 hours before the due date". Reminders are sent 24 hours before the due date to students who have not submitted the assignment. Students who are no longer enrolled in the course are NOT sent reminder emails.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41865

FIXED: Forums: Short description not displayed on Topic page

• Issue: When students click on a Topic in the Forums tool, or when they follow a link from Lessons to a Forum Topic, they do not see the "short description" that the instructor entered when setting up the Topic.
  • Students (and instructors) see the "short description" only on the main Forums page (the page you see when you click Forums in the course menu).
• Workaround: For each Topic in Forums, if you have important info in "Short description" that you want to make sure your students see, put that info also in the larger "Description" box (aka full description). You should let your students know that they will need to click "View Full Description" to see the information.
• FIX: A fix was applied on 5/23/2019; instructors and students can see the topic short description when clicking on a link from Lessons to the Forum topic and when they click on a Topic in the Forums tool. As they could previously, instructors and students can see the topic short description on the main Forums page (the page you see when you click Forums in the course menu).

Sakai documentation: SAK-41769

FIXED: Forums: Instructors can't delete attachments from Topics

• Issue: Instructors are unable to delete attachments from topics. They can click Remove and it appears to work fine, but when they click Save, an error screen appears and the attachment is not deleted. Deleting an attachment from a Forum works fine.
• FIX: A fix was applied on 7/18/2019. Instructors can now delete attachments from Topics and Forums.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41896

FIXED: Gradebook: By default, Gradebook allows students to see class-wide grade distributions

• Issue: The Settings area in the Gradebook contains a new "Statistics" section which allows instructors to Display assignment statistics to students and/or Display course grade statistics to students. By default, these options were checked, allowing students to see these statistics without the instructor realizing it.
• Fix: As soon as this issue was discovered, we ran a process that deselected these options in all existing courses (2019SU and 2019FA), so students could no longer see these statistics. Going forward, these options will be deselected by default in all new courses created in the future. Students no longer see grade statistics by default, but instructors can choose to enable these options if desired (by going to Gradebook > Settings > Statistics).

FIXED: Tests & Quizzes: On short answer/essay questions, students cannot see model answer or instructor comments

• Issue: If instructor chooses settings to release all feedback to students, students cannot see any feedback for short answer/essay questions – students cannot see model answer or feedback entered on the question, and they cannot see any comments or attachments added by the instructor when grading.
• FIX: A patch was installed on 7/17/19. Students can now see feedback, comments, etc on short answer/essay questions.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42015

FIXED: Tests & Quizzes: Instructors cannot preview Tests/Quizzes in draft mode

• Issue: In Tests & Quizzes, beside any "draft" test or quiz, from the Action drop-down, select "Preview". Click the Begin Assessment button. Instead of seeing a test question, the instructor is returned to the main Tests & Quizzes page. (This was a consistent problem in Chrome. Occasionally this would work in Firefox, but not reliably.)
• FIX: A patch was installed on 6/13/19. Instructors can now preview test/quiz drafts.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41786

FIXED: Tests & Quizzes: In Firefox and Edge: Instructors cannot insert additional answers on multiple choice questions

• Issue: In Firefox and Edge: In Tests & Quizzes, add a multiple choice question to a quiz or test. Scroll below the four answer options provided. Beside "Insert Additional Answers", choose a number from the drop-down, such as "1". Nothing happens. Instead, the screen should refresh and a fifth answer box should appear. This works fine on Chrome.
• FIX: A patch was installed on 6/13/19. Instructors can use Firefox, Edge and Chrome to insert additional answers on multiple choice questions.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41900

FIXED: Tests & Quizzes: In a few Sakai sites, some test/quiz submissions were not scored correctly by Sakai

• Issue: From 5/23/19 to 5/31/19, some students' tests/quizzes were not scored properly by Sakai. Instructional Technologies was able to identify all student submissions that were affected and worked with instructors to get them corrected. Only six classes were affected.
• FIX: A patch was installed on 5/31/2019 to prevent this from happening again. All affected student scores have been corrected.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41876

FIXED: Tests & Quizzes: Chrome only: If students click on a Lessons link to a test/quiz, students can't see questions or submit answers

• Issue: On Chrome: When students click on a Lessons link to a quiz or test, the test is displayed in a small box. Students can't see questions or submit answers.
• Workaround: As an interim measure, students were advised to use Firefox when taking tests & quizzes.
• FIX: A fix was applied on 5/23/2019, and students may now use Chrome or Firefox to take tests & quizzes.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41799