Sakai 19 Known Issues

Known Issues/Workarounds

Rubrics: Rubrics Grading Error if a Rating DOES NOT contain a Point Value

Issue: When creating a Rubric, you can add ratings titles and descriptions without Points. But after you associate the Rubric with a Gradebook item (or other activity), only one line of the Rubric is displayed. The instructor can't grade using the Rubric.

Workaround: Edit the Gradebook item or other activity: De-select the Rubric and Save Changes. In Rubrics, Edit Ratings without points, add points and Save each Rating. Edit the Gradebook item or other activity: Select the Rubric and Save Changes. When grading with the Rubric, the Rubric will now display.

Sakai documentation: SAK-40348

Rubrics: Rubrics and the Gradebook, Assignments and Tests & Quizzes questions DO NOT Warn you of Mismatched Points

Issue: When associating a Rubric with a Gradebook item, Assignment or Test Question, you do not get a warning message if the Rubric has different maximum points allowed from its associated Gradebook item, Assignment or Test Question. For example, if your Grading Rubric allows a total of 10 points, you would not get a warning when you associated the Rubric with an Assignment with 20 maximum points allowed. You could not assign more than 10 points when grading the assignment, unless the Assignment had the Grading Rubric setting chosen to "Adjust individual student scores".

Workaround: Add the number of points to the NAME of your Rubric (for example, Discussion Topic Rubric - 10 points). It will help you remember how many total points can be assigned to the Rubric's Gradebook item, Assignment or Tests & Quizzes question. Or it will be a reminder to create a new Rubric containing the correct maximum points.

Sakai documentation: SAK-40155

Rubrics: Rubrics do NOT allow decimal points, but Gradebook, Assignments and Tests & Quizzes Questions do

Issue: When creating a Rubric using decimal points, usually the decimal positions are ROUNDED to a WHOLE NUMBER when you save the Rubric (such as .25 displays as 0; 1.25 displays as 1). Instead of a Rubric worth total points of 1.5, the total points are 1 (0 + 1). In the Gradebook: When you try to grade using a Rubric with decimal positions, the Rubric displays WHOLE NUMBERS. In addition, in the Gradebook Rubric, if you override the criterion grade with decimal positions:

The Gradebook displays the correct grade, adding up decimal positions correctly (such as 1.5 = 1.25 + .25).
After the Rubric is saved, the Rubric ROUNDS criterion scores a whole number and displays both an INCORRECT criterion score (such as 1 rounded from 1.25; 0 rounded from .25) and an INCORRECT total score such as 1 = 1 (rounded from 1.25) + 0 (rounded from .25)

Assignments and Tests & Quizzes have the same issue: Do NOT use decimal points with a Rubric assigned to an Assignment; nor to a Rubric assigned to a Test & Quizzes question. We don't recommend using the Rubric with Forums Topics as students can't see the Rubric; but if used, don't use it with decimal points.

Workaround: There is no workaround. Do NOT use decimal positions in Rubrics when creating a Rubric or using a Rubric for grading.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41175

Meetings: When creating a Meeting, if you choose Notify participants AND Attach iCalendar you Receive an Error Message

Issue: When creating a meeting, if you check beside "Notify participants", if you ALSO check beside "Attach iCalendar", you'll get an error message. The meeting WILL be created, but your email notification may or may not be sent to your students.
Workaround: When creating a meeting, do check beside "Notify participants", but DON'T check beside "Attach iCalendar". You won't get an error message, your meeting WILL be created, and your email notification WILL be sent to your students.

Sakai documentation: BBB-151

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-41814

Forums: If instructor grades using a Rubric associated with a Topic, only the instructor can view the Rubric (not students)

Issue: When setting up a Topic in Forums, instructors can choose a Rubric to grade student posts (as well as associate the Topic with a Gradebook item). BUT, only the instructor can see the Rubric while grading. Students can NOT see the Rubric grades or comments in Forums NOR in the Gradebook.

Workaround: Use a Rubric in the Gradebook, not in Forums. In your Topic, do NOT associate the gradebook item with a Topic AND do NOT choose a Rubric.

In the Gradebook, when creating a topic gradebook item, choose a Rubric for grading discussion posts. Use the topic gradebook item with a Rubric to grade/add comments for your student discussion posts. Both you and your students can see your Rubric grades and comments in the Gradebook.

Sakai documentation: SAK-40157

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

Syllabus: Can't delete attachment from the Edit tab

Issue: In the Syllabus, create a new item, add an attachment to the item. Select the "Edit" tab, select "Edit details". Select "Remove" under the attachment-a message should appear to confirm the deletion. Press "Delete". The attachment should be removed, but is not.
Workaround: Click on the Syllabus tool. Click on the trash can icon beside the attachment. Select "Delete". The attachment will be removed.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41838

Lessons: Short Answer Question displays red "X" after student submission

Issue: If an instructor does NOT provide an answer for a short answer Question (nor provides a correct or incorrect possible answer) after the student submits a response, in the upper left corner of the Question, the Question status displays a red "X", implying the answer is INCORRECT. Instead, a "space" or nothing should display in the Question "status" area, at the top left of the Question box.

If the short answer Question is REQUIRED, an asterisk displays in the upper left corner of the Question box, in the Question status area. If a student answers this REQUIRED Question, the asterisk should change to a green checkmark, denoting the response has been submitted. Instead, a red "X" displays, implying the REQUIRED question was NOT submitted and may be incorrect as well.

If the student answers a REQUIRED short answer Question incorrectly (and the question has been given a possible correct answer by the instructor), a red "X" displays in the Question status area, even though the REQUIRED Question has been submitted. Instead, a green checkmark should display in the upper left in the Question status area, denoting a REQUIRED Question was submitted by the student.

Workaround: If possible, do NOT REQUIRE short answer Questions, unless you add an explanation above the Question that short answers must be graded by the instructor, and could be marked incorrect with a red "X", even when the answer is correct.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42472

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

Lessons: Checklists: Inactive (withdrawn) and active students display on "View checklist progress" screen

Issue: In Lessons, create a checklist. If a student has been withdrawn in your class: To the right of the Checklist, select the icon to "View Checklist Progress". Both active and inactive (withdrawn) students appear in the list.
Workaround: None.

Sakai documentation: SAK-37873

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 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

Meetings: Some Spectrum Internet users (using Spectrum routers) may experience disconnects/reconnects during their sessions

Issue: Some users who are using BOTH Spectrum Internet AND are renting/using a Spectrum router, may experience disconnects and/or audio issues, but can reconnect, but the issue may continue during the session.
Workaround: Spectrum made changes to how their routers handle internet connectivity. If you disable IPV6 on your computer or on the Spectrum router itself, the issue is addressed, and stability returns to normal.
- Here are the steps on how to disable IPV6 on Windows 10/Mac OS X, or alternatively, on the Spectrum router itself: How to Disable IPV6

Meetings Vendor documentation: How to Disable IPV6

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: 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).
FIX: A patch was installed on 12/17/19. For assignments released to a specific group, reminder emails now go only to students in that group, not all students.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42380

FIXED: 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.
FIX: A patch was installed on 12/17/19. Now if you remove an assignment that has a future due date, no reminders will be sent to students.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42416

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: 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, 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. 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.
FIX: A patch was installed on 12/17/19. Rubric ratings and comments are no longer wiped out when an instructor adds an attachment.

Sakai documentation: SAK-41849 Assignments SAK-42371 T&Q

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

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

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.
FIX: A fix was available on 2/24/2020. Audio files created using the Text Editor's "Record Audio Clip" tool, now import correctly into a new Sakai course site.

Sakai documentation: SAK-42800