Blackboard wtf



  • So I was taking a test on Blackboard for a class I have to complete. Note, the initial WTF is I'm using blackboard for a class (Graduate-level CS, .NET advanced concepts in C#) but the major WTFery here is this:

    Blackboard failiure

    Now, for those of you who cant read it, it reads "Elapsed Time: {0} hours {1} minutes and {2} seconds undefined undefined". This wreaks of a .NET developer who tried to learn whatever Blackboard is coded in (Classical ASP, IIRC) but then assumed that all things had the same string.format (Note, that my browser bitches and cheveches because there is no "string.format()" function.)



    So, Here's the WTFs here:

    1. I'm taking a CS course via blackboard
    2. My university requires this course to be taken online
    3. The developers behind Blackboard 9 made the assumption that formatting standards were universal
    4. The timer actually does nothing. I've spent five hours idling on a test thats "supposed to take" 1.5 hours and suffered nothing.
    5. Its assumed by Blackboard that 1 minute (60 seconds!) is enough for someone to possibly finish a test.


  • You had me at "Blackboard".



  • @Indrora said:

    The developers behind Blackboard 9 made the assumption that formatting standards were universal

    No, TRWTF is that they evidently don't test their own software.  Making such an assumption isn't that big of a WTF, not noticing right off the bat that your assumption was incorrect is a pretty big WTF but not having any kind of testing strategy that catches these errors is monumentally stupid.

     

    @Indrora said:

    Its assumed by Blackboard that 1 minute (60 seconds!) is enough for someone to possibly finish a test.

    Where are you seeing that?  It says "1 hour and 30 minute timer" and it mentions a 1 minute warning.

     

    You missed another huge WTF: you can "save" the test and come back later.  What the hell is the point of that?  You can just save, look up answers and then resume.  It completely defeats the purpose of having a timed test.



  • the sixty second remark isnthat this is supposed to be an at your lesiure course. if for whatever reason you have completed half the test but taken an hour and twenty minutes to do so (happens a lot on hundred plus tests) youre screwed.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @Indrora said:

    Its assumed by Blackboard that 1 minute (60 seconds!) is enough for someone to possibly finish a test.

    Where are you seeing that?  It says "1 hour and 30 minute timer" and it mentions a 1 minute warning.

     

    The 1 minute warning is exactly what he's referring to. The only thing you can be reasonably expected to complete in that time is hitting the submit button, and I'd expect this sort of thing to have an auto-submit feature anyway in order to not fail the whole test if you happen to be in the toilet just when the time runs out. A typical scoring system rewards guessing, so it would make more sense to have a warning period where you could actually go through the rest of the questions quickly and enter at least some answers instead of leaving them empty.



  • @tdb said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    @Indrora said:

    Its assumed by Blackboard that 1 minute (60 seconds!) is enough for someone to possibly finish a test.

    Where are you seeing that?  It says "1 hour and 30 minute timer" and it mentions a 1 minute warning.

     

    The 1 minute warning is exactly what he's referring to. The only thing you can be reasonably expected to complete in that time is hitting the submit button, and I'd expect this sort of thing to have an auto-submit feature anyway in order to not fail the whole test if you happen to be in the toilet just when the time runs out. A typical scoring system rewards guessing, so it would make more sense to have a warning period where you could actually go through the rest of the questions quickly and enter at least some answers instead of leaving them empty.

    Is that what you got out of translating his incomprehensible post above?  I applaud you for venturing into that dark, shameful abyss born from the failures of our public school system, but I fear it may have been in vain.

     

    Nothing in the screenshot seems to indicate the test is discarded at the end of time period (rather than simply submitted with whatever work you have completed) and 1 minute is plenty of warning to cram in a dozen or more frantic guesses; 5 seconds to mark a member of a radio set is fairly generous, after all.  There's also a "save" feature, so if the timer runs out while you are on the shitter, you really deserve to fail.



  • I never took an online class, but is this normal?

    > This Test can be saved and resumed later

    What a test is that, when you can just do a "oh I dont know, I'll save and do a little research first.."

    For me thats for sure another WTF :D

     



  • Blackboard is full of WTF. They had a small trial with the online tests where I studied. A hour of IRCing later and almost all of us had a 9. (We all made a deliberate mistake so we wouldn't get all 10s) it was the first and the last time they did that.



  • @Daid said:

    Blackboard is full of WTF.
     

    I think most LMSs are WTFworthy! One part of which (I am having troubles developing) is SCORM...



  • Well I'll add one thing: If ANYTHING messes up (a faulty GET, whatever, IE crashing) on these "timed tests" you automatically get a botcholism failiure from the TOMCAT server on the front end and you get a 0 for the test



  • @Indrora said:


    So, Here's the WTFs here:

    1. I'm taking my college offers a CS graduate course via blackboard on advanced concepts in C#.
    2. My university requires this course to be taken online
    3. The developers behind Blackboard 9 made the assumption that formatting standards were universal //enough said
    4. The timer actually does nothing. I've spent five hours idling on a test thats "supposed to take" 1.5 hours and suffered nothing.
    5. Its assumed by Blackboard that 1 minute (60 seconds!) is enough for someone to possibly finish a test.

     

    FTFY

    My uni has some similarly stupid classes: Internet Programming (learning how to write a .NET web site!! as a graduate!!!).  Well, at least it should be an easy A.



  • Things could be worse.

    The GradDip course I'm doing requires you to hand write your 3 hour exam. Only our internal exams are done online... the rest has to conform with University standards which means hand-writing code. I havent handwritten in years.... my handwriting is illegible.


  • Garbage Person

    @morbiuswilters said:

    You missed another huge WTF: you can "save" the test and come back later.  What the hell is the point of that?  You can just save, look up answers and then resume.  It completely defeats the purpose of having a timed test.
    That's not what that means in most of these crapass software packages. This means that the timer will keep running and it will save the answers you've made thus far - thereby preventing you from getting assfucked by a browser crash.



  • @Weng said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    You missed another huge WTF: you can "save" the test and come back later.  What the hell is the point of that?  You can just save, look up answers and then resume.  It completely defeats the purpose of having a timed test.
    That's not what that means in most of these crapass software packages. This means that the timer will keep running and it will save the answers you've made thus far - thereby preventing you from getting assfucked by a browser crash.

     

    Except that he's already said that if it crashes, it'll give you a 0.

     

    Maybe handwriting an exam isnt so bad after all. At least I know the only shit I put into it is my own.



  • As an experiment I talked with the instructor. he got on a "student" account and started the test. He then proceeded to "save" the test, close it, log out, come back only to have it tell him he was "Denied access" to the test. Our local Blackboard Guru (who's been trained on it for around $30k a whack) and He was like "no no no its not possible its not possible" until we had HIM do it. "Oh, well I guess it is broken" No shit, sherlock. It doesnt take a paid guru to figure that out. The blackboard folks still think we're full of it.



  •  We could have a whole site just devoted to Blackboard WTFs. My three favorites:

    1) Reload a test, say because it doesn't completely transfer, and you get a zero.

    2) Being told both that you both completed and did not take the same test, at the same time, on the same screen.

    3) An indicator telling you how much time you have left on a test that blocks the buttons you need to get to to take the test.

     



  • @joelkatz said:

    1) Reload a test, say because it doesn't completely transfer, and you get a zero.

    2) Being told both that you both completed and did not take the same test, at the same time, on the same screen.

    3) An indicator telling you how much time you have left on a test that blocks the buttons you need to get to to take the test.

     

    :D


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