Blackboard Collaborate Ultra - Known Issues

The mouse cursor is not displayed to participants when the whole desktop or a single application is shared using Firefox 74+

Issue Description: The mouse cursor is not displayed to participants when the whole desktop or a single application is shared using Firefox 74+. This is a function of the Firefox browser and is not related to Collaborate Ultra. The mouse cursor is displayed to participants when applications are shared using Chrome, Edge (Chromium) and Safari.

Steps to Replicate: - Join a Collaborate Ultra session as a moderator or presenter using Firefox 74 or newer.

- Open application sharing and share the entire screen or a single application.

Result: The mouse cursor is not displayed to participants viewing the shared content.

Symptoms: The moderator's or presenter's mouse cursor does not appear to participants viewing the shared content.

Affected Platforms: Firefox 74+ on Mac OS and Windows

Workaround: Moderators and presenter should use Chrome, Edge (Chromium) or Safari when sharing applications where participants will need to view their mouse cursor.

In Safari, there is no selection for choosing a microphone, so it will use the default microphone. In Chrome, there is a selection in the setup to choose a microphone, but this is not available in Safari.

Steps to Replicate:

1. Join a Collaborate Ultra session from Safari.
2. Click Report an Issue in the settings.
3. Observe the "microphone=x" entry in the logs.
4. Then join a session from Chrome and repeat to potentially see a different microphone in use.

Symptoms: While using Safari in a Collaborate Ultra session, you may find that the audience hears you from a different microphone than expected. Typically, from a laptop, Safari will default to the built-in microphone even if you have a headset plugged in and set to the default in the OS settings. This is only encountered if your computer has multiple audio input devices and/or you would like to switch devices during the session.

Cause: There is no selection area in Safari in the Audio test. See the screenshot below:

In the following screenshot you will see that Chrome has an additional selection to choose the microphone you prefer.

Safari will also ignore the OS default setting you have chosen and use it's built-in default device as seen in the screenshot below where we have chosen a headset to be our default.

Resolution/Workaround: If Safari uses a microphone that you do not wish to use in your session, please use Chrome. Chrome allows you to select the microphone within the session from the Audio Test screen.

When recording an Ultra session, and all participants are moved into a Breakout Group, the recording will stop without notification. Once users are moved back into the Main Room, the recording needs to be restarted by the moderator, which will generate separate recordings for the session. The vendor is aware of this problematic behavior.

When an equation is created in PowerPoint using the Insert > Equations feature, those equations will appear misaligned when the PowerPoint file is uploaded to the Whiteboard in Collaborate Ultra with the Google Chrome browser. This article provides options to work around the issue.

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra users have reported that Ad Blockers can cause buttons such as the Share Now button to not appear.

Symptoms

Collaborate Ultra users have reported that Ad Blockers such as, "Ad Block Plus", can cause buttons to not appear. One example is when a presenter selects to File Share, the Share Now button at the bottom of the screen may be missing:

Resolution/Workaround

Please follow your Ad Blockers instructions to disable your Ad Blocker for the Collaborate Ultra websites that you use. Usually, you can open your Collaborate Ultra session, click on your ad blockers icon in the browser and select to disable it for the page that you are currently on.

Here is an example using AdBlock Plus:

1. Click on the ABP icon in your browser and then click the blue 'Enabled' button (looks like a power symbol)

   

2. Click Refresh to refresh the page

   

3. It should now be disabled (the button will turn red, as the following image shows)

   

When copying a Blackboard Collaborate Ultra session link into a browser, a "Failure: A04" error code is shown.

Examples of this error -and their workaround - include:

• This session hasn't started yet.

  

  Resolution/Workaround:
  1. Go to the session settings and change the date
  2. Create a new session
  3. Wait for session to begin
• Sorry! Guest access is not allowed at this time.

  

  Resolution/Workaround: User will need to contact the moderator as guest access has been disabled for the session.
• Uh-oh! There was a problem joining the session.

  

  Resolution/Workaround:
  1. Please check your internet connection and refresh the browser
  2. Please try to join the session on a different browser
  3. If these two options do not work, please contact to your moderator for a new link

Users that join a Collaborate Ultra session are unable to hear audio notifications on Safari 12 on Mac and iOS mobile.

Steps to Replicate:

1. Launch a Collaborate Ultra session with 2 moderator users in the session (one moderator on Safari 12 and the other moderator on a supported browser other than Safari, e.g. Chrome).
2. Enable all audio/video notifications on Safari 12.
3. Send all notifications (Chat, raise hand, etc).

Resolution/Workaround

The user would need to do this manually.

1. In the Safari app on your Mac, choose Safari and click on Preferences
   
2. Then click Websites
   
   
3. Click Auto-Play in the list on the left. Do any of the following: Choose settings for a website in the list: Select the website (us.bbcollab.com in this case) on the right, then choose the option: Allow All Auto-play
   
   
4. After Allowing All Auto-Play, you will be able to hear the Collaborate Ultra session notifications

Users that join a Collaborate Ultra session are unable to hear audio notifications on Safari 12 on Mac and iOS mobile.

Issue Description: Users attending a Collaborate Ultra sessions on some iOS devices cannot see edits made to the Collaborate Ultra Whiteboard.

Steps to Replicate:

1. Create a Collaborate Ultra session.
2. Join the session using Safari on an iPhone.
3. Join the same session using a PC or Mac (non-iOS device).
4. From the iPhone, draw lines, shapes or text on the whiteboard area.
• Expected results: All users attending the session can see the edits made to the whiteboard.
• Actual results: The edits do not appear to the iPhone user who created them, but they appear to everyone else in the session.
5. From the secondary device, draw lines, shapes or text on the whiteboard area.
• Expect results: Everyone in the session can see the edits made to the whiteboard.
• Actual results: The edits made to the whiteboard do not appear on the iPhone's whiteboard area, but they appear to every one else in the session

Symptoms:

Users attending a Collaborate Ultra sessions on some iOS devices cannot see edits made to the Collaborate Ultra Whiteboard.

Affected Platforms:

Some iOS devices

Resolution/Workaround:

There is no workaround at this time. If you experience this issue using an iOS device, please switch to a PC or Mac. You can also try a different iOS device, if you have one available.

If you're unable to hear and/or see participants, or vice versa, the issue may be with a browser extension. In order to determine if this is what is causing the issue, try first entering a session in an incognito browsing window. Instructions for each can be found here:

• Chrome: Instructions
• Edge: Instructions
• Firefox: Instructions
• Safari: Instructions

If the issue is not present in incognito mode, a browser extension is causing the issue. Typically, adblockers or extensions that stop HTML5 video from autoplaying, as well as old/unsupported extensions are the culprit, but other extensions may also be causing the issue.

To determine which extension it is, you should run your browser in its normal mode and manage your extensions by disabling all and then adding your extensions back one-at-a-time. In between each added extension, return to Blackboard Collaborate Ultra to check if your problem has returned. This process narrows down which extension is causing the problem.

If you are running many extensions, you may elect to add groups back in to see when the problem returns, and once it does, focus on that last group to identify the offending extension within that group.

Managing your extensions will be different from browser to browser, but this list of instructions for popular browsers will give you an idea of where to start:

Chrome (extensions)
Click the Chrome menu (three dots) on the browser toolbar
Select More Tools > Extensions.

Edge (extensions)
Click the menu (three dots) on the browser toolbar
Select Extensions.
Follow the prompts to activate and deactivate individual add-ons.

Firefox (add-ons)
Click the menu (three lines) on the browser toolbar.
Select Add-ons to bring up the page to manage your Add-ons.
Select Extensions on the left menu and follow the prompts to activate and deactivate individual extensions you have installed.

Safari (extensions)
Select Safari > Preferences.
Click on the Extensions tab and follow the prompts to activate and deactivate individual extensions.