With the transition from Blackboard to Brightspace, several challenges arise, including the problem of broken links to media such as images, videos, and files. These media are sometimes still physically stored in Blackboard and therefore cannot be accessed directly in Brightspace. As long as both students and teachers have access to both platforms, this will not cause any immediate problems. However, since students will no longer have access to Blackboard from September, there is a risk that they will not be able to access the necessary study material.
Our team works hard to fix these broken links, but we notice that teachers who migrate their own courses sometimes accidentally make the same mistake. This likely happens because they copy content directly from a Blackboard page and paste it into Brightspace, causing the media links to not transfer correctly.
In this article, we'll explain step-by-step how to identify and fix these broken links, ensuring that all necessary materials remain accessible to your students in Brightspace.
This error message means that there is a connection with Blackboard on this page. This could be an image, a link to a page, a document that is only on Blackboard, etc. We will find out what it is and then we can solve the problem.
Step 1: What is it?
To find out what the broken link is, we first need to hide the error message. Press the ESC key on your keyboard to clear the error message. You may have to do this multiple times if there are multiple errors on the page.
Then click on the button in Brightspace that shows the source code of the page. This button opens the HTML source code of the page:
Step 2: Locate the object
Then use the key combination CTRL + F to search within the source code for links that start with "leren.saxion". This will help you find the problematic link.
Copy the found link and paste it in another browser or in an incognito window. This ensures that you can view the content without it being automatically logged in to Blackboard.
If the link points to an image, video, or other file, download that file to your local computer.
Step 3: Replace the object
Because the original image or file is on Blackboard, this error appears in Brightspace. To resolve this, you will need to re-upload the file to Brightspace.
Close Source View and return to the spot on the page where the image was. This spot should look like an empty frame or a broken image icon.
Delete the old image by pressing BACKSPACE or DELETE while the image is selected. Then upload the new image in the same place.
If everything was done correctly, the error message should now be gone and the image should display correctly on the page.