Giving Feedback issue

Bob.P.239

An instructor tries giving a student in their course feedback, they get this message(see image). What can we do about it?

Sreelakshmi.N.546

Hi Bob,

Thank you for contacting us through the Brightspace community!

I have reviewed the screenshot you provided and understand that this error message is shown when the PDF submission contains a significant amount of annotation data, which causes it to load slowly in Brightspace. In some cases, even after downloading the file and opening it in Adobe Acrobat, the annotations were very large in file size—over 4MB—exceeding the storage limit for evaluations in Brightspace.

To resolve this, we recommend the following solutions:

1. Avoid Adding Annotations in Brightspace: If possible, refrain from adding or erasing annotations directly on the PDF within Brightspace. This will help keep the file size within the system's storage limits.
2. Flatten the PDF Before Uploading: This is the recommended solution. Flattening the PDF will combine the annotations with the document, reducing its size and improving loading times. To flatten the PDF in Adobe Acrobat (or other PDF viewers), follow these steps:
   • Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
   • Go to Menu > Print…
   • For the printer, select Microsoft Print to PDF, then click Print.
   • On Mac, select the option to Save as PDF in the print menu.
   • Upload the flattened PDF to Brightspace.

Alternatively, there are online tools available that can flatten PDFs as well.

After flattening the PDF, it should load more quickly, and you will be able to add or remove annotations in Brightspace without exceeding the storage limits. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks

Sreelakshmi