Blackboard Learning Management Reviews

I work with Blackboard Learning Management as an administrator for various institutions, including Purdue University. Currently, I work in cybersecurity and help teach a course partially delivered through Blackboard Learning Management, though this experience is not as in-depth as before.

We primarily deliver a malware analysis course through Blackboard Learning Management. The course has components for pure instruction, and the individual learning modules include exams delivered through the platform. We use various plugins, such as Panopto, to record and redeliver lectures to students for offline viewing.

Regarding the impact of Blackboard Learning Management's interactive tools on student engagement and collaboration in the educational environment, I haven't used it in a corporate environment and believe it is a misplaced tool for that context, as it requires too much knowledge to be effective. For student engagement, I can speak from experience across sixth grade through master's level. There are tools that can engage anyone at those levels, such as carefully displayed content, requiring students to use discussion boards where they must post and answer a certain number of times per week. This prompts students who might not be willing to share to provide their perspectives and experiences, allowing them to see the rich set of perspectives from their peers who will later become their colleagues in the workplace or academia.

Since I've been working with Blackboard Learning Management for an extended period, I've witnessed its evolution and consistent dedication to pedagogy. The platform's ability to deliver exams and content in a technical way is superior to most other platforms. This delivery system allows for establishing checkpoints before progressing to new content, ensuring students understand current material before moving forward.

The platform offers various conditions for content progression and exams. Students can take exams multiple times at the instructor's discretion, requiring specific passing scores for content release. Additionally, peer-reviewed paper submissions can be required before accessing new content. If a student struggles with an exam section, the system halts the exam and allows review of the specific content they might not understand.

The adaptive release feature is particularly interesting as it customizes the learning environment for individual students, including those with special needs or delivery requirements. The platform checks documents for accessibility, sending alerts for missing alt text in images and can generate automatic alt text. This ensures compliance with universal design laws, similar to U.S. 508 compliance.

While specific measurable benefits cannot be specified since this course has always been delivered through Blackboard Learning Management, the course has grown from 12 students to nearly 200 at semester start. The structured delivery enables incorporation of additional teaching assistants due to uniform methodologies. The platform's compatibility for data export to other institutions opens interesting revenue streams through course sharing agreements, which has influenced my consistent choice to work with it.

Most of the improvements I would have suggested for Blackboard Learning Management five years ago have been implemented. However, it would be beneficial to have greater ease in programmatically importing and customizing courses. Though the trajectory has been positive, the ability to use JSON data for quicker course setup would be valuable, even though the setup burden remains low for experienced users. An area for enhancement would be the flexibility in sorting languages, as issues arise in Norwegian and Dutch when special characters are treated incorrectly within the sorting process, which impacts localization.

The solution has been used across multiple institutions and roles over many years.

Regarding stability and performance, while the platform is scalable, the only downtime with hosted Blackboard Learning Management occurred due to a problematic BGP routing change. Once presented with evidence, the issue was promptly addressed, reflecting the overall quality of their support.

My experience with Blackboard Learning Management's tech support has been fantastic. I've accessed pools of technicians and premier support where few customers are served by each agent. While the pool support may not have been as strong previously, the specialized support remains some of the best I've encountered across various products from networking to databases to LMSs.

On a scale of one to ten, Blackboard Learning Management's tech support rates a solid eight or nine, depending on whether base support or top-tier support is utilized.

I have evaluated other LMS systems before choosing Blackboard Learning Management, including Canvas, BrainHoney, and several others, though it has been over eight years since engaging with those products.

Setting up Blackboard Learning Management was complex for the last fresh install managed on Blackboard 9. It included a workbook guiding the setup process, ensuring thorough documentation, which was vital before the advent of easy data pulls with JSON.

The aspect of documentation and sustainability has remained integral, and I still retain setup documents from an organization where I implemented Blackboard Learning Management in 2005, demonstrating how helpful and useful the format has remained for developing documentation over the years.

When considering the centralized dashboard in Blackboard Learning Management, insights for stakeholders are limited due to minimal contact. However, when managing changes in courses or curriculum, particularly in government-controlled environments, having data to support opinions strengthens the case for sharing information clearly with leadership, allowing educators to present the effectiveness or issues within the learning environment.

We procured Blackboard Learning Management directly from Blackboard. My advice to organizations considering Blackboard Learning Management is to engage with someone deeply knowledgeable about training users in all features because a poorly implemented product leads to wasted resources and underutilization of features. A robust implementation strategy, good follow-ups, and regular check-ins with newer employees are essential to maximizing educational opportunities.

The main differences between Blackboard Learning Management and competitors center on niche offerings. While Blackboard Learning Management may not excel in flexibility compared to some competitors, maintaining a consistent underlying structure is critical for course export and import functionalities, especially when scaling.

I rate Blackboard Learning Management a 9 out of 10.

I use Blackboard Learning Management in a business school. I utilize it to take courses and lessons in a virtual way.

The best features of Blackboard Learning Management include its modern experience in learning systems. The options are very easy to find, and it is a very complete solution for overviewing course content, videos, and multimedia resources.

Meeting dynamic educational requirements with Blackboard Learning Management's adaptability and personalized learning environments is the main reason for success in academic performance in this business school.

To make Blackboard Learning Management better, I believe maintaining, updating, and upgrading the content is the key success factor for the platform to provide value to students.

I have used this solution for two years.

I assess the impact of Blackboard Learning Management's interactive tools for student engagement and collaboration in my education environment by focusing on reviewing, reading, and listening to the course content. I can write comments and read the course content, which are my most common tasks with this tool.

I don't typically use the advanced analytics feature in Blackboard Learning Management as the business school did not have these options enabled for us.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Blackboard Learning Management a 9.

The product is used for the virtual learning environment in the institutions I worked for. The product is at the heart of teaching, learning, academic engagement, student engagement, online learning, blended learning and distance learning courses. It is used for assessment and feedback, as well as other tools integrated with Blackboard Learn provides a go-to place for students to find out the essential information about a course.

The tool worked for the institution in a way that no other learning system would work. It was well embedded within the institution. We ensured that people understood all the features and made use of them. A large number of tools are available no doubt there, but here I will mention some of the most impactful and valuable tools like Online quizzes, and the accessibility tool (Ally). The look and feel of 'Modules' and 'Courses' is engaging but some flexibility can be added. The vendor is working on many new features including AI features in the solution. All the training materials provided by the vendor are good.

When the vendor made the push from Learn Original to Ultra, well-established features in the Learn Original version were not readily available in Learn ULTRA hence, the Blackboard Learn Ultra version lacked some features for a good year and we needed to come up with workarounds and use them until the solutions were brought back in. As far as I am aware they have caught up with original features however, it may vary across the community of users. Users were disappointed not to have well-used features from the beginning. As an improvement, I would suggest 'Blackboard Learn' to provide better integration with third-party software as well as ensure that the existing features are working well. Sometimes, vendors get too busy bringing new features and neglect the existing features that might need improvement or better workflow.

I have been using the solution since 2010.

The product was stable 24/7. We have had very few outages in the last 3 years. It was down for a very brief period, all published in the monitoring tools. 

The tool is scalable. When we used the managed hosting environment, we worked with our providers to give them the best details of how many users we expected for the next academic year. We also gave them ideas of whether we'll have a very high-impact day. They were able to scale it up very quickly.

Scalability in the SaaS environment is a little different since everything is in the cloud. We were worried about how flexible it would be on a day that we had a very large exam, but it performed brilliantly. Overall we had up to 26,000 users.

We used a service delivery manager (SDM). We forwarded issues to the service delivery manager if we felt something wasn't done well by tier 1 support teams. Sometimes Tier 1 support teams needed a nudge or they did not understand the importance of the issue however the SDM was keeping good tabs on them. 

Neutral

I have used Moodle and Canvas. The pros and cons depend on who's hosting the product. Having a Software As A Service (SAAS) is a pro. It's very difficult to pick and choose between products because they're completely different and need to be tailored to the business and it will depend on the business and what they are looking for and expecting from their mearing management systems. 

I've always used Blackboard as a managed hosting environment. Since 2019, the product has been provided as software as a service. The onboarding process was very straightforward.

We received a reasonable amount of ROI from the solution.

The institution doesn't need to worry about hardware or infrastructure. If you decide to be onboarding Blackboard Learn Ultra and have no idea what to do about the monthly updates, Blackboard has a very good platform to help you. It has project managers who can help onboard and answer queries. 

People considering implementing the product must ensure they take advantage of all the support Blackboard can offer during the onboarding. Make good use of all the help you can get. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

Blackboard really is over - which is why we shifted over to the Canvas model and the Moodle model. When Blackboard got bought out, it just became another mass delivery product. As with everything that pretty much Microsoft does, it's not great. There's a reason some of us use Apple all the time.

The real-time live interactions have been great.

It is scalable. 

Blackboard is expensive and requires regular updates. Like Microsoft products, you flip your computer on, and all of a sudden you realize that you're going to spend four hours sitting there updating.

That happens to Blackboard all the time. Not all IT departments or universities understand that their job is to teach, not to constantly upgrade software.

The solution is not flexible. 

It was not very stable and required a lot of updates in the past.

I've used the solution since 2005. I've used many iterations of the product. 

It was not a stable product, at least up until a couple of years ago. There was a reason you needed to do updates, including in the middle of semesters. You couldn't even maintain functionality through a 16-week semester.

The product is scalable. 

The number of users varies. The campus has 7,000 to 8,000 students plus all of the faculty and staff. That becomes around 10,000 or so.

Technical support could handle all of the routine stuff, however, as soon as you asked the hard question or needed significant help, they had to contact the Blackboard representative directly.

They didn't have the necessary skills to actually change the software if you identified a problem. They always had to go back.

Neutral

We did not previously use a different solution. We shifted over to both Canvas and Moodle.

Initially, Blackboard had problems for faculty members who were forced to use it to try to get it set up and running. That said, over time, they improved that. Unfortunately, due to its licensing requirements on standalone systems, like at a university on our servers, we run into problems where we can only set it up in one way. The way you teach a biology class is not the way you teach a social science class, for example. It's not flexible. Often you are forced into compromising in such a manner that neither group would be happy.

If you need help, the help desk in-house will provide 24-hour help to both students and faculty. That means you have eight people, eight hours a day, supervisors, and an overall manager. It takes at least 12 people to handle maintenance for a 10,000-person campus for 24-hour coverage.

We handled the deployment in-house. 

We haven't really seen any ROI. 

It's a functional system. However, the inherent problems are too much for us. 

It's one of the reasons we migrated from Blackboard to Canvas at one of the places that I use LMSs.

The solution is a bit expensive. However, I wasn't on the budgeting side of the business and can't speak to exact costs. On a scale from one to five, with five being the most expensive, I'd rate the solution at a six. 

Once they were bought out by the big company, you couldn't afford them anymore.

I'm not using the most recent version. It's been a couple of years, so I don't know what versions are out now. I just know that Microsoft or Google bought them. Then after that, we shifted over to both Canvas and Moodle.

It has good points, and it has bad points. Fundamentally, all LMS systems are similar in their work and problems. They vary. It depends on the intensity you need for interacting with students and clients.

I would advise potential new users to be prepared to staff a large technical support unit.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

I teach basic and advanced graphic design courses at a technical college that offers two-year associate degrees. We deal with the technical execution of graphic design, aesthetics, and concept building. I use Blackboard as a shell or holding space for all my curriculum and lesson plans. 

The latest version of Blackboard is called Ultra Base Navigation. I have experience with it, but I'm not currently using that for my courses. I'm using the original format deployed on a local system at the college. 

Blackboard provides a go-to place for students to find out the essential information about a course. That's the benefit of any learning management system. Students have one place to go to find what they need to know about each course. It has been crucial to our operations in a virtual environment since the pandemic began. 

It provides ease of access and continuity across an institution. We use it throughout the college for all courses, from technical programs to liberal arts courses, so students are familiar with the Blackboard interface. That is a plus.

Blackboard enables instructors to collectively gather all the grading data into one place. If students upload content or post it to a Google Doc, I can do my grading and calculate the grades. It is an excellent holding place for all of that data

It gathers attendance data, which works well for instructors using Blackboard Collaborate's virtual portal. It can tell you when a student logs into Blackboard and is participating in or viewing the session. The instructor can find out when the student tuned and left the session.

Blackboard has limitations in terms of delivering content and assessing student assignments because it can't handle large file sizes. It's also limited in its ability to track student activity. Instructors can see the student's most recent login, but they can't follow the activity.

One suggestion for new features is a modification I've made on my own. When assessing my graphic design students, I launch a separate Google Meet session instead of keying lengthy content into the feedback pane. I record a video of me going through the student file that might be two minutes or 25 minutes long. I can download that as an MP4 or post the link to that recording within Blackboard.

Blackboard can record feedback like that, but it's a convoluted process to get that video embedded into the feedback window. Feedback is essential for graphic design or any of our technical courses. We have face-to-face classes, but 90 percent of our courses are online. It's crucial that the students understand the feedback and incorporate it into improving their assignments. The ability to embed the video content is a clear and concise route.

Blackboard's built-in video capture requires you to go into YuJa media chooser. You click to launch that, wait for it to open up, and record content. You launch the recording, gather your screen, and download that. It's a lengthy multi-step process. That's a taxing process for 20 assignments and five classes every week. 

I'd also like improvements to the pane where we view assignments. When students upload smaller files, like a JPEG rendering of a rough composition, we can't highlight everything. We can tag things and embed comments, but we can't highlight specific areas. We can only drop a pin and comment. In Google Docs, you can highlight, crop areas, and provide a specific point of visual contact for a composition. Blackboard would have a better product if they followed Google's lead in that regard.

I've used Blackboard for 15 or 16 years.

Blackboard is reliable. We don't often have problems with stability, but it's typically a bandwidth issue when we do. When the pandemic hit and most of our courses went online immediately, bandwidth was a problem. That seems to have been fixed, and I wouldn't blame that on Blackboard. 

I haven't experienced any limitations with scale. Our courses are capped at around 24 students. I haven't encountered any issues, and I load large volumes of content into the system every week. I typically teach 16 weeks per semester and dump a lot of content into Blackboard. Blackboard is used extensively throughout the college because the school mandates that each course must have an online presence, and it uses Blackboard for course delivery.

We have internal support for Blackboard at the college. Two different areas work in tandem: the Center of Teaching Excellence and the Academic Support Center. A rough estimate is that we have 25 to 35 folks in that area. We also have a strong peer network within our departments, including faculty leads who provide support. Peer support steps in when there are questions about Blackboard functionality. 

The college had Blackboard in place when I joined. I have used tools in the Google product line for students to upload their files to the cloud, so we have shared access to those files. However, this is the only structured learning management system I've used.

I often use third-party support components to backfill where Blackboard falls short. For example, I use Google Meet for synchronous virtual meetings and Google Docs to handle those larger files. Google is helpful for interacting interact in a discussion or conversational setting.

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra offers a virtual experience where students and instructors can interact in a synchronous setting. I've used that along with Google Meet, but I prefer using Google Meet because it is closer to my experience as a graphic designer. I think it's valuable for students to learn something they'll use the moment they step into the industry.

Setting up Blackboard is pretty straightforward, and it's easy to roll over content from semester to semester. The curriculum and content need to be updated, but it is fairly intuitive.

The school deployed Blackboard in-house, and it was installed when I was hired. We have a peer support structure at the college that works well. When a new instructor is added, they aren't just left to their own devices. 

I rate Blackboard Learning Management seven out of 10. There's room for growth, but it's solid. Many students have used it at other institutions, so familiarity is an advantage, and it's reasonably intuitive. Ultra Base Navigation is much more intuitive and has a cleaner delivery. It's a healthy seven.

As a graphic design instructor, I find the interface for content formatting pretty clumsy. After removing all the formatting, there's residual HTML that's still just nagging the ability to format. It would be great if they can clean up their formatting. But overall, the core features work well, like laying out weekly curriculum structure, embedding content, and access to remote links.

In Saudi Arabia, it is the primary platform used by higher education institutions. All universities in the country utilize Blackboard as their main tool for delivering educational content and engaging with students. Our users, including students and faculty, rely on it for three main purposes: Course Delivery, Community Engagement, and Content Management. Students access the Blackboard system to obtain course materials and attend virtual classrooms through it. We have different colleges at our institution, such as the College of Computer Informatics and the College of Health Services. To cater to these distinct communities, my team and I have customized the Blackboard system to incorporate the concept of communities. It is also used for content management, allowing students to access and manage their course-related materials. To support these three main functions, we have integrated Blackboard with various external systems.

It is a comprehensive learning management system with fully integrated solutions. It encompasses various components, including course delivery modules, content management, community engagement features, digital classrooms, and mobile integration. Students can access their course content, and classes, and participate in Blackboard Collaborate using a mobile application, making it a versatile and complete support system. It serves as a crucial source of information. For example, tracking student attendance is vital due to legal and regulatory requirements. Having this attendance data is essential, and Blackboard facilitates this through Application Programming Interfaces. 

Its success in serving educational institutions is attributed to its commitment to clear API documentation, frequent releases, strong customer engagement, roadmap communication, feedback mechanisms, database services, deployment mode flexibility, and comprehensive testing environments. These features collectively enhance the platform's value and reliability for both educational institutions and their users.

The system falls short in terms of managing assessments and exams effectively. Within Blackboard, exams are typically confined to the course level, and the existing features, while functional, are not as robust or flexible as those offered by specialized assessment solutions like ExamSoft. It is worth noting that AI integration is a significant trend in educational technology. As of the current release of Blackboard, AI has not been fully implemented within the platform. While Blackboard has partnered with Pyramid, there's room for improvement in terms of enhancing the integration and support they provide. It should invest more in marketing its data solutions and assisting customers in utilizing analytics effectively for decision-making, as data is a valuable asset for organizations today.

I have been using it for ten years now.

Generally, it is a highly stable platform if there is proper planning and capacity scaling in line with the institution's growth. Stability may be compromised if the institution fails to consider future student numbers and does not upgrade the infrastructure to accommodate the increased demand.

To achieve scalability, you need to expand it significantly.

The customer support experience for various Blackboard products varies. In my experience with Blackboard Learn, I would rate its customer support experience as seven out of ten. The customer support experience for Blackboard Mobile is better, and I would rate it as eight out of ten. The customer support experience for Blackboard Collaborate is comparatively lower, and I would rate it as six out of ten. Blackboard Analytics for Learn has a lower rating, and I would rate it as two out of ten.

I have experience with various learning management systems, including Moodle and Canvas, both of which have their unique characteristics. Moodle is an open-source platform available for anyone to use and customize as needed. On the other hand, Canvas is more limited in terms of customization for students, but I've worked with it from an administrative perspective.One notable distinction between Blackboard and other systems is that Blackboard is a closed-source platform. In contrast, open-source systems like Moodle allow for more flexibility and customization. If you wish to enhance a feature like the discussion board in Blackboard, you'd need to submit your idea to the product management team and wait for its implementation. In contrast, open-source systems permit users to make such enhancements themselves or have them developed, thereby offering more autonomy. Blackboard provides fully integrated solutions, encompassing several systems under the Blackboard umbrella.

It offers three deployment modes: self-hosted, managed-hosted, and Software as a Service. For self-hosted, institutions host Blackboard on their own infrastructure. The institution's technical team is responsible for preparing the hardware and database. Blackboard experts may assist in the installation and configuration process. In the managed-hosted deployment, the institution owns the hardware infrastructure, typically located in a data center. Blackboard or a contracted provider is responsible for managing and maintaining the Blackboard service, including backups, performance monitoring, and security. This mode offers more hands-on support from the provider. With SaaS, Blackboard manages the entire service in the cloud. The institution doesn't need to worry about hardware or infrastructure. Blackboard handles upgrades and maintenance. SaaS operates under a service agreement that may differ from the managed-hosted model. The time it takes to install and configure depends on several factors. For self-hosted deployment, it relies on the institution's readiness and the skills of its technical team. The preparation process includes tasks like database creation, infrastructure setup, and network configuration. Typically, it may take around two weeks. In managed-hosted and SaaS deployments, the timeline may vary based on the specific agreement between Blackboard or the provider and the institution. While installation might be swift, the overall process could be subject to contractual terms.

When considering the adoption of Blackboard, it's essential to thoroughly evaluate the platform and align it with your institution's specific needs. The primary beneficiaries are students, instructors, and trainers. Careful planning, thorough evaluation, and collaboration with Blackboard representatives are key to making an informed decision about choosing Blackboard for your institution. It's important to align the platform with your institution's specific requirements and ensure that you have the necessary leadership and expertise to support the successful implementation of the system. I would rate it eight out of ten.

Blackboard is our main ally as a learning management system. With this platform, we have managed all of our courses and implemented them in our own platform in order to obtain the statistics of the users.

Blackboard allows us to manage all our users since it has a very powerful server that supports the platform. For example, we have had courses of up to five thousand users and the software has always been stable. With other LMS products, there were problems with slowness when many users signed up or interacted at the same time.

One of the most important features is the possibility of creating unlimited subdomains. In this way, we can create customers who need their own platform that is independent of ours. Another very enriching function is the report center panel, which shows very detailed reports concerning actions of the users and teachers, as well as the general progress for each course.

The best thing they can do is to improve the templates for mobile phones. Without this application, access to courses using some devices is a little complicated. It would be ideal to create a more responsive or more intuitive template for access from telephones or tablets.

It has a very powerful server, which until now has not failed the service even once.

The scalability is unlimited because they have a plan to offer solutions as services and we can create complete platforms or virtual schools to offer them to other clients.

I have used other LMS products, but I had to change platforms because the previous solution did not have the capacity to manage thousands of users in real time. Besides, other LMSs depend on my own server's resources. This is not the case for Blackboard, where I do not have to worry about the technical requirements because they offer all of the servers and services in the cloud.

The ROI depends on the plan you choose. To this point, we have been able to generate an ROI of 50%.

At the beginning, you can choose a basic plan. As your users grow you can buy a more expensive license.

Before choosing this solution we evaluated Moodle, Chamilo, and Canvas.

It is a very robust learning platform that is constantly updated.

• Content sharing: Helps the students to access content anytime, anywhere and the instructor can track the access details.
• Collaborative tools: Help students to clarify concepts via debates, discussion forums, blogs.
• Announcements
• Emails
• Online assessments

We are developing engaging content, putting some of the content online (blended mode) which helps students to learn via attractive features like games, quizzes, etc.

There are some minor bugs which will be resolved in upcoming updates.

Two-plus years.

No.

No.

Good.

My Moodle. We switched because it does not have all the facilities that blackboard can provide.

Straightforward.

For licensing related information, please contact Blackboard.

My Moodle.

Such a good product, you can use this within any domain/field, such as the education sector, organizations, corporations.

Blackboard Learning Management is extensively utilized across all departments as our primary e-learning platform, ensuring that all instructors integrate it into their teaching practices.

One of Blackboard's strengths is its historical prominence as a leading LMS for universities in the US and Europe a decade or more ago.

Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions.

The effectiveness of the support can vary depending on the nature of the issue, often limited by the software's constraints.

Neutral

Setting up Blackboard is quite complex, and due to its intricacies, it typically requires the involvement of an IT team.

I rate the process around a four.

The product pricing tends to be higher than alternatives like Canvas, making Blackboard more suitable for larger universities with substantial budgets.

While Blackboard's assessment tools are conceptually sound, the practical implementation is hindered by the outdated software environment. The integration of AI is crucial for modern educational tools, but is limited, reducing the potential for meaningful advancements. 

Overall, I rate Blackboard a five out of ten, primarily due to its historical strengths but recognizing its need for modernization.

I use the solution to teach classes. 

The solution is easy to use. 

I have been using the product for a year. 

I have never had any issues with the solution's stability. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

I have used Canvas LMS and Brightspace. I wouldn't say I like Brightspace since its navigation is cumbersome. 

I rate Blackboard Learning Management's deployment ease a ten out of ten. It is easier than Canvas LMS. 

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.