User Reviews Overview
About Class for Web (formerly Blackboard Collaborate)
Blackboard Collaborate is an online collaborative learning solution designed primarily for elementary and high schools, higher education and government facilities. Blackboard Collaborate offers a browser-based web conferencing...
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- Industry: Food Production
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate Review
My overall experience with Blackboard Collaborate is always amazing. My grades have improved so much with this and I have been so much more organized because it comes with a calendar and reminder of when assignments are due and I never miss an assignment.
Pros
A feature that I absolutely love about this software is the breakout rooms for group projects. I love that professors can break us into groups and it is not difficult to see in Blackboard. I love how easy it is to use this software. I also love that I get to see my professors feedback on any assignments that have been graded. I love seeing the exact percentage as well instead of it saying "B+". I absolutely love Blackboard!
Cons
One feature that I hope that this software improves is sharing the computer audio. It would be really helpful to get audio instead of text because I feel like it is easier to communicate faster and a lot more easier than text. Either way I highly recommend this software because It has helped me be more organized. There are no features that are difficult.
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate Review
Blackboard collaborate is a straightforward tool that is very effective for educational purposes.
Pros
As a university student in the COVID-19 pandemic, blackboard collaborate was a complete necessity. I used this app everyday for at least 2 years while navigating through classes, webinars and even exams. It is a great app that is geared toward hosting larger groups. This software is easy to use and the interface is very interactive. It allows for screen sharing and even fantastic features that allow the host to give attendees impromptu multiple choice quizzes. The break out room feature is also beneficial in managing larger groups. One of my favorite features is the promotion of asynchronous learning by providing recordings of meetings and classes. The icons are also very easy to use, even for first time users.
Cons
Blackboard collaborate needs an extremely strong internet connection to run smoothly. Other than that, the app is quite reliable.
- Industry: Import & Export
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate Has Great Capabilities
Blackboard Collaborate meets our needs.
The experiences is amazing.
Pros
Blackboard Collaborate is an easy to use tool.
The capabilities of Blackboard Collaborate are superb.
It makes work easier for us.
Cons
I do not dislike Blackboard Collaborate at all.
Blackboard Collaborate has great features.
Top Class for Web (formerly Blackboard Collaborate) Alternatives
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Your Blacboard virtual classroom integration
The overall experience of Blackboard Collaborate is compliant and straightforward because as I said it does not have many features or differentiators against its market competition, it is simply the blackboard addon to take online classes or virtual meetings, its stability also characterizes it but from there on out, it is a pretty normal platform, and very easy to use.
Pros
What makes collaborate stand out is its stability when it comes to virtual meetings, of course depending on your network is what determines your experience during the meeting of course. Another thing is that in my case, being still a student, the collaborate is already integrated into the class in a section where either the teacher creates the icon on the left bar, or you simply go to the blackboard tools and you can find there the meeting you want to enter the entire course you have. The platform is designed for you to join immediately so if you are in a hurry, the software will take care of that and help you with that.
Cons
I didn't see many disadvantages of blackboard collaborate when it comes to taking classes or having meetings with my team when planning projects, since it is a virtual meeting software that complies but is quite simple, which does not have many differentiators out of the market. It is quite reliable, but for some reason, my teachers prefer to take better classes in Microsoft Teams because they feel it has better and more features than blacboard collaborate.
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate review
Pros
Going and forth between assignments was seamless, grading was quick and easy, easy to comment on classmates’ blog posts
Cons
I wish Blackboard would save your work more accurately. It doesn’t always save
- Industry: Computer Networking
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate: Video Conferencing Embedded into the Blackboard LMS Platform
Very great experience. Has been using it with Blackboard for conducting video lectures and office hours in my online and face-to-face university courses.
Pros
The integration of Blackboard Collaborate with the Blackboard LMS makes it very easy to conduct video chat sessions with course participants for the sake of online lecturing, tutorial sessions, or office hours. Collaborate has more or less all the features available in dedicated video conferencing tools such as Zoom or MS Teams with the ease and flexibility of using it from within the Blackboard LMS.
Cons
Some performance lagging in voice has been experienced on slow network connections. The number of participants is not the cause of this but probably the media tuning algorithms to smooth the lags cause by intermittent Internet connections.
- Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
A Necessary Platform in the Face of the Decline of Face to Face Classes
I love blackboard collaborate. It saved my education during the pandemic. The most useful feature for me is the ease of access to recordings. Unlike other platforms, the recordings are stored directly on the platform and do not require the host or lecturer to directly send the recording to participants. The platform is so easy to use and mimics the structure of a real classroom.
Pros
Ease of Navigation
User friendly
Multiple avenues of communication (video, audio and live chat)
Break out rooms options for group collaboration during classes
Ability to schedule and create multiple classes that can be conducted simultaneously without disrupting each other
Hands up feature
Polls
Recordings available
Cons
Initial learning curve as the platform is not similar to others that’s i’ve used before.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Buggy and Difficult for Students to Use
I really wanted to like Blackboard Collaborate, but there are just too many problems and it gets in the way of the actual learning for my students.
Pros
The software does a good job with video, audio and screen sharing. I'm able to easily must students and see when someone has a question. I like that when I record a session, it makes the recording automatically available for the students.
Cons
I teach at a community college and recently switched to Collaborate for my class. I teach adults who are able to handle most technical issues, but collaborate has been very frustrating to deal with. Several of my students simply quit coming because they kept getting kicked out. I also like to join on both my phone and laptop so I can demonstrate mobile apps, but Collaborate only allows me to log in once. The help section and knowledge base have a lot of content, but I can never find the answers I'm looking for.
- Industry: International Trade & Development
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Solid collaboration and communication platform
The general experience is that Blackboard Collaborate is a solid tool for collaboration, team and file management, and communication in video conferences.
Pros
Blackboard Collaborate has a broad range of features and comes along with high customizability. The video conferencing is very good, also in comparison with competitors, such as "ZOOM" and "Microsoft Teams".
Cons
Ease of use and ease of development is lacking. Moreover, the then even more necessary customer support is not always as available as needed and responses solving an issue can take a while. A clearer and simplified design of the overlays could tremendously benefit these issues.
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft TeamsReasons for Switching to Class for Web (formerly Blackboard Collaborate)
We were more aware of Blackboard Collaborate. Later, we switched to Microsoft Teams.- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Classroom Video conferring
my overall experience of Blackboard Collaborate is good
Pros
As opposed to web casting and video conferencing software, Blackboard Collaborate has interrogations and features that are specifically designed for engagement with the learners/audience
Cons
I am a new user of the Blackboard Collaborate's license so far nothing to complain about. Although the budget for this product is more expensive than our previous option
Reasons for Choosing Class for Web (formerly Blackboard Collaborate)
We have the budget to try an alternative as we are looking for a platform that can help us syndicate and sell our content directly to the learner/audienceSwitched From
Zoom Workplace- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate is Good for Online Classes and Assignments
Overall I enjoyed my experience with Blackboard. I liked the simplicity of responding to scenarios my professors posted and the option to reply to threads and individual posts from my peers with whom I had to interact with. I think Blackboard is very convenient for professors and for students alike, but that it can improve on some of its user friendliness and provide a neater and more efficient messaging platform and visual layout especially because not all students or instructors are necessarily computer savvy.
Pros
I used Blackboard Collaborate for several years in graduate school. What I liked most about this software was the simplicity of utilizing the conversation threads. There was nothing too "fancy" and the layout provided simple 'reply' and 'reply all' buttons. Each week we were required to answer questions about a scenario, and reply to other students' remarks as well. It was easy to see which posts did not have replies yet so that we each student got a change to have a reply. I think if this information wasn't provided on the main screen many posts would be overlooked, and I liked that the layout was clear on who posted and who replied, especially when professors emphasized replying to posts that had fewer or no replies already. I also liked that there was a messaging system built in, so we could communicate with our fellow students and professor within the website while working on assignments.
Cons
What I liked least about Blackboard Collaborate was that if I wanted to message my entire class, I would have to individually click every student's name, and then click the "To" button in order to add them as recipients. It was honestly time consuming and extremely frustrating as a graduate student because it wasted so many minutes every time, especially because I would often forget to actually click "To" after I manually clicked a student's name, so I wouldn't realize they weren't added into the message and would have to start over. This was unfriendly for users, especially for graduate students who need to focus on their assignments and communicating to their peers rather than trying to remember if they did the two-step clicking process for every single student rather than having a simple "select all" option! I don't know why there was no select all option to add the entire class when this is a platform universities often use for online classes and assignments. One more thing I did not like about Blackboard was that the layout was a bit confusing and not user friendly. It took me a while to get used to the flow of the website which felt unorganized and a bit scattered. I could see this being more of a problem for older graduate students who aren't used to adapting to various website layouts with many links to each class and each assignment stacked upon each other in an overwhelming way.
- Industry: Primary/Secondary Education
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Review Source
I've been using this for years, and love it, but it has major issues
Pros
Blackboard Collaborate is such a great option for online teachers. We use it to meet with students and present lessons live on the computer. I use it weekly. It is seamlessly integrated with PowerPoint.
The features are neat - you have lots of controls as a moderator. You can allow students to speak, use video cameras, type, draw, add pictures to the whiteboard, etc. You can set how many students can be speaking at once. You can mute them by taking away tools. You can create breakout rooms. You can play all sorts of media. You can remove students who are not behaving. You can lock the room or allow attendees in late. I've met with anywhere from 1 to 700 participants.
You can make permanent forcing slides and make sure that students can't do anything without a teacher being present, but there are downsides to those functionalities as well.
The app is really great. It is limited, and simple, but I've never had a problem with it.
Cons
The major thing I dislike is the "exception error" that I get CONSTANTLY. Basically, BBC can only handle so much data. Because it can't tell which participant needs what, it actually has to save and stream anything within a certain time period and send that out to everyone in the room. So, it really bogs the room down. It is just saving a TON of data at any given time. We've had to create separate rooms for back to back sessions instead of hosting them in the same room for this reason. It'll give an exception error if you try to do too much with too many people in too small a timeframe.
Don't try to host a session over a wireless hotspot unless you have unlimited data. One session cost me like 2 gigs of data.
Recording can only be done in the main room. If you need to record in a breakout session, you'll have to figure something else out. We use Snagit for breakout room recordings.
The administrator panel is very confusing. I'm really tech savvy and I have a hard time navigating. It is definitely not intuitive when it comes to setting up new rooms and adding moderators.
The permanent forcing slides are good. No issues there. However, what a pain to set up -- it just makes no sense. I wish it was easier to figure out how to do that.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Online Learning Platform
Pros
A great software for large class groups with features geared towards teaching and learning.
The option to record meetings and save to the cloud makes it a great platform for creating pre-recordings for classes.
The breakout room feature makes it easy to manage large groups by separating them and visiting each group individually.
The amount of control provided to the host over the features is great for class management.
Cons
For sessions to run smoothly the internet connection has to be extremely fast.
The bandwidth requirement for use of this software is very high and causes students to disconnect frequently.
The platform can glitch at times and may require a restart before normal use can be resumed.
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Very Interactive and Easy to Use!
Blackboard Collaborate was definitely the right choice. I enjoy using this platform and would definitely recommend it as an ideal platform for e-learning.
Pros
Blackboard Collaborate makes e-learning interactive and hassle-free. I am a university student and the administration decided, when the lockdown started in March, to use this platform to facilitate online learning. When I was introduced to the interface in the beginning, I found that it was very easy to navigate. It offers a tour of the interface which proved to be quite helpful. However, Blackboard is so simple and easy to use that you won't have difficulty using it without the tour/tutorial. The labels are accurate, and everything is easy to find and well organized. The e-classroom features include options to use video, audio and the chat, where everyone can type and interact throughout class time with the use of emoticons/emojis. Teachers can share their screens, record sessions, create polls, create break out groups for group work and more. Blackboard Collaborate can be used on tablets, laptops and phones. It is perfect for online learning.
Cons
There is really nothing to dislike about Blackboard Collaborate. It ticks all the boxes and really does take much of the dreariness out of the virtual learning platform. Although e-learning is definitely not comparable to face-to-face learning, Blackboard Collaborate makes it much easier to adapt.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard- Buyer Beware
Pros
This program is used for all of our training, mentoring, Advisor meetings, and round tables; as such, I appreciate the versatility of the program in my organization.
Screensharing is easy to use, as are video and audio chats.
Creating a test in Blackboard is a very cool feature I learned about recently and I’ve been trying it out to make tests for my mentors.
Moderator tools, such as turning off chat, audio and video help prevent any possibility of cheating amongst Advisors.
I really like the whiteboard feature as well, and myself and my mentors and team mates alike enjoy making silly messages or posting clip art from the internet.
Cons
Blackboard has crashed on me quite a bit, as it has on many others in my organization.
Connections errors happen quite often.
Sometimes, the collaborate file we download gets randomly corrupted and we have to figure that out on our own and re-download a fresh copy.
There isn’t much troubleshooting on their website for the issues we face, and sometimes IT is as clueless as we are on how to fix it.
The interface for Collaborate is severely outdated, and needs a fine tuneup.
We were excited to learn of an iPhone application for Blackboard, and then we downloaded it and not only has it not been updated in years, it was extremely dated and lacked basic functionality like screen sharing, video, whiteboard and moderator tools.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
A Lack of Good User Experience
My overall experience with Blackboard has been unsatisfactory. I have used blackboard for 4 years and the terrible UX design of the website still remains. On top of that certain aspects of the website do not function well such as the text box where students can type there answers inside of.
Pros
Blackboard is sufficient when it comes to completing assignments, taking exams and posting on discussion forms. It is simple to see what your grade is in the class and what assignments you have to complete.
Cons
The user experience of this software is subpar. The main course page of the website needs to be redesigned. The design of the page is bland and there is a lot of unused space on the website. The text box that students use on Blackboard is terrible. The autocorrect of the text box is unable to recognize a lot of words and claims that it is not a real word and gives a red line underneath. There are also multiple times where pressing the spacebar does not work and you have to click out of the box and click back in in order for it to work again.
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate Ultra
Blackboard Collaborate (Ultra) has improved over the past year or so. Being able to set up all of my chat sessions for the course in advance is most helpful and I do utilize the recording option with every chat so that my students can refer back to the recording for clarification, demonstrations, and/or in case they missed the live session. Being able to successfully share my entire screen is a must and I am so glad that they were able to update that feature. I have used other live (virtual) chat meeting programs, but Blackboard Collaborate also allows the students/attendees to raise their virtual hand when they have a question (not all other programs have that feature), and during an online class chat it is very important for students to be able to get the instructor/presenter's attention without verbally interrupting them.
Pros
Blackboard Collaborate (Ultra) has improved and now I can share my entire screen with my students without the image erroring out or showing repeated screens that trail off into infinity, which means I no longer have to switch from application to application and can seamlessly share any program or document as soon as it is opened.
Cons
The ability to detach or un-dock the text chat box and move it around to a different location while sharing my screen during a live chat would be most helpful. When you are using two monitors and focusing on one it would be great if the text box could be shown in a more convenient spot so I could see it at the same time.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Collaborate Review
Overall, I think Blackboard Collaborate is a very easy program to learn and use. It has it's kinks but it gets the job done at the end of the day and has so many features available with it.
Pros
Blackboard is so easy to use in comparison to other whiteboard applications I have used throughout my work career. It has a slew of features to it including video and voice chats, typing chats, whiteboards with multiple different tools available to use with it, file sharing, and weblink sharing among many other features.
Cons
The biggest and most frequent issue I have run into with the Blackboard program would be the freezing. At least two or three time's a day the program would freeze and you'd have to exit and reload the Blackboard room in order to continue using the program. Sometimes the sound would cut out or the video would be grainy and sometimes attachments and files would not send through on the first go around and you'd have to resend them.
- Industry: Financial Services
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Classic Software for Universities to Manage Courses
Pros
Blackboard is the veteran of online course environments for universities. The platform is versatile and offers the integration of many services, such as file upload, grading, assignment submission and interface customization.
Cons
At the beginning, the platform's functionalities can be a bit overwhelming and navigation can be confusing.
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Interconnected and Efficient
This educational software has allowed me to easily access all my courses while having all the tools necessary to carry on my education. This software has made the lives of instructors and scholars easier and I recommend more facilities other than colleges and Universities to use it more often.
Pros
This learning software has been such a blast to work with throughout being in university. Even before the Pandemic occurred Blackboard Collaborate was a platform where all work can be completed and submitted while having the tools necessary to succeed.
Cons
There is a learning curve that all users of this software must overcome to understand how to use this software. For instance, there are specific tabs each instructor or student must be familiar with to navigate to their desired destination. However, there aren't many negatives because it does not take long to understand how to work around the software.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Worked with Blackboard for several yrs obtaining two degress as an online student.
I have used Blackboard across the years in different educational facilities as an online student. It has been non-problematic and I've achieved to college degrees and would recommend to anyone looking to set-up a learning environment.
Pros
I like the ease and setup of the course in blackboard. The layout is super-friendly in terms of finding your course materials, your email, instructor information, or accessing discussion boards. As a student in different schools, I found blackboard worked pretty much the same way, no issues in attending my live class sessions or taking my tests.
Cons
No cons regarding blackboard from a student's stance. It is really laid out where anyone can log in and find their way around after a brief tutorial.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard, the ideal platform for higher education
After more than 2 years of use, the platform seems to me to be the best in the market to guarantee a good online education and teaching, however, it has aspects to improve such as the search for material.
Pros
Easy to useUser friendly interfaceAllows full collaboration between students and teachersDynamic material managementVideo call rooms availableAllows constant communication
Cons
The search for the material is time-consumingGroups are often not closed correctly
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard review
Overall i like using blackboard because it helps me keep all my classes and assignment in one program which is really helpful. And all my grades are shown for each class.
Pros
I really liked using blackboard for all of my classes. It was an easy website or app to go to everyday to check my grade and assignments that are due. It made it easy for me to contact teachers when needed.
Cons
I don’t love the set up of the website when you log in. It takes some getting used to to fully understand it. I also didn’t like how it showed all the classes i took in past semesters first so i had to go to the bottom of the page to find the classes I’m currently enrolled in.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Good collaborative tool for long-distance learning
Pros
Lots of useful features for professors and students that makes online learning feel more personal. Instant messaging works well and the interactive whiteboard is indispensable. It's a nice touch that it's browser-based, so there's no need for students to download a desktop version as it can be accessed anywhere. Students seems to benefit from the instant interaction with the teacher with the two-way webcam capabilities. Uploading files, slides, and videos is smooth and useful.
Cons
All features are hard to realise if you don't have a lot of IT resources or experience. Students should be able to record private sessions/breakout rooms. Sometimes students find that the more people in attendance, the more instance of freezing and errors. Some students have also mentioned issues interacting with the MacBooks. Tablet/mobile capability could also be tweaked as the interactive whiteboard seems to have issues on these platforms.
- Industry: Cosmetics
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Powerful tool for online meetings!
Pros
Blackboard Collaborate is a powerful tool for video and teleconferencing and information sharing. I like the ease with which information can be shared. The platform have a host of interactive features such as real time polls, group and private chats and break out groups. Participants can also be elevated to presenters at any time with a click of a button where they can share screen and other applications. The platform is also available as a mobile application for on the go access.
Cons
Mobile application have limited capability.