User Reviews Overview
About Blackboard Learn
Help learners, instructors and institutions achieve their goals with Blackboard Learn by Anthology, a market-leading Learning Management System (LMS). Blackboard Learn runs from course development to assessments and integrates...
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- Industry: Writing & Editing
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Simplifies Grades, Course Communications, & Materials Distribution
There are a lot of learning management systems out there, and I've used several of them. Blackboard is my favorite. It has excellent capabilities, improves organization, and makes it very easy to communicate with students.
Pros
Blackboard is a great tool for communicating with students, distributing course materials, and recording student grades. The "one-stop shopping" approach makes it easy for professors to stay organized in each class, and it also makes it easy for students to stay organized. When used well, Blackboard allows you to do everything from communicating with students to uploading assignment sheets to sending class announcements.
As a writing professor, I especially appreciate the SafeAssign feature that checks student assignments for plagiarism. Once I started requiring my students to use SafeAssign, I found that plagiarism attempts dropped off significantly. (So did attempts to recycle papers from one course to another.) In addition, SafeAssign saves me a lot of leg work when students DO plagiarize -- it flags the suspect text as well as the source, so I don't have to hunt it down myself.
Cons
For me, Blackboard wasn't intuitive to learn. Even after 7 years of using it nearly ever day during the semester, I had some challenges making it do what I wanted it to do. I often spent far more time than I should have trying to customize things for my courses. But, as long as I stuck to the basic features -- which are also the ones I personally found most useful/beneficial -- Blackboard was a great tool for organizing my courses and keeping students on track.
- Industry: Higher Education
- Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
A decent LMS, but there are better ones out there that have less workability issues
I have used both Blackboard and Moodle in the past, and I found them very similar for what they offered. I would have been fine using Blackboard indefinitely had I not found out about Canvas, which is what we are using now and I am absolutely it's biggest fan!
Pros
I used Blackboard for almost 10 years, and it was a decent LMS for my needs. When Blackboard Collaborate came out, it was even better because it added a new layer of possibilities (I could have several webinar/conversations going, merge conversations, and/or present to different groups at one time). However, there were always bugs in the system, even though we updated constantly. The Blackboard app was also very limited.
Cons
Too many bugs and freezes; many of my students had issues with accessing links when they used different internet browsers. Good for a small school or business, but not larger ones.
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Using Blackboard as a Student
Communication between the different groups was easy to coordinate.
Pros
Navigating between courses and links was easy and intuitive.
Cons
The interface was clunky and a little old school. It was jarring switching from a tab with very streamlined mechanics to Blackboard.
Top Blackboard Learn Alternatives
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
BlackBoard Learn is a Relic of a Bygone Era
I have used BlackBoard Learn for 5 years now, and I can report that it's a tool that I've tolerated with a fair degree of frustration, as opposed to a tool that I'd relish and recommend to others.
Pros
BlackBoard Learn is a reliable tool for basic communication, content collection, and assessments. There are convenience factors baked into its framework in the sense that instructors can readily copy and reuse materials from earlier semesters, but other capabilities have far surpassed the benefits of this complacency factor. Also, the price point of BlackBoard Learn is extremely compelling, and they have reliable customer support and service.
Cons
Doing anything on BlackBoard Learn requires significantly more clicks and testing than competing products. The design is clunky, and it directly contradicts the instructional delivery of faculty who know what else is out there, as well as the learning-design preferences of Gen-Z students.
Reasons for Switching to Blackboard Learn
I was not part of the committee that made the decision to continue with BlackBoard Learn, but I believe the continuation was justified because of its low-cost and the challenge of switching to a competing model. Upgrading the LMS is a bit like updating your operating system. You can kick the can down the road and keep your status quo in place, but when you eventually update, you gain new capabilities, efficiencies, securities, and collaborative synergies.- Industry: Management Consulting
- Company size: 201-500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Perfect and always saves time
Pros
The softwares capacity to synchronize contacts and users information.
Cons
Near to perfect but it has little hitch when it comes to support.
Alternatives Considered
CANVASReasons for Switching to Blackboard Learn
Canvas tend to favour learning institutions only.- Industry: Law Enforcement
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Monthly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Review
I found the software easy to use and it was beneficial to providing higher education to those in the workplace and those who attend NU.
Pros
I prefer Blackboard Learn over other software that I have used in the past and recent events. The simplicity of the system ensures that it is easy to use for all generations, teacher and student, and all of those in between.
Cons
Right now, I do not think there is anything I would change.
Alternatives Considered
CANVASReasons for Choosing Blackboard Learn
Ability for users to understand the program.Switched From
CANVASReasons for Switching to Blackboard Learn
How easy Blackboard learn was to use compared to other softwares.- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: 1,001-5,000 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
A bit clunky but useful
Useful, but somewhat limited. Needs a bit more practise to get into using well than other apps.
Pros
Very good organisation, great for teaching higher Ed or adults. Also for passing and storing general information about courses. Ncie that it can be completely customised.
Cons
Clunky, dense, hard to inegreate activities that are automatically marked and generate progress statistics. This needs to be improved.
- Industry: Construction
- Company size: 11-50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Blackboard was a lifesaver and kept me organized
Wonderful program--don't know what I would have done without it! I'm glad this platform is being used across the board to help students and professors stay organized .
Pros
It was wonderful to have a single platform where I could access all my assignments, alerts and notifications from various professors and administrators
Cons
I can't think of any features that Blackboard was missing or I would add. Perhaps any connectivity issues would be a negative, but that isn't something the software is responsible for.
- Industry: Accounting
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Blackboard
Pros
it's easy to use and has some great features
Cons
it's hard to search for a specific thing like the title of a doc
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Monthly for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Learning made easy
Pros
I haven't had any complaints from students so far, courses have been going well.
Cons
There was a connection problem at first but it was sorted.
- Industry: Higher Education
- Company size: 201-500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
One of the best e-learning softwares for (higher) education
My overall experience with Blackboard Learn is amazing, since it is a platform that has all the features (and beyond) I need for higher education (as a student).
The communication and course management are just spot on.
I feel this software has a great potential and amazing capabilities and it is definitely my favorite e-learning platform. I could easily recommend it to any higher education student/teacher.
Pros
What I like the most about Blackboard Learn is the amazing and complete features it offers to its users.
I use this software for higher education (as a student) and it is very complete and reliable. I can track all my courses, appointments, works, grades, files and many more in the same place, which is perfect for me.
I also like the fact I can communicate with my teachers within this platform and the possibility to activate the email notifications for every course is a great add-up for this software.
Cons
What I like the least about this software is the User Interface (UI), as I consider the navigability could be better and the features could yet be more accessible and easier to use.
Other than that, I don't have any other "complaints" about Blackboard Learn.
I may mention that in the beginning of the pandemic, with the introduction of online classes, this software was a life-saver and my institution needed to contact the support team, who was very responsive and agile to solve all the issues at that time.
- Industry: Higher Education
- Company size: 5,001-10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
True and Tried (but also Tired)
Please see above :). I've used BB since I was in college (back in the aughts) and regret that my future students at CSUSB will not have access to it moving forward. Even still, I likely won't miss the gradebook, though Canvas' leaves much to desire as well...
Pros
I know it extremely well, find it to be easy to operate, think its features are strong and easily accessible, and have had very few incidents with students being totally baffled by it. We switched to Canvas this year, and I rue the day the decision was made.
Cons
The GUI for our version of Blackboard was extremely dated (we did not use Ultra, which frankly seems like a Canvas clone). I would offer the following analogy... Blackboard : Canvas :: PowerPoint : Keynote (... and I'm a PC user). It's boxy, somewhat drab, and looks a bit 'late Geocities // Fark.com'-era.
EVEN STILL: I don't mind it - I'd rather have functionality than aesthetics, which is the tradeoff made with Canvas.
DEADLY SERIOUS NOTE HERE: The BB Gradebook has always been, continues to be, and seemingly will forever remain an enormous hassle. It is slow, tedious to adjust, difficult to manage, and user unfriendly.
- Industry: Higher Education
- Company size: 1,001-5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
After over 6 years with BlackBoard, you get used to it
Overall, it gets the job done. Although I have heard that most people like Canvas better.
Pros
I like that I can create quizzes, embed media, create a gradebook, select the language, etc.
Cons
BlackBoard learn can be limited in many ways. For example, you are very limited with modifying the look of the course sites. Also, with assessments, you can give partial credit is a students gets the answer partially correct on a fill-in-the-blank assessment. I also don't like how it organizes the grades the students can see.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Needs some work for organization
Not great. If I were to choose, I would go with canvas, which my university will be switching to in the next four years.
Pros
Probably my favorite thing about this software is how you can link videos, external links, and also professors can create quizzes, assignments, and tests on the platform and select various settings for their individual assignment/assessment. I LOVE taking tests on here because they are straight forward.
Cons
They really need to add a "flag" feature to the tests that are made and administered through the program. There have been many times when I am taking a long multiple-choice test and am not sure of the answer but then remember it 20 questions later, but by that time I can't find the original question that I remembered the answer for. The organization of this information system is, however, trash. Navigating around the site between classes and tabs within each class is annoying and not very intuitive. The way the site is made reminds me of someone trying to make a sign with a lot of diverse information, but everything on the sign is 12pt time new roman font - there's little differentiation between different ideas and concepts.
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great Platform For My College Courses
Overall I would recommend blackboard learn to others it’s an easy way to access your grades your courses and assignments for your college course that you’re taking. There are some things that can be fixed like the interface to make it easier for people to see certain things but overall I would recommend blackboard.
Pros
What I like the most about Blackboard Learn is the easy navigation of looking up my college courses. I am able to see what is due for each class on the calendar. I also love that I can get notifications that something is graded especially if it is for an assignment or test that I am waiting to see my grade.
Cons
One thing I don’t like about Blackboard is that there are outages and glitches sometimes and there is no notification about when it will be fixed or if it is ever going to be fixed. Another thing is the interface can be confusing to some people and may take some time to get used to.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard LMS
Classrooms disorganized?! Not with Blackboard! This will make classroom administration a breeze, saving your instructors and administrators a lot of time and make your classroom management 1000% more efficient!
Pros
The greatest feature of this product is the ease of use with regards to its navigation. When we started using Blackboard LMS, I literally trained a large portion of our staff on the ins and outs of the software in less than 2 hours. This has made classroom organization the easiest it has been in decade. Our instructors can distribute class materials, assignments, and grades with a few clicks. It is absolutely amazing!
Cons
Installation can be both lengthy and problematic if you are moving from an incompatible LMS. While we were lucky, we still ran into bugs while making our transition. This was frustrating, but was luckily done during the summer, when attendance was at its lowest.
- Industry: Primary/Secondary Education
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Hammer To Swat a Fly
Blackboard is a classic case of good product upgrading too much until you lose what made it great. It has a lot of value added features, so much so that you can no longer find the simple things. They should also focus on getting the bugs out of what is really needed and not focus so much on adding more. Keep it simple, stupid KISS. over all a pretty decent LMS but there are better for less.
Pros
Feature Rich - lots of value added functionality
Love that there are break out rooms for each session
Clickable rubrics - awesome
Cons 345/100 characters minimum
Cons
Grading system is too granular. if you use this it makes it too easy for a few bad assignments to tank students grades and gives the instructor more work.
What do you have against independent content. I create videos using Camtasia and Movavi, but its often a fight get them placed where I'd like or even to get them to run in the first place.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 201-500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Undergraduate Learning with Blackboard Learn
My overall experience with Blackboard Learn was optimal as a student in college.
Pros
I found this advantageous when I was in college as an undergraduate. It was great to track my course work and online assignments through this LMS. For its time it was adequate with the UI layout but to modern look and feel of websites and web application software in 2020 it would be outdated unless they revamped the display of everything.
Cons
It was just a bit clunky at times and occasionally a pain in the @$$ but it still got the job done. It might have been that my student user rights weren't fully configured and there was a lack of training from the university for students to use the tool and not on the fault of Blackboard Learn.
- Industry: E-Learning
- Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Using BB
I have a good platform for online and in-person lessons.
Pros
Simple in use, easy to explore. It didn't take too much time to get used to this product
Cons
Not enough functionality - no options for embedded videos, you can not insert links or audio files in the body of the learning module, only below.
- Industry: Financial Services
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
A Gold Standard
Pros
I utilized this software on a user-end point while in college in the mid 2010s. My wife is using it now as a student in the late 2010s. Blackboard Learn opens a doorway into the world of academia like no other platform I have ever experienced. With it, you can enter a virtual learning center with as robust a set of resources as any prestigious university in the country. Blackboard Learn is an essential tool for creating an online environment where students can really learn akin to the classroom. I highly recommend it - both for professionals looking to impart their knowledge to a wider, more varied audience, and for scholars looking to broaden their horizons with academic leaders across all fields.
Cons
Very few cons about this platform except that, akin to Microsoft Excel, a lot of the features seem both difficult to find or too complex to effectively utilize. The user manual will likely be your closest ally with this software.
- Industry: Higher Education
- Company size: 1,001-5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Learn is a proven success
We see widespread use of Blackboard Learn at our institution for a variety of purposes, not just for online classes. Even university administrators have found ways to make use of the LMS for content sharing and assessment far beyond course work.
Pros
Instructors and Trainers can do almost anything they want with content in Learn. Pretty much the only limits are those imposed by your institution (cost, security, resources, effort).
Cons
We find the reporting (especially activity) less useful than it could be. I don't know if that's just a shortfall in design, or if it's a configuration problem in our implementation.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Learn is an excellent Learning Management System
Pros
Blackboard Learn has an easy to use assessment management system that allows faculty to share documents with colleagues and administrators that allow for assessing both online, hybrid, and fully in-person courses for accreditation purposes.
Cons
Blackboard Learn has an easy to use customizable reports that are simple to generate and share with colleagues and administrators. However, I rarely use this feature but it might be good for administrators who assess faculty performance for promotion and tenure evaluations.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 201-500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Strong Virtual Classroom Organization
Pros
Blackboard Learn allowed me to create an online classroom for my students with ease and detail. It was easy to create weekly folders and announcements about assignments - and send individual reminders to all of the students so they stay on track - all while easily keeping track of grades.
Cons
For some instructors, it was difficult to get a hang of the details of the software. There are areas where it could be more user friendly for those who aren't as comfortable with trail and error software learning.
- Industry: Religious Institutions
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Blackboard Learn did the job
Pros
What I most appreciated about this software is that I could take a test and get my grade for it the same time I finished it, unless it was an essay format.
Cons
It seemed to me that this software was tricky to navigate. Not too easy on the eyes when I used it. There was a lot going on with it and it wasn't always intuitive. It seemed busy and tricky to navigate with a fair amount of down time for maintenance in the middle of the night. Which, is when college kids get their work done . . . .
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The best in its kind
Pros
Whenever the professors are knowledgeable of the software, they make use of all the features and organize the content of the course in an excellent manner. Blackboard's features allows the class (professor and fellow students) to be interconnected.
Cons
I have heard from elderly professors about the difficulty of adding material in BB. This is evident in the fact that sometimes the course documents and syllabi are mixed in different sections.