Blackboard Learn

RATING:

4.2

(511)

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 with the world’s most holistic EdTech ecosystem. Powered by a community of millions of learners, instructors and administrators across more than 70 countries, Blackboard Learn has been redesigned in collaboration with educators, and is even better than before. A mobile-first design offers learners the flexibility to access courses on the go - no matter what device they may be using. Thoughtfully designed, Blackboard Learn extends pedagogical freedom with flexible assessment types, personalized feedback for learners, peer assessments, group and i...
A modern and intuitive learning management system (LMS) designed in collaboration with the global education community, providing students and faculty with a more inclusive, flexible, and insightful experience.

Blackboard Learn Reviews

Overall Rating

4.2

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4

Customer Support

4

Value for money

4

Functionality

4

Most Helpful Reviews for Blackboard Learn

1 - 5 of 508 Reviews

Simon

Education Management, 51 - 200 employees

Used less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

Reviewed February 2022

Hard to use software that is also very expensive!

User Profile

Andrea

Verified reviewer

Broadcast Media, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed April 2023

After the pandemic, Blackboard Learn became a staple for online education

PROS

I like that it organizes courses in a very neat way, the website is easy to navigate and looks great visually. The calendar is very helpful.

CONS

It's not very easy to use for teachers. They often have a hard time understanding all of the features Blackboard provides.

Reasons for switching to Blackboard Learn

My university decided we should only use Blackboard in order to keep students from jumping from one platform to another, plus Blackboard has more useful features.

Tanay

Consumer Electronics, 201-500 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed July 2021

Wow..an excellent online Learning platform

Pandemic-related problems with submitting assignments and accessing information for my online and face-to-face classes. It has become increasingly apparent to me as I progress through graduate school that this site will be useful not only for my coursework, but also for group presentations and collaboration with other students.

PROS

My assignments and materials are organized in one place. As of the most recent update, it is now much easier to use than it used to be. Assigning assignments and adding details to classes has never been simpler. Now, it's much easier to use than it was before. The process of giving students feedback and organizing my responses is simple. It's also how I communicate with them. As a result, it's easy to refer back to them and remember what I said. I also like that Blackboard integrates well with other apps. When it comes to presentations, I rely heavily on VoiceThread and Panopto. GoReact and Top Hat are also on my to-do list.

CONS

An update to the mobile app is still in order. There is a lot of work to be done on this project. On the web, the user experience was much better.

Reason for choosing Blackboard Learn

Student logistical challenges were addressed and resources were provided by Blackboard. It simplifies managing and improving communication with students and teachers. The whiteboard allows you to attach Microsoft Outlook, and anyone in the class can send an e-mail to the class.

Reasons for switching to Blackboard Learn

I've used Moodle and Canvas, and I believe Blackboard Learn is more user-friendly and easier to use. The saying "you get what you pay for" applies to Blackboard.

John

Verified reviewer

Higher Education, 1,001-5,000 employees

Used less than 2 years

Review Source: GetApp

OVERALL RATING:

1

EASE OF USE

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

Reviewed March 2016

a Long Term User's Honest Experience

Quick background, was in high tech sales and marketing for many years prior to teaching and heavily involved with custom Computer Graphics systems since Time Arts Lumena was around (predecessor to Photoshop). Check out my LinkedIn profile for more details. On to the product review -- I've been using Blackboard for *many* years, and have been teaching (and doing) Web Design and Development since 1993. I'm retiring shortly, so I can be absolutely frank and honest about my experience with this app without fear of upsetting IT folks or admins that I would have to work with in the future. Truthfully, the ONLY reason I use this app is because I have no alternative at the College where I teach and it gives the students easy access to information, but so would any LMS (Learning Management System). The UIX (User Interface Experience) is incredibly archaic and counter-intuitive. It's also painfully slow to use, as it does constant server requests (just paste the URL for a Blackboard connection into http://www.webpagetest.org/ for testing). Sometimes one single click every 15 seconds is all the system will react to when I'm using the grade book, etc. -- in the "real" world, without captive users, no one would ever return to a site with those response times. To be fair to Blackboard, part of that may (or may not) be our schools network or Blackboard interface setup. As far as usability, Blackboard needs to let the User Interface and UIX designers (if they even had any) direct the techs and coders. It's *very* obvious that it's been the reverse, . They should 'steal' some Apple UIX people and give them some *real* power to direct how the app works and what it looks like. I've just finished using Blackboard for 3 hours+ doing things that should have taken 1 hour or less had the interface been optimized and more thought out. For example, under the 'Assignments' and 'Course Documents' sections there is no easy way to reorder or batch select using something basic like check boxes or a multi-select hot keys. Also, any NEW assignment or document post goes to the BOTTOM (the absolute reverse of a Blog post) So I need to drag it back to the top (where it logically should go). However, even that is awkward, since when I drag to the top of the browser the window does not auto-scroll. I have to hold the left mouse button at the same time as I use my middle finger to roll the mouse wheel -- duh!!. There IS a small text window pop-up accessed via an archaic icon to reorder posts, however, that shows only 5 assignment titles at a time (no window resize function to show more than 5). I can reorder them there, but need to do a single mouse click each time it moves up one position, but again, with no way to see more than 5 and no way to multi-select. So, if I have 50 course documents and want to shift 5 new documents to the top (where they belong) that's almost 250 mouse clicks to re-position 5 documents to where they should be in the first place - duh!! In Gradebook it only shows 10 students listed by default. I can change the setting up to 50 but the next time I go back it's back or need to refresh something -- it's back to 10. It doesn't save defaults or give me a choice. This may seem to be nit-picking, but over the period of a 14 week semester that's a lot of wasted time time and clicks. I'm going to end my review here as I have more work to do, but when I saw a 4 star review for this LMS being the solo review I had to balance it out. Bottom line is, the concept is good -- many, many modules/tools in a LMS bundled package but the execution is absolutely awful. Just Google search 'Blackboard sucks' or 'I hate Blackboard' if you want real faculty and user opinions sans any marketing spin. Other telltale signs are when a company start to lose long-term clients. Ryerson University in Toronto just did a switch from Blackboard after "a multi-year consultation process". More on that process is here http://lms.blog.ryerson.ca/ Hopefully that last paragraph doesn't get censored, because that's the source of raw truth.

PROS

1. it's an LMS and something is better than nothing. 2. It's full of examples I can show my students on how not to do UI and UIX 3. Well established company is behind it 4. Modular front-end 5. Many bells and whistles

CONS

1. Counter intuitive, clunky, awkard UI (User Interface) - improve it by hiring UI/UIX experts and giving them actual control over the app interface and functions. 2. Slow (even when on the same network node or high speed cable connection) - needs a code rewrite/optimization. 3. Ancient aesthetics (although some design elements are now "flat design-ish") - hire UI and UIX designers and actually allow them to direct the final interface. 4. Many glitches (I've a folder full of screen-shots, if you want proof) - again a code rewrite needed, or ideally a complete start-over with newer code philosophies and methods.

Gerald

Design, 501-1,000 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed February 2022

Blackboard as a home base for college students

I had a fairly pleasant experience with blackboard, i was able to do much of the tasks I expect to be able to do on an LMS. I just wish that the design interface would be more simple and modern. Also more functionalities and integrations would be nice. Eg: opening a pdf file on blackboard directly instead of a redirection to a page or a pop up

PROS

I like that it is fairly easy to use. Users don’t require extensive training to be able to use the product, and I like that as a student I can upload assignments and get learning modules from the same place, so it is convenient.

CONS

I think the user interface design is a bit outdated. It is less appealing than other LMS such as canvas learn. I also hear a lot of my professors complain about how complicated it is on their side to navigate blackboard due to the repetitiveness and redundancy of blackboard.

Reasons for switching to Blackboard Learn

It was the preferred LMS for my institution, but I think CANVAS is a better platform for students.