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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Blackboard Learn by Anthology

    Score6.8 out of 10
    N/ABlackboard Inc. is an enterprise learning management systems vendor. Blackboard was founded in 1997 and became a public company in 2004. The company provides education, mobile, communication, and commerce software and related services to clients including education providers, corporations and government organizations. As of December 2010, Blackboard software and services are used by over 9,300 institutions in more than 60 countries. Blackboard Learn is the company's flagship LMS, supporting…N/A

    Jenzabar SONIS

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/AJenzabar now offers SONIS, a student information system (SIS) oriented around the needs of smaller higher education institutions. Jenzabar supports the former SONISWEB product since its acquisition of original developer RJM Systems in 2015.N/A
    Pricing
    Blackboard Learn by AnthologyJenzabar SONIS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Blackboard Learn by AnthologyJenzabar SONIS
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsMust contact vendor for pricing information.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Blackboard Learn by AnthologyJenzabar SONIS
    Considered Both Products
    Anthology, Inc
    No answer on this topic
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    78%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    82%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    72%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    67%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    4 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Blackboard Learn by AnthologyJenzabar SONIS
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Blackboard Learn by Anthology and Jenzabar SONIS
    Feature
    Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    8.6
    30 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Jenzabar SONIS
    -
    Ratings
    Course authoring9.024 Ratings00 Ratings
    Course catalog or library9.024 Ratings00 Ratings
    Player/Portal8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning content6.127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile friendly9.030 Ratings00 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications7.024 Ratings00 Ratings
    Assignments9.030 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance management9.017 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning administration10.025 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics9.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social learning9.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Student and Faculty Administration
    Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of Blackboard Learn by Anthology and Jenzabar SONIS
    Feature
    Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    -
    Ratings
    Jenzabar SONIS
    8.8
    2 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology00 Ratings7.32 Ratings
    Online Registration Management00 Ratings9.12 Ratings
    District Communications, such as messaging and alerting00 Ratings4.52 Ratings
    Roster Management00 Ratings7.32 Ratings
    Platform Customization00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Teacher Self-Service00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Student Data Security00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Community Support00 Ratings9.12 Ratings
    Class Scheduling00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    State and National-level Reporting00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Compliance Support00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Teacher and Parent Mobile Application00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Blackboard Learn by AnthologyJenzabar SONIS
    Small Businesses
    Google Classroom
    Score8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Schoology Learning
    Score8 out of 10
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    D2L Brightspace
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Blackboard Learn by AnthologyJenzabar SONIS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.9
    (58 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    4.6
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (14 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Blackboard Learn by AnthologyJenzabar SONIS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Anthology, Inc
    A school with a well-established technology imprint with their students (for example, ours is a BYOB school where every student has their own laptop and must bring it to school every day and where over 99% of our families have reliable broadband at home) is a reasonable scenario for using The arrogance and intransigence of the sales force is quite disconcerting… They are no longer the only game in town and don't yet realize it. Less well-off schools/families may find it a challenge if students must be on campus or at a public library in order to use the technology. Obviously, during the pandemic, this became problematic for some districts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    We often had students who came and took a class or completed a program, left, and then came back for something else at a later time. It was nice to be able to have someone in Jenzabar SONIS with multiple statuses. They could be in as a Student for the current class while still being in as an Alumni for the program they had graduated from. Most of our programs are set up so the students within that program are all taking the same courses at the same time. The bulk registration feature made it easy to enroll one student and then use that student's enrollment to quickly enroll all of the others in the program. That was a huge time saver. We had letters and emails that we wanted to send out at specific times in the application process. The Activity tool in Jenzabar SONIS made it easy for us to have some things that were automatically added to a person's record and others that we could add as needed. We could then run timed letters or emails and get our communication sent out. We had some challenges with Jenzabar SONIS because we have a number of certificate programs that are only one semester in length. We often had students who would complete one certificate (program) in the fall and then complete another one in the spring. Many of the reports pulled data only for the active enrollment so we had to go back and manually pull the data for the enrollment from the other semester if we needed something for the full school year.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Anthology, Inc
    • Blackboard Learn makes submitting assignments electronically simple and provides a variety of built-in Web-based tools like e-portfolios, wikis, and blogs that our students use to create their own content.
    • Blackboard Learn is intuitive and easy to navigate from a students perspective
    • Blackboard Learn has many integrations available for connecting this LMS to other tools we use at our institution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    • Great value
    • Built in reports are great, but it also has add on reporting that is fantastic.
    • Hosting they offer is phenomenal nearly no downtime, ever!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Anthology, Inc
    • Blackboard Learn has some limitations when it comes to submissions
    • It is not that user friendly, I had to spend some time to get a hang of it in the beginning
    • I have been struggling a bit with deletion of manually added courses
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    • SONIS sorts my advisees by class and then by name. This is NOT useful. There should be an option for sorting by name only. I advise almost fifty students. It wastes my time looking for them in the sophomore listing, then the junior listing......
    • When registration of a student for semester courses is complete, there should be an option to print out only the courses scheduled, NOT the entire page which shows available courses at the bottom.
    • SONIS sometimes kicks me out for no reason.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Anthology, Inc
    There are several aspects of Desire2Learn that outweigh the benefits of using Blackboard. I find that the Desire2Learn system is a bit more user friendly and looks more up-to-date. However, the decision to renew systems is not up to me because the entire University uses the same system. Regardless, I think I would choose Desire2Learn over Blackboard because of its improved user interface.
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Anthology, Inc
    It is very usable for both faculty and students. The interface is pretty intuitive and most students can use it without a lot of additional training. Faculty do need some training to effectively use the interface, but they usually get it pretty quickly. We have had to create some additional programming to give faculty a way to delve deeper into the content.
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    It's Easy to use and navigate through. It gets the job done for daily tasks. Sometimes it may require a small amount of manual work. You can handle student records, housing, and check-ins without needing multiple systems. After staff are trained, they can move through tasks pretty quickly, which saves lots of time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Anthology, Inc
    My Blackboard support comes from the university I work with. They are responsive--eventually... but it takes them sometimes a week to respond to a reported issue. For example, I reported 2 issues last week and one was resolved and I was contacted about one still open option today. That is too long for a tech issue. I have not contacted any support offered directly by Blackboard, which may be a completely different experience altogether.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Anthology, Inc
    Blackboard's Managed Hosting was top-notch in getting us up and running quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Anthology, Inc
    Coursera offers a variety of modules in which a team is able to work on then, but [Blackboard Learn] offers more options to understand how are the team members developing and which tasks have offered a harder challenger for them. [Blackboard Learn] also offers a variety of reports that can be generate by a team lead.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    We changed databases in 2011 because the company we were with was going to quit supporting our software. We evaluated a number of different SISs available at the time and felt Jenzabar SONIS provided the best tools for our school. Most of the others were either geared more for adult education, individual course offerings or for schools that primarily had degree-seeking students. We needed something that could address both needs.We felt Jenzabar SONIS did that best of the ones we reviewed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Anthology, Inc
    • At one of the institutions that I worked for, the ROI was excellent for the number of users we were serving; however, I could not speak to other instances as I was not aware of the overall cost of the contract.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Jenzabar, Inc.
    • Facilitates grade input by faculty.
    • Facilitates course enrollment by students.
    • Facilitates viewing student records and determining progress to program completion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Blackboard Learn by Anthology Screenshots

    Screenshot of 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.Screenshot of Fostering a sense of belonging is essential to student success. To truly create an inclusive learning environment requires a holistic approach, and Blackboard Learn leads the market in many critical areas which allow your institution to meet students of all backgrounds where they are. Built to be mobile-first, Blackboard Learn is the only LMS that provides the same great experience on PC, tablet, and smartphone. And we're proud that Blackboard Learn was the First LMS to achieve accessibility Certification from the National Federation of the Blind and all of our interfaces undergo rigorous accessibility testing. Learn also has the best integration with our market-leading accessibility product, Ally, of any LMS. Learn also ensures that every user has an experience which reflects – and celebrates – their unique identity. To take just one example, users can record their name pronunciation, and choose their preferred pronouns.Screenshot of Blackboard Learn supports instructors with multiple formative and summative assessment methods, and features capabilities that reduce stress for students. For example, we’ve recently released features that allow students to use different test-taking strategies and understand their progress through assessments – including a timer that can be hidden – to maximize their result and minimize anxiety. Grading workflows have been designed to increase efficiency for instructors and give more insightful feedback to students. For instance, we’ve recently revamped the overall grade functionality to make it easier for instructors to change weightings between tasks and tailor to individual students. Blackboard Learn also offers deep integrations with hundreds of partners to create even more interactive and engaging courses, including the deepest interaction of any LMS with Microsoft Teams.Screenshot of Blackboard Learn presents insights embedded right into instructor and student workflows - making useful information readily available, and making it easier for instructors to help students where and when they need it most. Learn's progress tracking tools help students and instructors always know how they're tracking to achieve their goals - and where there is opportunity for improvement. Quick actions are tied to these insights, like following up with students in groups or individually. Blackboard Learn also provides built-in value with Blackboard Data Reporting to help leaders understand how the LMS is being used, student performance, and surfacing opportunities for continuous improvement.