Class for Web vs. GoTo Meeting

Blackboard Collaborate is well suited for teaching and learning, especially online classes. When used with learning management, Collaborate allows for seamless sign-on between the users' course sites and the web conferencing platform. Collaborate is ideal for launching virtual discussions, lectures, office hours, and more. Users can easily upload files to display or share their desktop/specific applications, which is great for demonstrating course principles and meeting learning objectives. Collaborate is really good for breakout rooms, where users join or are assigned to small groups for discussions or team-based learning activities.

Incentivized

Microsoft Teams has always given us issues if we run an extensive meeting with more than 30 participants. Often, HR would train many people at once, and call quality would degrade or crash. This provides a good alternative when Teams is not working correctly, but we must continue orientation or training. It is inappropriate for all meetings since we are embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, and Teams integrates well with SharePoint.

Incentivized

• The ability to host a number of people in a meeting and manage their participation via text and audio.
• The screen sharing features allows presenters to demonstrate procedures exactly as instructed on the screen. This also allows the presenter to permit others to share their screens if they need clarification of something or to share further ideas.
• The software gives you the freedom to use a whiteboard to draw/demonstrate concepts to students and other employees.

Incentivized

• Calendar Scheduling: It prepares us for all meetings, automatically sends reminders, and ensures we never miss a meeting.
• Ease of Scheduling: Scheduling a meeting is straightforward and saves us a lot of time.
• The screen-sharing feature allows us to present documents and plans effortlessly during client calls.
• We use the recording feature extensively for training purposes, especially for the onboarding of new members.

Incentivized

• Currently, the audio and video features are enabled separately from each other. You could end up in a situation where 6 people in a 12-person classroom have their cameras enabled and 6 different people have their microphones enabled. It would be ideal if one "Talk" button turned on that person's audio and video simultaneously.
• The number of active participants able to turn on their microphone or camera is still limited compared to other products on the market. Competing products allow dozens of participants to enable their audio and video during the entire session without having to switch back and forth as Blackboard Collaborate requires with larger sessions.
• Blackboard Collaborate still relies on Java to function. As such, it has to bundle a Java launcher application in order to open sessions. Similar products can function using HTML5 entirely within modern browsers.
• Desktop sharing is not visible on mobile apps although the chat, whiteboard, and audio is fully functional.

Incentivized

• Lack of security updates (Not sure if they are taking care of but they should make users aware of it frequently)
• Brand recognition improvement (Specifically in the US market where many customers still prefer Zoom)
• Many prospects still consider GoTo as a legacy platform compared to Meet, Teams, Zoom. This is not a missing feature but GoTo team should really position themselves as innovative rather than pre-existing perceived notion of being legacy.

It is a tool that faculty likes to use. It has so much flexibility to allow students to see a class even if they happen to not be available in the classroom.

Incentivized

We used other software like goto meetings but found it best because of its user friendly interface and easy interfacing. It helped us in COVID and now we can say we are depending on it and love it. We recommend it to our friends company and they are also using it. It is very affordable and easy to integrate with system

Incentivized

I feel that Blackboard Collaborate does a lot of things right. It’s great for educational purposes and may be better for some age levels than others. I feel that they may benefit from making features that distinguish the types of learning environments there are. Primary schools won’t be operating the same as high schools or universities and may need completely different options and features. As well as private schools and public schools. As they continue to improve and add more features the platform will be even better and more tailored to each of the end users.

Incentivized

The simplicity of GoToMeetings desktop, mobile, and web-based applications make it a very robust and user-friendly meeting solution. At times, it may be more complex than needed, but it is nice to have so many features that can be used if needed. Once installed, it is very easy to use and navigate.

Incentivized

The availability of the software is quite impressive. You can access it at any time that you want and from anywhere that you want, but that depends on how the software is set up by the University. There might be sudden outages due to not having enough space on your database, which we had that very issue happen recently here at our University. During that time, you could not access their blackboard at all until it was brought up online again.

Incentivized

This application has always been available. Never an issue

Incentivized

The performance of the software is remarkable. The loading speed of the pages is more than satisfying, it all depends on the users internet package. So far, there wasn't any issue of Blackboard slowing down other software or systems when integrated with them

Incentivized

This application is fast. Loads fast, no stall

Incentivized

The support has been very good. We integrate Blackboard into our learning management system so everything is seamless for users. Most issues arise from the user's browser configuration, cookies, and other privacy settings, not from the tool itself. Collaborate is pretty reliable with strong audio and video quality. Support has been helpful when we've had the occasional quirk, again more likely due to a user-side challenge than the platform itself.

Incentivized

When we have issues, they seem to respond quickly and do everything they can to help us. They have even tried to find other ways we could get more use out of their product, or improve the way we are currently using it. Overall, their support has been fairly good for us.

Incentivized

It was very easy and self-explanatory.

Incentivized

I believe Blackboard Collaborate is a great app/platform, but like similar products; it should be used in tandem with alternatives. Blackboard Collaborate has features that I find in other apps/platforms, yet some are easier to learn and use. Such is the case with the feature to work in different groups, and switching between groups. Similarly, using the chat whilst sharing screen is a lot easier than with alternative platforms. I do believe it could benefit from certain features such as Miro's participation tracking software, when using the whiteboard app, and maybe some improvement to video/sound quality; yet Blackboard Collaborate is most definitely a useful platform for meetings, workshops, and classes.

Incentivized

GoTo Meetings has no time limit for sessions with more than x attendees. GoTo Meetings provides an easy way to allow attendees to share their screens. GoTo Meeting does not require membership/license/registration attendees; they are not required to download the desktop application. They can attend from the web if they choose to do so.

Incentivized

The reason for this rating is that the software is a pretty good tool that can be utilized for use in all of the Universities around the world. It has the capability to fulfill the needs of various different education systems. Although, there are slight improvements that are needed, therefore the rating is at 8.

Incentivized

• Our implementation has been gradual over the last 2 semesters. Students who have used it to access live academic support despite being unable to drive in for face to face sessions have been extremely happy. It is gradually boosting student morale for offsite students, who have long felt they were unable to access services that were paid through fees with their tuition.
• Multiple support services who have wanted to provide online support but were unsure how they could are more empowered to do so now. The current mood is "what else can we offer online through this, workshops, advising, live broadcast of student org meetings"?

Incentivized

• It has improved the efficiency of our sales meetings, allowing us to close deals faster and with greater clarity.
• There has been a 15% increase in our sales conversion rates.
• The ability to effectively conduct in-house training has improved team productivity and reduced costs associated with in-person training.

Incentivized