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Synchronous Environment: Users appreciate the software's synchronous environment, with many reviewers stating that it allows for real-time …
Starting at $300 per year
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What is Blackboard Collaborate?
Blackboard Collaborate is an online, collaborative learning platform well-suited for the education industry and corporate learning needs. It includes features such as screen and application sharing, web conferencing, and integration with Blackboard Learn.
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Pricing
Classroom
$300.00
Cloud
per year
Department
$9000.00
Cloud
per year
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
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What is Blackboard Collaborate?
Blackboard Collaborate is an online, collaborative learning platform well-suited for the education industry and corporate learning needs. It includes features such as screen and application sharing, web conferencing, and integration with Blackboard Learn to provide a complete learning management system (LMS).
Blackboard Collaborate offers a browser-based web conferencing tool to facilitate interaction between instructors and students. It has a classroom chat feature that offers a messaging platform for students to share images, text, audio, and video. It also supports live captioning to meet the accessibility needs for deaf and hard of hearing students with its Blackboard Live Closed Captioning Service feature.
Its interactive Whiteboard feature is used for conducting presentations using PowerPoint slides for engaging multiple participants with a single presentation. However, Whiteboard content can be added or edited directly from Blackboard Collaborate without opening PowerPoint. And despite being browser-based, Blackboard Collaborate does offer some features through its Blackboard Collaborate ™ Mobile app.
Blackboard Collaborate Video
Blackboard Collaborate: A one click virtual classroom
Blackboard Collaborate Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Blackboard Collaborate is an online, collaborative learning platform well-suited for the education industry and corporate learning needs. It includes features such as screen and application sharing, web conferencing, and integration with Blackboard Learn.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.9.
The most common users of Blackboard Collaborate are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Synchronous Environment: Users appreciate the software's synchronous environment, with many reviewers stating that it allows for real-time interaction and feedback. This feature is particularly beneficial in online and hybrid courses where students can ask questions and receive immediate responses from instructors.
Video Option: The video option is highly regarded by users, who believe it adds a personal touch to the learning experience. Many reviewers mentioned that seeing their professors' faces humanizes the online course and makes it more engaging, especially for 100% online courses.
Record Option: The record option is praised for its usefulness in accommodating various needs such as students who cannot attend classes, those with special needs, enrichment/supplement sessions, and content reviews. Several users found this feature valuable for creating training materials or reviewing sessions at a later time.
Challenging Login Process: Several users have found the login process of Blackboard Collaborate to be challenging, particularly for those who are not computer literate. They mention that it is time-consuming and requires several steps, leading to frustration.
Compatibility Issues with Java: Some users have experienced compatibility issues with Blackboard Collaborate due to its reliance on an updated version of Java. This has caused difficulties for students and parents, as well as frustrations related to browser and operating system compatibility.
Cumbersome Access to Recorded Sessions: Users have reported that accessing recorded sessions in Blackboard Collaborate can be cumbersome, especially for professors who are not proficient with computers. They suggest the need for more customizable options on professors' webpages and expanding the range of acceptable file formats for presentations.
Users commonly recommend Blackboard Collaborate for the following reasons:
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Users find the platform easy to use and convenient due to its user-friendly interface and lack of software installation requirements.
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Many reviewers praise Blackboard Collaborate for its effectiveness in facilitating web conferencing or virtual classrooms, highlighting its seamless experience for online meetings, presentations, and interactive discussions.
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Users appreciate the range of features and functionality offered by Blackboard Collaborate, including screen sharing, chat capabilities, breakout rooms, and collaborative whiteboarding. These features enhance collaboration and engagement during virtual sessions.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-21 of 21)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
We use Blackboard Collaborate to provide students with digital spaces for online classes. Often times we pair Blackboard Collaborate with other platforms in order to provide an in-depth classroom experience for students. We started using Blackboard Collaborate early since the beginning of the pandemic, and after we entered normal classes we kept on using it for online collaborations with other schools, and for certain school meetings.
- It allows you to manage your teams very efficiently.
- The platform is very good for maintaining a well coordinated environment for workshops.
- It allows the organizer of events program a schedule for meetings, or set up a permanent meeting space.
- I think there is room for improvement when it comes to the share-screen function. While I prefer it to some other online meeting platforms, videos do have a distinct drop in video and audio quality when buffering in a different computer.
- The connection display does not always reflect an accurate image of guest's internet connection. I love the feature that allows you to see which participants are struggling with their internet, so as to avoid involving them as much until their issue is solved; yet it doesn't always reflect their status.
- I would love it if they implemented more reactions for participants in the platform.
- An area that I see with a lot of potential is related to how many users can display their video on the main event screen.
Blackboard is being used by the whole Campus of the University, and it is helping students to catch up on their course work and also be punctual on all their assignments as well as their lectures.
- Fast synchronization accross devices upon a change
- Well organized and simple to use
- Able to take short quizzes and put a timer on them
- Able to upload documents for assignments and provide a quick review of that document
- First time users have it hard to understand how to use it. Maybe, provide a "User Guide for the first-time log in users" would help to navigate easier with Blackboard.
Blackboard Collaborate is primarily used as a web conferencing tool for teaching & learning in higher education, but we have also used it for technical support, academic success, conferences, presentations, training, virtual office hours, and more. Collaborate is a dynamic platform that supports learner engagement and content sharing. Faculty use it for online instruction as well as hybrid learning. In some cases, it's also been used for hyperflex teaching where students can choose whether to attend in person or online.
- Support learner engagement via breakout rooms.
- Facilitate participant engagement via polls and chat.
- Share content via browser sharing or file sharing.
- Seamlessly integrate with Blackboard learning management system.
- Needs to support digital backgrounds for user privacy.
- Needs live transcription support for users with disabilities.
- Needs preloading option for poll questions, especially for large scaled sessions.
June 04, 2021
Solid solution for activity-based learning
In this difficult time of COVID-19, it is hard for the students to present in all the classes in person. Blackboard Collaborate is the virtual classroom solution that address all the problems faced by faculty and students during online classes. We are using this tool in our organization to provide live classroom sessions to our students. Not all the departments are using this tool. Every department is using the tools according to their convenience, but in the department of computer science, we are using this tool for online classes as well as for department meetings.
- Live Poll is an amazing option to engage students during live sessions
- Breakout groups allow you to interact with students one on one or to interact with them by making small groups
- Live captions
- Chat option
- Delay in audio/video especially when you have more students in class
- Requires very high bandwidth
February 13, 2021
Good product for online instruction
Instructors have many options to choose from for doing online instruction, but Blackboard Collaborate is the easiest to use in our LMS. With the advent of COVID-19, all of our classes had to pivot to online last spring on very short notice. Blackboard Collaborate allowed us to do that relatively easily.
- Ability to share screen/audio
- Easily accessible through LMS
- Easily record/play back sessions
- Polling tools
- Accessibilty (desktop, mobile app, telephone for audio)
- The interface needs a rework—some things are not at all intuitive. A surprising number of students needed help finding the session recordings, for example.
- Connectivity can be an issue (dropped audio, frozen video, getting disconnected). This is more likely due to the network than to Blackboard Collaborate.
- Better polling tools.
- Picture-in-picture to share screen and camera (of the speaker, for example) at the same time.
December 03, 2019
Blackboard Collaborate for Education
We use Blackboard Collaborate for our virtual meetings and in our virtual classrooms.
- Breakout rooms for group work
- Polling tools for classrooms and meetings
- Recording unlimited
- Cost
- Stability of video feed
- Sharing computer audio for online videos
December 02, 2019
Blackboard Collaborate for Virtual Classrooms
Across the whole college, we use Blackboard Collaborate for virtual classrooms.
- The ability to break students out into smaller groups and then bring them back to the main room
- Having all tools (chat, participant management) all on one page
- Quality of video in large meetings
- Price is high compared to competitors
April 23, 2018
Blackboard Collaborate- a big step up from Skype
This program is used in academic support services for online tutoring and academic coaching, which are increasingly needed as more and more degree programs are offering online-only options and the number of students outside a commuting radius increases.
While Skype and Google Hangouts are useful for video chat, they aren't designed for academic purposes and lack many of the tools available in Bb Collaborate.
While Skype and Google Hangouts are useful for video chat, they aren't designed for academic purposes and lack many of the tools available in Bb Collaborate.
- The Whiteboard feature is perfect for tutoring. We use it to write out formulas, draw diagrams, etc while in video chat to enhance explanations.
- The file attachment feature is also very handy. This means we don't have to do a follow-up with a student using their email to send files of handouts, etc.
- It's great that we only have to share a classroom access link for a student to enter a session. With other products, they had to set up a username and log-in with an account. Link access means 1 less hassle.
- We are currently beginning to use the "record session" feature video sessions to use as training for new employees.
- I recently tried to use the Share Screen feature, which would be extremely valuable for online tutoring, but despite installing the additional Blackboard Screensharing app, it won't work. I have not yet contacted support to get help with it, but it seems this should work when one follows the instructions.
- It's not incredibly intuitive in its setup. For example, to get the "share video" icon to appear (the only way you can activate the camera to start video feed), you have to do a sound and video test first.
February 01, 2018
Great for small groups of online students
Blackboard Collaborate is generally used across our e-school. Teachers use the software to present live and recorded lessons to our students across the state of Florida. It allows us to deliver instruction in a more interactive method, reaching all types of learners and incorporating audio, video, and interaction.
- Enables teachers to upload PowerPoint presentations and display them for the class
- Allows multiple people to be present at one time
- Has adequate tools for teachers to be able to engage class in interaction (polling, raising hand, allowing microphone and video camera sharing)
- Blackboard Collaborate frequently causes us to see "Exception errors"
- Students and teachers regularly get "kicked out" of the online classroom/lose connectivity
- PowerPoints are static. Does not support animations unless using another program to upload.
October 03, 2016
Collaborate with Ease
We use Blackboard Collaborate for meetings and for tutoring students, one-on-one or in groups. Our department, the instructional department, is the only department that uses it. Many of our employees work remotely, so being able to communicate in a virtual setting is a beneficial alternative to email. Also, we tutor our students remotely, and using Skype, email, or phone is not conducive to what we need to do.
- Allows for sharing of the whiteboard between participants
- Easy to enter rooms
- Ease of recordings and retrieval of recordings
- The tools that are available...text, write, chat, talk, app share, go directly to videos
- The app sharing feature - it is great that it exists, but it is clumsy and lags behind. It is also hard sometimes for the 'sharer' to tell if they are sharing or not. There is also a lag between the sharer and the participants.
- The tool bar seems to get stuck sometimes. I will try to write or highlight and I cannot switch between the different options.
- The Blackboard Collaborate app commands are hidden.
- It would be nice if the chat feature to the moderator went to the main room chat by default, rather than the moderator chat.
September 29, 2016
Blackboard Collaborate for Optimal Company Communications!
Blackboard Collaborate is utilized by my company for teachers to hold office hours for students within the online courses provided by the company. It is also used to hold virtual department meetings. This addresses our need for communication between teachers and students, teachers and other teachers, and teacher and management staff.
- 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.
- Some of the newest computer high resolution screens are not as compatible with the interface. The font and windows are much smaller and the user is not able to increase the size of the windows to make it easier to read/navigate.
- The audio can sometimes be inconsistent and tune in and out when someone is speaking. This is not every time though and many times the audio is clear.
- The login process takes a bit longer to get into the program. You have to go through a few step process and loading time to get into the application.
June 03, 2016
Blackboard Collaborate
Collaborate is a excellent online and remote classroom training tool that allows students to connect to class via a remote session. Features like: whiteboard, sync across devices, ability to make timed quizzes, and the ability to upload assignments and docs are some nice features.
- Its ability to share the presenter's desktop to distance learning classrooms/students.
- Its ability to share the presenter's video feeds to distance learning classrooms/students.
- A particularly nice feature is the ability for an instructor to be able to share his notes with the class.
- It is nice that students can participate in the class as if in the classroom using a chat session.
- Students can actually see the instructor which makes them have a more personal experience.
- Whiteboard feature.
- The ability to upload assignments and docs is a nice features.
- Synchronization across devices and quick syncing time.
- Ability to make timed quizzes.
- Easy to learn interface for instructors and from what feedback I have heard it is easy for students to use.
- Loading of presenter slides is not as intuitive as it could be.
March 08, 2016
Blackboard Collaborate Student Review
I used Blackboard Collaborate when I was going to community college. It was used with online classes which I usually took during intermission. It makes the online experience more like an actual classroom and it makes it a lot easier to interact with classmates and the instructor. It really helps visual learners, like myself.
- The training documentation.
- Ability to transfer files.
- Whiteboard utility.
- Lags a bit while playing audio and video especially while using multi-camera view.
February 08, 2016
Blackboard Collaborate- ideal for elearning
My organization used BlackBoard Collaborate for all virtual education courses and for virtual meetings and workshops.
- It is convenient and easy to set up virtual meetings at any time.
- Quick and simple access that people can use easily.
- Easy ways for teachers, students, and classmates to engage with one another.
- It can be hard to use all of the features when accessing from a mobile device.
- Advance features like desktop conferencing and multi-point video are more likely to have glitches.
- The numerous components can make it difficult for new users.
February 05, 2016
Looking Forward to Collaborate Ultra
Currently, we enable the Blackboard Collaborate tool in courses only upon request due to the complexity of its interface. However, with the upcoming implementation of the new UI, we are going to be opening up the tool to all courses system wide. The new UI is so much easier to understand and use, and I am confident that the adoption rate is going to drastically increase.
Currently, some instructors use it for virtual office hours, some use it for lecture capture and still others use it for remote lecturing back to their class when they are off campus. Some of our organizations use it for web conferencing as well. With the greater availability of the tool next semester, I figure the use cases will at least be the same but more likely new ideas for using it will come about.
Currently, some instructors use it for virtual office hours, some use it for lecture capture and still others use it for remote lecturing back to their class when they are off campus. Some of our organizations use it for web conferencing as well. With the greater availability of the tool next semester, I figure the use cases will at least be the same but more likely new ideas for using it will come about.
- The new UI is so much more simpler to use.
- Every month more features from the classic UI are being implemented.
- In my experience, the only bad aspect that I can bring up is that the video does not keep up with the audio and you will sometimes see that they are out of sync.
- I have also read that some people are experiencing degraded audio in their recordings. During the session the audio is fine but in the recordings it is not good.
February 05, 2016
Stop! COLLABORATE and Listen!
Currently at Polk State College, Blackboard Collaborate is used as a synchronous learning environment in online and hybrid courses. Students are able to interact with professors while they (the students and/or the professors) are off campus and at odd hours. Students participate in guided online course orientations, study sessions, and workshops via Blackboard Collaborate.
- The synchronous environment is great for online and hybrid courses. Students are able to ask questions and receive feedback in real time.
- The video option is great, especially for 100% online courses. It gives a face to the professors name--humanizes us a little bit for the students.
- The record option is wonderful for students who cannot be in class, students with special needs, enrichment/supplement, and content reviews.
- Logging in can be challenging for students who are not exactly computer literate. The program's reliance on an updated Java can be a real source of frustration for students and parents.
- Accessing sessions once they've been recorded is a bit cumbersome. It is especially difficult for professors who are not as computer literate.
- Accessing a virtual classroom could be improved. I would like to see a customizable "button" or "widget" option that can be placed on a professor's webpage.
December 14, 2015
Collaboration at the next level
I can't answer as to how it's used organization-wide, as we are a large state university. However, our small department uses it primarily for meetings where we need to share something visual, usually a course. It's very helpful, because it allows us to control access to our courses by being able to demo them rather than grant guest access.
- Blackboard Collaborate allows for simultaneous video, chat, audio, and sharing and does so in a very efficient way.
- I really like the feature that allows you to record the entire event, and how well that recording captures the session.
- It is generally easy to use, once it's open.
- Trying to get started can get very confusing. If you've already downloaded it once, sometimes it doesn't seem to find the previous downloads.
- When you're downloading, there's no indication that anything's happening until suddenly a small screen appears. This has caused me and others to start the download again and end up with two different windows open.
- Screen sharing can be glitchy - the person sharing can't necessarily see how fast (or how slow) the scrolling is happening on the other end. I usually have a second computer set up so I can "see" as both the facilitator and a participant.
December 04, 2015
Happy Blackboard Collaborate User
I have used Blackboard Collaborate at a previous institution as well as the current institution I am at. My current school uses Blackboard Collaborate across our whole campus as a tool for meetings of various groups. We are a distributed institution so it is very heavily used. We also use it with our students since we are primarily an online college.
- Very easy to launch
- Lot's of tools available to communicate/interact, (emoticons, chat, voice, hand raise).
- Simple interface - easy to navigate and use.
- Have a more detailed polling option that allows you to add questions in with the answers instead of using the whiteboard or PowerPoint.
- Ability to play a video simultaneously.
I helped evaluate if Blackboard Collaborate was a good tool for the academic community of a previous position. In then end, the team did recommend that our school purchase and use Blackboard Collaborate in sync with Blackboard Learn, the LMS we were using. In the end, my organization decided to hold off on implementing Blackboard Collaborate because they wanted to confirm that Blackboard was still the best LMS for the school.
However, in many ways I wish the organization would have adopted Blackboard Collaborate as it allows students and faculty easy ways to connect and since LMS evaluations take a long time the lack of having a tool like Blackboard Collaborate is highly noticed.
In our evaluation, we suggested that Blackboard Collaborate would be used solely for academic purposes and in addition to other stuff, it would solve the problem of remote meetings, team collaboration and online office hours.
However, in many ways I wish the organization would have adopted Blackboard Collaborate as it allows students and faculty easy ways to connect and since LMS evaluations take a long time the lack of having a tool like Blackboard Collaborate is highly noticed.
In our evaluation, we suggested that Blackboard Collaborate would be used solely for academic purposes and in addition to other stuff, it would solve the problem of remote meetings, team collaboration and online office hours.
- Connecting students: Collaborate allowed students to connect with each other based on their current classes and past classes.
- Dynamic permissions: Allowing students to change their own permissions so student could set the level of access they wanted for other students. They could do this while still allowing instructor and TA access at the classroom level.
- Making the LMS more engaging: Collaborate made Blackboard seem more like Facebook which may have made some students and faculty more interested.
- Video and audio was lacking when we evaluated it.
- Multiple language inputs were not well developed when we looked at it - and what was there was very klunky and confusing.
- Security wasn't clear. I didn't understand how my organizations information was separated from others. (I'm not really sure of the technical stuff here - but our security guys were not happy with Blackboard's explanations to their questions.)
November 17, 2015
Blackboard Collaborate is a solid choice for integration, feature set, and usability.
Blackboard Collaborate is used chiefly as an online real-time course environment. Online and hybrid classes meet in Blackboard Collaborate sessions, leveraging it as a virtual classroom for instructional purposes, student presentations, small group collaboration, and other interactivity purposes. The platform is also used regularly as a training and development environment, providing online hosting for webinars and other events.
- Sharing of flattened (image) Power Point slides
- Recording/capture of sessions for later review in mp3, mp4, and proprietary playback formats
- Real-time audio and video interactivity, with tools for text-based supplemental interaction
- Audio and Video quality is in need of performance
- Ease of access/use (e.g. launcher software is required by the current version to gain access)
- Overall responsiveness is in need of improvement, as audio and video delays are fairly commonplace
November 17, 2015
Blackboard Collaborate creates virtual classroom.
Blackboard Collaborate is used to deliver real-time, synchronous, educational content to our users. Specifically, online classes use Blackboard Collaborate to deliver online lectures and presentations using the audio and video components within Blackboard Collaborate as well as the fully interactive whiteboard. Instructors load presentation materials and slides on the interactive whiteboard while student participants follow everything that occurs on the screen. Many classes also use Blackboard Collaborate for group study sessions -- often times without instructor participation. Students are able to share desktop applications, use the interactive whiteboard, and communicate with each other through the built in text chat tools as well as through the audio and video modules.
- The interactive whiteboard allows instructors to load PowerPoint or other presentations into the display which can then be highlighted, marked on, typed on, or used for real-time presentations with students.
- Blackboard Collaborate features a robust desktop sharing component that allows instructors to share their entire desktop, portions of their desktop, or just specific applications with participants. They can also pass control over those applications to session participants. This is very useful for demonstrating software programs that session participants may not have on their own computers.
- The user feedback buttons in Blackboard Collaborate allow session participants to express a variety of emotions during online sessions through buttons that represent a smiling face, thumbs down, and a confused face. In a face-to-face classroom, instructors who notice a confused face on some of their students know to stop and re-explain a concept. These digital faces provide the same interaction in the virtual classroom.
- 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.