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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
- FAQs
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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Community Insights
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
(1-6 of 6)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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
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
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.
I have used it both as a continuing education student, and as a site-manager for classes that my colleagues teach. Blackboard Collaborate makes it easy to connect students with professors and teaching assistants. As a student, the features make it easy for our professor to screen share, draw, and do presentations for us. On top of that, it is easy to work and coordinate with other students who are also using Collaborate.
- Collaborate makes it easy to share screens, presentations, and images in a digital classroom, which is essential when teaching difficult concepts to people who are not in the same room as the presenter.
- Collaborate even allows for small-group work WITHIN a larger group. Our teacher was able to break us out into smaller "rooms" for small discussions and presentation prep.
- The basic controls and modules are easy to learn and teach with presenters.
- Some of the more advanced features are difficult to use.
- Troubleshooting at home can be difficult--if it doesn't open for some reason, etc.
- I have been kicked off repeatedly before (although this might be more my own computer functionality, rather than the program).
- Sometimes there is a lag, causing the presenter's voice to need to catch up/speed up.
November 18, 2015
Blackboard Collaborate - A great fit for the academic setting
Blackboard Collaborate is an essential tool for us to allow for synchronous communication among our online instructors and students. It has been a valuable tool to support this real-time communication in these courses, especially for things like office hours and student presentations to the class.
- Real-time interaction using VoIP and web cams among a group of students in an online class.
- Polling and breakout rooms during a presentation to make the conversations lively and engaging for a distance audience.
- Allows for the recording of key presentations to be viewed at a later time.
- As Blackboard Collaborate is dependent on Java, we have had issues with users accessing the tool depending on recent Java updates and compatibility issues with browsers and operating systems. However, Blackboard's new version, Collaborate Ultra, will be moving away from Java which should resolve many of these issues.