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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
(1-18 of 18)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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.
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
June 01, 2021
Blackboard for Universities
Blackboard Collaborate was used by many professors and teaching assistants at our university to conduct classes, review and study sessions, lectures, presentations, etc. Blackboard is already used for most if not all of the courses offered here so it’s easy to transition to using another product with the same login credentials to ensure simplicity and ease of access.
- You can kick out people who are disruptive or not meant to be in the room.
- Ability to see who’s talking through highlights
- Options for cameras on or off depending on preference
- Sometimes sound quality is poor
- Difficult to monitor the chat with many users
- Could incorporate a list with the raise hand feature to see who raised their hand and when
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.
This feature was used across the entire organization. Before March 2020, it was used by a few departments that wanted to be "ahead" with using technology, but starting in March it was rolled out to everyone.
- One location for all your materials
- Stable product
- Easy access
- Update to use newer technologies
- Not easy to integrate with other tools
- Outdated
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.
December 18, 2017
Collaborate in Education with Blackboard Collaborate (Ultra)
We've been using Blackboard Collaborate since back when it was Elluminate (then Blackboard Collaborate, and now Blackboard Collaborate Ultra). The Ultra version is browser-based and very simple to use. It is typically used for office hours for our online instructors, handling virtual training sessions our team administers to our faculty, and other times people on our campus may want to meet virtually. Collaborate is also an easy way to have a guest speaker join a classroom remotely.
Collaborate Ultra is integrated with our LMS (Blackboard, though they support other integrations), so essentially there is no setup involved for the faculty member. Students just click a link, type in their name, and they are able to join the session, simple as that. Smartphones and tablets are also supported.
The Collaborate team has been aggressively working on making the tool more and more accessible.
Collaborate Ultra is integrated with our LMS (Blackboard, though they support other integrations), so essentially there is no setup involved for the faculty member. Students just click a link, type in their name, and they are able to join the session, simple as that. Smartphones and tablets are also supported.
The Collaborate team has been aggressively working on making the tool more and more accessible.
- Very simple to use. While not overbearingly rich with features, there are a lot of features available to get workflows done.
- Allows for several options to make a session accessible, while the developers are working on even more ways.
- Mobile friendly.
- Takes advantage of features available in Firefox and Google Chrome browsers for application sharing; these features are not yet available in Safari or Microsoft Edge.
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
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 04, 2015
Review from an LMS Admin
We have used Blackboard Collaborate for classroom meetings and various meetings.
- Teal time communication with students.
- Sessions with students or in meetings can pass documents if needed in real time.
- Can share not only my desktop but an internet link if needed.
- Sometimes the settings seem a little complex for instructors. There have been vast improvements over the last year in this regard, but I lost some of my instructors due to the setup issues and now have to coax them back in. Making the setup as seamless as possible is very important when trying to get adoption from faculty members.
December 04, 2015
Love the creativity of Collaborate!
I find Blackboard Collaborate to be very useful as a conduit to communication for my students and I. It is easy to use and provides the right amount of choices necessary to have a great communicative session.
- The visuals are great.
- Choices for usage are helpful.
- Ease of use is exactly what new online students need.
- Time lapse of verbal communication.
- Inability to share Microsoft Word documents directly.
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 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.
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.