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Blackboard Collaborate

Blackboard Collaborate

Overview

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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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Synchronous Environment: Users appreciate the software's synchronous environment, with many reviewers stating that it allows for real-time …
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Collaborate with Ease

8 out of 10
October 03, 2016
Incentivized
We use Blackboard Collaborate for meetings and for tutoring students, one-on-one or in groups. Our department, the instructional …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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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
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Product Details

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 TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

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 Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(118)

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!

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:

  1. Users find the platform easy to use and convenient due to its user-friendly interface and lack of software installation requirements.

  2. 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.

  3. 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

(1-25 of 30)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I would say it is very useful for group collaborations online, as well as virtual classrooms where you wish your students/guests to collaborate in an adaptable environment; however I would advise against using the shared screen to display audio or video, nor would I encourage the use of the shared board with a group of people with disciplinary issues (as there is no accountability for who wrote/drew what).
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Using Blackboard Collaborate is great especially when you have to go out of city for an important task and you can't attend a course class, but you want to be up-to-date with what happens. With blackboard, if used properly you can keep yourself up-to-date with everything and at any time that you want.
Mariann Hawken | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Akhilesh Arya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is well suited when you have to do activity-based learning where you can breakout your class in small groups and interact and assign them activities separately. For regular classes, it is a somewhat expensive solution in comparison to Google Hangouts Meet and Zoom. We are using it for project classes where students are divided into the teams of five to six and every team is assigned a different project.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackboard Collaborate worked very well for classroom settings with probably less than 50 or so participants including the teacher. This allows for as many people to be seen, heard, or able to participate in the chat without being drowned out by hundreds of messages. It’s not great for a very interactive class, unless you are simply doing a question and answer situation, I’d recommend another platform.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's good for instruction. I could see that it might not be as good a fit for meetings. The ability to share screen and camera (separately) is very helpful. It would be nice if we could share both at the same time (like picture-in-picture, with the speaker over in one corner of the screen).
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackboard has been in business for a long time and many users—students, faculty, and staff—are very familiar with the tool. It is a very stable product with rare scenarios where you have to call support. But they are lacking a modern approach to applications. Their system looks outdated (style), it is missing features to connect to other services. Integrations are not easy or they cost a lot of money. It is a very pricy tool with not a lot to offer. Blackboard used to be ahead of everyone, now it is playing catchup games with competitors instead of staying ahead and being proactive
Becca Guler | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's useful for a classroom video session with a professor, as multiple students can access it at once (it will stream better if only the instructor uses video and others just use chat) and both lecture or answer questions, employing the Whiteboard feature as necessary. There is a hand raising option students can use to signal that they have a question, or they can just put a question in on the chat section.
It is not as interactive as some video tutoring platforms I have seen, but it is something that our support services at school have access to with a site license, so it's ideal for us.
Joseph Axenroth | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is great for office hours, virtual training, virtual guest speakers, virtual lectures, and more. While it has a focus for pedagogical needs, its use is not limited to just that. It also supports up to 500 people in the session at one time (with the option to request support up to 1,000).
October 03, 2016

Collaborate with Ease

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is great when you want to communicate, but need to have a visual. It allows for writing on the whiteboard and an uploaded PowerPoint. Also, the polling, private rooms, and other tools make it good for group activities.
Carly Pietrzyk, PhD | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It definitely is well suited for department meetings and communication between students and teachers for online tutoring. I actually think it could be useful for a variety of companies, especially for employee training purposes. It may be a bit too complicated for generic communications with clients.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is best suited for classroom presentation and less for online meetings. However, I think the goal of Collaborate is to allow those students not in the physical classroom to be able to better participate and to feel more a part of the class. This is what Collaborate does best. And of course the integration with other Blackboard features makes it a quite seamless tool.
Mallory Rice | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackboard Collaborate is great for large groups, such as online classes, study groups, or remote meetings. It probably isn't necessary for smaller groups, especially for those that don't need all the extra features such as recording, or screen share.
Brandon Cluff | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I thought it was perfect for online education. I really have a hard time sitting down and reading a textbook when I'm at home. Blackboard collaborate kept my attention and helped me absorb the material by using visuals and being able to actively participate during class lectures and/ or discussions.
Laura Abercrombie | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a composition professor, there is less need for me or my colleagues to use it--though I have in the past. I see it especially beneficial for math professors because the whiteboard feature allows symbol notation for math problems, and students can see how the problems are worked out synchronously. I also have used it in the past for literature discussions in a small-group setting after class, as well as for content reviews before exams.
Bridget Powell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackboard Collaborate works well to bring people together for online learning sessions. In my previous job we used it to bring together students from all over the world to participate in group work and discussions, and it works well for that. It can be a little iffy trying to use it to screen or app- share, as you can't always tell what the participants are seeing, and when you have students trying to connect from, for example, a forward operating base in Afghanistan, the connection can be slow.
Christine Paige | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackboard Collaborate is great for online meetings when you are a distributed institution. It is also perfect for our adult student population because it is intuitive and easy for them to launch and participate.
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