1. Home
  2. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
  3. Blackboard Learn by Anthology Reviews
  4. User Review of Blackboard Learn by Anthology
Blackboard is an easy to use LMS.
September 26, 2016

Blackboard is an easy to use LMS.

Rachel Hudish | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Blackboard Learn
  • Blackboard Collaborate

Overall Satisfaction with Blackboard

I have worked for multiple institutions that have used Blackboard as its primary LMS for online course delivery. Blackboard Learn integrates with several publisher textbooks, such as Pearson and McGraw-Hill. However, without an integrated CMS, user and course data must be managed manually, which can be time-consuming and tedious if mismanaged.
Blackboard Collaborate could use some improvement as it does not function on par with comparable video conference software. Its integration into Blackboard makes Collaborate one less system for learners to log into, but its functionalities are limited. Adobe Connect can be linked within Blackboard, but still launches externally.
  • Textbook integration: Instructors can easily pair courses with publisher content, such as quizzes, educational videos, and online texts.
  • Discussion boards: Students can easily discuss topics in Blackboard forums, which offers nested views for easier organization of replies.
  • The grade book is easy to manage data and set up.
  • Easy for learners to access across institiutions because Blackboard is an industry standard.
  • Blackboard needs to improve their mobile access as it should be integrated into Learn, not a separate entity altogether.
  • Blackboard Collaborate crashes and freezes during delivery of live training events and it has minimal functionality.
  • The Common Cartridge does not function well when moving content from one LMS to another. It loads everything as a link and opens in a new plain text window, making workflow tedious. If migrating many courses between Blackboard, and say, Canvas, for example, Blackboard will recommend a third party company to handle the migration instead of fixing the issue in their system to get the Common Cartridge to load properly.
  • At one of the institutions that I worked for, the ROI was excellent for the number of users we were serving; however, I could not speak to other instances as I was not aware of the overall cost of the contract.
Drupal functions as a content management system and it is difficult to use it for learner data; however, the size of the Drupal community makes it a contender for eLearning through the ELMS module, which integrates multiple modules for dynamic course delivery. Moodle is similar to Drupal, but very plain.
Canvas and Canvas Cloud are easy to use and function very similarly to the essential LMS components of Blackboard. However, there is no textbook integration with Canvas.
Blackboard is an industry standard for training and higher education, because of this, many users who have experience using it in higher education can easily use it when they move onto government or corporate training. It is easy to use and manage as a content developer. It is best suited to manage course documents, facilitate outside of class discussion, gather important student assessment data, and analyze course assessment results for areas of improvement.