Item: Blackboard Learn by Anthology
Rating: 3
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Blackboard Learn is the learning management system at the private Catholic college-prep high school where I work. We use it for classes as well as for clubs/organizations. All classes are required to use Blackboard Learn while clubs and organizations are encouraged but not required. We treat Blackboard Learn as an extension of the physical classroom. Only students have access to Blackboard Learn, not parents/guardians. Some teachers give tests or quizzes on Blackboard Learn while others use it primarily as a communication vehicle and to distribute/collect assignments. Obviously during the spring semester of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Blackboard Learn became the primary vehicle for education at the school.

Pros and Cons

The import tool is fairly robust
Online tasks/quizzes are straightforward to administer and grade
If consistently applied across the organization, navigation can be streamlined and students know what to expect where

The mobile app/platform is seriously lacking in stability and feature set
Interoperability with other systems, such as school information systems, is limited (data are relatively easy to import but virtually impossible to export from Blackboard Learn)
[In my opinion] the arrogance and intransigence of the sales force are quite disconcerting. They are no longer the only game in town and don't yet realize it.

Most Important Features

Online tests and quizzes
Ease of posting announcements (which are automatically emailed to students)
Ease with which teachers can add/remove students from their classes
An important but lacking features the ability to import students into distinct groups within the class. We can import into the class but not into a specific group. This is a big problem.

Return on Investment

As their competitive landscape has increased, their ability to innovate and adjust has decreased, the principal reason we have not already switched away is inertia. Switching costs are high but within five years we will be making the switch away from Blackboard Learn.
The future gap between Learn 9.1 and Ultra remains nontrivial and most of Blackboard's development efforts are in the Ultra platform, which is trending in the right direction, but not yet good enough.

Alternatives Considered

Canvas

I used Canvas as a student at a university in town. The feature set was comparable to that of Blackboard Learn with the mobile app was far, far superior.

Key Insights

Do you think Blackboard Learn by Anthology delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Blackboard Learn by Anthology's feature set?

Yes

Did Blackboard Learn by Anthology live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Blackboard Learn by Anthology go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Blackboard Learn by Anthology again?

Likelihood to Recommend

A school with a well-established technology imprint with their students (for example, ours is a BYOB school where every student has their own laptop and must bring it to school every day and where over 99% of our families have reliable broadband at home) is a reasonable scenario for using The arrogance and intransigence of the sales force is quite disconcerting… They are no longer the only game in town and don't yet realize it. Less well-off schools/families may find it a challenge if students must be on campus or at a public library in order to use the technology. Obviously, during the pandemic, this became problematic for some districts.

Blackboard Learn: no longer king of the hill

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Blackboard Learn