Blackboard Learning System

[aduckworth]

I thought I would start a discussion on the Blackboard Learning System since that is what we use on my campus. We are currently running Release 7.1.391.3 with the Community System, but we are considering updating either to Service Pack 2 or Application Pack 2 during our Spring Break. Is anyone else out there using Blackboard?

[Michelle D. Catlett]

I see this was posted in February - did you upgrade?

The last version of Blackboard I was on was 6.x. More recently, I've been using eCollege and Moodle, both of which I prefer to Bb. I find the navigation more intuitive, but at least compared to Bb 6.x, they were also both much more stable.

And since I"m new - hello! :-)

[aduckworth]

Hi Michelle!

We did upgrade on March 27th. We decided to go with Service Pack 2 for 7.1 rather than move to 7.2. We did this because there were too many outstanding issues with 7.2 and we had only a week between Winter and Spring to do the upgrade. We are satisfied with the upgrade so far. It fixed some major issues with the test manager, but it broke our collaboration tools. Nobody really uses the collaboration tools so it hasn't been too much of a factor.

I saw that you posted something regarding Elluminate. We are looking at them to provide webinar functionality to our Blackboard system. Did you like their system?

[Michelle D. Catlett]

I hear you about the outstanding issues with Bb upgrades. It seems that no matter what, each upgrade breaks features that Bb engineers haven't anticipated - I felt like our institution was doing their beta testing. I'd thought that their shift to a "service pack" model rather than "releases" would have helped, but...

Yes, we liked Elluminate a lot. Very smooth installation on the student side, and fairly intuitive tools. Right now we're working on exporting the archived presentations and getting them into a replayable format so we don't lose them.

[aduckworth]

Did you have any luck exporting the archived Elluminate sessions?

[Dave Grewal]

Hey, I am 3rd year student at Wilfrid Laurier University and we use Blackboard I'm not sure what version but it's under Webct. I do have some issues with the design, layout and some of the annoying icons that keep popping up. However, it does the job and I can still get work done on it so for that reason I like it.

What I like about Webct is the fact i can access my classwork, download, print class PPTs and the option of a discussion board that becomes very useful nearing exams. But, I think this course management system can be more if blackboard would expand some applications.

I have tried Elluminate and I think the idea of virtual classrooms is GREAT! I really wish my university would implement the idea because I see a lot of potential. But, Elluminate i find was difficult to setup and a bit slow. I tried WiZiQ and I found it very easy to use, no downloads and like Elluminate its free.

Have any of you tried WiZiQ? and what did you think?

[Mary Burns Prine]

We are starting online this fall at our Community College, but it will be using WebCT Vista (which is an older cousin of Blackboard). What are some of the advantages of the various releases?

[aduckworth]

I have not used WebCT myself but understand that it has some nicer feature sets than Blackboard. I do not believe that WebCT will be supported all that much longer once Blackboard releases their NextGen (NG) system. Since Blackboard purchased WebCT a few years back they have been working on merging the two applications together. This NG system will be the product of that work. They will be announcing this product during their Blackboard World conference later this month.

Is your institution hosting WebCT internally or letting Blackboard do it?

[Tara McCoy]

Hi our campus uses Blackboard and is on version 7.3. We are in the process of building various Communities.

I have used BB, Web CT, and Moodle. I prefer Moodle. I am in the process of learning new features within BB. I do like BB Scholar's Social Bookmarking tool. It seems to have more potential than Delicious or Digg when using it for Research.

Thanks,

Tara