1.5.3 Blackboard Review

Blackboard is a common commercial application used by many educational institutions today.  Blackboard offers tools to help aid instructors as well as students by making course handouts, quizzes, exams, up-to-date grades, and much more available online from anywhere.  Out of all the programs being reviewed Blackboard is the closest to the goals in mind for the Electric Classroom. 

Good Features:

• Forums and class roster available for student communication with professors and other students

• Provides students with the ability to view course information, bulletins, and handouts from home

• Students may also hand-in assignments and take quizzes/exams remotely

Bad Features:

• Teachers and students are confused by some of the formatting of tools which leads to teachers not using them to aid the course

Missing Features:

• Lack of email notification for important updates on course Blackboard

• No actual presentation ability

• No whiteboard ability

• No real-time chat capabilities for open instantaneous communication

Overall, Blackboard offers a lot of very valuable utilities but the methods in which users must interact with the program seem to easily confuse teachers and students alike. This lack of human interfacing seems to hurt Blackboard’s popularity among its users.