Blackboard Reviews

by Shoodotz

While Blackboard is the backbone of schools in my region, they have been responsible for every grade of mine below an 90% due to their service being slow, time-consuming to learn thoroughly, and ineffective at training teachers who are forced to rely on the this app service. Blackboard specifically doesn’t have a half of the capabilities we have on the computer, won’t even show an entire page of an assignment, makes it nearly impossible to find modules, won’t allow you to test or quiz (which I need since I work on an iPad and the mobile site is just as horrendous), and doesn’t support many basic functions we have come to expect. At times, it will only show certain assignments on Blackboard , so when you log in on the computer, you see that there are many more parts or sections due. The discussion boards are old fashioned. It would be great to give those more of a feed-like feeling, rather than an assignment. I would like to get a notification if someone responds to my discussion, so I could reply back if they are asking a question. Since we are all online, I miss the type of classroom connections that this app does not offer but plenty of other services make an effort to provide. I will be pushing my SGA to pressure our college to make the move towards Google Classroom. It’s time.

by Fabrizzioce

I am giving Blackboard a one-star review because even though Blackboard is useful in many ways, there’s still a lot that can be worked on or fixed.

One of the most annoying things about Blackboard (and everyone agrees with me on this) is the fact that you have to keep logging in every single time I open and try to access Blackboard , which is about 7-8 times a day. This is so inconvenient because as a student I do not want to keep logging in and entering all my information when I’m trying to do homework, study, and look at my grades. I have tested it out and I’ve found out that if I close Blackboard and open it back up about 10-15 minutes later I find myself logged out. I have also asked around and I am not the only one who has to deal with and every single person can agree with me about the fact that it is, indeed, annoying. This is an issue that needs to be fixed because its inconvenience is tremendous.

Another feature that could be worked on is the design of Blackboard itself. I believe that it does not go well with current apps that are in the market. Its design is still blocky and the transitions between sections are grotesque. I believe more friendly, rounded and somewhat colorful sections within Blackboard will help its aesthetic design.

by A Blind Girl

**UPDATE: Blackboard was working great until the second day of school this semester. It stopped working completely and after two days I deleted Blackboard and re-downloaded it. Now it is telling me my school is not even on the list so I am unable to even login. When it works, it works great. Often times, it does not work at all! :( wish the developer would just fix it and leave it alone!

UPDATE: this app has fixed the issue and Blackboard is working great again so I revised my review to four stars! I would have gave them five but it did take over three weeks to fix the issue and I was unable to login during that time!

Oh my, there seems to be an issue on our side. After I put my login information in it redirects me to the statement above wearing it says there's an issue. I reported it to the developer who then told me to contact my general IT helpdesk at school. The school has now put a ticket in with the problem. It's still not working after three weeks and I have been unable to use Blackboard at all. When I first started using Blackboard, it was great. I could post my discussions, assignments and take quizzes on here. But I now have been unable to access Blackboard at all for three weeks. Please fix this issue and I will update my rating.

by %TLM%

Just when I thought this app’s clunky, awkward, and ineffective text editor couldn’t get any worse, the mobile app appears. While the mobile version of BB is very slightly more navigable than using Safari on the BB site, it is still such a clunky and non-intuitive interface! But nothing is worse than the 30-year-old look and feel of the ever-frustrating text editor. This editor barely qualifies as a WYSIWYG (Google it).

Due to the instability of the text editor, it has always been necessary to compose my assignments in Word before pasting them into BB. This new app is the worst yet, however, for correctly displaying my writing. Cases is point, footnote numbers are bracketed rather than superscripted, paragraph spacing is greatly exaggerated, indentation is lost in translation, italics and bolding are removed from the text, font faces are substituted, font sizes are adjusted, etc.—the result, my Discussion Board posts look like a fifth grader trying to do graduate work.

I have petitioned my institution to find a solution other than this app for coursework submission, now I am imploring this app to enter into the 21st century of computer programming. Please. I could live with all of the other oddities and quirks, if only BB had a decent text editor.

by .:GJKennedy:.

My two main problems with Blackboard are these:

1) Empty assignments. The reason I got any this app apps is because the website won’t show any assignment content/description on mobile devices, but for some reason that isn’t a problem fixed on mobile. So if you’re without a computer, you just straight up cannot see most of your assignment descriptions or attachments.

2) Doesn’t stay updated, even when it tells you it is. If I had a dollar for everytime I missed a minor assignment or announcement because I checked Blackboard for one before class and it told me there was nothing new, I’d be rich. It’s not even that it will kick you out of a session and then not load you back in (though it does that too), its that it will do the little refresh at the bottom and give you the green check when it really has ended the session and has no new updates since you timed out. and theres NO WAY of knowing that unless youre smarter than me and have a good sense of when this app times out. I really peeves me.

I almost gave it two stars because it looks nice and smooth and I felt like there were worse, but it literally just looks like it works. Like if had slightly worse graphic design (just graphic, because even functionally this app is an unorganized counterintuitive mess) then I would easily slam it into the ground. The website at least works, as dumb as it can be to use. Blackboard doesn’t. Fix it, please.

by Browserer

My comments don’t mean much in the sea of reviews, and this app already has its thousands of school contracts, so not like the reviews affect anything either. But the “Fixed a bug that frequently logged out users” fix took TWO YEARS to be solved. I’ve reported this issue several times since I began college. I am graduating and just now seeing it having been fixed. As someone who’s had to use Blackboard several thousand times over the last couple years, typing in my 39-character email (yes, 39 characters) and 30 character password nearly every time has assuredly added up to dozens of hours of annoyance and wasted time, and time is of the essence as a college student with assignments due. Of course, there are at least 50 other minor issues I can think of, which add up to a major headache. I’ve also never met a classmate who hasn’t made comments about how abysmal the this app web platform and mobile app is. You seriously need to overhaul pretty much everything. Thank you, this app, for making my several-year college experience all the more painful.

by Awooogaawoooga

I have no problems with this app as an organization. I think really I just hate Blackboard with a passion, because every time I try and open it it takes way to long for it to load, and sometimes it even fails and says try again to no avail. This is in contrast to me going online THRU MY PHONE, and getting to my grades that way much faster. Blackboard is just bad in my opinion I hate it; the GUI does not utilize/take into account phone screen size very well; the load time is way too long; and has never a single time remembered my login info. I would rather just go to the website where I know it’ll sign me in within 5 seconds of me accessing the website.

This could be a result of my school, so I may be biased, but if you got this problem too you know what I mean. Just use your phone browser. It’s not worth wasting your time on Blackboard. I’m not even sure if anyone will get anything out of this or if it’ll be read, but if developers are reading this please respond I would love to hear what you have to say for this.

by Dg2017xx

As a college student, I have been using this app for 3 years now. I could overlook all of the other little inconsequential things that bug me about Blackboard and give it 4 or 5 stars, but there are two major issues. #1: Every time you click on Blackboard , you have to log in. It doesn’t matter if you just logged in five minutes ago, you have to log in again. It’s ridiculously annoying and frustrating, and sometimes not being logged in means you miss notifications. I mean, I didn’t always have this issue. It’s like the issue was fixed and then it started again.

#2: Clicking on notifications doesn’t lead you to the notification source. For example, if I get a grade notification, it won’t lead me to the assignment. Sometimes it’ll just open Blackboard and then freeze my phone. Other times, it’ll take me to a random page in Blackboard . But, as I said before, lately I haven’t been getting notifications because of the whole “log in every two seconds Or Else” issue. I can deal with other little issues, but missing notifications from my professors and assignment reminders? That’s not okay. I shouldn’t have to rely on my email to do what your app is supposed to.

TL;DR: I’d just really like to be able to log in and stay logged in please.

by Tink_11:0

I’ve had Blackboard since I started college and though the design was poor I had very few complaints. Now at the beginning of my spring semester I’ve updated it and I’ve regretted it every time I had to use Blackboard . First and foremost, as a college student having to always log in is annoying and time consuming. It would be appreciated if we can log in by Face ID, Touch ID, or even a 4 digit pin. Second, it’s annoying that you can accidentally log out of Blackboard by hitting the wrong x. To add its also annoying that if you go look at a syllabus or any link you can not go back to BB you have to logout and log back in. It is frustrating and caused me to not even want to do my work because I’m scared I’ll get logged out in the middle of working and have to log back in. Third, Blackboard does not let you see full assignments and then freezes when trying to scroll. It would be nice to be able to see all of the assignment being that I use Blackboard on the go.

by Kakiio

I use this app multiple times a day, and I carry my phone more than I do my laptop so, i thought I’d be easy to access my grades and homework much quicker. I was wrong. I always have issues with keeping my writing studios in frame to work peacefully and I, too, find it frustrating I can’t type journals or blogs directly in Blackboard when it’s NOT IN FRAME, I rather use my browser than Blackboard. Then it is common for Blackboard to GLITCH and go back and forth between the login page to the one I was looking at...four or five times before 50% of the time telling me to log in again. It happens a lot it’s annoying. Finally, it does not resemble in content the browser version- it OMITS uploads my professors have put up and are seen in the browser and unexpectedly not found in Blackboard . My Chemistry professor, for instance, uploaded a list of homework guides and due dates and I couldn’t see it anywhere on Blackboard - I searched all the content files and NADA...I gave up.

by Lupis_Auream

In a word, I would describe this Ap as “Fine”. I don’t love anything about it and I don’t really think it does a great job at anything, or even a good job at anything. But it doesn’t do a bad job either. It allows one to see assignment due dates and grades and make submissions in a way that isn’t pleasant, but isn’t hard to figure out either. Some notes Give me a place to view my calendar regarding due dates, for all classes in one place. This would be huge and I cannot stress this enough. Similar vein, give me a place where I can see all of my grades at the same time. Less significant but would still be pretty good. Otherwise, maybe set it up so I can submit something from Google Drive/Notability/GoodNotes/Pages straight to an assignment, something that is possible with Canvas and Schoology. Set up the assignments so that I can see the rubric/goal of the assignment in the same spot that I submit the assignment. As is I have to go back and forth between the two and it’s annoying and adds steps. Could just be the way my professor has it setup, but if so all of my professors have done this so … Finally kinda buggy sometimes. File formats wont open, or not well within Blackboard , and this is true with a lot of links as well.

by Jill8815

I have used Blackboard for years. But there are many things a student would need this for and it won’t work. #1 being the virtual classroom it often signs you out and the way it connected and you having to dial in for sound and it automatically connecting your mic is annoying I wish that would change. Also it doesn’t give the option to view and watch past recording in the virtual classroom which students may need. The one thing about Blackboard I like is how grades are easily displayed and how you get notifications each time your grade is updated. All great but they need to work on the classroom especially now that everything is virtual students will be relying on Blackboard. I also don’t like that you have to log back in each time or that a notification alert doesn’t take you to the assignment or grade directly does make it ver accessible

by Sashafern

An unreliable and poorly-designed platform makes for an equally mediocre iOS app. In the era of intuitive, streamlined and visually appealing technology to assist in every work task under the sun, it’s disappointing that students are stuck with this app. I find it to be fairly well-organized, but the iOS app is irritatingly glitchy— often, PDFs or embedded videos will glitch if I switch tasks while working, necessitating that I close and reopen my original task or sometimes even the whole app, which often loses my place. The text editor is as reviewed by others; fortunately I can usually submit my assignments as Word documents. In general, this platform has the potential to be perfectly decent and deserves the streamlining and design update it would take to make it a good tool for students. It does not feel as though any of the designers have used Blackboard to actually attend college and considered what features are and are not used by a student. In general I feel that Blackboard version is about equal to logging on through a browser, and both are better than nothing, I guess.

by Jordyn Blalock

I used canvas during my high school dual credit courses. I now use this app for my classes at university. Having used both, I would just like to say that this app should take notes from canvas. I find this app to be more complicated and confusing to navigate. I know that some of my problems have to do with my professors and their organization skills but some difficulties can be attributed to Blackboard itself. I would like to see a more uniform template for each class. I would appreciate it if every class had the same basic tabs instead of the teachers picking a choosing. I think the teachers should be able to add tabs but be forced to use basic tabs like an assignment list. One feature that I really miss from canvas is being able to test out different grades in your classes. On canvas, you can test out different grades for assignments to gauge what your average might be if you were to make that particular grade. I hope that this feature will be added to this app soon because it is extremely useful.

by Bennett Dryden

I have used this app in both my junior college and now my upper level school (ASU), and Blackboard has been a tremendous help. It all depends on what course you are taking and how much the instructor utilizes things such as discussion boards. With that said I work full time, and I have been able to participate in many group discussions required for class, and see important announcements and assignments all while on my phone. This has eliminated the need to be tethered down to a computer. In fact I even did a whole months assignment while on vacation with my family using Blackboard.

I took one star away because there are some interactions such as email and formatting differences between Blackboard and the web version that lead to not having the ability to do all I can do from the web.

TL:DR this is a great app to have on your smart phone if your school uses this app.

by That One Zombi3

Over time Blackboard has became better, but has always bugged.

Recently it’s been less buggy I definitely must admit. As a student who uses this app, I recommend others to use this for observing class announcements, documents, and even grades.

What I wish to advise all students though, don’t rely Blackboard to be your only source of this app. Be responsible for your class and go online for video conferencing, participating in discussion so your format is in favor, and upload your assignments there and do quizzes and exams there. It’s reliable there, so don’t create your own goose chase giving your professor a hard time for your actions that went wazoo buggy in you.

I must reiterate, Blackboard is great but for what I mentioned in the beginning. Reviewing information of the class and downloading what you need for your workflow, but please, don’t rely on this for very important things (assignments) for you may become unlucky.

Developers of Blackboard, I’ll tell you something. Thank you for your efforts, and always. My respect and godsend with you making Blackboard and providing updates for it as the base continues to grow.

I see we can now message others from Blackboard which is something new I’m excited to use.

I’ll give you a 5 star rating some other day, for now, thank you, you’re doing awesome.

by Gabi451

I use Blackboard everyday for my university courses. Blackboard is great but there are a couple annoyances about it that I’ve had that really frustrate me when I’m particularly stressed. The first one being that Blackboard opens on the “Activity Stream” rather than my “Courses” tab and there is no setting to change this. I would like the ability to move the buttons in the left menu tab freely to the user’s liking, as well as, choose which tab Blackboard opens on within settings.

The second annoyance being that upcoming due assignments are not marked as completed after submitting them. They remain in the upcoming assignments section. This can become rather stressful when there are over 15 assignments from various classes due throughout the week and you are unable to view which assignments you have or have not completed yet.

Overall Blackboard seems to be user friendly but there are major adjustments that can be done such as incorporating a dark mode as well.

by GraceG.

Blackboard is very user friendly and easy to navigate. I solely used this app on my laptop but had discovered my laptop broke the literal morning I started class, so I decided to download Blackboard so I wouldn’t have to navigate this app on my phones browser and could more easily access my instructor’s pages. This definitely does the trick for that. The only issue I have is that the due dates tab is not fully accurate, at least for me. I have 3/4 of my classes online, so it really helps me to just click the “due dates” tap and be able to access each assignment that’s due soon. It may be due to the instructor, I have no idea, but I can see where my grades would become horrid after missing a few assignments every week. This was my first week of class and there were about 3 assignments that weren’t displayed, but I was aware of because of a syllabus or class discussion. Please make sure you’re paying attention and don’t rely solely on Blackboard for that!! Otherwise, you may find yourself in a rut of 0 in the grade book. Aside from that, Blackboard completely simplifies my experience with this app and I can’t believe I went 3 semesters without it.

by Forrloon

I’ve read through the reviews and I think they’ve made some updates and modifications to help with as many issues as they could. I haven’t had any problems myself, however, I’ve only been using Blackboard for about a month now. Blackboard makes discussion board assignments and viewing grades extremely easy and time effective. Blackboard has helped me remove some dread about discussion assignments and replies when I’m “cutting it close” or simply procrastinating. Very clean design and easy to navigate. Due to my schools’ singular use of this app, I have not used any other apps with the same concept like: canvas... so I do not have any comparative notes. I highly recommend Blackboard!

After a year of using Blackboard, I still thoroughly enjoy it. It continues to be very useful. However, they have made a recent update, I’d say within the last month, that will not let me complete assignments as I was allowed to before this most recent update.
I was able to do most tests, unless it was like a written report. I’m still able to do discussion boards, the platform has changed there as well but still able to complete them on Blackboard .

Again, Blackboard is still proven to be very useful. Just some minor tweaks and it’d be great!

by Angrl_11

I would like to make a personal note to both Professor McGinniss and Professor V. Also, Thank you Liberty University for having Spirit -Filled, God loving followers of Christ Jesus! There were times when I was going through and pressing my way through, believing as it is written in Luke 1:45. In those times unknowingly, both my Professors would send the weekly assignments and inspirational note of scripture. Those scriptures and encouraging words would connect and reaffirm what the Spirit of the LORD had spoken to me during my early morning prayer and worship!
I am truly grateful for all the times I sought the LORD on leading and guiding me to fulfill the plans He predestined for me, and that I may sense His Blessed Assurance, Professor McGinnis and Professor V would continuously send the right scripture Affirming God’s Word! 🙌🏽🩸🙏🏽🔥⚓️
Blessings & Miracles!
Angela Moody

by Benneyapr

Blackboard was updated 2 days ago & now there's no audio on any videos within Blackboard . Videos that I've watched previously just fine now have no audio to them. I have Blackboard on my iPad as well & that app hasn't been updated yet & the videos work just fine. Something is wrong with this new update & we can't contact anyone at this app directly. We have to go through our university IT department & they are not very educated on the this app system & can never offer help on any tech issues. It's very irritating to not have any assistance with Blackboard, this app should have a department to support users with tech issues (which happens a lot).
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this app app doesn't give us access to our emails so I never see my received emails until I log into this app on a web browser when I'm on my computer (which isn't often). Also, this app is NOT very compatible with Apple products. No matter which apple product I use, or whether I'm using Blackboard or accessing this app through a web browser, the this app system always changes my font size in my discussion postings to a very tiny font. Multiple professors have complained to me about this but this app always changes my font size to like 8 or 10 once I hit the submit button. this app has been a disaster & I wish my university used a different program!!

by Banna271

Honestly, Blackboard is only good for reading updates from professors and even that is sometimes not great. Easier to read them from my email sometimes. My main problem with Blackboard is I can’t view all content that would show up on the website while doing modules, I can’t take quizzes which doesn’t make sense because it is just clicking a multiple choice or typing an answer, and when looking at grades I can’t view the item that was graded nor see what a professor has commented about my work. I am better off using the safari browser to do work on my iPad than using Blackboard. And my ultimate problem is I have to log in EVERY TIME I want to access Blackboard . No option to remember log in information yet it can send me updates ? Doesn’t make sense, it’s my device and no one else is using it, I should have the option of being able to stay logged in.

by Tay T.

The only complaint I have for Blackboard is the fact that I constantly am required to log in every 10-15 minutes after I’m not actively using Blackboard . As a student I find this annoying and irritating. Blackboard is nice, because it’s easier to navigate compared to when I log onto this app on a browser on my phone.

Please acknowledge this issue and maybe make plans to fix/update for us students. Maybe have a Touch ID option? That would be amazing. It’d be great if we could easily access this app without having to log in every time we open Blackboard . As a student, I am busy and always studying. Plus, I like to have this this app app open when I take notes on my iPad in class. I can quickly get to my recourses on this app, but I don’t do that anymore. I have to log in EVERY TIME and I do not have time to type in my email and password when a lecture is going on. Accessibility is significant.

by Glennh1963

It’s frustrating. Maybe my issues seem petty, but I liked Mobile Learn a lot better. I supposed my biggest complaint is that I can’t edit my courses page. Being able to switch what order they are shown in and color coding them (and getting rid of unnecessary information in the title) has always made it easier for me to keep organized with my classes. There’s no option to do this at all! Additionally, notifications aren’t consistent at all. Sometimes I’ll get a notification when a grade is updated or when something is added to a course, but not always. And when I do try to use the notification to go to what was new, Blackboard doesn’t always open at all! I feel like these are relatively minor complaints, but they affect how easily I can keep organized and are really frustrating.

by Mcmcowboyfan

Blackboard is one of the worst course management software apps that I have ever experience. I have experience with both Canvas and Sakai, and both features much better applications. Blackboard's layout is not intuitive and vastly differentiates itself with its own website. Ive come across many glitches with accessing course documents in Blackboard which work in other mediums of access. The website on my phone is better, however with my tablet i am forced to use Blackboard (because in the website when you click on the blue tab that shows the different course pages, you cannot scroll down because the menu will instantly close). For students who pay thousands in dollars towards these software applications, Blackboard has lots to be improved.

by ~CHR!S

Blackboard worked okay on a mobile phone for quickly and easily accessing school classes and information. However, it was not great for actually working from and completing school assignments.
That has all changed now!
The latest update has solved so many problems that we had and made Blackboard a great tool to actually work and submit assignments from! I can use landscape mode from my iPad, type and submit assignments, use the discussion board, even watch videos...its great.
Thanks for listening to our feedback and improving Blackboard for all of us who use it on a daily basis. You just made my schooling and experience with this app 100% better.
I am thrilled!

by Akuma (Demon)

I was thinking Blackboard would be great! I could do my homework in between travel to my jobs and busy schedule. I was really looking forward to being able to do just that.

I was wrong!

Blackboard’s user interface is great. I can easily see my current classes and next classes coming up. And I can see my grades! My grades update in real time but that is it.

None of the other tabs load or become viewable on your mobile device. I get a rejection to try again later on my smart phone as the problem is on their end. Very frustrating as I was looking for an app that would work with me and my busy life as a working, family oriented student. But clearly that isn’t going to work.

Yes I’ve got the most recent version of Blackboard , I’ve had it for 3 months now, hoping it would actually work one day.

Blackboard would easily be 5 stars if it actually worked!!! Everything looks great from a visual standpoint and I can easily access course content, discussions and everything you would need. But the content inside those tabs doesn’t load so I can view any of it that I can on my computer.

by Bre✨

App is finally working perfectly again, I’m glad the program could be easily resolved within a few days.

Blackboard was working perfectly fine when I first downloaded it however a week or so later I went to open Blackboard and I was no longer logged in. After multiple attempts to log back in and deleting & downloading again Blackboard still doesn't allow me me to log in. The same message pops up after a minute and a half saying there's a problem our side so I should try again later. This experience is rather disappointing because I was beginning to really enjoy Blackboard and the easy accessibility.

by NoName2012

I always used Blackboard , instead of having to log into my laptop, to check for quick assignment due dates or be notified of a new announcement from my professor. Now when I’m trying to log back in, after break, my school doesn’t even show up so I looked up the help link and Blb suggests to contact your university IT desk. Well it turns out my university doesn’t even know about the mobile app, not even knowing it existed, so looks like this is another disappointment. I can’t use Blackboard and I don’t know who could help. The downtown and Clearlake campus show up but not main campus. Please fix the glitch!!!!

UPDATE: It’s finally working:) Blackboard is so helpful in notifying me for updates on assignments or announcements I rely on it a lot.