Still working? Yes. Oh, log in again? And use the authenticator? Again?? Okay, I guess. Blackboard Learn is part of the Drexel University niche that a lot of students have had to adapt to. From the excessive logging in to the confusing layout, it is a difficult adjustment from Google Classroom, Zoom, Canvas and Microsoft Teams that students were used to from high school.
The site’s main goal is to allow for communication between professors and students, deliver messages, upload content and give assignments. In addition, the students and professors must be able to proficiently navigate this site in order to turn in homework and get updated about new lecture news or additions to the course. However, this can often prove to be challenging for both the professor and student.
For this interface to be efficient, there needs to be minimal complications and easy comprehension between the users and the software. The organization of Blackboard itself is confusing as professors do not usually add every aspect of their course in the beginning of the quarter, so the site will look different between courses and between professors. This can prove difficult for a student to follow as there is no clear assignments tab with dates to show when homework is due. There is a “calendar” feature which also proves to be unhelpful as sometimes it shows assignments for some classes but misses out on others.
Another confusing element is the messaging feature, which many professors choose not to use due to a lack of people looking or responding, instead opting to email students, meaning that course information is spread amongst multiple platforms. Using a site like Canvas, for example, allows for courses to give you notifications within the app when a professor has messaged along with an email about the additions.
Furthermore, one of the main uses of Blackboard Learn is to submit assignments. However, if the assignment is not a simple document or text submission, the assignment can take many minutes or never end up submitting. This could be due to glitches or the file being too big and needing to be compressed which is additional time that students do not want to take when submitting an assignment. Another issue is that it needs to sync with other external storage systems like Onedrive or Google Drive which can be an additional worry when a student is trying to submit a time-constrained assignment. Professors also link other websites like Turnitin and Gradescope that can struggle to load and glitch when they are accessed through BBlearn, which is rather annoying and difficult when trying to get classwork done. In applications like Canvas, the external links take you to the website where the students are able to access the sites directly which eliminates some of the waiting and loading process with third party links.
There are many features that Blackboard has in order to be helpful, but the reality is that many people end up not using these features due to the lack of cohesiveness and comprehension with the software. For example, the site has a place to check grades, but they are usually inaccurate due to the professors not wanting to/not knowing how to calibrate the grades to every class they are teaching. The inaccuracy causes unneeded stress and additional calculation in order to figure out an accurate student grade. Additionally, there is also a calendar feature which is supposed to compile a list of the student assignments and due dates to see them on one page. This feature usually goes unused by many because professors tend not to upload the due dates resulting in an incomplete list of due dates and assignments. Canvas, on the other hand, is able to compile a list of due dates on a calendar-like system and link the assignment to the course module to allow for easier access and submissions.
Overall, Blackboard does the bare minimum in allowing students to submit the assignments they need and the professors to get their content to the students, but it is an extremely niche site for a university to use compared to Canvas, Schoology and Google Classroom. While Drexel would not fall apart with the lack of Blackboard, it could do a lot better with the addition of a new platform. A lot of the features of many of these sites could work a lot better, and the communication between professor and student is more seamless and easier to use.