Blackboard Collaborate vs. Webex Webinars

Blackboard Collaborate is well suited for teaching and learning, especially online classes. When used with learning management, Collaborate allows for seamless sign-on between the users' course sites and the web conferencing platform. Collaborate is ideal for launching virtual discussions, lectures, office hours, and more. Users can easily upload files to display or share their desktop/specific applications, which is great for demonstrating course principles and meeting learning objectives. Collaborate is really good for breakout rooms, where users join or are assigned to small groups for discussions or team-based learning activities.

Incentivized

I'd say mainly well suited for larger audiences. I think there's probably some products that are a little more economical for smaller audiences, but if you need a solid, reliable platform for larger audiences, say more than a hundred people. So this is the best product for that or at least top two.

Incentivized

• The ability to host a number of people in a meeting and manage their participation via text and audio.
• The screen sharing features allows presenters to demonstrate procedures exactly as instructed on the screen. This also allows the presenter to permit others to share their screens if they need clarification of something or to share further ideas.
• The software gives you the freedom to use a whiteboard to draw/demonstrate concepts to students and other employees.

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• Cisco Webex Events is very straightforward and easy to use. Setting up an event within the platform is quite simple - anyone can do it.
• Webex Events is a great add-on feature to the Webex conferencing platform to allow a one-way broadcast of information, rather than worrying about attendees being able to interrupt the presentation.
• Recording a session is fairly simple and accessing the recordings post-event is quite reliable. I believe you can also upload .mp4 files into the Webex Events platform to serve as a host.

• Currently, the audio and video features are enabled separately from each other. You could end up in a situation where 6 people in a 12-person classroom have their cameras enabled and 6 different people have their microphones enabled. It would be ideal if one "Talk" button turned on that person's audio and video simultaneously.
• The number of active participants able to turn on their microphone or camera is still limited compared to other products on the market. Competing products allow dozens of participants to enable their audio and video during the entire session without having to switch back and forth as Blackboard Collaborate requires with larger sessions.
• Blackboard Collaborate still relies on Java to function. As such, it has to bundle a Java launcher application in order to open sessions. Similar products can function using HTML5 entirely within modern browsers.
• Desktop sharing is not visible on mobile apps although the chat, whiteboard, and audio is fully functional.

Incentivized

• There always seems to be room for video quality improvement (not a necessity, but would be nice)
• Mobile screensharing from iOS/Android (and other mobile) devices would be a great feature
• The mobile app should be able to track meetings a user has been invited to, but does not do so (yet)

Incentivized

It is a tool that faculty likes to use. It has so much flexibility to allow students to see a class even if they happen to not be available in the classroom.

Incentivized

Webex Webinars continues to provide exceptional value as a community engagement and professional education platform. As long as there are a multitude of event offerings and the product continues to be supported with periodic software and security updates, I can anticipate using Webex Webinars for the foreseeable future. Overall a great product!

Incentivized

I feel that Blackboard Collaborate does a lot of things right. It’s great for educational purposes and may be better for some age levels than others. I feel that they may benefit from making features that distinguish the types of learning environments there are. Primary schools won’t be operating the same as high schools or universities and may need completely different options and features. As well as private schools and public schools. As they continue to improve and add more features the platform will be even better and more tailored to each of the end users.

Incentivized

My experience with this software is fantastic; it's so satisfying that it only took me a week to go through an internal training program to use this software, actually, I don't think this training program was necessary. Usability is one of the most fantastic features to guarantee the increase of members in remote events.

Incentivized

The availability of the software is quite impressive. You can access it at any time that you want and from anywhere that you want, but that depends on how the software is set up by the University. There might be sudden outages due to not having enough space on your database, which we had that very issue happen recently here at our University. During that time, you could not access their blackboard at all until it was brought up online again.

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Webex Webinars are available 24/7 and is based on your license purchase and usage. Webex Webinars needs maximum bandwidth consumption for sending and receiving videos and listed below are some examples. High-Definition Video: 2.5 Mbps (Receive) and 3.0 Mbps (Send)· High Quality Video: 1.0 Mbps (Receive) and 1.5 Mbps (Send)· Standard Quality Video: 0.5 Mbps (Receive) and 0.5 Mbps (Send) Webex Webinars makes it easy to analyze attendance statistics, send participants to a post-webinar landing page, and integrate data into CRMs and marketing automation.

Incentivized

The performance of the software is remarkable. The loading speed of the pages is more than satisfying, it all depends on the users internet package. So far, there wasn't any issue of Blackboard slowing down other software or systems when integrated with them

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You can turn around WebEx Attendance reports within 24 hours. Sign in to Webex Site Administration and go to Reports - Access Anywhere. Select the beginning and ending dates for the report. Report data is available only for sessions conducted up to three months before the current date depending on your administration set-up. From the Sort results by drop-down list, select the sort order criteria for the report. After hosting a WebEx Webinar, you have the ability to create a report of all of the participants and the times that they entered and left the meeting. Reports cannot track emoji's or reactions. Best practice for Q&A and tracking you can integrate SLIDO. You cannot save individual polling results. Also the polling report does not include who asked and answered the questions. This limitation does not apply to SLIDO. Closed captions and transcriptions are only saved if the Webinar is recorded. If you face problems during a webinar, you can hit then button which creates and send a report to Cisco who will then look into the problems to avoid future occurrences

Incentivized

The support has been very good. We integrate Blackboard into our learning management system so everything is seamless for users. Most issues arise from the user's browser configuration, cookies, and other privacy settings, not from the tool itself. Collaborate is pretty reliable with strong audio and video quality. Support has been helpful when we've had the occasional quirk, again more likely due to a user-side challenge than the platform itself.

Incentivized

The support of vendors in the realization and achievements of our objectives has played a big role. The customer support team has helped us to set up and test the operation across our organization. It is flexible and our team members are free to join or leave a meeting at their own pleasure. The product displays superior videos with a high-resolution definition that helps each member to have a clear view of meeting proceedings.

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It was a good training to understand not only webinars but the entire platform.

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The implementation process was fairly simple and straightforward

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I believe Blackboard Collaborate is a great app/platform, but like similar products; it should be used in tandem with alternatives. Blackboard Collaborate has features that I find in other apps/platforms, yet some are easier to learn and use. Such is the case with the feature to work in different groups, and switching between groups. Similarly, using the chat whilst sharing screen is a lot easier than with alternative platforms. I do believe it could benefit from certain features such as Miro's participation tracking software, when using the whiteboard app, and maybe some improvement to video/sound quality; yet Blackboard Collaborate is most definitely a useful platform for meetings, workshops, and classes.

Incentivized

ON24 has a lot more bells and whistles, which is great when you need them but when you're looking for a straight up platform to host a stand alone webinar, Webex Webinars is a good alternative. We've selected Webex Webinars when we don't need such a customized webinar console.

Incentivized

The reason for this rating is that the software is a pretty good tool that can be utilized for use in all of the Universities around the world. It has the capability to fulfill the needs of various different education systems. Although, there are slight improvements that are needed, therefore the rating is at 8.

Incentivized

Webex Webinars is a scalable platform designed for interactive experiences. It can accommodate attendees from 100 up to 100,000 attendees depending on the purchase of your license. The scalability is based on each company's requirements and usage. Webex Webinars can offer key features like real-time translations, moderated Q&A, live polling, and chat, making it suitable for both small and large audiences and can be deployed across multiple departments and sites as needed.

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• Our implementation has been gradual over the last 2 semesters. Students who have used it to access live academic support despite being unable to drive in for face to face sessions have been extremely happy. It is gradually boosting student morale for offsite students, who have long felt they were unable to access services that were paid through fees with their tuition.
• Multiple support services who have wanted to provide online support but were unsure how they could are more empowered to do so now. The current mood is "what else can we offer online through this, workshops, advising, live broadcast of student org meetings"?

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• It has exceptional HQ video and audio conferences. Ease scaling events and reach audiences.
• It dives deeper into topics or gets to know panelists more intimately with breakout sessions.
• You can invite many people, 100 or more. You take more control of the meeting compared to other services and have a private room for the presenters.

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