Blackboard Learn by Anthology vs. Qstream

A school with a well-established technology imprint with their students (for example, ours is a BYOB school where every student has their own laptop and must bring it to school every day and where over 99% of our families have reliable broadband at home) is a reasonable scenario for using The arrogance and intransigence of the sales force is quite disconcerting… They are no longer the only game in town and don't yet realize it. Less well-off schools/families may find it a challenge if students must be on campus or at a public library in order to use the technology. Obviously, during the pandemic, this became problematic for some districts.

Incentivized

Qstream is great when used for reinforcement of training conducted. Especially when that training is detailed or complex, Qstream will help to embed key concepts and drive adoption while ensuring reps are interacting.

Incentivized

• Provides HTML quality course content that is easily retrievable and viewable.
• Provides multiple methods of communication: email, threaded discussions, real-time "live" online discussions, as well as grade portal.
• Allows facilitators multiple methods of grading or providing feedback: threaded discussions, rubric scoring, personal comments, inline viewer, or download/upload attachments.

Incentivized

• Gamification: gets reps involved in ways that keep it interesting while bringing in elements of competition.
• Mobile: ease of use and direct access to reps while on the move. The interface is intuitive and able to be interacted with in quick increments rather than lengthy elearning.
• Coaching: provides direct insights into who is coping and who is not so that enablement efforts can be focused.

Incentivized

• Although the current graphic user interface is easy to use, it can be improved with larger fonts, dynamic menus, and attractive graphics.
• The system does not include a module to pay the school fee.
• The roster tab lacks detailed information about students.

Incentivized

• Reporting: we only had access to some of the reports so would have liked to see more detail and have the ability to create custom reports.
• Licensing: we accessed qstream via Growthplay so only had access to limited features. Would like to see this extended so that we could truly experience all of the qstream benefits.
• Content Creation: we were not able to create our own questions and streams but had to rely on the external team. Self-creation and self-directed streams would have been preferable.

Incentivized

There are several aspects of Desire2Learn that outweigh the benefits of using Blackboard. I find that the Desire2Learn system is a bit more user friendly and looks more up-to-date. However, the decision to renew systems is not up to me because the entire University uses the same system. Regardless, I think I would choose Desire2Learn over Blackboard because of its improved user interface.

Qstream is good in terms of gamification and driving adoption. However we are looking for a platform that supports content creation, ILT training as well as gamification. Qstream would meet only one of those criteria. We may still use them again if we are unable to find a compete platform in future

Incentivized

It is very usable for both faculty and students. The interface is pretty intuitive and most students can use it without a lot of additional training. Faculty do need some training to effectively use the interface, but they usually get it pretty quickly. We have had to create some additional programming to give faculty a way to delve deeper into the content.

Qstream was easy for us to use and gain insights from. Feedback from sales leaders and reps was generally positive. Having greater flexibility about creating custom reports and streams would have increased the rating

Incentivized

Itʻs a good platform for certain things such as tests. Blackboard may not be the most user friendly but there is always room for improvement in any website, business, etc. When used with other platforms such as Google Classroom, Blackboard can be more effective, but when used by itself I feel it is not as impactful from a student perspective.

Blackboard's Managed Hosting was top-notch in getting us up and running quickly.

Incentivized

Blackboard is the all around better fit for our intuition. It provides the "bells and whistles" we require in having a diverse faculty and flexibility in course delivery. The "bells and whistles" aren't cheap, but we have found that budgeting for this large expense has been more than worth it for us.

Incentivized

Qstream was selected by default because it was offered by Growthplay as their preferred gamification and adoption tool. We have subsequently looked at acquiring Qstream for other initiatives and are in the process of evaluating options

Incentivized

• It has answered all my needs for distance learning and met most of the objectives
• The only negative I can think of is not having access to the past course material and not being able to download the lectures
• Another positive is the zoom integration feature

Incentivized

• Reps have adopted our new sales methodology quicker and with more rigour meaning we are more successful in the field.
• We’ve been able to create scale to drive adoption. Without technologies like Qstream, we would never be able to meet our enablement and growth targets.
• More reps talking a consistent message means our customer experience has improved at the sales front. This allows us to differentiate versus the competition and ensures we win more often.

Incentivized