TrustRadius Insights for Blackbaud Education Management Solutions are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Knowledge-Based Assistance: Users have praised the system for its extensive knowledge-based support and helpful links, providing valuable guidance.
User-Friendly Interface: Reviewers find the system highly accessible and easy to navigate, creating a seamless user experience for both students and parents.
Exceptional Customer Support: Customers appreciate the prompt and supportive customer service offered by the system when needed.
Integration of Platforms: The system's integration of different platforms streamlines processes, offering users a cohesive experience.
Efficient Operations: Users benefit from the time-saving master rollover feature that enhances operational efficiency within the system.
Flexible Scheduling: The calendar adjustment feature accommodates varying schedules, showcasing adaptability to different needs.
Effective Communication Management: Managing email communication with groups is straightforward, enabling effective internal communication within the platform.
Perceived Straightforwardness: Users view the system as intuitive due to features like course requests and prerequisites that enhance usability.
I use EMS daily in Admission for intake of inquiries and applications to our school, running lists and data, and management of the current student population.
Pros
Runs lists based on information entered into the system.
Offer knowledge-based assistance/links.
Offer knowledge-based chat opportunities to dive into unique problems.
Cons
They are always improving on how to create easier workarounds and solutions when it comes to "marrying" systems with another system.
Likelihood to Recommend
I love all of the things BB has available though I don't think we use some things to the best that we can. We're all still learning and I appreciate the numerous training opportunities to help with that!
Blackbaud serves as our Learning Management Software. It allows us to have a place to record student grades, assignments, attendance, and learning profiles that is easily accessible across our organization.
Pros
The customer support is phenomenal.
The ease of access for both students and parents makes it extremely easy to use.
Constantly incorporating user feedback to enhance the site.
Cons
The ability to differentiate assignments.
The need for a positive reward system feature.
Ways to use the conduct to support a PBIS.
Likelihood to Recommend
It's been great to have grades in a singular location. It's also made finding student information extremely easy. The conduct section could use some work to incorporate more of a positive behavior reward system model.
We use Blackbaud Education Management during the Admissions process from prospective family engagement, capturing recommendation forms, scheduling interviews/assessments, committee review, and contract posting. We also use different parts of Blackbaud's education management with Academics, Faculty, Extracurricular, Raisers Edge, etc. The teachers are able to use Academics to track assignments, tests and attendance. RE is used for our donor database and to track all donations.
Pros
Ease in completing applications.
Ease in completing enrollment.
As a parent and employee, I love how all of the platforms are integrated with each other.
Cons
I wish that it was easier way to generate a contract.
I wish that there was a way to post a candidate to Committee Review from the candidate's profile, instead of having to go to Committee Review.
I wish there was a way to customize our dashboard in EMS.
Likelihood to Recommend
I love how all information is accessible on the cloud. It is very convenient for us to track the applicants recommendation forms, report cards and school visits (tour and shadow day/s). Committee Review is one of the best features that Blackbaud introduced, allowing all of our applicants to be viewed by our Admissions Committees while still keeping all financial information blocked by the committee.
Our whole organization uses Blackbaud Education Management Solutions. We use it for class management, grades management, and scheduling. It also releases our report cards and transcripts to students and parents, including grade calculations. Students, parents, faculty, and staff are all users. We have a brother school on the same system and sometimes these two systems sync well, but sometimes small differences pose problems.
Pros
Master rollover saves time
Calendar adjusts well for rotating schedules
Email communication with built-in groups (such as advisories or classes) is easy
Cons
The new transcript builder is essentially unusable for us - it won't include transfer classes, which is a tremendous gap
I feel that they need to streamline their site. Every function takes multiple pathways to reach and as a result, many functions are hidden from the average user
We are K-12 and our middle school teachers can't recommend classes for 8th graders going into 9th grade - this should be a basic function
Likelihood to Recommend
In my opinion, their customer service is almost useless. I usually wait at least 24 hours for a response after opening a "ticket", and often the answers are incomplete. I recently inquired about allowing our 8th grade teachers to recommend students for grade 9 classes, and I feel the responder clearly did not test any of her suggested solutions before emailing them back to me, because I immediately realized the "solutions" didn't solve the problem. This is a common customer service experience. Then, after a full week of going back and forth, she told me she agreed the solution was impractical and complicated but that I should suggest it on the website.
It is being used within the entire school system as the learning management platform. It is also used for course requests.
Pros
it appears to be straight forward
it has course request, prerequisites and other useful features
n/a
n/a
Cons
customer service is not accessible or very helpful
launching the gradebook added an extra step + committing grades
some features require extra steps to figure out
Likelihood to Recommend
I recently spent time trying to get information about using Blackbaud as our scheduling tool. It took multiple people to try to get an answer and then the answer did not even address what it was that I was looking for. I received an email with an answer that didn't even answer my question. Most of us dread having to go through customer service as it is not efficient nor responsive. Black baud could be a good product but lacks simple features that Schoology and some other LMS have. It would be to their advantage to have more accessible customer service and look at some of the other really good LMS systems out there.
Our whole school, PK-12, uses Blackbaud Education Management solutions. It provided a more robust alternative to the previous education management software. Users have more access and security, and the teachers who are actively using it for their class materials generally prefer it to what was in place previously. It allows for greater options in flexibility and delivery of material.
Pros
Users can update their contact information within the system
All educational processes within one system
Responsive design that can be accessed securely from anywhere
Cons
User driven reports and analysis require a working knowledge of SQL
Steep learning curve for those utilizing multiple areas of the software
Several functions lack nuance or the ability to customize between divisions
Likelihood to Recommend
A good, and constantly improving solution for private schools. I don't know that a lot of its functionality would be well suited to public schools, but maybe? The integration with other Blackbaud software is a huge plus for us, as we have several of their other products including their flagship Raiser's Edge. Smaller schools may not need the sophistication of Blackbaud solutions, and it is not an inexpensive option.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)
Blackbaud Education Management is the core of our education technology systems. We use it for our Student Information System (SIS), Learning Management System (LMS), Enrollment Management System (EMS), and information is integrated seamlessly from one part of the system to another. Because it's robust enough, we can require teachers to use it and then can tell parents how it is used in all classes by all teachers. Our community can depend on it and the technology just fades into the background, with learning becoming the focus.
Pros
Seamless integration between the LMS, EMS and SIS modules
Real-time, effective chat support helps me not only with urgent needs but also to work through possibilities for increasing how we use the product.
Feature upgrades monthly that respond to voiced needs from users
Cons
Assessments are somewhat buggy and don't have enough question types
Advanced lists could be more user-friendly and need to be updated to be in line with new features (but support is really helpful to work through making these work!)
In the enrollment module, some of the features that are still podium-based need an upgrade
Likelihood to Recommend
Blackbaud Education Management Solutions is well-suited for schools who are interested in having it as the central piece to their student suite. I've heard that it does integrate with some other Learning Management systems but we've found that having it all in one place has made communication, dependability, and transparency greater. We appreciate that the views are the same for parents, students and teachers so when teachers make up a bulletin board, they know that what the parent is seeing is the same as them.
VU
Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology (51-200 employees)
It is used school-wide as our SIS and SLS. We also use the Enrollment portal.
Pros
Attendance portal - ease of taking attendance by teachers and editing/inputting by the attendance office
Courses set up is intuitive thanks to a great tab set up
Directories - availability to use filters
Sky lists - love these!
Cons
Forms - lack of conditional questions
Gradebook -lack of links to assignments
Not being able to customize displays, for example, Grading tab - we just finished 1st semester and teachers could only see the current quarter but not the 1st one which is still part of the first semester. Lack of customization in assessments.
Scheduling- even though re-running generating schedules, we're still getting a high number of unscheduled students. Lack of being able to limit the number of scheduled classes in a row for teachers.
Likelihood to Recommend
The flow from Admission to Academics is pretty painless and set up nicely. What I do not like is that the parents who are existing parents and incoming parents can overwrite data in their accounts via admission.
VU
Verified User
Account Manager in Information Technology (51-200 employees)
It is being used across departments- admissions, registration, advising, student portal, financial aid, and billing. It houses all of those functions in one system behind one log-in. It serves students from interest to graduation and is also used by the wider community as an intranet where information is posted to be shared and disseminated.
Pros
Electronic application process, including recommendation letters
Easy grade entry for Faculty
Online course registration
Online student directory
Cons
Reporting
Cross-module information sharing
Document reader for admissions submissions
Likelihood to Recommend
For simple, small institutions, the solution will serve basic needs and be a workable SIS for a reasonably low cost. It is not yet ready to support larger institutions and in many ways still looks like a K-12 system instead of a higher education system. The upcoming integration with Financial Edge and the ability to connect with Raiser's Edge will be attractive for some users using those products.
