Blackboard Learn vs Firmwater LMS Comparison

Blackboard is the IBM for Learning Management Systems (LMS) in Higher Education. It has most of the features found in other LMS products

Blackboard lacks some features other LMS products have for copy content between classes

The best part about Blackboard to me is their new version Ultra. Ultra is a much more modern, user-friendly interface.

It is lacking a lot of features that other competing LMS have, for example, copying content across courses that will be automatically updated.

The software is adaptable to different ways of organizing a course and I do manage to use this software to help teach my classes.

Although the new update has improved the user interface somewhat, I still find it to less than user-friendly. You spend a lot of time entering test questions and the like. The video conferencing feature is very difficult to use -- you can't see everything you want to see.

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For me personally the interface was not intuitive for the task we were using it for. While I don't think this is normally used in a college-classroom setting we were considering it for that and it just didn't meet our needs. It may work for you

All of the products and integration that our school needs with an LMS.

The lite version is not user friendly and thus is not useable.

The software is easy to use, and the different links are easy to follow.

For a first-time user, the software may be a little confusing.

BBB is by far the best LMS in the market. Very using friendly and smooth integration with publisher's websites.

I would be great if a delete button can be added under announcements. I copy announcements from one course to another and it becomes time consuming to delete the announcements one by one instead of in bulk.

I have found it easy to use and easy to get used to. I like the value that it brings to the educational experience.

It's not the most modern product. That being said all the tools exist once you get used to it and find them.

With a large company comes great support and account management. Blackboard's team will be there to help train you and support you.

I believe the aesthetics could use some improvement. It should be a good visual experience for the end user.

Quite a few people are using the LMS. Due to current uses Blackboard has changed much of their compatibly with other software.

This product could be much better. One of the major problems is how email sent through this system can not be responded to in an other email client

It gets the job done, by which I mean that it has bare minimums of functionality for what you'd want from an LMS.

Nothing is intuitive, and many repeated steps don't have quick ways of duplicating.

Pretty easy to use and navigate. Used it for college courses. It was very easy to find my classes, assignments, and upload documents.

Some features seemed limited. It is definitely targeted to an older audience, not K-8.

It entails numerous features that are designed for the ideal LMS for different levels of education. It helped form the basis for other platforms.

The UI/UX is close to non-existent and needs a lot of customization and improvement. Unbeatable functionality but the ease of use and aesthetic is lacking.

Blackboard set the bar so high many years ago that a lot of companies are still trying to catch up. They are innovators in the LMS world and there's a reason they've had such success and longevity. Blackboard is robust with what it comes with out of the box. As cliche as it sounds, Blackboard really is a one-stop shop LMS.

The Support Team on Blackboard could certainly be improved. Many of their technicians work weird hours due to being oversees so screenshare sessions can be difficult to setup. There is also a language barrier that makes troubleshooting more difficult than it should be. There is also a lapse in communication between their departments, so you usually end up telling 3 different technicians the same exact thing.

Blackboard LMS is great for schools as well as faculty in organizing their class materials although it can be a bit confusing for your average user.

Price and the fact it was hard to implement.

- Robust and solid - Supports integration with many external tools

- Outdated design - Cluttered interface - Un-intuitive layout

I have used this as a user and as an administrator and it is a great LMS. I allows for easy communication sent to all students/teachers in a course.

There is limited activity tracking for students and visuals could be improved.

Blackboard is a standard among learning management systems. It has the needed features and is organized effectively.

The software isn't intuitive and there are limitations to what you can do with it. Having used some other LMS software platforms, I'm now even more frustrated with the limitations that Blackboard has.

I'm taking several courses that are deployed on this platform. It looks very good and it's more or less intuitive. Looks full of features that you could need on an LMS.

I'm paying for the courses because institutions are supposed to pay for the use of the platform. But it happens frequently that the platform is down. Also, when I send a message to somebody using the platform messaging system, it takes up to 24 hours for the message to arrive to the person i'm trying to contact. When they reply, i get the reply 24 hours later (the message always says it was sent 24 hours before).

I enjoyed the navigation features that made it easy to use Blackboard LMS. Some new software my company has implemented has been very difficult to navigate and understand, but this was not.

We experienced some browser issues with Blackboard. Many could not access certain features using Internet Explorer, which we understand now is outdated. Google Chrome seemed to be the best browser to use and has work pretty good ever since.

Blackboard is one of the tried and true LMS. It has all of the features and functionality that you need and has great customer support. It is a bigger company and has corresponding resources.

Seems to be very general in what it offers compared to some competitors that have particularized features that might be better for specialized courses.

I like its many features, from the journal to the discussion board and the integrated gradebook. The discussion board is especially useful, as it can be manipulated to affect teaching strategy and learning outcomes. The gradebook is helpful because its weighting help students to understand where they are at all times in the course.

I do not like that, on occasion, copy and paste are difficult. I am not always happy with the ease of prioritizing items listed in certain aspects of the course.

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The greatest feature of this product is the ease of use with regards to its navigation. When we started using Blackboard LMS, I literally trained a large portion of our staff on the ins and outs of the software in less than 2 hours. This has made classroom organization the easiest it has been in decade. Our instructors can distribute class materials, assignments, and grades with a few clicks. It is absolutely amazing!

Installation can be both lengthy and problematic if you are moving from an incompatible LMS. While we were lucky, we still ran into bugs while making our transition. This was frustrating, but was luckily done during the summer, when attendance was at its lowest.

1. it's an LMS and something is better than nothing. 2. It's full of examples I can show my students on how not to do UI and UIX 3. Well established company is behind it 4. Modular front-end 5. Many bells and whistles

1. Counter intuitive, clunky, awkard UI (User Interface) - improve it by hiring UI/UIX experts and giving them actual control over the app interface and functions. 2. Slow (even when on the same network node or high speed cable connection) - needs a code rewrite/optimization. 3. Ancient aesthetics (although some design elements are now "flat design-ish") - hire UI and UIX designers and actually allow them to direct the final interface. 4. Many glitches (I've a folder full of screen-shots, if you want proof) - again a code rewrite needed, or ideally a complete start-over with newer code philosophies and methods.

Works with what I need with an excellent reporting ability.

Not a con exactly, just that it offers so much that I haven't had a chance to learn it all.

Thank you Mary Ann! It is always a pleasure to work with you and help you support your customers. We truly appreciate your kind words and your recognition of Firmwater¿s strength and key features.

The features completely delivered everything we needed. With little previous experience using a LMS, we found the system very easy to learn and navigate. This was important because we also had to support our clients as they were set-up to also administer their own systems. Improved tracking of learner's activities was something our clients were asking for. The Firmwater LMS solution met those needs and more.

None so far!

The ease of use and ease of navigation, amazing personalized customer service experience, reliability, and very easy to learn how to navigate. It has been very helpful to create countless client sites (which can be individually branded as necessary), and grant content from our host site to the various client sites depending on the training that has been purchased. The ability to customize the setup of complex programs has been invaluable.

I genuinely don't have anything bad to say about the Firmwater LMS due to the fact that in my experience when there was a "missing" feature or improvement desired, the Firmwater team is responsive and solutions-focused. They want to see you succeed in your business goals.

Hi Navita, We can't thank you enough for this amazing review. It's been a pleasure working with you and we're very pleased you've found the LMS helpful in delivering your training content to multiple clients. We try our best to be as customer-focused as possible, so we're happy to hear you have had a great experience with our team. We look forward to our continued partnership! Thanks again, Liam and the Firmwater team

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The software is user friendly for a non-skilled individual like myself to not only deliver educational content, but also on the backend for controlling content, managing users, and providing reports.

Not a durn thing so far :), super easy and I am learning new things all the time.