Blackboard is expensive and requires regular updates. Like Microsoft products, you flip your computer on, and all of a sudden you realize that you're going to spend four hours sitting there updating.

That happens to Blackboard all the time. Not all IT departments or universities understand that their job is to teach, not to constantly upgrade software.

The solution is not flexible. 

It was not very stable and required a lot of updates in the past.

When the vendor made the push from Learn Original to Ultra, well-established features in the Learn Original version were not readily available in Learn ULTRA hence, the Blackboard Learn Ultra version lacked some features for a good year and we needed to come up with workarounds and use them until the solutions were brought back in. As far as I am aware they have caught up with original features however, it may vary across the community of users. Users were disappointed not to have well-used features from the beginning. As an improvement, I would suggest 'Blackboard Learn' to provide better integration with third-party software as well as ensure that the existing features are working well. Sometimes, vendors get too busy bringing new features and neglect the existing features that might need improvement or better workflow.

Blackboard has limitations in terms of delivering content and assessing student assignments because it can't handle large file sizes. It's also limited in its ability to track student activity. Instructors can see the student's most recent login, but they can't follow the activity.

One suggestion for new features is a modification I've made on my own. When assessing my graphic design students, I launch a separate Google Meet session instead of keying lengthy content into the feedback pane. I record a video of me going through the student file that might be two minutes or 25 minutes long. I can download that as an MP4 or post the link to that recording within Blackboard.

Blackboard can record feedback like that, but it's a convoluted process to get that video embedded into the feedback window. Feedback is essential for graphic design or any of our technical courses. We have face-to-face classes, but 90 percent of our courses are online. It's crucial that the students understand the feedback and incorporate it into improving their assignments. The ability to embed the video content is a clear and concise route.

Blackboard's built-in video capture requires you to go into YuJa media chooser. You click to launch that, wait for it to open up, and record content. You launch the recording, gather your screen, and download that. It's a lengthy multi-step process. That's a taxing process for 20 assignments and five classes every week. 

I'd also like improvements to the pane where we view assignments. When students upload smaller files, like a JPEG rendering of a rough composition, we can't highlight everything. We can tag things and embed comments, but we can't highlight specific areas. We can only drop a pin and comment. In Google Docs, you can highlight, crop areas, and provide a specific point of visual contact for a composition. Blackboard would have a better product if they followed Google's lead in that regard.

The system falls short in terms of managing assessments and exams effectively. Within Blackboard, exams are typically confined to the course level, and the existing features, while functional, are not as robust or flexible as those offered by specialized assessment solutions like ExamSoft. It is worth noting that AI integration is a significant trend in educational technology. As of the current release of Blackboard, AI has not been fully implemented within the platform. While Blackboard has partnered with Pyramid, there's room for improvement in terms of enhancing the integration and support they provide. It should invest more in marketing its data solutions and assisting customers in utilizing analytics effectively for decision-making, as data is a valuable asset for organizations today.

The best thing they can do is to improve the templates for mobile phones. Without this application, access to courses using some devices is a little complicated. It would be ideal to create a more responsive or more intuitive template for access from telephones or tablets.

There are some minor bugs which will be resolved in upcoming updates.