Blackboard offers a number of built-in tools as well as partner extensions to help faculty and students collaborate both asynchronously and synchronously.
Direct Communication
Send Email
Send email messages to all students or select students. Students receive these messages in their university email account inbox.
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Course Messages are similar to email but all communication remains within the course. Course Messages are useful for when interactions between students or between students and faculty are part of the graded academic experience, such as weekly check-ins with an adviser.
Asynchronous Collaboration Tools
Discussion Board
Video Discussions offer a more personal way to engage with your students asynchronously
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VoiceThread is a 3rd party learning tool for enhancing student engagement and online presence. With VoiceThread, that allows instructors and students can to create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs.
Synchronous Collaboration Tools
Collaborate Ultra
Collaborate Ultra by Blackboard is a web conferencing system fully integrated with Blackboard Learn. It’s a great way to take your synchronous course sessions online. Sessions can also be recorded so that students who were unable to participate can watch them later.