App Profile: Blackboard Instructor

physics TA

Rating: 3/5

I use this app to grade homework on my iPad. It makes it possible for me to have a similar workflow to pencil and paper grading, while avoiding the headaches of keeping track of a stack of papers, which I love. I find the overall experience to be decent, with a few frustrations. First, the app needs better Apple Pencil support with palm rejection, because I constantly find myself having to erase stray marks. Which brings me to number two, switching between the pen and eraser tool takes too long, there should be a designated eraser button, and also support for the Apple Pencil double tap to switch. Finally, it should be possible to change the default pen color and size (the default size is too large), or even save multiple defaults. It should also be noted that the app attempts to “smooth” pen strokes, but often this does more harm then good, because letter shapes tend to get bungled.

Ariel J. Transparentpseudonym

Rating: 1/5

There is a bug in the (otherwise okay) Blackboard web page such that I can't scroll in the grade center when viewing the web page on the iPad. Thus, I can't see the most recent homework assignment. So I am forced to use this awful app. Blackboard of course has no actual customer support, so I can't even file a bug report. I just want to be able to use the browser version! The app is almost completely useless. There is no way to batch download homework assignments. Apparently Blackboard thinks you should do your grading in their app, rather than using one of the (many, much better) dedicated drawing/PDF annotation apps available on the iPad. The grades page will only show you the grades for one assignment at a time. There is no way to see all grades for a single student, let alone a chart like the browser's grade center. It insists on showing grades in the order the assignment was uploaded. This is essentially a random order--I have to hunt and search if what I want is a particular student's grade. Please, please, please fix the bug in the browser version so that the grade center works on mobile devices, so I don't have to use this awful, awful app!

A-Lo from the block

Rating: 2/5

The interface could definitely be easier to use, particularly when trying to look at discussion boards… There’s no clear way to tell whether you have unread posts, the mechanism for going into replies is not intuitive, etc. From the course selection list, the app doesn’t allow you to look at your upcoming courses. While I was trying to design my summer course using the web interface, I was unable to use the app to see what the app experience would be like. That seems fairly ridiculous... to have to wait until my course is officially available to students to know what that course will look like on their mobile devices. There’s no mechanism to use voice or video from your phone to record anything for the class and post it. It’s wildly frustrating to be on the same device as the app record a video or a voice memo to my students, then have to download it to a computer to upload to my Blackboard class rather than just use the app that’s on the same device I’m recording with. Students should be able to do the same to make it as convenient as possible for them to engage with me and one another.