Best Blackboard Alternatives for Schools or Education Institutes

Blackboard Alternatives

If you’re a teacher or an education business owner, you know that running an education institute successfully requires an efficient course delivery and institute management platform.

Whether it’s mobile learning, virtual classroom tools, leads management, you need to have enough functionalities provided by the platform to ensure successful learning outcomes.

That’s where a tool like Blackboard comes in.

And while Blackboard is decent Edtech software with advanced student learning tools, it offers limited functionality when it comes to managing other aspects of an education business like staff management, CRM, franchise management and branded mobile apps.

If you’re tired of having to jump through hoops to manage these aspects of your business successfully, we’ve got the #1 free alternative ( Calimatic) waiting for you.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Blackboard and its alternatives to help you decide which one is a good fit for you.

Blackboard is an excellent cloud-based learning platform designed for businesses, schools, and academic institutes. It comes with an intuitive UI and incredible features such as advanced reporting, mobile learning option, virtual classrooms tools, etc. These features all combined make the overall learning experience better.

But the Blackboard is not just the LMS on the market. With the boom of the e-learning market, many platforms have set their foot to challenge Blackboard. We will discuss the best blackboard alternatives so that you can choose the best for your business. Each option in our list works for both educational institutes or schools.

Blackboard Competitors

Below are the top blackboard alternatives for 2021:

1. Calimatic

Calimatic, an edtech software is a top competitor of Blackboard that strives hard to create an ideal learning experience for users. It’s more than just learning software. It’s a one-stop solution built for Universities, Learning Centres, Schools, Online Tutoring businesses, Learning Centers, and Academies.

What sets Calimatic apart from other products is that it provides flexibility and blends a bundle of modules such as CRM, LMS, Institute Management, and Franchise Management. As a result, it helps the users get interactive features in one place and maximize their learning outcomes.

Other incredible features of this fully functional LMS software include blended learning, gamification, mobile learning, video conferencing, and much more. Calimatic also has a dedicated app for Android and iPhone users for learning on the go. In addition, it provides integration with Google Hangouts and Zoom.

2. Canvas

Canvas is the best open-source learning management system excellent for K-12 schools and higher education universities. Its innovative tool known as Arc makes educational videos cooperative.

This LMS also has other features such as gamification, collaborative learning, course creation tools to improve the overall learning experience. Its biggest benefit is that it comes pre-loaded with tons of pre-installed tools such as media reporting, Google docs, etc. This learning system also comes equipped with a Canvas network that allows MOOC capabilities.

Setting up Canvas is also very easy. Like Blackboard, the platform charges a one-time fee and a yearly subscription. The exact rate depends on the training, size, and support needs of an educational institute or school.

3. Moodle

If you want more learning management customization than what Blackboard Learn provides, using Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is a great choice.

It’s another famous and free open-source learning management software for sites and online courses. Moodle platform is based on a modular design that allows admins and teachers to formulate their own curriculum via activities, workflows, and plug-ins.

Users have the freedom to create a Moodle account in the cloud or on their servers. There is also a Moodle mobile app, which is accessible for both students and teachers.

Although Moodle was initially intended for schools, it’s ideal for non-profit organizations, professional educational systems, and corporate governments. In addition, many customers who look for blackboard alternatives find Moodle easy to use. Besides this, its clear layout is based on numerous social media sites.

4. Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a powerful all-in-one platform for learning and teaching. It’s free and very easy to use. It uses Google’s own set of tools such as slides, sheets, and documents for quick content sharing and to make student work evaluation simpler.

It also works with many other third-party services and apps to make digital education much more accessible, cost-effective and simple for admins, teachers, students, and guardians.

This Google-based system might not be a complete LMS, but it does meet LTI standards so that the platform can be used with other learning management systems as an add-on.

5. Sakai

Sakai is an open-source LMS system for schools, universities, non-profit organizations, and colleges that handles quizzes, calendars, tests, announcements, and assignments. It provides a feature-rich atmosphere to promote learning, training, and other forms of education.

This product has also won awards for emotional footprint, innovation, customer experience, and all-around excellence. It has an extensive API that facilitates integration with many third-party applications like GitHub, Google apps, Adobe Connect, LAMS, Turning Technologies, and many more. The biggest benefit is that the platform is evolving continually in synergy with the demands of community members.

6. SAP Litmos

Are you finding the most flexible cloud-based user-focused LMS solution that offers highly advanced learning to schools, universities, and large-scale organizations? SAP Litmos is a great option.

Being one of the great blackboard alternatives, it provides intuitive features focused on simplifying time-consuming activities related to training and enhances learners’ experience. It includes gamification, virtual classes, web conferencing tools, and many more.

So, regardless of what your business provides, this versatile software allows you to explain with video-based training and informative courses to help your customers understand new features, business cases, and products well. SAP Litmos also supports integrations with Google+, OKTA, Shopify, GoToTraining, etc.

7. Edmodo

Edmodo is an incredible cloud-based LMS that strengthens classroom learning with social learning. It is great for educational institutes and schools. It allows teachers to connect with students and their parents hassle-free. Teachers distribute assignments and homework, build academic groups, track performance, and schedule online tests.

This learning management application also provides excellent collaborative tools for students to help them communicate, post questions, and do polls. The most prominent feature of Edmodo is Stream, which looks the same as the activity feed of Facebook.

Even parents can sign up for free to track their kid’s performance in real-time. Edmodo software integrates with the most famous K-12 School Management systems like Classlink, OneRoster, Clever, and Microsoft SDS. It also provides seamless integration with Google and Microsoft.

Summing Up

If you’re not fully satisfied with the Blackboard LMS system currently, this is the right time to consider our listed Blackboard alternatives.

Although our alternatives are good for empowering your team and enriching their learning experience, we suggest choosing an EdTech Software called Calimatic. It’s because the platform has the right combination of features that can help you take your educational institute or school to the next level in no time.

Get a Live Custom Demo to learn more about Calimatic EdTech!