Blackboard Collaborate is being discontinued at Western

Over the past several years, there has been a large increase in use of both Zoom and Microsoft Teams Meetings for web conferencing, while usage of Blackboard Collaborate has been steadily declining.  Zoom has become the preferred web conferencing and live classroom tool for most Western courses. MS Teams Meetings has grown significantly in capability and usage. This has resulted in Western having multiple viable enterprise-grade options for web conferencing for teaching and learning. 

As we look to the future, considering the decreased use of Collaborate, two viable alternatives (Zoom and Microsoft Teams Meetings) as well as the fact that Collaborate has not kept pace with its competitors in terms of feature set and usability, we are currently intending to discontinue the use of Collaborate as of this summer.

What you need to do:

• If you are no longer using Blackboard Collaborate and do not have any recordings that you would like to save, no further action is required.
• Provide feedback to eLearning-tech@uwo.ca if you have concerns about the discontinuation of Blackboard Collaborate.
• If you are still using Blackboard Collaborate, you will need to switch to Zoom or Microsoft Teams Meetings for your Spring/Summer courses. On April 23rd, Blackboard Collaborate will no longer be available to add to any new OWL sites.  You will still be able to access Blackboard Collaborate (including recordings) in any previous OWL sites until July 31st, 2021.
• If you have Blackboard Collaborate recordings that you would like to save, you will need to download these by July 31, 2021.  

Need Help or Have Feedback?

If you need any assistance with using Zoom or MS Teams Meetings or need help downloading your recordings, please contact the WTS Helpdesk. If you have questions or feedback about the discontinuation of Blackboard Collaborate, please email eLearning-tech@uwo.ca