Table of Contents

Blackboard Collaborate is the “Ultra Experience”

If you've seen one tool, you've seen them all, right? We were surprised to learn that Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is a little different. If you're using it, we'd love to hear your experience.
Blackboard Collaborate Ultra cover

We know that many trainers have to work with the tools that they are given, which often includes the platforms you are allowed to use to deliver virtual training. If you are a trainer who gets to train using Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Experience do a big happy dance!

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Experience blew us away with its usability and features. So much so, that we’re adding it as a Soapbox compatible platform! Take a look at a few of the factors that make Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Experience live up to its name:

Superior File Sharing

5

Do you run recurring trainings? Do multiple trainers teach the same class? With Blackboard Collaborate you can upload your handouts and even your PowerPoint to your session and it will stay until it is deleted. With this functionailty, you don’t need to spend time prepping your platform prior to sessions you run often. Additionally, if a trainer has internet issues and drops off a call, a Producer can easily pick up and continue the session. With the PowerPoint and all handouts pre-loaded, there is no disruption in the learning process and Participants might not even notice that something has gone wrong behind the scenes!

Share Files to and From Breakout Groups

This is the feature we didn’t know we were missing. Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Experience allows you to not only share files into one or more breakout groups, but also to save and share collaborative files created within breakout groups back to the main room for future use! The possibilities here for engaging training are endless. No more asking people to work in breakout groups as scribes or save documents for use in breakout groups to their own devices. All documents going in and out of breakout groups can be done within the platform. Now that I’ve seen this feature, I feel like I can’t live without it!

3

Lock Everything Down or Open Everything Up

2

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra gives you complete control over Participant access to features. It seems so logical, and yet we don’t see it often. When we do have access to these controls, they are often hard to find (or only accessable to an Administrator). Blackboard Collaborate Ultra allows a session Moderator to decide on an easily accessible panel if they would like Participants to be able to share video, audio, access annotations, chat, or file share. If you were running a session with hundreds of Participants, you would probably want to lock down many of these features. Likewise, if you are leading a highly engaging, interactive session, you would likely want to open up these features to all. As a trainer who is often spending WAY too much time trying to figure out how to enable or disable virtual tools for training, this feature made me do my own happy dance.

Captioner Role

One thing we don’t talk about enough in the virtual training world is how to support learners who are visually impared or have hearing loss. Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Experience has built in easily accessible features to support these learners. A Moderator can assign one or even multiple people (they can even assign multiple people to transcribe in different languages) to a Captioner role. A Captioner can easily transcribe right through their main learner interface without distracting or taking away from their own learning. Additionally, Participants who find captions unnecessary can easily turn them off. I love this feature!

4
Blackboard Collaborate Trainer's Guide

Want to learn more about Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Experience? Download our free Trainer’s Guide to Blackboard Collaborate Ultra.

If you’re looking to expand your skills with a different training platform, check out one of our other Trainer’s Guides.

Instructor-Led Training Resources

These are some of our favorite resources to support everyone involved with instructor-led training.

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

The Role of Co-facilitators

Co-facilitators play an important role in a training workshop. The most obvious benefit is that when you co-facilitate, you get a break from leading the

18 Instructor-led Training Activities

Engaging, intentional, face-to-face and virtual instructor-led training activities can make the difference between a session that helps learners to apply new skills or knowledge and one that falls flat.

Articles Similar to Blackboard Collaborate is the “Ultra Experience”

facilitator competency rubric
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

instructor becomes the pupil with kassy laborie and zovig garboushian
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Turning the Tables: From Trainer to Student

As people who have designed and delivered effective training, Kassy Laborie and Zovig Garboushian know a thing or two about good learning experiences. So what nuggets have they gleaned from a 9-month course that they’re both attending, and that all of us should consider when designing our own programs? Today’s podcast answers that question.

John Crook on role play
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Is this the world’s most effective role play?

When it comes to your training participants, two of the dirtiest, or perhaps scariest, words you can say during a session may be: role play. In today’s podcast, John Crook, Head of Learning at Intersol Global, offers some thoughts on how to make role plays more authentic and robust.

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

Find Your L&D Career Path

Explore the range of careers to understand what role might be a good fit for your L&D career.

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.