Despite a recent upgrade, students and professors continue to experience glitches by Phaimie Jean Jacques
With technology constantly improving, why is Blackboard still having so much issues? CCNY students all over campus are wondering why the recent upgrade hasn’t made the system better. New and improved Blackboard is complicated and not better.
Stanislav Lyubarskiy, a student majoring in Political Science, feels that just about every student has experienced some kind of setback with blackboard. “Of course I’ve had problems with blackboard, who hasn’t,” says Lyubarskiy. “I’ve had problems with professors posting things, such as readings and not being able to open them.”
Lyubarskiy adds: “Other students had the same problem but the professor didn’t know and in some instances, the professor posted it but it would not show up; He could see it but we could not. So because of this, we couldn’t get our readings done.”
Blackboard can be very important when it comes to lecture classes of around 200 or more students. With that being said, it is relevant for the students to avoid getting behind in class, and to do that they need full access of the site.
Blackboard has become so troublesome that even professors who are taught to manage it, find themselves asking for help. It is more common now for professors to avoid Blackboard altogether because of its difficulties.
“Last semester was the worst,” says Rachael Bibi, a statistics professor. “I stopped using Blackboard for a while because it was giving me so much trouble. The only thing I had on it was the syllabus.”
Shan Cheema, a senior majoring in biology, is one of the few students who have not experienced difficulties with Blackboard since her enrollment. “I have been using Blackboard since my first year of college and I actually find it helpful,” she says. “It’s always helpful to have the course documents online rather than the professors printing them out and students carrying some extra weight with them.”
Jose Nunez, a worker in the Tech Center says he’s noticed the problems. “Since Blackboard has been upgraded we’ve been getting more visits from students,” he says. “There’s a lot more students now because there are more features.”
