Our Digital Backbone

Student and teacher opinions on the effectiveness of Blackbaud

Kyle Berlage

Every school day, Bishopians are greeted with that same, familiar beige and maroon website, containing their assignments, schedule, grades, groups, and more. Blackbaud, also known as WhippleHill, is an essential part of the Bishop’s experience, and an even more essential one of the distance learning program. Blackbaud coordinates homework, grades, information, fundraising, attendance, and more. But with the increased use of Blackbaud, opinions have formed on itseffectiveness and usefulness at Bishop’s. Learning management systems (LMS) are more crucial than ever for student learning. How well does Blackbaud do the job?

The Blackbaud landing page is the place where Bishopians get information on homework, grades, conduct, and more.

Kyle Berlage ('22)

The Bishop’s IT department touts Blackbaud’s ability to mesh together many of the services Bishop’s administration and faculty need. “Blackbaud provides the school with an integrated system that encompasses learning management, student information system (i.e. grades, transcripts, attendance, etc.), enrollment management, fundraising, and business office functions,” said Senior Director of Educational Technology and Information Systems Mr. Anthony Trumbo. “So having this integrated data helps with data consistency issues across the school.” Learning Resource Specialist Ms. Stephanie Ramos added to this: “Blackbaud is a robust option for schools because it’s an expansive company with a number of coordinating programs and allows for a smooth integration of systems,” she explained. “When a school uses two different platforms for enrollment and learning, the transfer of information is cumbersome and often time-consuming.”

However, because of Blackbaud’s nature as an LMS integrated with other services, there are some limitations to its abilities. “There are always trade-offs with any system,” Mr. Trumbo said. “Often integrated systems like Blackbaud have to serve the needs of many groups and are not able to focus on just adding features to the LMS, they have to make sure these fit within the confines of the integrated system.” Academic Technology Coordinator Ms. Sara White added to the notion of these limitations., “Some faculty wish that [Blackbaud] could do more, which I understand,” she explained. “It’s hard to find the perfect tool that everyone will be happy with. Teachers would like more assessment options and more options with grading.”

And some teachers have certainly picked up on these deficits. Though she acknowledged the benefits of the system, Spanish teacher Dr. Marda Rose explained that she personally finds Blackbaud very limiting. “When I was working at different universities, I liked the systems I worked with more,” she said. World Languages teacher Mr. Ian Hayden furthered on this perspective. , “In my opinion, it’s not so much what Blackbaud does wrong as much as it is a problem with expecting a single platform to be able to do everything well, from course scheduling, to school communications, to assignments and grading,”he said. “I think this is likely an unrealistic expectation.”

Because of the issues with the Blackbaud platform, some teachers have taken to using other platforms in conjunction with Blackbaud to coordinate teaching. Dr. Rose, for example, has transitioned over to Google Classroom this year., “There are some features I really like,” she explained, “but I do have to post the same information in multiple locations, which is time-consuming.” Mr. Hayden said that while he does continue to use Blackbaud, the assignments he posts usually just direct people to his class information hub on Google Classroom. “[Google Classroom] is where I organize the course, post assignment details, and link out to all of the other tools I use, like Edpuzzle, Quizlet, and Memrise,” he said. “Google Classroom is better organized, more flexible, and simply better suited to this task than Blackbaud, which feels lethargic, clunky, and frustrating.”

Rather than Blackbaud having a lot of flaws, teachers need to work on making things more clear.

- Soyoon Park ('22)

As teachers use Blackbaud in different ways, some students have expressed confusion with how teachers use the platform. “I would say rather than Blackbaud having a lot of flaws, teachers need to work on making things more clear,” said Soyoon Park (‘22). Saavi Banerjee (‘22) said, “While Blackbaud offers many features, it is frustrating that teachers do not use the available options. I know that there are ways to link Turnitin or to submit Google files, yet teachers feel the need to use other programs for assignments. Some examples are Canvas or Google Classroom. When teachers use external websites, it is easier for students to miss work because they forget to check all sites.”

At Greenhill School, a comparable private school in Addison, Texas, they felt that the switch from Instructure Canvas (an alternative LMS) to Blackbaud was necessary. Victor Le, Science and Technology Editor for Greenhill’s school publication The Evergreen, said, “Although Canvas is a useful tool for managing assignments, its weakest feature is its compatibility with other crucial programs. Canvas fails to support Greenhill’s school management system (SMS), a program that manages Greenhill’s accounting, admissions, and parent-student records” Canvas’ inflexibility when it comes to reporting grades was also something that prompted the switch to Blackbaud.

Despite the complaints about Blackbaud’s inflexibility and the resulting confusion from using external software, many teachers agree that Blackbaud is the overall right choice for Bishop’s. “I think it’s hard to find something perfect that everyone will be happy with. For me, Blackbaud does what we need it to do as a Learning Management System,” Ms. White said. “There are other tools out there that can be used as supplemental tools for teachers that want to do something a little different, and that’s my job to help teachers find them and learn to use them.”

Blackbaud seems to be the digital backbone of Bishop’s, and even with its limitations, teachers have found ways to fully utilise online resources to teach their classes. Even with some limitations and student confusion over the integration of alternatives, it seems that Blackbaud provides a lot for Bishops and is here to stay.