In all of our testing we have found that Google Chrome provides the best experience and is the most compatible with Blackboard and its associated tools. As such Chrome is our recommended browser.
On campus, Blackboard will automatically open in Chrome when selected from the desktop shortcuts box (towards the top right corner). At home, users can find more information and download links from the Google Chrome home page.
In this section:
Other Browsers
Whilst we recommend Chrome as the most compatible browser, we are aware that users may make use of other browsers either by default or by choice. Please be aware that using browsers other than Chrome may result in certain features of Blackboard not working correctly or not being available. This is often as a result of the browser not being updated to a current browser standard, as a result of a browser no longer being developed/supported by their creators, or being out of date.
Of the other major browsers available to users, we have found the following to be true through testing the latest version of each for their general compatibility with the Learning Platform Suite:
- Google Chrome – recommended browser, fully supported
- Firefox – generally well supported
- Edge – generally well supported
- Safari – generally well supported, can have issues with third-party cookies which result in Turnitin ‘hanging’ at the upload stage
- Internet Explorer - experience is poor, no longer being developed/supported by Microsoft
Note: if an issue cannot be resolved for a browser which is different to the recommended browser, support will advise using Google Chrome to resolve the issue.
Individual Tool Requirements
As a guide, the following web pages are published by the suppliers of each of our main tools and outline their minimum system requirements.
- Blackboard – supported browsers l browser checker l browser support policy
- Collaborate – Chrome support l browser support
- PebblePad – supported browsers l browser checker
- ReCap – system requirements (YuJa Software Capture)
- Turnitin – system requirements
Chrome Automatic Live Captioning
Google Chrome can provide users with automatic captions of videos that they watch, including Collaborate sessions. Google provide instructions on how to turn automatic captions on within their Chrome Help site, along with our short video below.