Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: An Online, Interactive Teaching Tool

The last decade has seen a significant increase in the use of online, interactive teaching (Wdonik, 2014) in higher education. This correlates to the increased use of student-centred learning approaches used in higher education (Baeten, Dochy, Struyven, Parmentier, & Vanderbruggen, 2016) including in traditional lectures (Plush & Kehrwald, 2014). The utilisation of online teaching tools has had a significant impact on teaching (Hussein, 2016). These tools are an excellent way of promoting student satisfaction (Li & Pitts, 2009) and, in particular, Millennials’ or digital natives’ desire for interactivity (McCann, Schneiderman, & Hinton, 2010; Prensky, 2001). Management and business educators have also found that online interactive teaching tools have enhanced higher level thinking (Wdowik, 2014), communication and problem-solving competencies (Politis & Politis, 2016).