Comparing Collaboration Tools

Overview

The University of Alaska provides a number of collaboration services to the university community. Students, staff, and faculty can take advantage of one, some, or all of these tools. If you are not sure which one to choose for a specific task, please review the feature comparison chart below.

Please note: While many of these services offer similar features and capabilities, none of them are a 100% replacement for the other. When deciding which collaboration tool to use, consider your needs for that specific type of event/meeting, and/or group and then select the most applicable one, be aware that the tool you select may change over time as the needs change.

Feature Comparison Chart

  Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Microsoft Teams Zoom Microsoft Skype for Business Google Hangouts Chat Google Hangouts Meet
Number of Participants

250

5,000* in a team; 250 2-way meeting participants

* Starting at the end of April '20 and expected to be completed by the end of May '20, Microsoft will be increasing this limit to 10,000

300, 2-way Participants  250, 2-way Participants  8,000  50
Individual Meetings/Groups Yes Yes Yes Yes   Yes Yes 
Breakout Sessions Yes  No Yes  No No No
Phone Conf. Bridge Included Yes Available to UA Employees, contact UAA Tech. Support Center for assistance.
Toll-fees apply.
Yes, toll-fees apply Yes, contact UAA Tech. Support Center to verify your account No Yes, toll-fees apply

Quick, Easy Instant Messaging

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

File Transfer via Chat Window

No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Screen Sharing

Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes

Whiteboarding

Yes  Yes Yes No No No

Audio/Video Calls

Yes Yes Yes Yes No, Launches Google Hangouts Meet Yes

Record Meeting

Yes Yes Yes Yes No No

Virtually Raise your Hand

Yes

 Yes*

* Rolling out mid-April '20

Yes No   No

Collaborative Tools

Yes Yes; Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Online Yes; annotation and co-annotation No Yes; Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides No

Chat with Event Attendees

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Supports Live Events/Webinar

Yes; 500 attendees Yes; 10,000 attendees; duration of event 4 hours No Yes; 10,000 attendees No No

File Storage

Yes Yes, Up to 25 TB per team No No Yes Yes

Live Automatic Captioning

No

Yes*

* Preview feature available in English (US) only

 No    N/A  Yes

Security Documentation

    Securing Your Zoom Meetings      

 

Need additional help or have issues

For additional assistance contact the IT Services Technical Support Center via phone at (907) 786-4646, toll-free at (877) 633-3888, or email at uaa.techsupport@alaska.edu.