Claims 2-7 are just messages sent to a particular group.
Claim 8 refers to a "dropbox" file which, certainly in the UK, as a trademark wouldn't be allowed as it's inherently unclear.
Many of the claims are distinct only in non-technical details, eg the name attached to a specific role or the textual contents of a file. Such claims don't define the invention.
This strikes me as a very poor quality set of claims.
The clumsy wording of claim 39 "An method for providing online education method for a community of users in a network based system comprising the steps of:" suggests that no one at the USPTO read it.
As a B1 this is supposedly the patent "as granted".
Just wow....
Competitors are not protected by this pledge.
It was this patent which BlackBoard used to try to shut down a competitor named Desire2Learn in 2006. The invalidation forced Blackboard to retreat, and they've since been much quieter on the legal front.
> I wonder how some product that is so loathed by clearly
> a number of people, manages to stay in the market.
Recently a system called Canvas is being used over Blackboard but it seems that it's only marginally better...sadly.