Anthology Introduces AI-Enabled Course Building and Student Success Features in Blackboard Learn

• By Kate Lucariello
• 07/25/23

At its annual Anthology Together 2023 conference, Anthology introduced new features and products in Blackboard Learn, along with two new Intelligent Experiences. The company also announced it has adopted Microsoft's Azure Open AI to power its spectrum of higher education ed tech solutions.

New Blackboard Learn offerings include:

• Course-Building Tools use artificial intelligence to suggest a possible course structure, generate images, suggest test questions and grading rubrics, and more, aligned with desired learning outcomes.
• Accessibility Checker, powered by Anthology Ally, examines and flags educators on course content with accessibility issues. They can correct issues such as missing alternative text for images, the company said.
• Holistic Student Overview shows a learner's performance overall and insight into how the student functions through their education journey.
• Progress Tracking gives a detailed insight into how a learner is performing and progressing in a course. Coupled with Holistic Student Overview, instructors can reach out to offer informed help when needed.

"While other vendors might be looking at AI within a point solution, Anthology is assessing the power of generative AI technology across our vast stack of EdTech solutions," said JD White, chief product officer at Anthology. "By thoughtfully integrating AI into our ecosystem, we can harness its power to foster innovation. The collaboration with Microsoft ensures these solutions are scalable, secure, and seamlessly integrated into existing educational ecosystems, making them easily accessible to institutions worldwide."

The AI tools for Blackboard Learn Ultra clients will be tested in August and are planned for production in September, the company said. All Learn clients will be able to make them available. Available now to Learn Ultra institutions worldwide are Accessibility Checker powered by Anthology Ally, Progress Tracking, and Holistic Student Overview.

Anthology also announced two new Intelligent Experiences (iX), which help learners choose and use courses to enhance skills needed in their careers and to give advisors, who typically deal with hundreds of students, data for tracking progress to help them.

These two new iXs will provide "alignment of data across historically siloed systems to deliver personalized and actionable insight to learners and instructors," Anthology said. The iXs will:

• Create data flow between Anthology Occupation Insight, Anthology Milestone, and Anthology Student; and
• Connect Blackboard Learn's Progress Tracking data and the advising module inside Anthology's CRM and lifecycle engagement tool, Anthology Reach.

The Anthology Occupation Insight, Anthology Milestone and Anthology Student iX is available now, and the Blackboard Learn and Anthology Reach iX is planned for Fall 2023, the company said. Anthology will continue to incorporate new iXs into the system and give institutions a platform for analyzing their integrated data set.

Visit the Anthology website for more information.