Orlando, Florida – Anthology, the leading education technology company, unveiled the latest version of its learning management system (LMS), Blackboard, at Anthology Together 2024. Formerly known as Blackboard Learn, the flagship LMS was recognized for outperforming the competition in feature development for the third consecutive year. This release focuses on improving ai literacy, enhancing instructor workflows, and supporting student performance. Innovations like ai Conversations, Content Designer, and Video Studio demonstrate Anthology’s commitment to advancing education through technology by integrating tools that address the evolving needs of academic institutions.
“The impact of ai, the enrollment crisis, student retention, rising costs, changing student expectations – I can’t remember a time when higher education has faced so many unprecedented challenges,” said Nicolaas Matthijs, Chief Product Officer at Anthology. “Our rapid product improvements and commitment to working closely with our customers reflect our dedication to helping higher education not only overcome these obstacles, but thrive in this dynamic environment.”
Leading the way in ai literacy
Following the success of its ai-enabled instructional design tool, Blackboard ai Design Assistant, Anthology announced the availability of its student-focused ai literacy tool. Students are expected to use generative ai technologies in the workplace and it is important that they have the opportunity to experience them and understand their strengths and weaknesses.
ai Conversations is a new type of activity on Blackboard to boost ai literacy and deepen student engagement. Through the tool, students can have a conversation with an ai character on a specific topic. It is a unique way to expose students to generative ai in a responsible and pedagogically sound way, while maintaining instructor oversight. The instructor can review the interaction and assess their students’ critical thinking while offering a novel and engaging means of assessment.
Powered by Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service, ai Conversations sets a new standard in ai literacy that is not available in any other LMS. ai Conversations will be a core feature included in every Blackboard license. All ai-enabled capabilities in Anthology solutions are developed using the ai-approach”>Anthology's Trusted ai Approach.
Deepen student engagement and enhance instructor efficiency
Customer engagement and co-design are key components of Anthology’s product development process. Anthology’s customer community actively contributed to all of the value-added features announced at Anthology Together:
- Blackboard Content Designer. To enable instructors to create more engaging learning experiences, the Content Designer enables the creation of fast, easy, and interactive content that is mobile-friendly and accessible. In keeping with Anthology’s mission to deliver innovation that is simple and intelligent, the Content Designer is a core feature of the latest version of Blackboard included with every license.
- Blackboard Video Studio. To create an even more engaging, multimodal student experience, Anthology also launched Video Studio. Powered by amazon Web Services (AWS), Video Studio enables instructors to quickly and easily add video and audio content to their courses, with automatic captions and flexible playback for use in low-bandwidth areas, to provide a more engaging and accessible multimedia experience for students.
- Blackboard Mastery Learning. Blackboard’s enhanced Mastery Learning features allow instructors to design programs that fit each student’s individual needs. This personalized approach deepens student engagement and significantly improves learning outcomes, ensuring that students progress and master course content as they go.
- The new grade book Master's view allows instructors to easily identify learning gaps at both the course and individual student level. This clear, visual representation of student progress allows instructors to adjust their teaching strategies as needed. Students also benefit from the mastery view by gaining a comprehensive understanding and overview of how their course assignments contribute to their overall learning outcomes.
- The new Achievements Blackboard's Achievements feature celebrates student accomplishments. With Achievements, instructors can create badges for students to earn based on specific performance criteria. Credential It is vital to student learning as it aligns with changing student expectations and provides visual recognition of achievement and skill mastery.
- Students can demonstrate their experience throughout their lives. Study of achievements Account. They can showcase their skills and badges, including evidence of their learning, and embed them on social platforms and portfolios.
Experience the industry's most modern learning management system with a free trial at www.anthology.com/try.
About Anthology
Anthology delivers educational and technology solutions to empower students to reach their full potential and educational institutions to thrive. Millions of students around the world are supported throughout their educational journey through Anthology’s ecosystem of flagship SaaS solutions and support services, including the award-winning Blackboard® (LMS), Anthology® Student (SIS/ERP), and Anthology® Reach (CRM). Through the Power of Together, we uniquely inspire educators and institutions with meaningful, simple, and intelligent innovation to help customers redefine what’s possible and create life-changing opportunities for people everywhere. www.antology.com.
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