Product News

At Anthology, the countdown to 2025 is underway! A new year of innovation and excitement awaits, but we can’t close out the year-end without a quick look back at some of our biggest innovations, integrations and industry recognitions in 2024. We couldn’t have done it without you – our valued customers. Your contributions to the idea exchange, office ...

At Anthology, we believe that accessibility is essential for creating inclusive, effective educational experiences for all. As part of our ongoing commitment to build and design Student Systems to meet the needs of a diverse range of users, we’ve are proud to highlight some of our recent accessibility improvements in Anthology Student: Improved ...

On December 6, 2024 , we rolled out an important update to the Blackboard app with the release of version 9.11. This update addresses frequent logout issues, ensuring a smoother and more reliable user experience. Key Details: Release Date: December 6, 2024 App Version: 9.11 It’s important to note, however, that session durations are set by your ...

As the demand for coding skills continues to grow across disciplines, effective coding education has become increasingly vital. Once primarily the domain of computer science, coding is now essential in fields such as statistics, data science, and engineering, making it an integral part of modern curricula. CodeGrade, a plugin available for ...

It’s been two months since Anthology Together 2024, our can’t-miss annual user conference and networking and learning event for higher education professionals. We couldn’t be more excited about the range of announcements made at the conference that demonstrate the way Anthology is revolutionizing higher education with innovation and how we’re ...

Institutions worldwide are constantly looking to increase student success and drive the best possible outcomes for their learners. More inclusive learning environments contribute to this goal in a big way by empowering all students to access digital content in a way that works best for them. To support education institutions in their efforts ...

Last week, at Anthology Together 24 (AT24), we uncovered the most exciting solution highlights, showcased cutting-edge technologies, and explored industry trends and groundbreaking features that are set to shape the future. Let’s dive into the top picks and discover what Anthology is delivering to spark new possibilities and redefine the ...

Great things happened in the hottest place to be this summer – Anthology Together, not Orlando – where higher education professionals saw the magic of what’s possible to transform enrollment, student support, and institutional advancement with human personalization at scale. Anthology Together is over, but the announcements made at the ...

We just wrapped up Anthology Together 2024 (AT24) in Orlando, and we’re very excited to let you know about some of the exciting innovations coming to Anthology® Student over the upcoming months. Whether you’re traveling home from the event, are hard at work supporting summer programming, or are taking a moment to relax before fall term comes around, ...

Alright, good people of higher education, let’s play a game. Who said it: Walt Disney or Nicolaas Matthijs, chief product officer at Anthology? Try your luck with these three quotes: “I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known.” “Blackboard is the best learning management system available on the market.” “We keep moving forward, ...

To help institutions better understand AI Alternative Text Assistant, Anthology® Ally’s latest feature, we have compiled a list of 12 frequently asked questions (FAQs). Answers to these FAQs aim to provide more details about AI Alternative Text Assistant and things to consider when using the feature.   1. What is AI Alt Text Assistant and how ...

Images without descriptions are one of the most common accessibility issues that we see today when looking at online course content. In fact, in the US alone, we’ve found that upwards of one-third of all images identified by Anthology® Ally are fixed by setting the image as decorative without writing an image description. Not only is this a challenge ...

At this point, you have probably heard about Anthology Together 2024 (AT24), our annual user conference and networking and learning event for higher education professionals. We couldn’t be more excited that this year’s event is just around the corner, marking the convergence of education and technology to unlock exciting new opportunities. This ...

As part of our ongoing commitment to academic integrity and powerful integrations in Blackboard® Learn Ultra , we’re delighted to announce the launch of a native integration with Turnitin™ for Learn Ultra assignments. Turnitin compares student work against the world’s largest internet, academic, and student paper content database, providing a ...

Blackboard® Learn’s native integrations with Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive bring a series of benefits for our partners. When instructors and students access their preferred drive to add documents to the LMS as opposed to uploading as an attachment, the institution saves on Learn storage costs while the user enjoys a more streamlined, ...

Timely support has become paramount to help students navigate the myriad academic challenges they face today. The journey of a student through a semester is marked by various stages, each presenting unique opportunities for support. Recognizing the pivotal moments of truth throughout the academic term is key to providing effective guidance and ...

Anthology, a leading provider of educational technology solutions, is excited to announce a change in its software release strategy. We wanted to share an upcoming release change for SIS+ERP, beginning with the release 24.3, targeted for the end of May 2024, Anthology will consolidate three individual releases—Regulatory, Financial Aid ...

Anthology® Illuminate reaches a significant milestone as we release new capabilities that will enable secure, democratized access to reporting for all clients .

Every year G2, the largest and most trusted software marketplace, helps millions of businesses make better purchasing decisions. Beyond offering thousands of peer reviews, G2 also publishes quarterly reports, giving companies an unbiased picture of the best technology solutions on the market. We are excited to share that in G2’s newly released ...

At Anthology, we recognize the significance of inclusion and the importance of ensuring digital content is equally available to all. Our commitment to digital accessibility is to help institutions break down accessibility barriers and deliver the best inclusive learning experiences. Let’s celebrate together! With the purpose of raising ...

While we should assess our impact on our planet every day, Earth Day is the ideal time to do some self-reflection on our efforts of the past and ways we can protect our beautiful planet in the future. As the famous Native American proverb states   “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”  With our hearts and minds ...

Accessibility data is crucial for institutions looking to understand how creating more inclusive environments can positively impact student success. Reporting plays an important role in this understanding as administrators gather, analyze, and share valuable information about how certain areas are performing across the institution. ...

The journey towards higher education just got a bit more complicated for thousands of students across the United States. Last week, the  Department of Education  (DOE) revealed a significant calculation error in vendors’ systems, impacting several hundred thousand financial aid forms. The miscalculation resulted in many students receiving ...

Anthology continues to set the standard for the ethical and innovative use of AI in EdTech. The AI Design Assistant , powered by Microsoft and exclusive to Blackboard® Learn Ultra, recently added features to inspire authentic assessment tasks, with AI-generated suggestions now available for instructors when creating assignments, discussions, ...

As instructors at institutions worldwide create richer content experiences for students within the learning management system/virtual learning environment (LMS/VLE), it is more important than ever to ensure this content is created with accessibility and inclusivity in mind. However, it can still be challenging for those instructors to know ...

In the evolving landscape of higher education, managing faculty workloads is a key factor in ensuring academic excellence. As institutions continue to evolve, the demands on faculty members grow increasingly complex. Faculty Workload Management within Anthology® Student assists in centralizing and streamlining faculty processes, improving ...

At Anthology, we believe in keeping things simple so that educators can focus on what they do best—teaching. Our philosophy towards product development is all about creating experiences that fit into the natural workflow of creating and delivering a course without any unnecessary hurdles or headaches. To ensure we’re designing a product that ...

The FAFSA Simplification Act represents a significant overhaul of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid. In November 2023 the US Department of Education released new data showing that the new simplified forms will help 610,000 new students from low-income backgrounds receive Federal Pell Grants and will help 1.5 million more ...

At Anthology Together ‘23 in Nashville, we unveiled our vision for an early intervention tool for advisors, combining the power of Blackboard® Learn (LMS) and Anthology® Reach (CRM). As promised, Anthology continues to fulfill its mission of providing dynamic, data-informed experiences to the global education community with this new ...

Earlier this year, Blackboard® Learn Ultra became the first major LMS to extend generative AI capabilities to instructors to inspire course structure, test questions, and grading rubrics. The response from instructors across the world has been overwhelmingly positive, with suggestions from the  AI Design Assistant  informing more than 63,000 ...

During the last edition of Microsoft’s Ignite conference, CEO Satya Nadella said "We (Microsoft) are the Copilot company […] We believe in a future where there will be a Copilot for everyone and everything you do." The name Copilot – not Autopilot – is on its own a stroke of genius from Microsoft, which signals how cognizant the Dynamics 365 company is ...

Obtaining the most comprehensive and robust course evaluation data is extremely important for institutions in gaining a deeper understanding of learners, ultimately enhancing their overall learning experiences. To continue to foster learner participation and enhance the visibility of course evaluations, Anthology® Evaluate and ...

We’ve all had those days when we come across a challenge so big, so daunting, all there is to do is look around to your team and say, “Well, we’re all in this together.” Higher education is no stranger to these kinds of days. For all our sports rivalries and “best school” rankings, higher education as a whole is facing a lot of changes in coming years. Among ...

Student information system (SIS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions are the backbone of any higher education institution and play a critical role in the success of day-to-day operational excellence. As institutions look to expand their programs to meet the ever-changing needs of the learners around them, they need a modern, ...

Anyone who works in marketing knows how much effort is put into chasing success stories. We seek out client quotes, case studies, references, and more. It’s a huge investment, and it’s extremely rare that clients come to YOU. Well, not only did our Anthology® Engage clients come to us, they came with signs, cheering so loudly that passersby peeked in to ...

Step into a new era of higher education, leaving behind the days of data silos, fragmented sources, and laborious manual reporting. Welcome to the dawn of  Anthology® Illuminate —a revolutionary solution designed to transform how educational institutions leverage the wealth of data they collect. In today's data-centric landscape, where 80% of ...

Accessible content ensures inclusivity and meaningful engagement for diverse learners. But building more inclusive learning environments and breaking accessibility barriers is a daily challenge for institutions, especially when creating new course content. Inspired by our passion for innovation, the creation of accessible content in your ...

As announced at our annual  Anthology Together conference in July , Blackboard Learn Ultra is the first major LMS to provide generative AI features to inspire instructors’ course structures, tests, and rubrics. The  AI Design Assistant  is now live, and available to all Ultra institutions as part of their standard license. Among the six initial ...

We're excited to announce that we’re renaming our course evaluations product. Anthology® Course Evaluations (with Idea System) is now  Anthology® Evaluate . The evolution of the name reinforces our commitment to improving teaching and learning experiences, streamlining the course evaluation process to easily collect course feedback, and ...

It has been widely acknowledged that grading occupies a lot of instructors’ time. A  2022 study in Education Week  found that on average instructors spend five hours a week grading, as part of a schedule that is increasingly occupied by responsibilities outside of the classroom. A natural consequence is that instructors have less time to dedicate to ...