Blackboard Innovation Announcements for All Users: Reflections from a Week of Magic in Orlando
Published
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’m guessing you’re clear on the first two (and, yes, number one is a real quote!) though perhaps finding the last one trickier. The words belong to Walt; however, it’s a spirit that Nicolaas and his team brought to the stage last week at Anthology Together ’24—held alongside Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida—where we have unveiled a series of market-leading innovations.
Curious to know more? Here’s a snapshot of the major Blackboard® announcements made at AT24.
Making great courses has never been easier or more efficient
At last year’s Anthology Together we announced the release of the AI Design Assistant, making Blackboard the first major LMS to leverage generative AI to inspire instructors’ course, assessment, and rubric creation. It has since powered 400,000+ education tasks across more than 530 institutions, with instructors from all corners of our global network reporting increased efficiency.
We’re expanding our use of AI in this area, headlined by AI Suggested Alternative Text. Powered by Anthology® Ally and Microsoft Azure AI Vision Studio, this provides automated suggestions for image descriptions as instructors are building content, improving the accessibility of their output. As with our existing AI features—and in line with our Trustworthy AI Approach—the instructor maintains full control to review, edit, and ultimately approve all suggestions.
The Blackboard Content Designer provides more advanced document layouts for a richer and more accessible content experience. This includes new premium Video capabilities*, which allow instructors to record their screens and quickly create high quality video content to add directly to their courses. Existing clients can access this functionality at no extra cost until the end of June 2025, and videos created with or uploaded into Video Studio do not count towards your Blackboard storage entitlement.
Adding a screen recording to a course using new premium Video Studio capabilities in Blackboard (Click to view GIF)
Blackboard supports unique learning paths for every student
Furthering our leadership in the innovative use of generative AI, at AT24 we launched the AI Conversation Tool. This allows instructors to define a topic and an AI persona for the student to debate. At the activity's end, the student is prompted to reflect on the quality and validity of the responses provided by the AI persona. Pedagogically sound, this method of leveraging AI enables instructors to assess their student’s critical thinking while offering a novel and engaging means of assessment.
Blackboard is also advancing Mastery Learning capabilities to improve student flexibility and empowerment. By offering instructors expanded release conditions and increased insight into any comprehension gaps, students will enjoy learning experiences where they can progress at their own speed and in line with the knowledge they’ve attained. We have also announced a new partnership with Obrizum, to introduce AI-powered, adaptive learning capabilities to Blackboard, including the use of virtual reality (VR) content for courses and assessments. We’d love you to join our Adaptive Learning Advisory Council if this area is of interest.
This is taken a step further still by the addition of Badging and Micro-credentials via a deep integration with Anthology® Milestone. This allows unique learning paths to be not only administered but incentivized and recorded, with ongoing recognition for the competencies that learners are achieving. The Blackboard Achievement Studio provides a concise and easily accessed reference for all credentials attained.
A student has an interactive conversation with an instructor-designed persona using the new AI Conversation tool in Blackboard (Click to view GIF)
Added insights to aid institutional effectiveness
The new AI Design Assistant Reporting Dashboard, available to all Blackboard customers at no extra cost via Anthology® Illuminate, provides insights on which AI Design Assistant tools are being used the most, how they’re being used across the institution, and where opportunities to optimize usage exist. This complements Anthology Adopt powered by Pendo, our tailored tool to understand Blackboard usage and feature adoption, and at AT24 we’ve heard from institutions such as the University of Leeds on how Adopt has helped them to streamline the learning experience.
Lastly, institutions have been particularly excited about the enhanced integration between Blackboard and Anthology® Reach, our leading CRM solution. The LMS Trends Report takes crucial insights on academic performance and engagement from Blackboard and feeds them directly into the CRM, allowing advisors to immediately intervene when students are having difficulties.
New AI Design Assistant Reporting Dashboard, via Anthology Illuminate
Ready to open new doors with the LMS that provides innovation for all users? Access a FREE, 30-day trial of Blackboard today!
* Update 7/30: Video Studio has been delayed until the September Blackboard release to allow for additional testing prior to pushing into staging and production environments.
Ben Burrett
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Anthology
- “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, opening new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
I’m guessing you’re clear on the first two (and, yes, number one is a real quote!) though perhaps finding the last one trickier. The words belong to Walt; however, it’s a spirit that Nicolaas and his team brought to the stage last week at Anthology Together ’24—held alongside Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida—where we have unveiled a series of market-leading innovations.
Curious to know more? Here’s a snapshot of the major Blackboard® announcements made at AT24.
Making great courses has never been easier or more efficient
At last year’s Anthology Together we announced the release of the AI Design Assistant, making Blackboard the first major LMS to leverage generative AI to inspire instructors’ course, assessment, and rubric creation. It has since powered 400,000+ education tasks across more than 530 institutions, with instructors from all corners of our global network reporting increased efficiency.
We’re expanding our use of AI in this area, headlined by AI Suggested Alternative Text. Powered by Anthology® Ally and Microsoft Azure AI Vision Studio, this provides automated suggestions for image descriptions as instructors are building content, improving the accessibility of their output. As with our existing AI features—and in line with our Trustworthy AI Approach—the instructor maintains full control to review, edit, and ultimately approve all suggestions.
The Blackboard Content Designer provides more advanced document layouts for a richer and more accessible content experience. This includes new premium Video capabilities*, which allow instructors to record their screens and quickly create high quality video content to add directly to their courses. Existing clients can access this functionality at no extra cost until the end of June 2025, and videos created with or uploaded into Video Studio do not count towards your Blackboard storage entitlement.
Adding a screen recording to a course using new premium Video Studio capabilities in Blackboard (Click to view GIF)
Blackboard supports unique learning paths for every student
Furthering our leadership in the innovative use of generative AI, at AT24 we launched the AI Conversation Tool. This allows instructors to define a topic and an AI persona for the student to debate. At the activity's end, the student is prompted to reflect on the quality and validity of the responses provided by the AI persona. Pedagogically sound, this method of leveraging AI enables instructors to assess their student’s critical thinking while offering a novel and engaging means of assessment.
Blackboard is also advancing Mastery Learning capabilities to improve student flexibility and empowerment. By offering instructors expanded release conditions and increased insight into any comprehension gaps, students will enjoy learning experiences where they can progress at their own speed and in line with the knowledge they’ve attained. We have also announced a new partnership with Obrizum, to introduce AI-powered, adaptive learning capabilities to Blackboard, including the use of virtual reality (VR) content for courses and assessments. We’d love you to join our Adaptive Learning Advisory Council if this area is of interest.
This is taken a step further still by the addition of Badging and Micro-credentials via a deep integration with Anthology® Milestone. This allows unique learning paths to be not only administered but incentivized and recorded, with ongoing recognition for the competencies that learners are achieving. The Blackboard Achievement Studio provides a concise and easily accessed reference for all credentials attained.
A student has an interactive conversation with an instructor-designed persona using the new AI Conversation tool in Blackboard (Click to view GIF)
Added insights to aid institutional effectiveness
The new AI Design Assistant Reporting Dashboard, available to all Blackboard customers at no extra cost via Anthology® Illuminate, provides insights on which AI Design Assistant tools are being used the most, how they’re being used across the institution, and where opportunities to optimize usage exist. This complements Anthology Adopt powered by Pendo, our tailored tool to understand Blackboard usage and feature adoption, and at AT24 we’ve heard from institutions such as the University of Leeds on how Adopt has helped them to streamline the learning experience.
Lastly, institutions have been particularly excited about the enhanced integration between Blackboard and Anthology® Reach, our leading CRM solution. The LMS Trends Report takes crucial insights on academic performance and engagement from Blackboard and feeds them directly into the CRM, allowing advisors to immediately intervene when students are having difficulties.
New AI Design Assistant Reporting Dashboard, via Anthology Illuminate
Ready to open new doors with the LMS that provides innovation for all users? Access a FREE, 30-day trial of Blackboard today!
* Update 7/30: Video Studio has been delayed until the September Blackboard release to allow for additional testing prior to pushing into staging and production environments.
Ben Burrett
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Anthology
Blog Product News
07/24/2024 5:28pm EDT
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