Quality Feedback to Learners in a Fraction of the Time: AVA is Now Live in Blackboard

# AVA

# AI

# Blackboard

# LMS

Ben Burrett

We’re delighted to announce the launch of AVA Assisted Feedback in Blackboard®, the first Anthology Virtual Assistant (AVA) feature to be added to the platform since the initiative was announced at Anthology Together in July. As of the September release, instructors now have access to new, AI-powered capabilities which streamline the time-intensive task of providing detailed feedback to every learner. The Summarize feature reviews information from the grading rubric and inline comments to provide a concise summary for the learner, while the Rewrite tool provides suggestions to instructors to help them perfectly articulate their feedback.

The addition of AVA Assisted Feedback further cements Blackboard’s place as the leading learning management system (LMS) for AI and instructor efficiency. While competitors lean heavily on integration partners to attempt to rush copycat features to market, we are producing innovative, native tools that are safe for use in education, designed specifically with pedagogy in mind, and are having a genuine impact at great institutions. The AI Design Assistant, which adds inspiration and efficiency to course and assessment creation, has now been used more than 2.2 million times by more than 790 global institutions, with 96% of instructors reporting time savings. Success stories detailing these time savings have been emerging from Leeds in the UK; Wichita, the Rio Grande Valley, and Valley Falls in the United States; Santiago in Chile; Lima in Peru; and everywhere in between.

And we’re just getting started. In the coming months we will be expanding AVA functionality in Blackboard to include AVA Responses, to provide faster answers to common learner inquiries; and AVA Playground, to promote AI literacy and equitable access to AI technologies. All these features have been designed in line with the Anthology Trustworthy AI Approach and ensure that the instructor remains the gatekeeper of the pedagogical process, with full power to review and edit all AI outputs in their courses. Other recent AI developments in Blackboard include design suggestions within the Blackboard Content Designer and additional inspiration for activities when using the AI Conversation tool.

Indeed, no stone is left unturned here at Anthology HQ as we explore every opportunity to make Blackboard the most efficient and effective LMS for instructors. As part of this commitment, we recently rolled out a detailed study conducted with more than 1000 instructors to understand factors driving the worrying trend of faculty burnout in higher education. We’ve distilled the results in our whitepaper, Addressing the Hidden Crisis: The Realities of Faculty Burnout and What Comes Next, along with actionable advice on how educational technology—when partnered with other initiatives—can provide better support for instructors, reduce the time for administrative tasks, and improve morale. The AI era represents a great opportunity to ease the building pressure for instructors, and we’re dedicated to working with our partner institutions to ensure this is realized at scale.

Visit our Blackboard AI page to learn more about the incredible results our innovations are driving for instructors and students alike.

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