The education software company Anthology last week announced a new version of its learning management system Blackboard with AI-driven features for incorporating multimedia into lesson planning, learning AI literacy and tracking and assessing skills.
According to a news release, new features include a design space for instructors to create interactive course content, a video studio powered by Amazon Web Services to add video to courses, a tool that assesses learning gaps, and online badges for students to celebrate and share their progress.
Anthology CEO Bruce Dahlgren said the company developed the features over the last year, with the goal of helping students and instructors navigate the almost unfathomable amount of information on the Internet. He said one feature creates chatbots based on historical figures like Aristotle so students can ask questions about history in a more personal way. Another feature allows instructors to set goals for student learning and check in on them throughout the course.
“The issue isn’t whether there’s enough data or information. The issue is, ‘How can we put it together in a way that’s useful?’” he said. “And that’s ultimately what generative AI does, and why it’s so impactful in higher education.”
Anthology is the latest of several ed-tech companies to add AI features to their learning management systems, following Google Workspace for Education’s incorporation of the chatbot Gemini and Instructure’s recent addition of automated discussion summaries, content translation and a smart search feature to Canvas.
Anthology spokesman Ian Teoh said the company started incorporating AI tools into Blackboard last year with a design assistant that automated potentially time-consuming tasks such as course structuring, image sourcing and rubric creation. Since it launched, he said, the assistant has contributed to 310,000 learning tasks, with 95 percent of instructors saying it saved them time.
Dahlgren remembers that uptake on the design assistant tool was slow, but now the vast majority of Blackboard instructors use it.
“We felt that if we threw all of this at the faculty, or if we threw all of this into higher education, like everything in computers, it can be overwhelming,” he said. “But, trust me, it only takes one use and you learn.”
Anthology announced the new tools last week at a conference in Orlando that was attended by more than 1,900 people.
“We announced it on Monday, and by Tuesday almost every participant in the conference had signed up for this,” Dahlgren said. “You could just feel this wave of, ‘Hey, I’m not as threatened anymore by AI.’”
Dahlgren stressed that the new AI features were developed under Anthology’s Trustworthy AI principles, which include ensuring humans have final say on impactful decisions and aligning AI tools with human-driven values. Anthology also hosts a forum of about 4,500 users — including students, faculty and administrators — that provided feedback on ideas and operations throughout the development process.
“The computer doesn’t make the decision, the computer doesn’t drive the class, the computer doesn’t teach the class — the human does,” Dahlgren said. “But the human is more productive because it can access all of these things through the computer.”
Abby Sourwine is a staff writer for the Center for Digital Education. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and worked in local news before joining the e.Republic team. She is currently located in San Diego, California.
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