Anthology, a leader in education technology, today announced a series of far-reaching innovations for its award-winning LMS, Blackboard®, marking its fourth consecutive year as the fastest-growing LMS. These advances are designed to streamline instructional design, ease the administrative load on instructors and support student success at every stage of the learning journey.
“We continue to lead the way on the responsible, ethical and effective use of AI, delivering concrete results where they matter most,” said Bruce Dahlgren, CEO of Anthology. “By working closely with our clients, we make sure our solutions answer the realities higher education faces today. These powerful new capabilities support faculty, strengthen student engagement and drive institutional success.”
Anthology is extending its AI-powered capabilities in Blackboard with Anthology Virtual Assistant, AVA, a suite of tools designed to help instructors use their time more effectively, improve student support and promote the responsible, transparent use of generative AI. Alongside the existing AI Design Assistant, AVA’s features offer meaningful support and time savings on everyday teaching and learning tasks.
are personalised reminders that keep students engaged and motivated. With AVA Automations, instructors can set performance- or time-based rules to send personalised messages to students automatically — congratulating them on a good grade, say, or reminding them to log in. The messages are written by instructors, fully customisable and logged for complete transparency. This feature will be included in the core Blackboard licence and available to all users at no extra cost.
Instructors spend valuable time every week answering the same student questions. AVA Responses acts as a first line of support, giving students instant AI-generated answers drawn from the course content. Whether the question is about deadlines or marking criteria, answers are linked back to the original source and shared with the instructor, who can review and confirm them where needed — saving time while keeping students informed.
helps instructors give high-quality, student-appropriate feedback in less time. The Summarise Feedback feature automatically generates a clear summary based on rubric selections and marking criteria. The Rewrite Feedback feature turns informal notes or fragments into polished, constructive messages. Between them, the two features save instructors time on marking while giving students clear, personalised feedback — and instructors keep full control over the AI’s suggestions before sharing them.
gives every student equitable access to a range of generative AI models inside Blackboard, at no cost to them and with no need for external accounts or tools. This secure, optional environment builds AI literacy by letting students explore and experiment with emerging technologies in their own context. All activity is logged for transparency, so instructors can see how AI is being used to support learning.
New Blackboard features help institutions recognise student achievement and track progress, boosting engagement, supporting continuous improvement and strengthening institutional identity.
This launch builds on Anthology’s continued investment in mastery- and competency-based learning, notably through tools such as the Mastery Gradebook, which helps instructors assess performance against defined competencies and standards. Anthology Outcomes is a core feature available to Blackboard clients in Canada and the United States.
Launched last year,Video Studio was built to help instructors create, upload and share engaging video content easily, with no external tools or licences and no worries about storage or streaming limits.
Video Studio has now evolved to support 360-degree video and immersive video experiences through VR handoff support, giving instructors powerful new ways to capture learners’ interest. Whether simulating laboratory environments or fieldwork, this innovation brings learning to life and prepares students — and those pursuing professional development — for real-world challenges.
Together, these improvements make it easier still to scale high-quality learning experiences and to keep content consistent across the institution.