Doubling Down on AI in the LMS

The February features release for Anthology's Blackboard Learn

Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Sign up, and get your own copy of the news that matters sent to your inbox every week. Sign up for the On EdTech newsletter. Interested in additional analysis? Try with our 30-day free trial and Upgrade to the On EdTech+ newsletter.

We have written before about how Anthology (and by extension Blackboard Learn) is leading the way in terms of adoption of AI in the LMS. There remains a lot of interest in EdTech on where generative AI might impact educators and students beyond the academic integrity debates, so it is useful to look at this specific case in more detail, using Anthology’s February product updates, as that company continues to push its AI strategy further than competitors.

Featurepalooza

In the webinar on the new release, Anthology makes the point early on that it is rolling out far more than its competitors – an interesting argument to make.

The emphasis of the new features is on efficiency and usability, but they span a wide range of different aspects of the LMS, from accessibility to assessment to CBE and more.

Learn Ultra documents and assessments

One area of focus has been improvements to Learn Ultra Documents to make them more engaging, for example adding the the ability to include in-line videos and knowledge checks. Anthology has introduced (or will soon introduce) a host of new features in the assessment space. These include the ability to examine attempt logs for assessments more easily, to print tests, and to look at item statistics (to identify potential issues).

To me these are the sort of features that are often overlooked or under-emphasized by vendors, but ones that users really care about. Anthology really hammered home the extent to which they consulted with and drew from users to help guide their actions.

Subscribe to On EdTech+ to read the rest.

Become a paying subscriber of On EdTech+ to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In

A subscription gets you:
New content 3-4 times per week
Shared Q&A discussions
More coming soon