The Blackboard AI Design Assistant can help you quickly generate engaging course content, assessments and digital activities. It is here to support—not replace—your expertise, helping to streamline content creation while keeping you in control. Built into Blackboard by the parent company ‘Anthology’, it is designed to assist academic colleagues in creating learning activities and enhanced learning materials and that save time, encourage authentic assessment, and develop supportive, formative learning experiences inside and outside of scheduled teaching.  

What can the AI Design Assistant generate? 

The available tools are:

• Course structure suggestions 
• Discussion generation
• Journal generation
• Rubric generation
• Assignment prompt generation
• Test question generation
• Question Bank generation: 
• Insert or generate images
• AI Conversations

How does the AI Assistant work? 

The AI Design Assistant is powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI technology and will create activities and content based on your inputs. There are standard controls that allow you to tailor prompts, these are similar for each AI tool and use a simple, consistent dashboard (as seen in the Blackboard Journal screenshot below).

1. Description Field: Enter detailed prompts to focus content generation.
2. Context Picker: Use existing course content  and files to guide the AI.
3. Cognitive Level: Choose from apply, analyse, evaluate or create to configure outputs that align with Bloom’s Taxonomy levels. 
4. Complexity Level: Match the output language to the year or level of your course—higher levels give more advanced activity instructions or content (the levels are based on the American schooling system):

Additional controls not listed above (available for some other tools):

• Number of Results: Decide how many output options you’d like.  
• Language Options: Generate content in other supported languages. 
• Images: Copyright-free images are suggested via Unsplash—you can change or remove them. Alternatively, you can generate from prompts.

Why use the Blackboard AI Design Assistant instead of other AI tools? 

The Blackboard AI Design Assistant offers several advantages: 

• Privacy and Security: Your data is never used to train the AI models. 
• Better Results: The models are fine-tuned for educational contexts. 
• Save Time: It not only generates content but also sets up the necessary Blackboard structures to deploy this. For example, it will build a Blackboard question bank for direct use in a Blackboard Test, or output a Blackboard rubric that can be attached directly to an activity.

What Makes This AI Tool Trustworthy? 

Anthology has developed its AI tools with a strong ethical foundation, called the Trustworthy AI Approach. Here are the principles that guide it: 

• Fairness: Minimising harmful bias in AI-generated content. 
• Reliability: Making sure outputs are accurate and useful. 
• Human Oversight: You remain in control of decision-making. 
• Transparency: Clear explanations of how the tools work. 
• Privacy & Security: Protection of user data at all times. 
• Value Alignment: Respecting the values of institutions like Reading. 
• Accountability: Roles and responsibilities for AI use are clearly defined. 

How does the AI Design Assistant use course and personal data? 

Only limited course information is shared with Microsoft for the Azure OpenAI Service. Generally, prompts don’t include personal information unless it’s part of course titles or descriptions. All data used and generated by the AI tools is stored in Blackboard’s database. However, prompts and outputs are reviewed by Microsoft for content filtering and stored for up to 30 days. Anthology uses this information to maintain and support the AI tools, in accordance with applicable laws. 

Who owns the content created by the AI Design Assistant? 

Blackboard/Anthology, and Microsoft OpenAI don’t claim copyright on the content generated by the AI Design Assistant. Content ownership is subject to the universities IMPs policies. 

What should I consider before using Blackboard AI generated content? 

Key principles: 

• You’re always in control. Nothing is published automatically—you choose what to keep, edit, or discard. You can easily edit text-based content like Learning Module names, rubrics, test questions, and discussion prompts. For images, while you can’t edit them directly in Blackboard, you can remove, replace, or download and edit them offline using tools like Adobe Photoshop. 

• Check for accuracy and tone. It’s important to review everything before sharing with students. The AI Design Assistant in Blackboard comes with the same risks as any generative AI tool. Be cautious about the accuracy of the content it generates, like rubrics, discussion prompts, and test questions. Also, generative AI can replicate human biases related to gender, race, age, and more, especially when creating images. For instance, asking for images of “scientists” might mostly show white men, which can reinforce stereotypes. 

• Be transparent where appropriate; if content is substantially AI-generated you might decide to include a note for your students and guidance about interacting with the AI feature. This helps build student’s digital literacy and supports them to experience authentic, appropriate use in context.  This is especially relevant for use of Blackboard AI generated Role play and Socratic questioning, which will likely present an unfamiliar format compared to interaction with more established digital activities such as tests, journals and discussion forums. 

• Use mindfully, just because you can quickly generate Blackboard content doesn’t mean you should, or that your students will benefit from it. Avoid overpopulating your course with content and activities. Consider if there is a meaningful enhancement to learning when adding or replacing course content. .

Will my students know if I used the AI Design Assistant? 

Not really. Once you accept content from the AI Design Assistant, it’s not marked to show it was AI-generated. The only hint might be a rubric named “Generated Rubric,” but you can rename it before using it for grading. 

Is it fair to use AI to develop my course if I don’t allow students to use AI? 

This is a personal decision based on your values and course goals. Using AI to develop course materials is different from students using AI for their work. As an expert, you can judge the appropriateness and accuracy of AI-generated materials. For students, using AI could be a valuable learning experience, but it could also undermine their learning if it leads to shortcuts. Whether students should use AI depends on the learning objectives and content of your course. 

What information is available regarding the environmental impact of Blackboard AI Design Assistant? 

The language is a multi model process based on GPT 3, 4, 4.1, 4.5, typically, the approximate energy use for each output is the equivalent of 0.3% of charging a smartphone or calories burned for 1 min walking. Anthology are committed to ethical AI use, an example of this is the image generator, which now provides one or two options instead of many, so this limits the amount of energy used. 

Has the AI Design Assistant been tested at the university? 

Yes—it’s already been piloted by a number of colleagues, including CQSD TEL, academics, and digital champions here at Reading. Their insights help shape guidance about how the tool is used and configured. 

Where can I learn more about using AI responsibly for teaching and learning? 

You can refer to University policies and guidance around the responsible use of AI in teaching and learning.