New AI Teaching Assistant Now Available: Meet AVA
We're excited to announce that 51勛圖Profaculty can now test AVA (AI Virtual Assistant), Blackboard's newest suite of AI-powered tools designed to support your teaching workflow.
Even better? We need your input to determine how these tools can best serve our faculty community.
What's Available Right Now: AVA Feedback Assistant
Starting today, Lamar Faculty have access to two powerful feedback tools that can transform how you grade and communicate with students: Summarize Feedback and Rewrite Feedback.
Summarize Feedback:
Turn Rubrics into Polished Comments
Ever completed a detailed rubric and wished you could instantly generate clear, comprehensive feedback for your students? Now you can. feature analyzes your rubric scores and criterion-level comments to create a cohesive overall feedback summary.
Here's what makes it special:
- Generates professional, student-centered feedback based on your rubric evaluations
- Does NOT read student submissions (your privacy and academic integrity standards remain intact)
- Gives you full control; accept, reject, regenerate, or edit the suggestions
- Saves time while maintaining the personal touch your students deserve
Rewrite Feedback:
From Quick Notes to Professional Comments
We've all been there; you know exactly what you want to tell a student, but your quick notes read like "Good job but needs work on thesis." The transforms your shorthand into clear, constructive communication.
Perfect for when you:
- Have bullet-point notes that need polishing
- Want to ensure consistent, professional tone across all feedback
- Need to convert rough thoughts into student-friendly language
- Want to maintain helpful but encouraging feedback
Simply type at least 30 characters, hit "Rewrite," and watch your notes transform into polished feedback. Don't like the result? Reject it and try again or edit the AI suggestion to match your voice.
Coming Soon: AVA Responses for Student Questions
Later this year, Anthology will be introducing AVA Responses, an intelligent assistant for those frequent student questions that arrive via Messages. Whether students are asking about deadlines, grading criteria, or course policies, AVA will generate real-time answers based on your actual course content.
You stay in control: Every response is linked to its source, shared with you for review, and can be confirmed, corrected, or completely rewritten before reaching your student.
Already an AI User? There's More
If you're already using Blackboard's , AVA builds on that foundation. You might already be familiar with AI-powered features for:
- Course structure and module design
- Image generation and stock photo integration
- Test question and assessment creation
- Rubric development
- Interactive student conversations
- Ultra Document layouts
Your Feedback Shapes the Future
Here's where you come in. AVA will be available through June 30, 2026, giving us plenty of time to gather faculty insights and evaluate its effectiveness at LU. Your experience with these tools—what works, what doesn't, what you wish they could do—will directly influence our long-term AI strategy.
Ready to Get Started?
AVA is completely optional and operates under Anthology's , meaning you have full control over when and how you use these features. Every time you want to use AVA, you'll actively choose to engage it.
To try AVA Feedback Assistant:
- Navigate to any assignment or test in Flexible Grading
- Complete your rubric as usual
- Look for the "Summarize" option in overall feedback
- For the Rewrite feature, add your feedback notes (30+ characters) and select "Rewrite"
We Want to Hear From You
Your feedback is essential. As you experiment with AVA, we'd love to know:
- How much time are these tools saving you?
- What aspects work best for your teaching style?
- What features would make them even more valuable?
Contact our department with your experiences, suggestions, and questions. Your insights will help us make informed decisions about the future of AI-assisted teaching at LU.