In a recent blog post, we explored how Anthology utilizes embedded analytics through Amazon QuickSight to empower decision-making across higher education institutions. This guest contribution from Anthology highlights the company’s evolution and commitment to providing innovative solutions for the education sector.
Formed from the merger of four prominent education technology firms—Blackboard, Campus Management, Campus Labs, and iModules—Anthology boasts the largest global EdTech ecosystem. With a presence in over 80 countries, they support Learning Management Systems, Student Information Systems, and Customer Relationship Management products, impacting the lives of over 150 million learners, educators, and administrators.
Anthology recognizes its responsibility to deliver state-of-the-art technology that positively influences student, instructor, and administrator success. The goal is to provide comprehensive visibility, real-time analytics, and personalized dashboards that help users navigate complex data landscapes. The company’s focus on the “last mile” of analytics is crucial; they go beyond basic data visualization to provide actionable insights and recommendations tailored for educators.
In their latest development, Anthology has enhanced its analytics platform, Anthology Illuminate, by embedding business intelligence (BI) tools, including interactive dashboards and Q&A functionalities powered by Amazon QuickSight. This evolution aims to address the challenges faced by clients in extracting meaningful insights from integrated datasets.
Clients often struggle with data accessibility and the technical skills required to interpret complex information. Anthology sought to refine its value proposition by collaborating with a leading BI provider like QuickSight. Key capabilities sought included:
- Clear visualization options for effective data presentation
- Interactivity that allows users to achieve specific objectives
- Secure access to sensitive educational data
- Personalization to cater to diverse user needs
Crucially, Anthology aimed to integrate these capabilities seamlessly into their existing application, ensuring an efficient user experience that promotes self-service analytics. Considering their global reach, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and language accessibility were paramount in their decision-making process.
Anthology’s existing partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) played a significant role in selecting QuickSight as their BI solution. The familiarity with AWS’s data reporting tools made the collaboration a natural fit. The introduction of Amazon Q in QuickSight was met with enthusiasm due to its ability to facilitate natural language queries, making data exploration intuitive for educators.
Another factor in this partnership was cost; traditional BI tools can be prohibitively expensive. QuickSight’s flexible pricing model allowed Anthology to offer more accessible analytics solutions to their clients. The user experience was also a priority, ensuring that insights were easy to understand and navigate.
The implementation of QuickSight allowed Anthology to embed powerful analytics features into their Illuminate platform. This integration enhances the user experience by enabling educators to access vital information from various data sources, including Learning Management Systems and Student Information Systems. Future plans include incorporating Customer Relationship Management data, creating a comprehensive dataset for analysis.
By embedding rich analytics capabilities, Anthology empowers educators and administrators to monitor student progress effectively. The data encompasses everything from enrollment to graduation and beyond, enabling personalized recommendations and insights. Early adopters have already begun to experience the benefits of Amazon Q in QuickSight, which significantly enhances the analytics capabilities offered through Anthology Illuminate.
The successful integration of QuickSight has positioned Anthology as a leader in the EdTech space, providing actionable insights that benefit educational professionals. The generative Q&A feature embedded in Illuminate is particularly noteworthy, as it allows institutions to address specific analytics needs in a user-friendly manner.
For more insights on this topic, you can read another blog post here. Additionally, if you’re interested in understanding more about the intersection of technology and education, check out this resource, as they are an authority on this topic. Lastly, for an excellent resource on Amazon’s approach to employee training, visit this article.
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