Anthology licensing is the set of terms under which Anthology, the education technology company that rebranded as Blackboard in 2026, supplies Blackboard Learn and related teaching and learning software to universities, colleges, schools, governments and corporate training customers. On 2026-03-02 the company announced that it had emerged from Chapter 11 and rebranded as Blackboard, with its core Teaching & Learning business (Blackboard LMS, Ally, Illuminate, Evaluate and Institutional Effectiveness solutions) continuing on a stand-alone basis.[1] This wiki keeps the publisher name Anthology because the contracts, data processing addendum and support documents that customers hold still carry Anthology and Blackboard names side by side.[9][4]
Licensing is institutional. Individuals who log in accept separate Terms of Use, but those terms state that a written agreement between the user’s institution and Blackboard controls on conflict, and that student data is governed by the institution’s agreement.[10] The commercial terms a software asset manager needs therefore live in a Master Agreement, an Order Form, service level documents and a data processing addendum.
Company structure and what was divested
The 2026 announcement lists what stayed and what left. The Enterprise Operations business, made up of Anthology Student, Finance & HCM, Student Verification and Enterprise Ops Legacy, was sold to Ellucian Company LLC. The Lifecycle Engagement business (Anthology Encompass, Reach, Engage and Advance) and the Student Success business were sold to Encoura LE, LLC.[1] The Blackboard documentation index mirrors this: it lists the learning management, Ally, Institutional Effectiveness, Evaluate and legacy lines as current Blackboard products, and sends customers of transitioned lines to the documentation of their new owners.[3]
For licence management the practical consequence is assignment. The Master Agreement lets either party assign it without consent to an affiliate, to a successor in a merger, to a buyer of a majority of its voting securities, or to a buyer of all or substantially all of its assets or of a specific division.[4] A customer that held an agreement covering both Blackboard and a divested product should confirm with its account team which entity now holds each part. This wiki does not cover the divested lines.
Product lines in scope
The current portfolio page groups products under Learning, Accessibility, Analytics and Evidence. Learning contains Blackboard LMS, the AI Virtual Assistant, Video Studio, Adopt, Milestone and Course Catalog. Accessibility contains Ally. Analytics contains Illuminate. Evidence contains Institutional Effectiveness (Accreditation, Planning and Program Review), Outcomes and Evaluate.[2] The Master Agreement also contains product terms for lines that are not on that page: Blackboard Collaborate, Connect mass notification, Reach messaging, Smartview, the Schoolwires and Edline website products, and Student Support Services.[4] Whether a customer still licenses those depends on its Order Form.
Blackboard Learn is the anchor. The support catalogue distinguishes the SaaS Deployment for Blackboard Learn, in Full Support since September 2014, from the self-hosted releases, which moved to Extended Support on 2023-12-31.[7] The Learn SaaS specifications describe three tiers, Standard, Plus and Advantage, and the 2020 retirement of the option to defer major updates.[5]
Licence model
For SaaS and hosting, the Master Agreement grants a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicenseable licence to access and use the service for the Term, via the Internet and solely in support of the customer’s operations.[4] For downloadable software it grants a licence to use the Software on a Designated Configuration, for the Term or perpetually where the Order Form says so. The agreement also reserves rights for Blackboard: the customer may not allow third parties to use the services, may not sell or sublicense them, and may not use them in a service bureau or outsourcing environment or in a way that supports the business of a third party.[4]
Authorized Users are defined in the product terms. For Blackboard Learn, the platform count is built from Monthly Active Users: unique authenticated users in each month are summed, and for each annual contract period the figure compared with the Order Form limit is the average of those months.[4] The agreement also names FTE (full-time students plus half of part-time students) and Storage as limits, with storage sold in 1 TB allotments. These are covered in Anthology Authorized Users, FTE and storage.
Counting, overage and floors
Use above the Order Form is billable. The Master Agreement says that use in excess of the Order Form or support-terms limitations is subject to additional fees and may be invoiced monthly, and the Learn terms add that capacity below the limits does not roll over to later terms and is not refunded.[4] A late invoice does not waive the obligation to pay. The same agreement gives Blackboard the right to change renewal fees on 30 days’ notice before the current term ends or the right to decline renewal lapses, whichever is earlier, and to invoice the annual fees for a renewal period where use continues beyond the contracted term even without a purchase order.[4]
There is no public price list. The tier specifications state what each Learn SaaS tier includes (for example 1 TB of storage in the initial-term annual fee unless the Order Form says otherwise) but not what it costs.[5]
Editions and add-ons
The SaaS tiers differ in what they allow and include. Standard is limited to a pre-installed set of Building Blocks. Plus allows Building Block installation after testing in the Non-Production Test Environment, and supports all Learning Solutions. Advantage adds a Staging Environment, Direct Data Access and Service Delivery Team resources.[5][6] Add-ons such as Staging, Direct Data Access and Update Support are sold to Plus customers, and a Service Delivery Team upgrade to Advantage customers. Companion products are licensed separately: for example, only users with an Anthology Adopt licence can create and publish in-app guides in Blackboard LMS.[12] See Learn SaaS tiers and deployment.
Hosting, cloud and data
Hosting and data location are contractual rather than a licensing metric. The Anthology Data Processing Addendum applies whenever Personal Information is processed under the Master Agreement and covers sub-processors, security incidents, audit and deletion or return at the end of the term.[9] Support and service level terms are set in separate documents that the Master Agreement incorporates by reference, and Blackboard may revise them; see support, service levels and data terms.
Programs and lifecycle
Programs that matter to a licence manager include the Evaluation License, the Test Copy, service credits for SaaS availability, the annual audit right and the Extended Support category for self-hosted Learn.[4][7] Blackboard may audit the customer’s use not more than once per calendar year on reasonable notice and at its own expense, solely to confirm compliance.[4] Older schedules for self-hosted Learn contained a more detailed audit clause; see the Master Agreement article.
Document history
The Master Agreement has changed in ways that matter for metric definitions. The 2019 version defined Authorized Users by category, for example students resident in a degree or certificate programme and prospective students, with non-traditional users capped at 10% of the Order Form FTEs. Version 27.0 uses the Monthly Active Users average for Learn instead.[11][4] Because the Master Agreement says a customer’s prior agreements continue to govern products it bought earlier unless the Order Form says otherwise, a long-standing customer can hold different counting rules for different products.[4]
Out of scope
This wiki does not cover the product lines sold to Ellucian and Encoura, and does not state prices. It does not interpret any individual institution’s Order Form or consortium contract. Where documents are undated, the catalog rows say so and carry a null effective date.