Case Study: Northern Illinois University achieves centralized access to holistic student supports with Anthology

Leveraging Existing Support Structures to Drive Student Success

Northern Illinois University (NIU) struggled with academic and wellness services scattered across campus, which left students and faculty unaware of available supports and how to access them. NIU partnered with Anthology to enable Blackboard Assist—a free, integrated tool in Blackboard Learn—to consolidate links and campus services into a single, easily accessible hub.

Anthology’s deployment of Blackboard Assist centralized resources such as tutoring, the writing center, career and counseling services, disability support, library services, and Blackboard Ally File Transformer within the LMS that 99% of NIU students already use. The result was a low-effort, high-impact solution that strengthened faculty–student connections, improved visibility and access to supports, and produced overwhelmingly positive preliminary outcomes for student success.

Northern Illinois University

Stephanie Richter

Director of Teaching Excellence and Support