News and Updates

News of new developments across digital education systems, software upgrades or updates, along with any associated maintenance and downtime are shared here - and summarised on the Downtime and Maintenance page to help you keep track. The official Twitter account for IT at the University of Leeds, @ITServicesUoL is also recommended for service status updates, along with the service status page on the IT website.

You can also get these updates directly to your inbox by subscribing to the mailing list. Monthly summaries which provide an overview of the new features, bug-fixes, and improvements made to Digital Education Systems can also be found on the Monthly Digital Education Systems Updates page.

Clicking on a category (shown to the right of the post date) allows you to filter this list to a specific category to help you find related articles easily.

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FeedbackFruits, a digital tool designed for formative assessment, is now available for use throughout the University.

As previously shared in February 2024, following a review of our current online assessment systems, Top Hat is no longer available for staff or students to use.

The September update introduces changes to the layout of module pages and some new Gradebook functionality.

New PebblePad release for August 2024 brings updates to Submission Viewer 2, embedding and accessibility.

The China Connect information service will be discontinued from 30 August 2024.

The University, and the IT Service Desk, will be closed on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 August 2024.

The SimVenture Validate pilot has concluded and the tool is no longer available.

Our supplier has reported that Turnitin experienced a service degradation on which may have affected some users accessing Turnitin between 21:00 BST 7 August to 17:15 BST 9 August.

The August update introduces improvements to Blackboard Assignments, Forms, conditional availability and options to follow Discussions.

CampusPress will undergo essential maintenance between Monday 19 August and Friday 24 August 2024.

Following a recent upgrade, the way Mediasite content can be added to a Minerva module has been refreshed.

New PebblePad release for July 2024 brings updates to exporting permissions, feedback template reports and rich content editing.

The China Connect service will be discontinued effective 30th August 2024.

Following two successful pilot years, Noteable will be renewed for 2024/25 on an enterprise licence, becoming a fixture in our digital education offering.

Turnitin will undergo an eight-hour maintenance window between 2.00pm to 10.00pm BST on Saturday 17 August 2024.

We're planning to upgrade Mediasite, the University’s video platform, this will make it easier for colleagues to embed videos directly into Minerva Documents.

Issue resolved where staff and students received old scheduled Minerva announcement emails.

Staff and students may notice that they are receiving old scheduled Minerva announcement emails.

The July update introduces improvements to Announcements, Blackboard Assignments and Tests. An issue which prevented IDs displaying in the Gradebook has also been resolved.

Noteable will undergo scheduled downtime on Wednesday 10 July between 8:00 and 12:00 BST

Older technology used to link to Mediasite content from within Minerva modules/organisations 2021/22 and older, will no longer be supported from the 30th of June 2024.

CampusPress will be updated to the latest version of Wordpress between Monday 1 July and Friday 5 July 2024.

Podcasting tools are now available to both staff and students. Licence availability is limited,, so don't delay if you're interested in exploring this new opportunity!

If you need access to an assignment submitted before 2021/22, you can log a request via the IT website and we can access the content for you.

A new Turnitin Similarity Report integration is now available for Blackboard Assignments. Our guide on using Blackboard Assignment with the Turnitin similarity report integration will provide you with more information.

The supplier has resolved the issue.

There will be a two hour maintenance window taking place on the Gradescope system between 14:00 and 16:00 BST

Turnitin has experienced a service degradation which may have affected some users accessing Turnitin.

All modules due to run in 2024/25 have been created in Minerva and are now ready for population.

From 26 June, staff and students will be required to use Single Sign On to access internal GitHub repositories and organisations.

The June update introduces improvements to Announcements, Blackboard Tests, Gradebook, Group settings, and updated filtering options when accessing modules. The AI Design Assistant now also has the option to create content in different languages.

There is a known issue where the “Save settings for future use” checkbox within optional assignment settings may not work as intended.

Module areas in Minerva for 2024/25 are expected to be available by w/c 10th of June.

New PebblePad release for May 2024 focuses on accessibility improvements.

Gradescope requires third-party cookies enabled to connect with Minerva. Check your browser settings if you encounter an error.

The University, and the IT Service Desk, will be closed on Monday 27, and Tuesday 28 May 2024. To ensure service delivery, all digital education systems will be monitored during this period.

Turnitin users should no longer experience slowness when uploading submissions, the supplier has resolved the issue.

Turnitin are looking into an issue which is causing users to experience slowness when uploading submissions.

PebblePad identified the cause behind the issue that resulted in users not being able to log in and timeouts when saving. This has now been resolved.

PebblePad is experiencing an issue that could affect users logging in and saving work.

Sign up to attend the Digital Education Network on Global Accessibility Awareness Day to hear about developments around accessibility within the University.

The May update introduces improvements to Blackboard Tests, Gradebook navigation and conditional availability.

The University, and the IT Service Desk, will be closed on Monday 6 May 2024. All digital education systems will be monitored during this period to ensure service delivery.

Minerva now detects and supports device reduced motion setting.

We expect normal service to resume on Monday. Scheduled lecture capture recordings will continue to be monitored carefully throughout the day.

We have been notified that some scheduled lecture capture recordings are not automatically starting as expected. Record Now functionality remains unaffected.

The issue has now been resolved.

Turnitin has experienced a service degradation which may have affected some users accessing Turnitin.

Are you responsible for creating learning materials, website content or digital documents? Find out how you can get involved in Global Accessibility Awareness Day on 16 May by making your digital content more accessible.

Find out how you can use the blogging tool CampusPress as part of your learning and teaching practices.

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