Minerva Monthly Update - September 2025
- Tags
- News for Staff
In the September update, there are new styling options for Minerva Documents, more options to improve the management of test questions, a minor change to Announcement creation and some improvements to group marking features for group submissions to Blackboard Assignments and Tests. Early in September, MathJax was also implemented in Minerva to render LaTeX. The Ally instructor feedback workflow has also been improved.
Minerva Documents - Block Styling
Documents now have an option to add styling to specific content blocks. The options are:
- Question: Use for prompts or reflective questions.
- Tip: Use for tips, insights, or helpful suggestions.
- Key points: Use to highlight key points or essential facts.
- Next steps: Use for next steps or instructions.
The styling option adds colour to the border of a content block and an icon to highlight it. For example, in this image the Key points option has been used:
To add styling, go to the Document and click the Edit content option. Hover the mouse over the relevant content block. Select the styling (palette) icon and you will see the styling options plus a reset option which is for removing applied styling.
See our guide on Minerva Documents for an overview of this tool and links to further information.
Minerva Tests/Forms/Question Banks - Option to use titles
When adding questions to Minerva Tests, Forms, or Question Banks, there is now an option to add a title. These are not seen by students and are only seen by staff during the creation process; i.e. they are not seen when grading. The advantage of inputting titles is that they are searchable when selecting options to reuse questions. Therefore, if you intend to reuse questions/utilise Question Banks, this may speed up processes, especially if you have a large set of questions.
Creating Announcements - minor change
The unnecessary recipients dropdown has been removed from the 'New Announcement' page. Previously, this dropdown only offered one option—sending to all module members—making it redundant.
Improvements to Group submission marking workflows for Blackboard Assignment/Test
Assignment
Staff can now use the pop-out rubric when grading group submissions. This update brings the same grading experience already available for individual submissions to group work.
The pop-out rubric is a separate, moveable window and formatted in a grid view. Previously, the rubric was only available in a side panel and formatted in a stack.
The option to pop out the rubric is available above the rubric in the marking interface.
Test
If using Group submissions for Tests, it is now possible to give bespoke feedback on each group's answer when grading. To do this, select the add feedback icon which appears above their answer, next to the question score:
Implementation of MathJax
MathJax now renders LaTeX when entered into the Minerva content editor. For more information, see our post on MathJax.
Ally PDF Quick-Fixes
Ally now supports fixing several PDF accessibility issues directly within the Instructor Feedback workflow. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanning, adding missing titles and language attributes can now all be done directly via the Ally interface. Instructors can review the change and download the original file before you apply the fix, so control remains with the content owner.
