News and Updates

The latest updates on developments across digital education systems are detailed below along with service information on our dedicated Downtime and Maintenance page.

You can also find status updates from Digital Education Systems on Bluesky at desystemsleeds.bsky.social and at the IT service status page for wider University IT updates.

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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On Friday 9 January 2026 you will see changes to Minerva which are designed to make it simpler to navigate your modules and organisations.

Some students using the Gradescope mobile app on Android experience a timeout when attempting to scan and upload a submission using the app.

Some students are finding that the submissions status of their assignment is not updating or they cannot see their Turnitin grades in the gradebook

Information about support and guidance that will be available whilst the University is closed over the holidays.

A redesigned ATLAS interface will be introduced on 29 January 2026.

Upcoming changes to collaboration impacting Standard and GeoSciences notebooks. New Collaboration Notebook to replace feature.

In January, you will see changes to Minerva, making it easier to move around your modules and organisations. This is part of a series of improvements expected in 2026 which aim to enhance the user experience for both staff and students.

In the December update, there are improvements to audio/video options for feedback in Blackboard assessment tools (e.g. Assignment, Test), Discussions and a new option for conditional availability. There are also some improvements to how Groups display when there are no members, and staff now see the Learning Modules table of content (available to students since September).

Our supplier reported that Turnitin was affected by a service issue which may have affected some users accessing Turnitin between 13:40 and 16:50 GMT on 13th November 2025.

A redesigned ATLAS interface will be introduced in January 2026. ATLAS is the assessment space in PebblePad.

Read about the new features and updates available in Vevox, the University's interactive polling tool.

We’ve received reports that some staff and students are experiencing problems accessing third-party tools via Minerva when using personal iOS devices (iPads and iPhones). read our guidance on how to resolve this.

In the November update, there are improvements to Tests and Gradebook.

IT Services reported that staff and students were unable to access Mediasite Lecture Recordings. The issue was escalated to our supplier, and they have now implemented a fix, which has restored access to the service.

IT Services have reported that staff and students are unable to access Mediasite Lecture Recordings.

Assignment dates are displaying in the incorrect date format in the Turnitin assignment details information.

The issue with third-party tools in Minerva not loading was caused by global internet issues (AWS - Amazon Web Services). Our supplier for Minerva reports we were affected from 8:10AM - 10:25AM. However, systems are still being monitored until we are confident the issues are fully resolved.

There is currently a global issue impacting access to third-party integrated tools within Minerva.

We reported that recordings made in the Announcements tool were failing to upload/save. This issue has now been resolved.

Our supplier reported that Turnitin was affected by a service degradation which may have affected some users accessing Turnitin between 17:15 and 18:15 BST on 14th October 2025.

Our supplier reported that Gradescope was affected by a service degradation which may have affected some users accessing Turnitin between 17:15 and 18:15 BST on 14th October 2025.

Planned maintenance of Turnitin will take place from 4.00pm to 10.00pm BST on Saturday 25 October 2025.

Ally will undergo scheduled maintenance on Saturday 11th October from 5:00am-1:00pm BST

Minerva was affected by an unexpected service disruption between 8:33 pm and 8:47 pm BST on 2nd October. Full availability has since been restored.

In the October update, there are improvements to Blackboard Tests.

On 30 September, there were performance issues resulting in slow page load times between approximately 09:20 am and 09:35 am.

Staff and students may have experienced slow loading times or been unable to access Minerva, seeing a 503 error between 10:43 am and 12:00 pm today.

An intermittent issue displaying the Enable/Open Microsoft Education link in Minerva has been resolved. A separate problem affecting University-managed devices, caused by third-party cookies being blocked, is being addressed.

We recently experienced an issue affecting Minerva data feeds, where updates to staff and student accounts, as well as some enrolments, had not been processed. This issue has now been resolved.

There is currently an issue affecting Minerva data feeds. Since 18 September, updates to staff and student accounts and most enrolments have not been processed.

The University is adopting Panopto as its new platform for media-enhanced learning and lecture capture during the 2025/26 academic year, with full implementation from September 2026.

In Minerva, there is currently an issue with the option to create recordings from Announcements.

The method of linking from Minerva to Microsoft Class Teams has been updated.

On Wednesday, 10 September 2025, a global issue affected access to third-party integrated tools within Minerva. Staff and students may have experienced difficulties using these tools from around 12:00 PM until full service was restored at approximately 6:00 PM BST.

Labster is affected by an unexpected service issue

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.

A new MathJax integration now renders any LaTeX entered in the Minerva content editor.

Minerva experienced a service disruption between 8:56-9:02 pm and 9:59-10:03 pm on 7th August. Full availability has since been restored.

In the August update, there is a new table of contents in Learning Modules for students, a new method for creating video/audio in Announcements, an AI option to help you format Minerva Documents and some minor changes to copying integrated assessment tools. Later in August, there will be a change to how LaTeX is rendered in Minerva.

The method of linking from Minerva to Microsoft Teams is being updated by our suppliers. Read about what this means for your teaching and how to troubleshoot any issues.

The way LaTeX is rendered will change in Minerva w/c 25 August (after resits). A new MathJax integration will instead render any LaTeX entered in the Minerva content editor

Turnitin will undergo a six-hour maintenance period from 4.00pm to 10.00pm BST on Saturday 9 August 2025.

In the July update, there is a new Activity page for staff, a new option to add captions to images in Minerva Documents and the option to create Test Question Banks via QTI. It is also now possible to see which students have reviewed Announcements in your Minerva modules and, for colleagues who utilise Blackboard Group Assignments, navigation is improved. Finally, the option for configuring Progress Tracking has moved to Module Settings.

PebblePad LTI 1.3 is now enabled for Minerva modules and organisations. The LTI allows the integration of PebblePad's tools and resources within the Minerva platform.

Collaborate will transition to 'read-only' access on 30 June 2025 and will no longer be available at the University from 31 July 2026.

In the June update, there is a new Jumbled Sentence question in Blackboard Test, some Gradebook improvements and a new Discussion activity indicator.
There are also some updates to Annotate (the inline marking tool for Blackboard Assignment).

All modules due to run in 2025/26 have been created in Minerva and are now ready for population.

Staff no longer need to fill in the access to Noteable request via the IT website to access the system

Some students are finding that they cannot see their Turnitin grades in t

The University is closed on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 May 2025 for the May Bank Holiday. Find out what to do if you need help with IT during this time.

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