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. Service issues that may prevent you from using a particular Digital Education System or functionality are also shared on this page, and on our Twitter account @DESystemsUoL. You can also get these updates directly to your inbox by subscribing to the mailing list.
The official Twitter account for IT at the University of Leeds, @ITServicesUoL is also recommended for service status updates, along with their service status web 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.
On Wednesday 27th April 2022, there will be 30 minutes of potential downtime from 7 am whilst PebblePad implement their latest release (2022.4). Submission Viewer 2 will now support Asset Approvals. You can now create, edit, delete, release and recall Asset Approvals at every level (1, 2 and 3). Submissions in ATLAS can now be...
On Wednesday 30th March 2022, there will be 30 minutes of potential downtime from 7 am whilst PebblePad implement their latest release. Two improvemets have been made to Submission Viewer 2.
On Friday, March 25, between 11:00pm - 01:00am GMT Padlet will be conducting a round of maintenance. During this time, you will not be able to access the Padlet web or mobile apps.
There is currently a known issue where some Turnitin assignment grades are not syncing with the module Grade Centre, despite the feedback release date having passed.
The following advice had been given to us by Turnitin, who advise that this issue is likely caused by the privacy settings enabled in your browser. If you see an error message that says 'invalid state' when trying to launch Turnitin, please use the following the steps to ensure that your preferred browser reflects the...
Some users may find that they are currently unable to access Turnitin assignments. Most will see an error that says 'invalid or missing state' when they try to click on an assignment. This issue has been reported to Turnitin and we will provide an update when it is fixed. In the meantime, please try using...
On Tuesday 22 February Minerva experienced issues from approximately 16:05-16:45. A second related incident occurred at 18:20-18:30, although users may have noticed slow performance immediately after this time period. Our vendor has identified the root cause of the issue to be the module catalogue link in the module menu. Therefore, this link has been disabled...
Our vendor has now applied a fix. We believe this has resolved the issue but will continue to monitor the service. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this disruption.
Minerva is currently experiencing performance issues. We have escalated this with the vendor as a matter of urgency. Please accept our sincere apologies for this issue with the service. We will post an update as soon as possible.
After liaising with the vendor, it is advised that adaptive release settings used on Turnitin assignments must not have a start date that is after the due date in the assignment settings. If the start date set in Minerva is set to be after the assignment due date, then the following error message will appear...
On Monday 21st February 2022, there will be 30 minutes of potential downtime from 7 am whilst PebblePad implement their latest release (2022.2). Two changes are being made. The first will enable you to contact students via the Submissions tab in ATLAS. Choose all students or a selection and send a bulk or individual message. ...
As a student at the University of Leeds, you have access to StREAM@Leeds, which helps you to keep track of your engagement, in a similar way to a Fitbit, to help you make the most out of your time at Leeds.
Padlet has a fresh new look! Padlet has updated its Homepage (dashboard). Though it may look different most of the functionality remains unchanged. Users with a Padlet account will now be able to create folders to save their Padlet's to, making it easier to find what you are looking for if you've got lots of...
PebblePad will have a short period of downtime between 07:00am and 07:30am on Thursday, 21st October (the downtime is likely to be around 10 minutes). Who is affected? All staff and student users of PebblePad will not be able to access the system during this time. Why is this downtime happening? PebblePad is being updated...
Some users have reported 404 or resource not found errors when opening files in Minerva. Please read the post for further information and suggested workarounds.
There will be essential maintenance taking place on the Lecture Capture and Media Management System. During this period the Mediasite Service should be considered 'at risk' but users should still be able to playback recordings.
The next phase of the Minerva upgrade project, focusing on improvements to teaching areas, has now begun. Find out more about the changes that are happening and the support available ahead of the 2022/23 academic year.
Dr Tad Gwiazdowski writes about using TopHat, combined with Blackboard and MyMediasite, emphasised active learning and constant student engagement. During the semester, students watched over 200 days of videos and submitted over 100,000 answers to questions.
Due to Christmas and New Year closures, please submit your requests to the Concierge Service no later than the 10th of December 2021 to ensure that content is returned to you within the standard 14 day turnaround time.
If you intend to use Collaborate Ultra for your 2021/22 teaching please remember to add a link it to in your Minerva module/org, as it will not automatically roll over.
The Digital Education Systems website has now officially launched. It provides task-oriented help and guidance for staff and students on the use of digital learning and teaching systems and virtual classrooms.
Instructors are now able create direct links to assignments. The benefit of linking to an assignment directly is that a column within the Grade Centre is created automatically, and the due date appears in the activity stream for students.
This site contains a growing number of self-help guides, FAQ’s and links to related content for users of the Academic Personal Tutorial (APT) workbook which is hosted in PebblePad.
Top Hat courses do not rollover automatically, if you used Top Hat in 2020/21 you may find it helpful to take a look at staff article: I used Top Hat last year, do I have to create a new Top Hat course this year?
The Digital Education Systems Update newsletter for September 2021 introduces new tools that have been implemented and summarises recent changes to tools and systems.
Minerva will be unavailable from 5.00 pm on Friday 6 August until Wednesday 11 August while the upgrade takes place. During this time you won’t have access to content.
Padlet are changing the way that posts are added to a Padlet. The change is being rolled out and all users should see the new post composer by the 15th of August.
Minerva is being upgraded to the latest version of Blackboard at the beginning of August. Minerva will be unavailable from 5.00 pm on Friday 6 August until Wednesday 11 August while the upgrade takes place.