Monthly Digital Education Systems Updates

Ally has been ugraded to the latest version, with new features available for instructors to fix accessibility issues in their files directly from the Ally interface without needing to download and re-upload their content.

• Add Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to PDFs that are only images of text (such as from using "print to PDF")
• Add missing title attributes to PDFs
• Add a missing language attribute

OCR and languages are automatically detected, but require human approval by design so changes to the file can be reviewed for accuracy by the file owner.

Gradescope updates include:

• Grid Rubrics (wide release) - features is now out of beta and is available to all users
• New version of student mobile app for Android which includes bug fix for access issue

• Matching poll type - A new question type to match items with their corresponding answers
• Vevox Quick polls - A feature for Present View where you can quickly launch a number of generic question types in an adhoc manner without the needing to set them up in advance.
• Custom countdown timer sounds - Upload your own mp3 files to use as the sound to accompany your poll countdown timers.
• Presentation content: Timer display - A new display type to show a title and a timer on a slide. For example to show that The session will resume in 10 mins, or a breakout out activity will last for 20 mins etc.

The January release is rolling out major upgrades to ATLAS admin workflows and the external assessor dashboard in PebblePad:

• ATLAS is the assessment space in PebblePad and the new interface will become the default. Users such as workspace managers, assessors and tutors often use the assessment space and will notice this. Some users might have already been using the new interface as mentioned in this news post from November.
• A redesigned external assessor dashboard will also be available. The new dashboard addresses concerns around difficulty navigating and accessing content. PebblePad have noted that it is also fully WCAG 2.1 AA compliant and that there are significant accessibility improvements.

• Spin the wheel - Create a wheel of activities/names/topics and spin to select an item at random
• Advanced options for Surveys and self-paced quizzes
• Survey schedules: Automate the times when a survey is opened and closed for your participants to be able to complete
• Self-paced quiz time limits: Set a limit for how long a participant has to answer a self-paced quiz
• Self-paced quiz summary screen options: Configurable options for what participants see when they complete a self-paced quiz
• Adjustable points scoring: Change the number of points awarded for each question
• Partial scoring: Choose whether points are awarded for individual parts or only for answering all parts correct, for questions with multiple correct answers
• Survey auto save: Unsubmitted responses are now saved in draft format so they are not lost when navigating away from the survey.
• Pin on image: Added support for more correct answer shapes and grouping shapes, along with added support for multiple correct answers in pin on image questions
• Support for Panopto videos in presentation content
• Support for hyperlinks, superscript and subscript text
• Improvements to the Minerva/Vevox integration.

For more information see, Vevox Updates News Post

Gradescope updates include

• Accessibility improvements to improve reflow of create assignment page
• Bubble sheet item analysis and manage submissions page
• Bug fix to fix an issue with online assignment export

The April PebblePad update brings several fixes and accessibility improvements, in addition to user interface updates to assignment managements.

• Resolved an issue where users were unable to view an asset related to a complaint.
• Fixed an issue with adding a link to a public Asset via a block in Pebble+, which was incorrectly redirecting to ATLAS.
• Improvements to the ATLAS assignment management.
• Enhancements to the User Account Settings Hub, which was introduced in the January update.
• Updates to ensure consistency across desktop, tablet, and mobile platforms.

The March PebblePad update brings small changes such as optimisations and fixes.

• Optimisations include file iconography updates in ATLAS submissions and improved date display in tables.
• A notable fix includes blogs being able to be exported to PDF.
• Accessibility of navigational icons in ATLAS and the User Accounts Hub is improved.

• Team leaderboards
  • Demographic questions can be used to generate team-based leaderboards
• Excel template importing
  • Questions can be uploaded as live polls or surveys through an Excel based template
• Numeric question improvements
  • No range limit - questions can be defined with no upper or lower limits meaning participants aren't guided as to what values their answer should be between.
• Decimal places
  • the number of decimal places allowed in a response can be configured from 0-10.
• UI Changes

Accessibility improvement improve reflow of sidebar menu & top navigation and dashboards 

Updated highlight colors improve accessibility in the new report experience

Highlighted text in the new Similarity Report have new colours for match groups and sources to optimise contrast for improved accesibility.

• Store autograder output in .json for the most recent previous submission only - to prevent some issues which could be encountered where students have made multiple submissions to the same assignment, Gradescope will now only show the full autograder output in the `previous_submissions` array for the most recent submission. Previous submissions are still available to view in the Gradescope interface. More information is available in Gradescope Autograder Documentation.
• Android app update to reduce number of crashes  - a new version of the Android app has been released to address some issues that were causing some unexpected app crashes.

The update brings a new user profile and account settings hub, which is a central place to manage account settings and preferences, including granular notification preferences. The key benefits are:

• Simplified navigation with access to settings in one place
• Ability to personalise notifications by tailoring preferences
• Consistency with a uniform experience across desktop, tablet and mobile

The other main feature release is the keyboard shortcut solution, the Shortcut Viewer. Whether you are navigating via keyboard, using assistive technology or seeking more efficient workflows, it is designed to improve your experience. Improvements include:

• Modern interface and searchable shortcuts
• Simplified commands (e.g., ‘Ctrl + S’ to save)
• Accessibility upgrades for WCAG 2.2 compliance