This article contains this release's feature updates, user interface changes and bug fixes.
| Release date | Environment |
|
22nd of December 2024 |
Stage (stage.ans.app) |
| 5th of January 2025 | Production (ans.app) Education (edu.ans.app) |
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Important changes
17th of August 2025 - The API responses will be available in English only
Currently, API responses are provided based on the language set by the user or the organisation associated with the API token. However, starting August 17, 2025, the API will return responses in English only, aligning with our API documentation, which is only available in English.
To prepare for this change, we recommend updating the language settings of your API users to English ahead of time.
The overview of all important changes that may require an action from administrators can be found here.
Changes to the platform
Improved scan page
Uploading written assignments, resolving scan issues and starting to grade is now simpler with the new flow. The Scan page now displays only your uploads, grouped by file, allowing you to focus on your assignments. Each file includes a scan issues count, so you can easily start resolving them, or move directly to grading if there are none. To save your effort in grading results that could be re-uploaded, the grading flow is locked until all issues in the file are resolved. You can still access the legacy scan page to resolve any scan issues in your previous uploads via the link in the warning banner.
The fixed resolution order replaces the old flow where solving the issues in a specific order was recommended but not enforced. This will ensure you resolve the issues in the fastest way possible. We show all pages of a single form on the screen and give suggestions for the missing and duplicate pages based on the scan order, removing the need to manually fill in page barcodes. Uploading assignment pages together without separating student forms prevents missing pages.
To resolve the unknown student number issue, simply fill in the student number or name from the scan.
To resolve the incomplete form issue, verify and confirm page suggestions using the checkmark button.
If suggestions are incorrect or unavailable, you can replace the page by selecting one from incomplete forms of the file using the search button in the hover toolbar. If a page is missing, you can upload it in JPG format directly to the form using the toolbar's upload button.
Coloured chips for blueprint alignment in question bank assignments
The question bank assignment blueprint now uses coloured chips to visually indicate alignment with the blueprint. Chips are grey if more questions are needed to match the blueprint, green if it aligns exactly, and yellow if it exceeds the number of questions.
The option to hide attachments is removed
As announced previously, it will no longer be possible to hide attachments. All attachments will be visible to students during both the assignment and its publication. If certain attachments need to remain hidden from students, please download and store them outside the platform.
The option to limit points to zero or the total points of a question is removed
As announced earlier, the option to limit points to zero or the total points will no longer be available for open-ended questions. This applies to all questions graded with points per criterion, rubrics with levels, and sliders. If points need adjustment, you can apply a manual adjustment.
The dropdown now displays the number of points assigned to the objective in the question bank overview
The dropdown for assigning objectives in the question bank exercise overview now shows how many points the objective is worth out of the total exercise points. This makes it easy to determine whether the objective applies to the entire exercise or just specific questions.
Added autocomplete when assigning objectives to question bank exercises, with domain suggestions
When assigning a new objective to a question bank exercise from the overview, the domain name field now supports autocomplete. As you type, it suggests existing domains from the question bank, making it easier to reuse domains and avoid typos.
Disable keyboard shortcuts
A new accessibility setting lets users disable keyboard shortcuts, which are enabled by default. This helps prevent accidental triggers, supports users with motor impairments or alternative input methods, such as voice control, eye tracking or adaptive keyboards. By providing more flexibility, it makes the platform easier to use for a broader range of needs.
The assignment label is now displayed on tabs within an assignment
The assignment label is now displayed on all assignment tabs, making it easier to identify the status of an assignment. Instructors, department administrators, and administrators with permissions to manage the assignment can update the label directly by clicking on it. As a result, the option to edit the label from the assignment settings page has been removed. If an assignment doesn’t have a label, one can be assigned. However, once a label is applied, it can no longer be removed, only changed.
Simplified the Safe Exam Browser configuration settings
To ensure the latest settings are always applied, Safe Exam Browser configuration settings can no longer be edited in the interface. To adjust lockdown settings for your assignment, download the configuration file, make your changes, and upload it back to Ans.
Please read our article on how to configure Safe Exam Browser with the configuration file.
Expected workspaces for Schoolyear integration now reflect assignment participants
For the Schoolyear integration, the expected workspaces of an exam now match the number of participants. This is more accurate than the previous count, which included all course learners.
The marks histogram legend now includes the number of passed and failed results
The marks histogram legend in the assignment insights now displays the total count of passed and failed results, providing a clearer view of the overall passed and failed results for each category.
Added explanations for the meaning of question insight values
Info icons have been added to the question insights. Hovering over an icon reveals a tooltip that explains the criteria for rating a question’s quality and provides definitions for the P, p’, Rir, Rit, and Rk values, making the data easier to interpret. As shown in the visual, the quality indication, P-value, Rit-value and Rir-value have a tooltip.
Removed the option to allow students to skip questions
As announced previously, the option to allow students to skip questions has been removed due to its limited usage. If you wish to maintain this grading method, any point adjustments and mark modifications will need to be handled outside the platform. We recommend exporting the points per question to help manage these changes effectively.
Please keep in mind the following:
- This change only applies to marks calculated after the 5th of January 2025.
- Marks calculated before this date will remain unchanged.
- If marks are recalculated for students who previously skipped questions, those skipped questions will no longer be excluded from their mark.
Added a 'Results' tab for administrators and staff to easily access student's results
To make accessing a specific student's results easier, a ‘Results’ tab has been added to the individual student overview. You can access this overview via the 'Students' tab in the Users menu of the platform. The overview displays all submitted and non-removed results, organised by the most recent submission. You can use the course filter to narrow down results to specific courses, offering a clearer view of the most relevant information.
The results visible to you depend on your role within the platform.
- Instructors can view results only for the courses they are an instructor in.
- Administrators have access to all results, providing a complete view of student performance across all courses.
Marks are colour-coded for quick reference: green indicates a pass, while red indicates a fail. If a result has not been fully graded, a ‘Result is not fully graded yet’ chip will be displayed. This centralises a student’s results, allowing you to quickly review their submissions eliminating the need to navigate through individual courses or assignments.
Added a 'Your results' page for students to easily access their results
Previously, students could only view their results per assignment by navigating to the result tab within each assignment. Now, a 'Your results' page has been introduced, enabling students to access all submitted results in one place. This page is organised by submission date and provides a clear overview of performance across assignments. It is accessible through a new button located on the navigation bar in the top-right corner and is available exclusively for students.
On this page, students can quickly determine whether they have passed an assignment, as marks are colour-coded: green indicates a pass, and red indicates a fail. Results are only visible if allowed by the publication settings. Marks will not be shown if the assignment or the marks have not been published. A course filter is also available, allowing students to sort results by specific courses for a more focused view.
In addition to their mark, students may see the following indicators (displayed as chips) depending on the settings and status of their assignment:
- Result is not fully graded yet.
- Publication is no longer available.
- Mark has not been shared.
- Letter grade
- Points, if Mark calculation 'None' is selected.
By clicking on the result of any assignment in the overview, the student will be navigated to the result page for that specific assignment.
Removed the ability for department administrators to edit the name, email, or student number of users within their department
As announced earlier, department administrators can no longer edit the name, email, or student number of users within their department.
Previously, we removed the option for department administrators to create or delete users to simplify user management and centralise control. This update continues in that direction.
This change reflects customer feedback. Allowing edits to names, emails, or student numbers could result in unintended changes to account ownership. To avoid this, only administrators will be able to update this personal information.
Improved the department administrators page
The department administrators page has been moved from the settings section to its own dedicated tab for easier navigation. Additionally, the page has been updated to match the styling of other user-related pages. As part of this update, the button to remove department administrators has been relocated to the table toolbar. To access this option, simply select a user, and the toolbar will appear, allowing you to remove them from the department.
Improved the class member pages
The class member pages have been updated to reflect the styling of the other user pages. The button for removing instructors or students from a class has been relocated to the table toolbar, which becomes visible after selecting a user.
Improved the question bank contributors page
The question bank contributors page now matches the styling of other user pages. The button to remove contributors has been moved to the table toolbar, which appears after selecting a user. Additionally, changing a contributor’s role is now done through a dropdown directly in the table, making it quicker and easier to update roles.
Improved the way of adding users
You can now add users to courses, question banks, classes, departments, and groups more easily. Just type their names or paste multiple student numbers or email addresses into one field. Users' names will be shown as chips, and any mistakes will be highlighted in red to help you fix them quickly.
Course learners
Previously, there were three methods to add learners to a course: importing via a template, adding a class, or adding learners individually. All methods have been replaced by a single dialogue, where you can search for users' names or class names. Additionally, you can paste multiple student number or emails, separated by a comma or whitespace to bulk import learners into the course.
When you add a class, it will remain synced until one of the students is removed from the course. Previously, removing a single learner from a class caused all learners in that class to be removed from the course. Now, only the selected users will be removed, while the other users from the class will remain in the course. To enable syncing again, you can add the class to the course.
Previously, you could only add classes you had access to. Now, you can add any class from the current school year to a course, regardless of access.
With this change, it is no longer possible to add users with an employee role to a course as a learner by typing their name or email address. Only students can be found and added. If you wish to add employees as a learner to a course, this can be done by generating the new invitation link or via our API.
Question bank contributors
The option to add a contributor using an email address has been replaced with a new invitation link feature. You can now generate and share unique links to invite users with an Ans account, even from other schools, to join a question bank with a single click. Multiple links can also be created to assign different roles to users.
Other user pages
The other pages - course staff, class instructors, class students, department administrators, and group users - have been updated to use the same dialog for adding users.
The option to import classes and groups via a .csv or .xlsx file has been retained, allowing you to create multiple classes or groups with a single import.
Email addresses of alumni students can now be reused for new students in other schools
Students marked as alumni keep their email addresses. This caused issues for other schools when they tried to enrol a student with the same email, as it was already in use. To improve this, email addresses from alumni students can now be reused. If a school enrols a student with an email already tied to an alumni account, the email from the alumni account will be automatically removed, making it available for the new student.
Assignment integrations are now shown in the assignment logs
The assignment log now shows details about integrations being enabled, updated, or disabled, giving you a clear overview of all integration changes. For Ouriginal, Turnitin, Proctorio, and ReadSpeaker integrations, the log specifies which settings were updated. For Safe Exam Browser, STEP, and Schoolyear, it logs only whether they were enabled or disabled.
Upgraded the Safe Exam Browser Integration to using the new SEB JavaScript API
The WebKit browser engine used in SEB 3.0 and newer for macOS and iOS no longer supports sending the Config Key and Browser Exam Key through HTTP headers. These keys are used to check if a student is using the correct configuration.
Previously, SEB used to send these 2 keys with every request made through their custom browser. The mac version of their browser is based on Safari, and Safari made a change that prevented these keys to be sent with every request like before.
To be able to use future versions of Safari for SEB's custom browser, SEB added a way for us to request these keys through the Javascript API. Therefore, to support future versions of SEB for macOS/iOS, we have fully transitioned to authorisation using the Javascript API.
In addition, with this upgrade, it will be also possible to use SEB in combination with iPads again.
Removed the option to grade written assignment on paper
As announced previously, the 'Review on paper' option in the Review options of a written assignment has been removed. All written assignments must be graded digitally. Since this functionality was rarely used, it has been removed. Teachers can still grade on paper but must enter the scores manually after uploading the assignment.
Department administrators can now manage classes assigned to studies within their department
Classes can now be assigned to studies, with department administrators managing classes for studies in their department. They can also create new classes for these studies. As department administrators can now manage classes, they can share the workload with administrators.
For existing classes that a department administrator needs to edit, administrators must first assign a study managed by a department administrator to the class.
Add learners by sharing an invitation link
Students can now join courses right away using invitation links. Before, there was an option in the course settings called “Allow students to enrol themselves,” which let students self-enrol through a “Join course” button. That option is removed. Now, you can create a unique link for your course and share it with students.
Improved notification centre
The notification centre has been simplified to provide a clearer overview of both new and past notifications.
Notifications now open in a dropdown menu, allowing you to preview new notifications as they arrive. This gives you the flexibility to either navigate to the notification or stay on your current page. You can also access notifications directly from the review screen, making it easier to manage updates, such as flag assignments or new replies.
When you view a notification, you'll be directed to the relevant page. New notifications you interact with will be moved to the top of your list, while older, read notifications will gradually shift to the bottom, keeping a clear record of your activity.
To view all notifications from the past 90 days, simply click the “See more notifications” link at the bottom of the menu.
Notifications about being added to a course, question bank, or assigned to an exercise or group are no longer sent, as they were rarely read and didn’t require action.
Going forward, instructors will receive more notifications when a student posts in the live chat, starts a discussion, or replies to one. This helps you stay updated on responses across all assignments without needing to check each one individually. To prevent duplicate alerts, you will only be notified of the most recent chat message, the latest discussion, or the newest reply.
API changes
Removed the response attribute from the submission show endpoint in the API
The 'response' attribute for submissions has been removed. To retrieve a single response from a submission, you can use the first item in the 'responses' attribute, which functions the same way as the old 'response' item.
Expanded the user API endpoint responses
The user endpoint responses for create, show, update, and delete actions now include the course year attribute for courses and the trashed attribute for both courses and question banks, reducing the need for additional API calls to retrieve these details.
Replaced the 'Items' parameter with 'limit' in the API
As announced previously, the 'items' query parameter has been removed from the API and replaced by the 'limit' parameter.
Added the 'study_id' attribute to the Class API endpoint
It is now possible to retrieve and edit the study id from a specific class via the API.
Bug fixes
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Fixed an issue where blocked and alumni users were able to navigate the application
Previously, users with a blocked or marked as alumni account would be able to navigate through the application when logging in via Single Sign-On. Now, these users are redirected to the inactive page after signing in.
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Automatically restore removed users when signing in via SSO
When a removed user signs in via Single Sign-On, the user will now be restored unless the "Prevent SSO from creating accounts" option is enabled in the school settings. If the option is disabled, the user will be taken to the inactive page.
| Version | Date | Information |
| v1.3 | 10-01-2025 | Updated the change "Improved the way of adding users" with the following: "With this change, it is no longer possible to add users with an employee role to a course as a learner by typing their name or email address. Only students can be found and added. If you wish to add employees as a learner to a course, this can be done by generating the new invitation link or via our API." |
| v1.2 | 08-01-2025 | Linked the Safe Exam Browser article with steps on how to configure the integration using a configuration file. |
| v1.1 | 31-12-2024 | Updated title and description of the change "Added a 'Results' tab for administrators and staff to easily access student's results" to clarify the difference of what administrators and staff roles can see. |
| v1.0 | 20-12-2024 | Initial version |
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