This article contains this release's feature updates, user interface changes and bug fixes.
| Release date | Environment |
|
9th of April 2025 |
Stage (stage.ans.app) |
| 27th of April 2025 | Production (ans.app) Education (edu.ans.app) |
Important changes
Changes in automatic grading of paper-based assignments
As previously communicated in an email to administrators, we will introduce changes in the automatic grading of paper-based assignments. We have made several important updates to the recognition model for multiple-choice questions. These changes are designed to better reflect student intent while maintaining accuracy. Below is a summary of the improvements:
- Significantly increased the amount of training data
- Conducted extensive manual testing
- Expanded our automated testing
- Introduced variable confidence thresholds for different states
- Requiring manual review for state 3 (fully colored with a cross outside the circle)
- Reintroduced automatic grading of single response multiple-choice questions in case multiple answer alternatives are selected
Please note that these improvements only apply to the new scan page. The changes are explained in more detail in this article.
The overview of all important changes that may require an action from administrators can be found here.
CAMPUS ONLY - To-do's
You can now create to-do lists for course assignments. This feature helps educators manage and track tasks directly using a to-do list.
Each to-do includes a title, notes, and a completion checkbox, with a sortable list so tasks can be arranged in any order. You can add a note, assign, or notify users by clicking on the to-do. To-do’s can be assigned by administrators and department administrators, instructors, invigilators, and reviewers with access to the assignment. Assigned users will receive an in-app notification. Similarly, you can notify users once the to-do has been completed.
To-do lists can be viewed from within the assignment or from the assignment overview. The amount of to-do's that are pending and have been completed will be displayed in a chip, providing a clear progress indicator.
To-do lists carry over in assignment templates, which ensures that default tasks are always included in similar assignments. To-do's and their notes will be included in the template. Assignees and notified users will not carry over with the to-do's. The same applies when copying an assignment.
The to-do list feature is part of the campus plan.
Improved sorting and filtering for question bank exercises
In the question bank exercises overview, the columns previously named "Used" and "Last used" have been renamed to "Times taken" and "Last taken". These columns are now sortable, making it easier to see which exercises have been taken most frequently or most recently.
A new filter called "Last taken" has been added, allowing you to find exercises taken within the last year or taken over a year ago. When you use this filter, a date parameter is added to the URL in your browser’s address bar, which you can manually edit to set a custom date.
Improvements to the flags and discussions workflow
Changes to chip behavior
If there are any open discussions, a chip will appear in the review overview indicating how many discussions are still awaiting a reply. Clicking the chip takes you directly to the first discussion that hasn't received a reply from the instructor, or where the student's message was the last activity. You can easily navigate between these unanswered discussions using the arrow buttons. This streamlines the process of identifying which students are still waiting for a reply, helping you respond more efficiently.
Furthermore, the chip that shows how many discussions have drafts now opens the side panel directly. From there, all drafts can be sent at once. Alternatively, you can go to a specific draft to review and send it.
Changes to viewing all flags and discussions
The “View all” button in the grading screen now displays all flags and discussions across all exercises when reviewing per result. Previously, it would show the flags and discussions per exercise.
When opening a single result from the results overview, the flags and discussions for all attempts by that student or group will be shown. Similarly when reviewing per exercise, only the flags and discussions on that exercise are shown.
In the side panel, flags, discussions, and drafts clearly indicate their location, which is shown at the top of each item. This added context is especially useful when responsibilities are divided based on review position.
Added a Mentor role for classes
Previously, employees could only be assigned to a class as instructors. This limited the ability to track student progress without accessing course content. To address this, a mentor role has been introduced that allows employees to monitor student performance and provide support more easily.
Unlike instructors, mentors do not have access to course content but can only see the results overview of the student in their class. Mentors who are also instructors in a course can see both the course content and the results for every student in their course and class. The mentor role is restricted to classes only, since mentors are not involved with specific courses but rather classes of students.
With the introduction of a new role in classes, the terminology in classes has been changed for the navigation and actions. These now use "staff" instead of "instructors."
Student results
Navigating to student results now functions consistently with the rest of the platform. Clicking the link of a student's name will take you directly to their results. Previously, this action redirected users to the Longitudinal Learning Dashboard (Campus only), which now has its own dedicated column in the table when the feature is enabled.
Increased the number of items shown in a table to 100
Previously, tables displayed only 25 items at a time, requiring frequent scrolling to navigate larger datasets. Now, the limit has been increased to 100 items per page, allowing users to view more content at once.
For example, in a question bank, users can now see up to 100 exercises at a time instead of 25. To access additional items, they can still scroll to the bottom of the table and click on the navigation arrow key.
Improved printing a digital test
Previously, when printing a digital test, page cut-offs could occur in the middle of the question. The printing process for digital tests has now been improved to prevent this issue.
Question bank assignment labels can now be changed directly in the navigation bar
The question bank assignment label is now displayed in the navigation bar, making it easier to identify the status of a question bank assignment from any assignment tab. Publishers, department administrators, and administrators with permissions to manage the question bank assignment can update the label directly by clicking on it. The label can be changed but not removed.
Moved the ability to add tags to a question bank assignment to the settings page
Question bank assignment tags can now be managed in the general assignment settings. Publishers, administrators, and department administrators with permission to manage the question bank can search and add tags used in other assignments within the question bank by typing in the Tags field. This makes it easier to reuse existing tags. New tags can be created by using the + button on the right.
Added tags appear as chips in the format Key/Value. A single tag can be removed directly using the cross icon on a chip, reducing extra clicks.
As a result of this change, the tags section has been removed from the assignment tab allowing more space to view assignment exercises.
Improved label display for protected assignments
Course assignment labels with protection rules now display a lock icon. When you hover over the label, a tooltip appears listing the applied protection rules. This makes it easier to recognise restricted assignments and overview which changes are disabled.
As a result of this improvement, the warning banners have been removed to reduce visual clutter.
Prevent updates to variables in the code editor that are used in the content of the question
Previously, after a digital test or written assignment was taken, it was still possible to modify the script in the code editor to correct mistakes in the answer calculation. However, this also allowed changes to variables used in the question itself. Although a warning was displayed to indicate the risks of modifying the script after the assignment had been taken, it was still possible to proceed.
We’ve now added an additional check: if you attempt to update the script and it involves changes to any variables used in the question content, a dialogue will inform you that you cannot update the variables.
Improved the result overview for individual students
For all assignment types, the Exercises tab at the individual result overview has been improved. The question content remains on the left, while the points per question have been moved to the right. This adjustment makes it easier to view the points per question.
In order to better keep track of the result information, the profile card has been made sticky. It will stay in place as you scroll through exercises and questions. This means the user can always see the result profile card of the student.
Peer review
The exercise overview for peer reviews has also been improved. Each review is now displayed with a number and its corresponding points, making it easier to get a quick overview of the points awarded per review.
Improved the dialog when starting a new review for a student
The dialog to select a new student to review in an appraisal assignment has been improved. The dialog now shows both the students name and student number and allows you to search on both attributes.
Removed the authentication setting to configure SURFconext Level of Assurance
The March 2nd release introduced the option to set a Level of Assurance (LoA) for signing into Ans via SURFconext. This feature allowed schools to specify an LoA for users with school roles. However, due to low usage and misalignment with current industry standards, this feature will no longer be generally available. Schools interested in using this feature can contact the support team.
Updated behaviour for pasting names when adding users
Previously, when pasting names into the dialog for adding users, names would be converted into invalid chips. This behaviour has been updated, and names will now remain in the text area, allowing for easier search and selection.
Added the course name next to the assignment name for uploads on the new scan page
The course name and course code have been added to uploads on the new scan page to better distinguish between assignments.
Added the option to enlarge images when solving incomplete form issues on the new scan page
It is now possible to enlarge a page by clicking on the image in the new scan page. This makes it easier to see the PDF number and unique identifier. When clicking an image, a dialog opens with the enlarged view, which can be closed by clicking outside the dialog or on the cross icon in the top right corner.
Added the option to search by filename on the new scan page
It is now possible to search on uploaded filenames on the new scan page.
Added the option to export filenames and student numbers from the new scan page
It is now possible to export data from the new scan page. The export includes the filenames of the processed files, along with the PDF number and the student number that were recognised given that the page is the first page of a form.
Internet access is now blocked when running code from within a digital test
Requests to external resources are no longer allowed when using the Run live code add-on. This prevents students from accessing resources that they should not be permitted to use.
Bug fixes
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Fixed an issue where images could be missing when printing a digital test
Previously, printing a digital test without scrolling to the end of the last page would cause the images in the test to be missing from the print. Now, the images are loaded before printing the pages, ensuring all images are present when printing.
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Fixed an issue where it was not possible to add a question bank exercise with a protection rule to a course assignment
Previously, when a question bank exercise had the "Disable adding exercise to assignments" protection rule label enabled, the question bank exercise could not be added to a course assignment. However, this should have been possible, as the protection rule is intended to apply only to question bank assignments. Now, the question bank exercise can once again be added to the course assignment.
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Fixed an issue where response rules could not be removed and added at the same time
Previously, it was not possible to remove a response rule from a statement question while also adding a new one in the same save action. This has now been resolved and you can freely add and remove the response rules before saving.
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Fixed an issue where response rules for statement questions could not be edited after the assignment had been taken
Previously, it was not possible to change the response rules of a statement question after the assignment had been taken. Now, the response rules can be adjusted at any time, as they are part of the grading scheme.
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Fixed an issue with rearranging and saving answer options in a fill-in question
Previously, it was not possible to rearrange the answer alternatives for gaps in the fill-in question. Each removal and addition had to be saved separately. Now, any adjustments to the alternatives within the gap are saved as expected.
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Fixed an issue where the times were not displayed in the publication overview
Previously, the publication overview displayed only the date for timeslots and discussions, without showing the time. This has now been updated to improve consistency across the platform.
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Improved the clarity in navigation settings with renamed titles and refined descriptions
The "Navigation" title has been renamed to "Navigation Constraints" for clarity, and its previous description has been removed as it inaccurately suggested multiple navigation types. "One-way navigation" has been renamed to "View exercises once," with an improved description to better reflect its functionality. Similarly, "Deny reopening flow groups" has been updated to "View flow groups once" to maintain consistency in naming.
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Updated the Safe Exam Browser configuration file name
Previously, the Safe Exam Browser configuration file was downloaded as "ans_seb_config.seb". Now, the configuration will be downloaded as "seb_config.seb"
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Fixed an issue where the scrollbar would involuntarily jump to the top after selecting a lower exercise tile during grading
Previously, when navigating with the exercise tiles on the left during grading, the scrollbar would jump to the top after clicking on an exercise that was further down. This has been fixed and the tile and scrollbar will now stay on screen.
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Fixed an issue where aligning text inside a table cell in a written assignment wasn't supported
Previously, the preview of a written assignment would fail when centring text inside a table cell. Now, the text is correctly centered without displaying a LaTeX error.
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Fixed an issue with applying a background colour in written assignments
Previously, applying both a text colour and background colour to text in a written assignment would only apply the text colour and ignore the background colour. Now, both colours are correctly displayed in the written assignment.
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Fixed an issue where the test instructions and layout settings did not automatically update in a written assignment
Previously, when changing the test instructions or layout settings for a written assignment, the preview would not display the loading bar to indicate that the preview was being updated. Now, the loading bar is displayed, and the preview is refreshed once the update is complete.
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Fixed an issue where the zoom resolution was not remembered when previewing a written assignment
Previously, when previewing a written assignment, the zoom resolution was only remembered when the dropdown selection was used. Using the + or - buttons did not retain the zoom resolution. Now, both methods correctly retain the zoom resolution.
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Limited the amount of characters that can be pasted inside an open question answer
Previously, pasting 5,000 characters or more at once into the answer field of an open question could cause performance issues. To ensure platform stability and performance, a character limit of 5,000 has been implemented. When attempting to paste text that would cause the total character count to exceed 5,000, a message will display stating: "You cannot paste more than 5000 characters." This change does not impact typing itself, but it is not possible to paste additional text if the combined typed and pasted content would surpass the limit.
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Fixed an issue where the alignment button did not work for tags in the text editor
Previously, the alignment button in the text editor only applied to<div>elements, as the editor was originally designed to handle alignment that way. As a result, attempting to align text wrapped in<p>tags had no effect. This issue has now been resolved—alignment actions are correctly applied to<p>tags, ensuring consistent formatting behaviour across both<div>and<p>elements.
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The grace period is now only applied to open-ended questions
Previously, the result grace period could be applied to any question type. The grace period is a brief window after a deadline during which a student's answer can still be accepted. This was originally implemented for open-ended questions (manually graded), which sync intermittently, to ensure answers are registered even with slower internet connections. However, for closed-ended questions (automatically graded), which are marked precisely at the deadline, this led to unclear behaviour: a student's answer could be registered but not receive the expected points. To prevent confusion and because the grace period was never intended for closed-ended questions, it has now been removed from them.
| Version | Date | Information |
|
v1.0 |
09-04-2025 | Initial version |
|
v1.1 |
22-04-2025 | Clarified the bug fix "Limited the amount of characters that can be pasted inside an open question answer". |
|
v1.2 |
30-04-2025 | Added the bug fix "The grace period is now only applied to open-ended questions". The bug fix was initially communicated in the patch release of March 30th, but it was moved to this release. Due to an human error, this was not updated accordingly. |
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