18th of January 2026

This article contains this release's feature updates, user interface changes and bug fixes.

Changes to the platform

Create assignments from the home page

The home page now has a "New assignment" button. Clicking it opens a dialog displaying available courses.

The dialog shows recently used courses at the top, then all courses. A search field filters the list. Selecting a course opens the assignment creation page.

If there are no courses, the dialog shows "Create a course to get started" and explains that courses are where you invite colleagues, create exams, and add students. If the user can create courses, a button to create one is shown.

Question banks can now be sorted and the preference is saved

Previously, question banks were sorted by most recently updated with no way to change it. A sort menu is now available on the question banks page, next to the search bar and filters. Choose to sort alphabetically, by newest first, or by recently updated. The selected option is saved and applied automatically on future visits. This makes it easier to find question banks quickly, especially when there are many, and the list stays organised in the preferred way.

Improved question bank pinning

Pinned question banks appear at the top of the question banks list. They are shown alongside your other question banks and marked with a pin icon next to the name.

You can pin or unpin a question bank by opening it and clicking the pin button at the top of the page. Pinning is personal and only affects your own view.

Pinned question banks still follow your search and filter choices, so they’ll only appear when they match. You can only pin question banks that you have access to.

Access to question banks from all accounts

Question banks from all accounts are now shown on the home page. Previously, only question banks from the current school were visible. When opening a question bank from a different account, the system switches to that account.

For users with multiple accounts, question banks display the school name before the question bank name to indicate which school each belongs to.

One-time passwords now only grant access to a single digital test

When a student logs in with a one-time password, they can only open the digital test that password was made for. They cannot open other digital tests or assignments. They also cannot go to other parts of the platform. If they try, they are sent back to the test.

To use their full account again, the student must log out and then log back in with the school’s normal login method.

This makes the platform more secure. It also still helps instructors support students who cannot log in.

Removed grading time from alignment insights

Grading insights continue to show how consistent grading is across reviewers. Individual grading time has been removed from these insights.

Overall consistency remains a useful signal for grading quality. Showing how long each person spends on individual results goes beyond what is needed for this purpose. Grading time is therefore no longer included.

This keeps the focus on grading outcomes rather than individual activity. It ensures that grading insights support quality improvement without introducing unnecessary pressure or personal monitoring.

Added support for quick comments in appraisal forms

It is now possible to use quick comments when grading an appraisal form.

Removed manual student enrichment feature from school settings

As announced previously, we have removed the 'Enrich students' option from the school settings. If there is student information missing, administrators should enrich student data from the individual student settings. This flow better communicates that changing student numbers is a dangerous action.

You can search for student accounts with missing information by appending the URL in the student overview. When searching for students that are missing an e-mail address for example, ?q[email]=null can be added at the end of the URL to search for all students. The URL will then look like ans.app/universities/{university_id}/students?q[email]=null.

Stopped tracking opened emails

To address a SURF DPIA finding, email open events are no longer tracked. As a result, the user email activity tab only shows whether an email was delivered or whether delivery failed.

Show assumed user in logs

The logs now indicate when actions are performed under an assumed user. When a change is made while assuming another user, the API includes an additional attribute: assumed_by_user_id. This attribute identifies the user who assumed the account at the time of the change.

Status page migrated to Statuspal

As previously announced, the status page has been migrated from SorryApp to Statuspal. The new status page monitors the availability of www.ans.app and support.ans.app. The status page link on the homepage now shows a server status indicator.

Statuspal is a European provider with data centres in Europe and ISO 27001 certification. This supports improved data protection and compliance. If access to external domains is restricted, the Statuspal domains (statuspal.eu and statuspal.io) must be whitelisted.

Email subscriptions are migrated automatically. Microsoft Teams subscriptions need to be set up again. The new status page is available at https://ans-app.statuspal.eu/.

Added support for filtering on webhook event response status

It is now possible to filter on webhook event response status to easily identify webhook events that failed to be delivered. This option has been added to both the interface and the API.

Courses can be sorted and the preference is saved

Previously, courses were sorted by most recently updated with no way to change it. A sort menu is now available on the courses page, next to the search bar and filters. Choose to sort alphabetically, by newest first, or by recently updated. The selected option is saved and applied automatically on future visits. This makes it easier to find courses quickly, especially when there are many, and the list stays organized in the preferred way.

Improved assignment pinning

Pinned assignments now appear at the top of your assignments list and are marked with a pin icon next to the name. They remain in the same list as other assignments.

You can pin or unpin an assignment from its assignment page using the pin button in the breadcrumb. Pinning is personal and only affects your own view.

Pinned assignments follow your current search and filters and only appear when they match. You can only pin assignments you have access to.

On the homepage, pinned assignments now appear in the left section, replacing the previous card-based display in the right section.

The old pinning dialog and the six-assignment limit have been removed. Pinned assignments now behave like all other assignments, providing a consistent and flexible experience.

Quick actions on the home page

The home page now displays quick actions to make it easier to navigate to common tasks. Users can go to the pages for printing exams and uploading scanned files.

For non-repro roles, quick actions appear only when relevant: the print exams action shows when there are exams to print, and the upload scanned files action shows for written assignments where scans can be uploaded.

Users with the repro role now land on the home page instead of being redirected. They can use the quick actions to access their tasks or switch to a different account using the switch account button.

Limit the ProctorExam integration to selected courses

The ProctorExam integration now supports course-level access control. This gives school admins firm control over where the integration is available.

Some integrations have costs per use, so it is useful to limit access to the courses that need it. It also helps when you want to test an integration during a trial period without giving access to every course.

When a school switches to course-level access control, any courses that previously had access will have the integration disabled until access is granted again. School admins can update access at any time.

Moved the switch account button to the home page

The switch account button has been moved from the user menu to the home page, positioned right next to the school name. This makes it easier for users to switch between different schools when required.

Breadcrumbs now show icons to distinguish courses and question banks

Breadcrumbs now include icons so you can see your location at a glance. The icons for courses and question banks make it clear whether you are working in a course or a question bank, and the course icon has a new look. Tooltips now appear only when text is cut off and you need the full name. The breadcrumb structure is also improved for stronger screen reader support.

Simplified home page and collapsible search fields

The home page has been simplified to reduce visual clutter. Section headers and "New" buttons have been removed. To create a course or question bank, navigate to the courses or question banks pages where the "New" buttons are still available.

Search fields for courses and question banks are now hidden by default. Select the search icon to show or hide the search fields. When opened, the search input is automatically focused.

Spacing and sizing have been adjusted to improve alignment. Search fields now use clearer placeholder text to better indicate what to search for.

Bug fixes

• "Legacy blueprint" renamed to "Classic blueprint"
  The term "Legacy blueprint" has been renamed to "Classic blueprint" to reflect that this is a traditional, established feature rather than an outdated one. The functionality is unchanged. Only the name has been updated.
   
• Fixed an issue where the blueprint flow sections list scrolled with the page
  Previously, the flow sections list scrolled with the page, making it hard to navigate long lists. Now the list scrolls in its own container, so it stays visible while the rest of the page scrolls.
   
• Fixed an issue where criteria groups were added to the wrong question
  When editing multiple exercises with criteria at the same time in the grading scheme tab, criteria groups were added to the wrong question. Criteria groups are now added to the correct question.
   

• Improved dragging in long lists
  Dragging items in long lists works more smoothly. The page now scrolls automatically when an item is dragged near the top or bottom of the screen. This makes it easier to move items to the correct position, even if they are off screen.

  This improvement applies to all sortable lists and is especially beneficial when answering questions in digital test, such as ordering and drag-and-drop match questions.
   

• Fixed an issue where the removal of course instructors was not logged
  Previously, when removing all instructors from a course via the API, the instructors would be removed without a log entry. Now, the logs correctly reflect the changes made to the course.
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• Fixed an issue where students did not see criteria group names during publications
  Previously, if a grading scheme contained a group, its name would not be visible to students during a publication. Now, group names in grading schemes are also published and visible to students, when the 'Evaluation criteria' of publication settings is enabled.