Scheduled and past changes that may require action from administrators are listed below. We will announce these changes in advance to allow administrators plenty of time to make the required changes.

Scheduled changes

27th of April 2025 - 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 coloured 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.

7th 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.

Past changes

2nd of March 2025 - Department administrators can view uploaded scans that belong to their department
Based on your feedback, it is now possible for users with the department administrator role to view the uploaded files associated with their department on the new scan page. This means they can also aid in resolving scan issues for assignments in their department. Department administrators will be able to view uploaded files based on the assignments in the uploaded file. If a file contains an assignment linked to their department (via studies and courses), they will have access to view it.

Please note that department administrators will not be able to see the uploaded file until the first page in the file has been processed, and it is determined which assignment the uploaded file belongs to. We recommend not including scans from multiple departments in a single zip or PDF file if you do not want department administrators to see scans from other departments.

Update - 6th of February 2025: After further consideration, we will also add support for instructors to view the uploaded files associated with their course on the new scan page in the release scheduled for March 2, 2025. Instructors will be able to view uploaded files based on the assignments in the uploaded file. If a file contains an assignment associated with their course, they will have access to view it.

2nd of March 2025 - Clearer access to question banks for department administrators
From the 2nd March 2025, access to question banks will be simplified to make it more transparent for department administrators. The access rules will be directly linked to the studies assigned to each question bank.

A department administrator will have access to a question bank only if it is explicitly linked to a study within their department. This means question bank visibility will no longer depend on instructors and courses but will be determined solely by the study. Additionally, department administrators will continue to see question banks where they have a publisher or author role in, regardless of the study it is linked to.

To prepare for this change, we ask schools to ensure each question bank is assigned to the correct studies. This will guarantee that department administrators have access to the appropriate question banks after the update.

This change simplifies management and clarifies which question banks department administrators can access.

2nd of March 2025 - Allow employees to be added to a course as learner
In the release of January 5th 2025, we removed the option to add employees as learners in a course. Based on your feedback, we are reintroducing this functionality. Additionally, we are expanding support for employees within groups and classes.

To better support schools that allow employees to take assignments within Ans, we are making the following changes:

• Employees can once again be added to courses as learners.
• Employees can now also be added to groups and classes, allowing you to schedule timeslots for them.
• For written assignments, we will update the "unrecognised student number" screen to support employees by allowing selection based on name from a dropdown menu.
  
  

19th of January 2025 - Administrators and repros can now view all uploaded scans in their school
It is now possible for users with the administrator or repro role to view all uploaded scans of their school. Users with these roles can also assist with resolving scan issues reported by other users. Department administrators and staff members, however, can only view their own uploaded files.

By default, the Scan page shows only your own uploads, with a filter pre-set to your name for better focus. To view uploaded scans from a specific user, select their name in the filter dropdown menu. You can also clear the filter to see all uploads across your school.

19th of January 2025 - Multiple files can now be uploaded to the new scan page
It is now possible to select multiple files for upload on the new scan page. If a file with the same name has already been uploaded, you will be asked for confirmation before proceeding.

19th of January 2025 - Restored previous functionality of API responses to maintain existing integrations
As part of the January 5th, 2025 release, we implemented changes to our API response structure by including empty values in the API responses. This differed from the previous behavior, where empty values were removed from the response. This change had unforeseen impact on existing API integrations, preventing them from functioning as expected.

To address these issues, we have decided to temporarily revert these changes and postpone their release until March 2nd, 2025. This delay provides our API users with additional time to adjust to the new API response structure and update their integrations accordingly.

5th of January 2025 - The option to limit points to zero or the total points of open-ended questions will be removed
From the 5th January 2025, the option to limit points to zero or the total points will no longer be available for open-ended questions. This includes all questions that are graded with criteria, rubrics and sliders. If the points need adjustment, you can apply a manual adjustment.

We are removing the option to limit points to make scoring simpler and clearer. With this change, points become the total of all criteria and any adjustments. This way, users can understand how points are calculated without extra settings or limits.

While most users had the maximum point limit enabled, it was rarely needed. For most, the sum of criteria did not go over the maximum points, so the limit was not actually applied. This change helps to remove an unnecessary setting for most users and makes point calculation easier to follow.

This change will only affect answers that are graded after the 5th January 2025. Any answers already graded with the option to limit points to zero or the total points will remain unchanged, unless you change grading scheme or change the score of an individual answer.

If you are planning to review during this period and wish to minimise the impact of this change, we advise removing the limits on each question before starting to review.

5th of January 2025 - The option to grade written assignments on paper will be removed
From January 5th 2025, grading written assignments on paper using the score bar will no longer be supported. All written assignments must be graded digitally. Teachers can still grade on paper but must enter the scores after uploading the assignment.

5th of January 2025 - The option to hide attachments will be removed
With the release of January 5th 2025, hiding attachments in assignments will no longer be possible. 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.

Administrators can contact our support team to request a list of assignments with hidden attachments. This will help you prepare for the change and allow time to adjust any attachments if needed.

5th of January 2025 - Changes to permissions update personal information of users
From January 5th 2025, department administrators will no longer be able to edit the name, email, or student number of users within their department.

Previously, we removed the ability for department administrators to create and delete users. Simplifying user management and ensuring centralised control over these actions. This update aligns with that approach.

This change was made in response to customer feedback, as allowing edits to names, emails, or student numbers could lead to unintended changes in account ownership. To prevent this, only administrators will have the ability to update these fields once the change takes effect.

5th of January 2025 - The option to allow students to skip questions will be removed
From the 5th of January 2025, the option to allow students to skip questions will be removed. Currently, instructors can indicate that students can skip skippable questions in the course member overview, and these skipped questions do not count towards the student's final mark. After this change, if you want to keep this grading method, you’ll need to mark skippable questions by editing them. And handle point adjustments and marks outside the platform. You can export points per question to manage this.

Please keep in mind:

• 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.

5th of January 2025 - 'Items' will be renamed to 'limit' in the API
To improve clarity, the 'items' query parameter has already been renamed to 'limit' to better align with its intended function. The 'items' parameter will remain functional until January 5th, 2025. We strongly encourage API users to update their code to use the new 'limit' parameter before this date to ensure a smooth transition.

10th of November 2024 - Changes to the release frequency
From November 10, 2024, we will reduce our release frequency from every 4 weeks to every 8 weeks. This longer interval allows more time for the development and refinement of product changes before they are released. Weekly patch releases will continue as usual.

This change will also reduce the frequency of pre-releases on our stage environment, which customers use for early previews and preparation.

As a result, the scheduled releases on December 8th, 2024, February 2nd, 2025, and beyond will be cancelled to align with the new schedule.

15th of September 2024 - Deprecation of the "Grading events" feature
To keep our platform simple and user-friendly, we have decided to deprecate the open beta feature Grading events. Since this information is already available in the result log, it will now be displayed in a single location. This change reduces redundancy and simplifies the interface.

15th of September 2024 - Deprecation warning: Changes to student account creation permissions
Currently, staff, department administrators, and administrators can create student accounts. Staff can create accounts based on their privileges, and department administrators can view and edit students in courses related to their departments. However, when staff and department administrators invite new students, these students are not directly added to the courses. Consequently, staff and department administrators can see the added student accounts but not manage them.

To enhance manageability and security, we are updating the permissions for creating new accounts. Starting from the 15th of September, only administrators will be able to create and manage student accounts. Staff and department administrators will only be able to view students within their specific courses. This ensures that student accounts are managed exclusively by administrators, providing better control and consistency.

What do you need to do? 

• Direct any new student account creation requests to your administrators.
• Administrators should prepare to handle all student account creation processes.

We understand this change may require adjustments to your current workflow, and we appreciate your cooperation. Our support team is available to assist with any questions or concerns during this transition.

18th of August 2024 - The functionality to remove exercises from a question bank assignment from the exercise overview will be removed
With the release of August 18th, the ability to remove exercises from a question bank assignment directly from the exercise overview will be removed. This change aims to simplify the actions available on the exercise overview. The current process lacks clear indications of which exercises are being removed, leading to potential confusion. To remove exercises from assignments, please go directly to the question bank assignment.

21st of July 2024 - Content Security Policy will be enabled
With the upcoming release of July 21st, we will enable our Content Security Policy (CSP). A CSP acts as a security guard for our platform by instructing the browser on which content (such as images, scripts, or styles) is safe to load, ensuring only approved content is displayed. This helps protect our platform from malicious actors. We have been running our CSP in report-only mode for several months to ensure there is no impact on our customers.

While we still allow embedding images from any source, embedding JavaScript or other websites in Ans will not be permitted.

31st of March 2024 - Streamlining User Invitations
To simplify our interface and improve the consistency of the platform, we will be making changes to how new users can be invited to the platform. The option to invite a new user directly through a course, class, or question bank will be removed.

Adding existing users to these entities will still be possible. The option to invite a new user, will now exclusively be available from the "Employees" and "Students" tab within the user overview section.

Please adjust your workflow accordingly to accommodate this change. Review your current process for inviting new users and plan to use the "Employees" and "Students" tab for all future invitations.

31st of March 2024 - Postponement of API Fix for User Creation
We previously announced a forthcoming fix to address an issue where creating a user with an existing email address or student number via the API would unintentionally overwrite existing user attributes. This fix, originally scheduled to be released on March 3rd, has been postponed to March 31st, 2024. This adjustment provides additional time for you to prepare for the change.

We recommend reviewing your use of the related API functionality and preparing for the update to ensure a smooth transition.

31st of March 2024 - Added support for setting a custom role in the question bank via the API
The 'publisher_ids' and 'author_ids' params on the Question Banks endpoint are deprecated and will be removed with the release of March 31st 2024.

The params have been replaced with the 'publishers' and 'authors' params, which add support for using custom roles and makes it consistent with the way users are added to a course. Please update your usage of the API by replacing the array of ids [1, 2] with an array of hashes [{user_id: 1}, {user_id: 2}].

• Fill-in question (if the ‘show answer’ option is enabled)
• Multiple choice (both one correct answer and multiple answers)
• Match
• Order
  
  

6th of August 2023 - The option for students to set up 2FA on their account will be disabled
Based on feedback from multiple customers, we will remove the option for students to enable 2FA on their own account. Since most schools use Single Sign On, which in some cases already uses 2FA, it is redundant for students to set up 2FA in Ans. In addition, 2FA can cause issues during live tests as students need access to their phones to sign in.

23rd of April 2023 - Scan issues will no longer be flagged, but will be marked as ungraded
For written assignments (and bubblesheet assignments), Ans can detect issues while detecting the answers on multiple choice questions. Up until the release of the 23rd of April, Ans will flag all situations where an issue is detected. From the release of the 23rd of April onwards, we will no longer flag any multiple choice question. Instead, Ans will mark them as 'ungraded'. The reason for this is that many of our users have indicated that solving a flag in a written assignment takes a lot of unnecessary time and clicks. To improve this process, we have decided to mark all unrecognised multiple choice questions answers as ungraded starting from the 23rd of April. 

In this way, users will not have to both solve flags and correct multiple choice questions, but only correct the unrecognised multiple choice questions, which saves clicks per situation. It also makes it easier to distinguish (important) manually created flags from automatic scanning flags.

We are aware that this change makes the distinction between scanning flags and to-be-graded open questions less clear. However, the multiple choice questions can still be corrected per exercise via the same page as before. Additionally, we also understand that the error messages that are shown in the flags will no longer be visible. The advantage of having less clicks per unrecognised scan outweighs the textual explanation of the error which is also visible during grading.

23rd of April 2023 - Assignment integrations can no longer be disabled by sending "{}" as the value through the API
On assignment level, Ans provides several integrations which can be managed via the API. Sometimes, you would like to disable an integration via a PATCH request. At this moment it is possible to disable an integration with "{}" and with the value "null". Following best practices, we have decided to change the way integrations are disabled via the API. From the release of the 23rd of April onwards it will only be possible to disable an integration with the "null" value. The "{}" value can only be used to turn on the integration with the default integration settings.

{
  ..,
  "integrations": {
    "ouriginal": {}
  },
  ...
}

{
  ...,
  "integrations": {
    "ouriginal": null
  },
  ...
}

7th of April 2023 - Adjustment to timing of release on stage environment
Currently, our release cycle consists of three stages carried out over a three week period. This means that every three weeks a new version of the platform is deployed on our production environment. One week prior to the production release, the new version is deployed on our stage environment.

Based on your feedback, we are going to extend the time that the new version of the platform is on the stage environment. It will be extended to two weeks. This will allow users more time to check the new version and to provide feedback. To give you more insight, we have included a visual below which includes the schedule of the timing of the upcoming releases on both the stage- and production environments. The first release on the stage environment with the updated timing is marked in red and will take place on the 7th of April (instead of the 14th of April).

12th of March 2023 - Restrictions to the amount of users that can be added to a group or class
In pre release of February 10th 2023, we announced that we had added a restriction of 1000 users in a group and class. Based on your feedback, we have decided to delay this change to the release which will be deployed on the 12th of march 2023. 

This is what can now be expected instead:

• On the release of the 19th of February, the limit will be set to 50.000 students per group to prevent any issues from happening in that release.
• During the release scheduled on the 12th of March the limit will be reduced.
• From your feedback, we found that the amount of 1000 students was not enough, so we have reconsidered the limitations. The following limits will apply from the 12th of March 2023 onwards:
  • 2500 students per group
  • 1000 students per class

12th of March 2023 - Step by step guides removed from the Help center
Currently, our help centre consists of instruction articles for administrators, employees and students. It also includes step by step guides for employees and students. We have already stopped updating the step by step guides as we are focusing on improving and restructuring the instruction articles. On the 12th of March 2023, the step by step guides will be removed from our Help Center. 

12th of March 2023 - Update date and time format in export files 
We are changing the current exports that contain date time fields. The datetime fields will be made consistent by using the ISO6801 format (2022-12-31T19:19:19+01:00)
A consistent export format will make it easier for users to process exports in an automated way. We will change it in the release of March 12th 2023.

19th of February 2023 - CSV Import replacement to the Respondus format
The CSV import feature based on Respondus has been deployed in the release of the 8th of January 2023. As the CSV import based on Respondus is still under development and can’t replace the old CSV import yet, both features will stay available at least 1 release more. The replacement has been delayed until the 19th of February, however the documentation for the CSV import based on Respondus has been improved and can be found here. The multiple choice and fill-in question types are supported. The import template is not yet available during the pre-release. It will be added as soon as possible. Until that time, you can manually create a .CSV file with the instructions in the support article.

19th of February 2023 -  All trashed data older than 180 days will be permanently deleted
From the 19th of February 2023, we will start removing all data that has been trashed by users, that is older than 180 days. This means removed results, assignments, courses, users and question banks will be recoverable for a maximum of 180 days. This is in line with best practices from other SaaS platforms handling user generated data.

If deleted data is trashed and it is deleted after 180 days, it will automatically delete connected elements as well. For example, if a user is trashed and deleted we also delete the results of that user if the user has any result are deleted as well.

Please note, that users that are currently trashed will not be permanently deleted with retroactive effect. This means that only if users are thrashed after the release of February 19th, the 180 day counter will start. For now, these currently trashed users will remain trashed but will not be permanently deleted, including their results. For the next release, we will align closer with our users to investigate the boundaries and impact of the feature. We do aim to go through with this change in the long run, however we want to better understand the implications first.

This change does not impact any data stored by tools we are integrated with. For example, if you are making use of an integration with a proctoring tool, that tool is also saving data of your users. We do not delete any information that is stored by the proctoring tool.

29th of January 2023 - Added 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net' to the list of URLs that should be whitelisted
The supplier of tool we use for the emoji support is redirecting users to a different CDN. We advise schools to whitelist https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/. You can find the complete overview of URLs that you should whitelist here.

29th of January 2023 - The way question bank assignments are generated when the tag filter is used will be changed
Currently, the behaviour of generating question bank assignments based on a blueprint is different for a randomised assignment compared with an assignment with a fixed order per participant. At this moment we exclude exercises without tags if the tag filters are active in case you are generating a question bank assignment with a fixed order per participant. To make the behaviour consistent with the randomised question selection, we will no longer exclude questions without tags. We will change this in the release of January 29th 2023.

If you are not using tag filters while generating question bank assignments, the change will have no impact on the generating of question bank assignments.

29th of January 2023 - The order of the name in generated PDF's for classes will be changed in the next release
With the 29th of January 2023 release, the pdf name of generated forms will change. The same data will be available in the file but shown in a different order.

The current order: [class]-[form position]-[student number]-[student name].pdf

Will be changed to: [class]-[student name]-[form position]-[student number].pdf

This change allows for easier sorting the forms before printing. This change only has an impact if classes are used.

8th of January 2023 - External ID's will be removed on items that have been copied
In the previous release of December 18th 2022, we announced that we no longer copy the external id when copying an assignment. In the upcoming release of January 8th 2023, we will no longer copy the external_id for all other models with an external id. This will prevent objects with the same external id if an object is copied.

8th of January 2023 - Empty external ID when copying an assignment
From the 7th of January 2023 onwards, we are going to change the way external_id’s are used when an assignment is copied. At this moment, the external_id of the original assignment is being copied as well. As Ans has the philosophy that we never edit the external_id field, we will adjust this in the future. From the release of January 7th 2023, Ans will no longer fill the external_id in case an assignment is copied.

1st of January 2023 - Deprecation of API V1
The API V2 has been released out of beta. The API V1 is deprecated and will be removed on the 1st of January 2023. We encourage institutions that are not yet doing so, to start using the API V2. The documentation for the API V1 has been removed from the platform.

3rd of September 2022 - Combined timeslot date & time into one DateTime field
Assignment timeslots and publication timeslots will have some attributes removed as of September 3rd 2022. Until then, these attributes can still be used as well as the new attributes. At the moment, we have separate attributes for date and time, which causes some confusion with time zones. To address this confusion we have combined the separate date and time fields into one date-time field. 

For more changes see the API V2 documentation.

3rd of July 2022 -The following attributes are deprecated in API V2
With the previous release of July 3rd 2022, all relation ids from list actions were removed. This change will only affect the response from list actions where an array of records were returned. There was no impact on show or patch/put requests for single records. The affected endpoints and relation_ids were:

/api/v2/question_banks/{ question_bank_id}/question_ bank_exercises - assignment_ids

/api/v2/question_banks/{ question_bank_id}/question_ bank_assignments - exercise_ids

/api/v2/courses/{course_id}/ assignments - location_ids

/api/v2/schools/{school_id}/ departments - operator_ids

/api/v2/question_banks - publisher_ids and author_ids

/api/v2/schools/{school_id}/ courses - study_ids and period_ids

/api/v2/schools/{school_id}/ classes - user_ids

/api/v2/courses/{course_id}/ groups - user_ids

3rd of July 2022 -The X-Frame-Options header will be enabled again
With the last release of July 3rd, the X-Frame-Options security header was enabled again. The X-Frame-Options header prevents Ans from being embedded inside an iFrame which protects Ans against clickjacking attacks. We disabled this option in order for Proctorio to work, however, Proctorio has now added an option to run Proctorio on our own domain, which allows us to enable the header again.

From now on, Ans will no longer be rendered inside another website which will most likely only affect LMS. To keep using Ans in combination with an LMS, administrators must select the option inside their LMS to launch Ans in a new window.