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

Release date	Environment
9th of June 2023	Stage (stage.ans.app)
25th of June 2023	Production (ans.app) Education (edu.ans.app)

Changes to the platform

Released archiving assignments and results out of beta

As our platform accumulates data over time, the importance of archiving data in the platform becomes more apparent. Archiving solutions across educational organisations are extremely diverse in their application.

It is now possible to archive assignments and individual results. After archiving, these cannot be changed. This allows users to create a factual and unchanged archive of all their results in Ans.

We now also prevent changes to the Proctorio integration when an assignment is archived. So now all changes to assignment integrations are prevented when an assignment is archived.

The 'Live' section on the homepage now includes assignments starting within 1 hour

Live

Assignments with a timeslot starting within 1 hour are included in the 'live' section of the homepage and labelled with 'starting soon', making it easier to find an assignment that will be starting soon.

Added the possibility to export "Text with image" descriptions in QTI format

Certain exercise types support a "Text with image" description element. Exporting exercises with this element was not supported in QTI format and showed a generic error message in the background job log.

With this change the user is able to export exercises with "Text with image" description element for existing and newly created exercises. This will prevent the system from showing a generic message to the user in the future.

Added visual indicator of progress per uploaded file on the scan page

Scans We have added a visual indicator of progress per uploaded file on the scan page.

This makes it easier to see which files have been processed and what their status is. For schools uploading multiple assignments at once, this makes it possible to see that all scans for an assignment have been processed and users can start solving scanning issues.

Additional info:

The queue of zip, pdfs and scans has been removed.
New uploads will stay in order in the list, a page refresh now will not change the order.
The upload time is now shows how long ago you have uploaded the file, for easy reference in the queue.

We now always show processing files on the scan page

We now always show processing files on the scan page. Previously, we showed up to 7 of the most recently uploaded files from the past week.

If there are no files being processed, we will show up to 7 of the most recently processed files from the past week.

It is now possible to enter date-times directly into a date-time input field

Entering

Previously, you needed to use the date and time picker to set a timeslot of an assignment. Now you can also type or paste it directly in the input field.

Improved layout of the timeslot creator dialogue

Clipboard

We have made several improvements to the dialogue for creating timeslots, which should make it easier and less tedious to create timeslots.

We now show both full date-time pickers in the dialogue, so that any change requires only a single click
We have made the dialog scrollable so that it is always accessible, also on smaller screens.
We have made sure the 'save' and 'cancel' buttons are always visible.

You can now schedule an assignment for the same target group for different timeslots

Multiple

Previously, it was not possible to create a new timeslot if that group had an already existing timeslot, forcing users to edit the existing timeslot. Now this restriction has been removed, which means that you can set multiple timeslots for the same group in advance.

We now support editing the participants of a timeslot

Based on your feedback, we have reintroduced the ability to change the participants of a timeslot. This was a functionality we previously supported, but which was changed due to technical reasons.

You can now edit the participants instead of creating a new timeslot. For example, if you selected a wrong timeslot or wish to change the participants.

Open beta changes

Beta features are features which can be enabled and disabled on school level. Our available open beta features can be found in the school settings of your school. By default, all open beta features are disabled upon release. Only administrators can view and activate open beta features. As beta features are eventually released as feature which is enabled by default for all users, we encourage administrators to enable and test open beta features on the stage environment. Your feedback can help shape the feature before it is moved out of beta.

Added a line tool to the drawing question

Line

We have added a simple line tool to the drawing question that can be used to draw straight lines. The line tool works similarly to the current pencil tool, except that it draws straight lines when clicking and dragging your mouse.

Activating the new method for guess correction is no longer necessary to use the Mark Calculation Variables beta feature

We have removed the dependency between the features, so that users not yet using the new guess correction can also use the new mark calculation variables.

Custom roles feature additions

No new custom role additions have been added this release.

API changes

Added 'rounded_mark' attribute to Results API endpoint

Expanded the Results API endpoint by adding a new attribute named 'rounded_mark'. This attribute represents the final rounded mark, set according to rounding rules used in the assignment and reflects how the mark is displayed in the platform.

This change allows API users to retrieve rounded mark for each result without needing to retrieve that information from the Assignment endpoint. Now, the rounded mark is calculated and saved in our database as a separate value.

Added the possibility to remove generated forms for a written assignment through the API

Expanded the API by adding the possibility to delete generated forms for a written assignment by adding 2 new endpoints. One endpoint can be used to display which forms already exist for a written assignment and the other can be used to delete them.

This change adds more flexibility to the way users interact with and set up their assignments in Ans. The user is now able to delete unwanted forms, in case they've made an error while setting up a written assignment and the forms for this exam were already generated.

Important changes

No new important changes have been added this release. The overview of all important changes that may require an action from administrators can be found here.

Bug fixes

Fixed borders of non-multiple choice questions in the question bank assignment insights
Previously, the lower border margins of non-multiple choice questions were too small.
When creating or editing a tag on a question bank exercise, all currently used "Key" and "Value" inputs in the question bank are now shown in a scrollable list
We are showing all the currently used options for 'Key' and 'Value' inputs in a scrollable list when creating or editing a tag in a question bank exercise. This makes it easier to find and reuse existing tag keys and values.
Additional info: The 'value' scrollable list still only shows values attributed to the selected key.
Fixed issue where the user menu tooltip changed sizes
The tooltip no longer changes in size every time you hover over the user menu button.
Renamed the worksheet question to 'Spreadsheet'
Renamed the worksheet question to 'Spreadsheet'. It was previously referred to as "spreadsheet" and "worksheet" interchangeably. We've renamed it to "Spreadsheet" in all instances for consistency.
EN/NL (='spreadsheet')
Fixed an issue where the gaps of a fill in question would not copy over correctly when used in combination with the equation editor
The way gaps in need of replacing were identified was not specific enough, and caused problems when using a span tag before one of the gaps. This solution only affects newly created questions.
Fixed an issue with equation editor where the answer field loses focus when clicking the editors keyboard
When using the equation editor in the digital test and using the virtual keyboard for answering questions, the answer field would appear empty until the field was clicked again for editing.
Renamed "webhook" and "webhook endpoints" to "webhooks" in the account settings
Renamed 'Department admin' to 'Department administrator' throughout the platform
Fixed an issue where the filter for studies on the course overview page would not perform proper filtering
The filter on studies for the course overview page would not yield any results when attempting to use any filter option.
Fixed an issue where editing the written assignment seemed possible after generating a PDF
When a single PDF was generated for a written assignment, the menu icons would still appear for the questions, making it seem as if an assignment was still editable.
Fixed an issue where the order of exercises would be incorrect when generating an assignment from a question bank
When generating a question bank assignment with a number of exercises that are linked to some objectives from different domains, the final order of exercises in the resulting assignment would be incorrect. This occurred when one of the linked domains had a higher position in the domains list, but was not part of the selection criteria used when generating the assignment.
The issue only affected question bank assignments under very specific circumstances (i.e. an exercise is linked to multiple objectives from different domains and one of the domains was not part of the selection criteria). Since the order of exercises can be changed manually in already impacted question bank assignments, the severity of this issue remains limited. With the provided fix, every newly generated assignment will have its questions in the correct order.
Fixed an issue when importing a users in a group with a non permitted role
We do not allow users with the role of administrator, department administrator or repro to be added to a course. When using the group import and the email of a user with one of these roles was present, the import would fail. We now show a warning message in the import logs.
Fixed an issue where instructors were unable to create a group if they themselves were in a group
Instructors were unable to create a group if they themselves were part of a group.
Renamed quality to quality indication in question insights
We have renamed "quality" to "quality indication" to better clarify that the shown quality is an indication and that the teacher should investigate further.
Fixed an issue where the scores of automatically graded questions were not recalculated when changing the points from 0 to 1 or higher
If the points of a question were set to 0 before the assignment was taken en the teacher would change the points to 1 or higher after taking, we would not recalculate the scores for the submissions of automatically graded questions.
We have performed an impact analysis and already informed the impacted schools. If you have not received an email, your results were not impacted.
Fixed issue where students could not access the export setting of their result even though this was permitted in the publication settings
After moving the printable export to the settings page of a result, students could no longer access the export, even if the publication settings allowed this. Now, students can get access to the printable export of a result via the settings page.
Fixed an issue when importing an open question via the QTI import
When importing open questions via QTI, in some cases the slider grading method would be enabled and a criterium would be added as well.
Fixed issue where 'busy-text' of buttons would display 'sending' instead of 'saving', 'submitting', or 'updating'
Previously, when you clicked on the save, submit, or update button, the button would change its label to "sending" instead of showing "saving," "submitting," or "updating". This has been fixed.
Added the multiple choice feedback fields when printing the questions with the grading scheme
When printing the assignment with the option "Questions with grading scheme" then the multiple choice feedback fields would not be shown in the print.
Added the "Question locked" translation to the open question when another student is editing the question in a group assignment
When in a group assignment, if a student was editing a question another student was viewing then a message would appear that the translation for the locked question was missing.
Fixed an issue when using the setting 'Restricted access to other pages' in combination with a lockdown browser integration
When combining the "Restricted access to other pages" with a lockdown browser and the configuration of the student would be considered invalid by the integration, then the user would get redirected until an error was displayed.
This solution fixes the issue for all assignments, as such the issue should no longer have an impact.
Removed import button from question bank assignments if the assignment has a label that prevents exercises from being added
The label that prevents question bank assignments from having questions added to it was not applied to the import button, allowing users to import questions when it should not be possible.
Fixed an issue where checked multiple response checkboxes were incorrectly flagged as a correction
If the lines in a multiple response question would exceed the checkbox, then in rare occurrences the answer would be marked as a correction.
Fixed an issue where input fields would allow HTML elements to be entered and parsed
Entering HTML tags in input fields would cause it to be rendered as HTML in certain places.
Fixed an issue where the Turnitin integrations page could not be accessed in an assignment
Previously, the Turnitin settings in an assignment could not be accessed. This has been fixed.
Fixed an issue where the p-value shown in the question bank would differ from the p-value in the assignment
We would calculate the p-value in the question bank based on the points of the question in the question bank, but if the points were altered in the assignment, this would lead to different p-values. We now use the points of the question in the assignment to calculate the p-values in the question bank.
Fixed an issue where the first PDF of the generated forms in an assignment would be marked incorrectly
In rare cases, when shuffle answer options would be enabled. The first PDF of the generated forms (the same one that is used in the preview) would not take the randomisation of the answer options into account when automatically grading the answers.
The solution will only be applied to newly created forms, which is why we have performed an impact analysis and have discovered 5 cases where this issue has occurred. We will contact the administrators early next week (week of June 12th) of the schools that were affected.
Fixed the filtering on the learners overview of a course
Previously, the filtering at the learners overview of a course did not do anything. This has been fixed.
Added missing documentation to the Questions API about the points attribute
The documentation did not display that the points attribute could be updated via the API. This is now shown in the example of the update and create response at https://ans.app/api/docs/index.html#/Questions/post_api_v2_exercises__exercise_id__questions
Fixed issue where the preliminary result refreshes the page continuously
Previously, if a participant did not answer any closed-ended questions in the test, the preliminary result would continuously refresh the page, without calculating the result.
Fixed issue where the countdown timer was not displayed when a participant was assigned to a timeslot that already ended
Previously, the countdown timer was not shown when a user was assigned to multiple timeslots, one of which that had already ended. Now this user is also shown the countdown timer again.
Added 'No comments have been left yet' to comments page in assignment insights if there are no comments
Added 'No comments have been left yet' to comments page in assignment insights if there are no comments.
Fixed an issue where the use of backticks (`) in naming caused the logs to load incompletely
Previously, in some cases, a log would fail to load completely while scrolling due to a technical issue. This has been fixed.
Renamed 'answer options' to 'answer alternatives' in the layout settings of an assignment
Added tooltip for SEB in integrations overview of an assignment
The tooltip informs users that only one lockdown integration can be used at a time when another lockdown solution is active.
We now whitelist the ObjectStore by default in Schoolyear
Previously, we would not add the Ans ObjectStore to the whitelist in Schoolyear automatically, so that when this was not added manually, files and media in an assignment would not be visible to the participant. Now we whitelist our ObjectStore automatically in Schoolyear.
Fixed issue where the most recent chats would appear at the bottom in the chats overview
Previously, chats would be become unsorted after a page-refresh. Now, they are ordered by most recent from top to bottom, as is common in many messaging applications.

Version	Date	Information
v1.0	25-06-2023	Initial version