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Canvas Assignments: SpeedGrader improvements

Improvements have been released to Canvas assignments that use SpeedGrader and Rubrics. Visually it will look slightly different, but all previous functionalities will remain, with some additional features available.

Guidance for how to use these can be found on Canvas Assignment page of the Learning and Teaching website

Details of the improved functionalities are as follows:

SpeedGrader

The Document Viewer will load much faster, which is particularly beneficial to modules with large cohorts of students, where there is a long list of assignment submissions.

When navigating through the submissions via the drop-down menu, an eye icon will appear to indicate which submission you are currently looking at in the Doc Viewer.

The assignment submission status now appears in SpeedGrader, allowing you to flag a submission as Excused, Late, Extended etc.

When using Sections to mark, the process of selection the section has been improved. It is less fiddley to click on the right section, as the section menu remains visible until you click apply. It is also possible to look at multiple sections at the same time.

Detailed information can be found on How do I use SpeedGrader with Performance and Usability Upgrades.

Enhanced Rubrics

Canvas Rubrics have a few improvements that will help with the usability when creating rubrics and marking submissions.

It is now possible to alter how the rubric is viewed. There is the classic view you will be familiar with, alternatively you can choose to have the rubric displayed horizontally or vertically.

You can now import and export Rubrics, including exporting completed rubrics, that have been used to mark assignments.

Rubrics can be created and stored in draft status, and you can archive old rubrics when they are no longer required.

Further information can be found on the Canvas Enhanced Rubrics guidance.

Student Assignment Enhancements  

There are also improvements to the students view when submitting an assignment. As before, the submission page clearly displays the due date, the link to the Assignment Brief (which is added when the assignment is set up), the number of allowed attempts and the rubric is visible if one has been attached. A new feature is the Progress status bar, which will update when the student has submitted their assignment and then again when feedback has been released. When the student is looking at their Grades and Feedback, if a Rubric has been used, this will be displayed by default, clearly indicating the levels the student has attained against each criterion.

Up to date guidance on these improvements are available on the ASK website and more details can be found on What is Assignment Enhancements?

If you have any queries or need further guidance, please contact ltds@newcastle.ac.uk.  

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Updates to Vevox PowerPoint Add-In

Vevox have made some useful updates to the PowerPoint Add-In as part of their June 2026 update. You can find out about more of the recent updates made to the Vevox dashboard on the blog post Vevox: June New Features Release. These updates help make things clearer, easier to find and better connected!

There are six key updates which include:

  1. New ‘View slide’ option.
  2. New location of the leaderboard option
  3. New functionality for clearing results from a question slide
  4. Deleting polls function change
  5. PowerPoint slide decks will ‘remember’ which Vevox session they were previously linked with
  6. New functionality around ‘switching sessions’.

Find out more about each of these updates in the rest of this blog post.

Continue reading “Updates to Vevox PowerPoint Add-In”
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Inspera New Digital Drawing Tool

We are excited to share a new Digital Drawing Tool is available in Inspera, which has increased functionality compared to the existing legacy tool. From 2026-27 academic year, the existing tool will be removed in place of the new drawing tool only.

How is the tool different from the existing tool? 

Previously, our team would enable the existing drawing tool across your entire test (if you selected this on your Digital Exam Form), where it would be available for students to use in any/all essay questions in your question set. The new tool allows you to enable the drawing tool at a question level, rather than at a test level. Colleagues can choose what questions they wish to enable the drawing tool on for their students to use in their Inspera digital exam. 

Continue reading “Inspera New Digital Drawing Tool”
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Vevox: June New Features Release

Vevox's logo

Vevox have made a series updates to their features in their June product update. 

Find out more about the new features available and improvements to existing features, including: 

  • User interface updates 
  • Word cloud analysis 
  • Leaderboard flexibility  
  • Correct answer update/amendment ability 
  • Word cloud questions answer restriction ability 
  • Rich text editor improvements.
Continue reading “Vevox: June New Features Release”
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International E-Assessment Awards: 2026 WINNER!

We are delighted to announce that the LTDS Digital Exams Team won the award for Best University Digital Assessment Programme at the 2026 International E-Assessment Awards. The award recognises universities that have implemented a digital assessment programme or initiative at scale, transforming and supporting both academic excellence and the student experience. Congratulations to the team: Maddie Kinnair, Kimberly May-O’Brien, Susan Barfield, Michelle Waters and Katy-Rose Brennan.

You can find out more about the award on the eAssessment website or, for more information on digital exams, contact LTDS at digital.exams@newcastle.ac.uk. 

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Introducing the My Progress system for Academic Advising

As part of the University’s new approach to Academic Advising, a new system called My Progress will be introduced from September 2026.

My Progress is being developed to support students, Academic Advisers and Directors of Academic Advising. The system will bring together relevant information, tools and records in one place to support more informed and meaningful advising conversations. It will help colleagues access key student information, support advising interactions, record meetings, and enable students to reflect on their progress, skills and future goals.

The introduction of My Progress also provides an opportunity to simplify the digital tools used to support Academic Advising. Rather than asking students and colleagues to move between separate systems for engagement information, reflection activity and advising records, My Progress will provide a more joined-up space designed around the needs of the new Academic Advising Framework.

As part of this change, the University’s learning analytics system, NULA, will be decommissioned for colleagues and students. Relevant engagement data will be available through My Progress to help support informed advising conversations. Bringing this information into My Progress will help advisers consider engagement alongside other relevant student information, supporting a more holistic view of the student and their current context.

NU Reflect will also be decommissioned for UG and PGT students. Reflection functionality will be available through My Progress, allowing students to write reflections and reflect against the new Skills and Attributes Framework. This means reflective activity will sit alongside other areas that support advising, including student goals, skills development and advising conversations. Colleagues and PGR students will retain access to NU Reflect for uses that are outside the scope of Academic Advising.

Overall, My Progress is intended to provide a clearer and more consistent digital space for Academic Advising. It will support students and advisers to prepare for conversations, review relevant information, identify next steps, and make better use of reflection, skills and engagement information as part of the advising process.

Further information about My Progress is available on the Learning and Teaching site. Resources, FAQs and step-by-step guides will continue to be added as the system develops and functionality is confirmed. Student-facing resources will also be made available online. Training webinars will run from September 2026 to support colleagues in using My Progress as part of Academic Advising.

We recognise that colleagues may have questions about what this means for existing processes. If you have any questions, please contact ltds@newcastle.ac.uk.

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Vevox Updates May 2026

Within this blog post, the Vevox @ Newcastle Team share details around the success of our Vevox adoption since its launch and details of a new User Interface coming in June 2026. 

Vevox's logo

Vevox Adoption 

Vevox has been our Audience Interaction System (AIS) at Newcastle University for coming up 3 years in August 2026. The Vevox @ Newcastle Team spent some time looking at our usage statistics with our Customer Success Manager and are delighted with its adoption during this time.  

Newcastle University is performing significantly above both the overall sector average and the Large University benchmark across the measured adoption period, consistently outperforming expected adoption levels. This strong early growth demonstrates a highly successful institutional rollout, with Vevox gaining traction quickly across academic staff and becoming embedded into teaching and learning practices faster than is normally seen. 

In the past year we have seen a 20% increase in the number of new Vevox adopters. Vevox users at Newcastle have also indicated a Net Promoter Score of 8 out 10 regarding satisfaction of Vevox usage.  

New User Interface 

There is an update planned for the Vevox User Interface (UI). Within the poll creation area, you will notice a different use of space. You can still see a list of all the content in your session, but there is now more emphasis on previewing what that content looks like. This makes it easier to manage your presentation and stay focused on what your audience will see. 

This update will be rolling out to your dashboard on Sunday 7th June from 6am UTC. For more information, please see the Vevox release information about this. 

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Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2026

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) takes place on the 3rd Thursday of May each year. Individuals are encouraged to take an hour to experience first-hand the impact of digital accessibility (or lack thereof). This year GAAD takes place today on Thursday 21st May 2026.

Within this blog post, you can find out about asynchronous and synchronous content available to you to help you understand how to ensure your practice is accessible.

This blog content is relevant to colleagues in all roles across our University.

How can I increase my awareness and understanding of digital accessibility?

Asychronous resources

There are plenty of resources you can use to get started and learn about how you can make further considerations around accessibility and encourage others to do the same.

You can check out the following resources available at Newcastle: 

Accessibility in Practice Webinar

As well as engaging with the online asynchronous recordings, you can also sign up to attend our Accessibility in Practice online webinar to learn more about how you can ensure your digital content is accessible in practice. The next session is being delivered on Wednesday 1st July, 15:00-16:30. If you can’t make this session, please select the ‘declare interest‘ button so that you can be notified when a further session is added.

Additional resources

The University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team also deliver a Disability and Accessibility session aims to provide colleagues with baseline knowledge and skills to effectively support disabled students and colleagues at Newcastle University.