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:

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

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

2 July, 20262 July, 2026

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.

26 June, 202626 June, 2026

Vevox: June New Features Release

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.

24 June, 202628 July, 2026

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.

15 June, 202615 June, 2026

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.

22 May, 202621 May, 2026

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 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.

10 April, 202610 April, 2026

Vevox: April New Features Release

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

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

New question type: Matching
Introduction of ‘Quick Polls’
Customisation of Countdown Timer Sounds
Timer Display
Improvements to the AI Quiz Generator
PowerPoint Slides Embed in Present View

8 April, 20268 April, 2026

International E-Assessment Awards: 2026 Finalist

Newcastle University’s Digital Exams Service in LTDS is a finalist for Best University Digital Assessment Programme at the 2026 International E-Assessment Awards. Recognised for its ambition, collaboration and impact, the team – Maddie Kinnair, Kimberly May-O’Brien, Susan Barfield, Michelle Waters and Katy-Rose Brennan – were recognised for building a digital exams service that is sustainable, secure, accessible and trusted across the University. Continuously improved through staff and student feedback, the service has transformed assessment delivery at scale while making exam administration and marking more efficient. We’ll hear the result on Tuesday June 9th!

10 March, 202628 July, 2026

Accessible question design hints and tips for our Inspera Digital Drawing Tool

Following on from our last blog all about our new Digital Drawing Tool, we’ve complied some best practice about how to create accessible question and enable students to use this tool effectively.

Hints and Tips following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles.

1. Accessible question design aims to remove irrelevant barriers, do consider the language and instructional text being used. Avoiding instructions which could be ambiguous will greatly help your student’s clarity within their exam. Even if student choice is applied as to whether they use the drawing tool; short, clear instructions would be best practice

Unclear example: ‘access the drawing tool to supplement your answer if you’d like to illustrate a diagram’

Clear example: ‘You may draw a diagram using the drawing tool’

Don’t: use idioms or references which are culturally specific
Do: use short sentence structure

2. Consider students using assistive technology and over-allocate time for drawing. Drawing using the Digital Drawing Tool can generally take longer than text entry, has the exam duration been designed to incorporate sufficient time for use of the tool?

3. Ensure colour use is not a marked requirement. Although within the Digital Drawing Tool interaction, students can draw using the different tools, colours, and shapes; using colour alone could impact students who are colour-blind. Consider contrast options or labelling to ensure colour information is accessible information to all.

Alternate options: have you considered arrangements should your student(s) not be able to use the new Digital Drawing Tool? You could:

4. Provide an alternative response option

Clear example: ‘If you are unable to use the drawing tool, you may provide a written entry of your answer in the text box below’

Further questions? If you have any questions about your Inspera exam, please contact the Digital Exams Team via Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk

Got a quick digital exams question? Why not join our Teams Community about all things Inspera!

27 February, 202627 February, 2026

Inspera Digital Exams – New Digital Drawing Tool Available

Introduction

Inspera have developed a new digital drawing tool which has increased functionality beyond the existing drawing tool. In terms of what is new, 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.

The new Digital Drawing Tool is now available to use on Inspera as of Friday 27th February 2026.

Within this blog post you can find out how you can enable the new drawing tool on your Inspera exam questions in your question sets and the functionality available within the tool.