May 2025 Release Overview

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This post provides a summary of the upcoming changes including those features which we have highlighted due to their impact. This release is subject to change and we will do our best to keep the information up to date before the release to live on the evening of Thursday the 1st May 2025. For more in depth technical detail additional details are available on the release page.

Qualitative rubrics with no-points options

Instructors can now create and use no-points rubrics for qualitative evaluation. This rubric type allows instructors to assess student work based on criteria and feedback, rather than numerical values.

Instructors can select No Points as a rubric type when creating or generating a rubric. This option is available alongside existing percentage and points-based rubrics. Instructors can also edit rubrics to switch between different rubric types, including percentage, points range, and no points.

Image 1: No Points option is available in the Rubric Type dropdown.

No Points option in the Rubric Type dropdown when creating a rubric

Enhancements to Discussions

There are several enhancements coming to discussions, in an effort to improve the user experience and make discussions more engaging and efficient.

Updated wording: Formerly, discussion contributions were “responses” and “replies.” Now they will be “posts” and “replies.”
Improved input field text:Previously, the text within the input field was “Type a response.” The text within the input field is now “Post a response to the discussion.”
Avatar update: The user’s avatar that was previously beside the input field has been removed, as this increases the area for adding content to the discussion.

Image 1. The button to post a reply was labelled Respond and the user’s avatar was included beside the input field. The text inside the input field instructed the user to type a response.

Image 2. The Respond button is now labelled Post. There’s no avatar included beside the input field and the text within the field instructs users to post a response.

A discussion response, with preview text in the text field reading "Post a response to the discussion" and a Post button in the bottom right

Streamlined response entry:The text field for entering a response is now directly below the discussion topic for a more intuitive experience.
Instructor indicator:When an instructor posts in a discussion thread, an indicator beside their name now identifies them as an instructor.

Image 3. The instructor indicator appears beside the instructor’s name.

A discussion response post, with Instructor and Draft indicators beside the name Emma Harp

Aligned draft indicator:The Draft indicator is now aligned with the user’s name, enhancing clarity.
Enhanced search field:The search field for participant names now includes a magnifying glass icon for better visibility.

Image 4. The magnifying glass icon appears before users select the Participant name field.

The Participation section of a discussion, with a list of participations. Above the list is a search bar with a magnifying glass to the right of the text, "Find participants"

Simplified group discussions:The large banner beneath group discussion posts has been removed. Users can now directly select their group without distraction.

Image 5. The menu for selecting a group is directly after the discussion post.

A group discussion topic, with a dropdown for group names

Known Issues

This update will look to fix an outstanding issue related to users and audio feedback on mobile devices, where audio feedback recorded on Mac OS and Safari web browser are unplayable for students – and crucially, unrecoverable – forcing instructors to record feedback again using an alternative browser: