What's new in Cadmus?

An overview of new features, bug fixes, and improvements released in the Cadmus Teacher and Student apps

Check out our latest release, or view previous releases:

✨ November 2023

New Teacher Environment


Cadmus has a brand new Teacher environment, providing a one-stop shop for the entire assessment process — from creating assessment instructions to marking and providing feedback.

We have also combined Assessment Reports in a new Integrity Assurance page to provide more insight for teachers when looking into cases of potential academic misconduct or validating students who have made a genuine assessment attempt.

Feel free to read more about the new updates here, or watch our video on using the Integrity Assurance page here.

 

✨ August 2023

Respondus Lockdown Browser in Exams


Respondus Lockdown Browser can now be used with Cadmus exams for select universities.

It prevents students from:

  • Accessing other applications
  • Viewing external URLs
  • Copying and pasting content from outside the exam
  • Taking screenshots during the exam

Having Lockdown Browser enabled also provides added security for exams, tests, and other high-stakes timed assessments — especially when students bring their own devices to complete digital exams.

If you'd like to enable this at your university, please contact Support here. Otherwise, if it is already enabled at your university, teachers can find more information on adding it to their exams here.

Students may also find more information and prepare for completing their exams with Lockdown Browser here.

 

✨ May 2023

Cadmus Exams

exam-timings-release-notes

We've made it quicker and more intuitive to set up exams and tests in Cadmus, with plenty of new settings and customisation options to suit your assessment needs. 

When setting up an exam, teachers can:

  • Run live exams, where students sit the exam at the same time
  • Run window exams, where students can choose when to sit a timed exam within a larger window
  • Set up auto submission or a restricted late allowance for students
  • Add reading time to encourage students to review instructions before they start writing
  • Manage special considerations (extra time, alternative exam sittings, or deferred students) in a dedicated area
  • Control options for referencing, written feedback return, or PDF submissions sent to students when needed

Learn more about setting up exams for Canvas users or setting up exams for Blackboard, Moodle, or D2L users.

 

Students will also benefit from clearer time notifications and an intuitive flow for completing exams and tests. Learn more about the student experience for completing exams here.

student-exam-release

 

✨ March 2023

Bug fixes and improvements

  • Teachers and students can add hanging indents to instructions and submissions (body and references) using the formatting toolbar, even if a referencing style hasn't been set in the assessment instructions.

 

✨ February 2023

New template gallery

templates@2x

There's a new experience for setting up assessments in Cadmus, starting with our brand-new Template Gallery. With 100+ new templates, it's easier than ever to add more scaffolding and support to an assessment. Teachers will find three types of templates in the gallery: 

  • Common assessment types for all major disciplines.
  • Formative academic skills tasks to support targeted skill development.
  • Cadmus onboarding activities to help students familiarise themselves with the platform.

Learn more about using and customising templates.

 

Reuse past assessments

past-assessment

Creating a new assessment in Cadmus just got easier for teachers returning to the platform. In just a few clicks, teachers wanting to reuse assessments from past semesters can duplicate their instructions (complete with Resources and Settings), make any updates, and release it to their class.

Learn more about reusing past assessments.

 

Sync Canvas sections as Cadmus marking groups

sync-sections@2x

Canvas users can save time on assessment management admin with a quick and easy way to create marking groups. Automatically sync any Sections already set up in Canvas into Cadmus to turn into marking groups — perfect for Canvas users with large marking teams, or marking according to tutorial or workshop groups.

Learn more about syncing Canvas sections as marking groups.

 

Bug fixes and improvements

  • We've resolved an issue where the duration of a due date extension was not showing in the class list.
  • Teachers can add a note to uploaded resources, providing students with more contextual information about how and when to engage with additional materials.
  • We've added an option when setting assessment Requirements to allow students to make late resubmissions, without setting an extension in Cadmus. We only recommend enabling this setting if your university grants automatic extensions to students. 

 

✨ October 2022

Equations

equations-full

We're excited to support even more assessments in STEM and Business with the release of Equations in Cadmus. Teachers and students can now insert equations using the on-screen keyboard or with LaTeX, making it easy to weave equations and formulas into submissions and instructions, no matter the experience level.

Learn more about equations for teachers or equations for students.

 

Bug fixes and improvements

  • We've resolved an issue where Canvas users were seeing submissions incorrectly marked as late in the Gradebook after marking via Cadmus + Turnitin.
  • To provide teachers with better information while marking, we've added Student ID (SIS ID) and word counts to the footer on each page of a student's submission.
  • We've added in-app onboarding for educators, to help new users understand the core features of the platform.

 

✨ August 2022

Student IDs in the class liststudent-id@2x

Teachers can now see Student IDs (SIS IDs) while managing their class in Cadmus, as well as in Assessment Reports and Grade Downloads. Simply Sync the class list to pull through the updated student information into an existing assessment. Teachers can also search the class list using a student's name, ID, or email address.

 

Bug fixes and improvements

  • We've improved our notifications in-app to make it more obvious to students if they lose internet connectivity while working in Cadmus, helping them get back online quickly during major assessments and exams.
  • Withdrawn students in the class list will be sorted at the end of the class list by default, and excluded from any bulk class management actions like contacting and applying extensions.

 

✨ July 2022

Improved Class Management

contact-studentsWe know how much assessment administration can take teachers away from supporting their students. That’s why we’ve made a heap of improvements to the My Class page in Cadmus, simplifying a range of class management actions in the platform.

It's now easier than ever for teachers to:

  • Add extensions for multiple students at once
  • Quickly move students between marking groups
  • Add custom tags to track submissions and communicate across marking teams
  • Filter by student progress (or lack of!)
  • Contact groups of students via email to provide proactive support
  • Get an accurate picture of enrollments with withdrawn students indicated in the class list
  • Track if students have viewed feedback (when marking with Turnitin) and when students were last active in Cadmus

Learn more about managing your assessments in Cadmus.

✨ May 2022

Tables

tables-socialWe're excited to release Tables in the Cadmus editing environment, making it easy to structure and organise information in submissions.

With Tables, teachers and students can:

  • Create clean and simple tables to meet common referencing styles.
  • Use familiar table formatting functionality like captions, footnotes, colours, borders and merged cells.

Learn more about tables for teachers or tables for students.

Code Blocks & Inline Code

code-socialTeachers and students can now add code directly into Cadmus, expanding the range of assessment types supported by the platform for Engineering and IT.

With Code, teachers and students can:

  • Add code blocks and inline code snippets into instructions, notes, and submissions.
  • Enable syntax highlighting and line numbers in line with assessment needs.

Learn more about code for teachers or code for students.

Self-service Assessment Reports

report-socialTeachers can now download Assessment Reports directly from the Cadmus Teacher Environment, providing quick access to learning analytics to understand cohort activity and support academic integrity. Simply generate a report from the My Class page and receive it via email — no need to contact Cadmus Support!

Learn more about using Assessment Reports for academic integrity.

Self-service Activity Reports

activity-report-social

Teachers can also download individual student Activity Reports directly from the class list, providing quick insight into learning processes and submission construction. Navigate to a student from the My Class page, and access the report online via the Student Options menu.

Learn more about accessing academic integrity reports in-app.

 

Bug fixes and improvements

  • We've added the ability for teachers to grant extensions for dates in the past, for cases where extensions are approved after students have already submitted late.

✨ March 2022

Free resizing of images

drag-resize-image@2xOur most requested student feature from 2021! Teachers and students have more control over images inserted into Cadmus with flexible resizing and alignment. Simply drag the corner handles on an image to make it bigger or smaller. And click through the alignment options to suit your text.

You can also:

  • Drag image files into the editor to insert them.
  • Add and align captions to an image.
  • Resize the image using the presets (fit to text, original size, banner size).

Learn more about images for teachers or images for students.

Bug fixes and improvements

  • Fixed a bug where submissions were redirecting incorrectly from Cadmus to Canvas SpeedGrader when anonymous marking was enabled. This fix requires LMS Admins to add a Canvas API Key for Cadmus.
  • Fixed a bug where some Blackboard users were seeing duplicated students in the Cadmus class list.

 

✨ December 2021

Add hyperlinks to instructions and submissions

hyperlinks@2xTeachers and students are now able to add hyperlinks in Cadmus. This makes it easy for: 

  • Teachers to integrate online resources within the written task instructions.
  • Students to embed links to external sources in their submission.
  • Students to add links into the Notes section to easily track and manage research and references.

Learn more about links for teachers or links for students.

This paves the way for deeper linking of Cadmus Manual articles and uploaded resources within Instructions for teachers.

Bug fixes and improvements

  • Updated the text editor in the Teacher Environment to the ProseMirror framework, bringing it in line with the Student Environment.
  • Improved the behaviour of nested lists in the teacher and student text editors.
  • Fixed a bug to ensure that student submissions are not sent to Canvas Speedgrader when Turnitin Feedback Studio is selected as the marking tool.
  • Fixed a bug where hanging indent formatting was not being applied in PDF submissions sent to Canvas Speedgrader.

 

✨ October 2021

Integration with Canvas SpeedGrader

speedgraderOur new integration with Canvas SpeedGrader gives Canvas users a new option for marking Cadmus assessments, creating a consistent feedback experience for academics, markers, and students. When setting up assessments in Cadmus, teachers can now:

Anonymous marking

Assessments can now be configured to hide or show student names during marking in the Cadmus class list and chosen marking tool. This gives teachers the flexibility to mark submissions in a way that aligns with assessment policy. Anonymous marking is available for:

Learn more about anonymous marking.

More academic support in Cadmus Manual

We’ve added new guides into Cadmus Manual, covering key stages of the assessment journey. The articles have been created in collaboration with academic skills teams and learning designers, connecting students with a wealth of online university resources.

Bug fixes and improvements

  • Improved the responsiveness of the formatting toolbar for Teachers and Students.