Support for system failure and alternative solutions
If a system goes down or is experiencing a problem, the following guidance may be helpful in supporting student education and assessment activities.
Current service status and reporting issues
View our information on the current service status of the University’s digital education systems. Please ensure that you report any issues you have through the IT Service Desk. This will help us understand how serious the issue is, so we can put appropriate mitigation measures in place.
Contacting students
If you need to contact your students and/or share teaching materials directly, you can access information about who is enrolled on your module directly via Faculty Services.
Online Assessments and Examinations
If one of the following systems is experiencing an outage or degradation of service, please see advice for staff or contact your SES Assessment teams, and Assessment Functional Managers.
- Gradescope
- Minerva, including Minerva Assignments or Tests
- Top Hat Test and Top Hat Pages
- Turnitin (via Minerva)
- Office 365
Online teaching and learning activities
If one of the following teaching and learning systems is offline, view suggestions for alternative systems, listed under the Teaching and Learning and Assessment Systems table.
- Minerva
- Turnitin
- Collaborate Ultra
- Mediasite
- Microsoft Teams
- Top Hat
- Gradescope
Teaching and Learning and Assessment Systems
The table below shows the system where teaching and learning and assessment activities are undertaken and the alternatives that can be used if the system for that activity is not available.
|
System not available |
Activity |
Alternative options - immediate deadline (short time to set up another option) |
Alternative options - imminent deadline |
|
Minerva |
Share module content |
Use email to temporarily share via a link in OneDrive. You will need an email list for your module cohort. This could be extracted from Banner. |
Temporarily share via the chat feature or a Team in Microsoft Teams. |
|
|
Access Collaborate Ultra |
Create a Video/Audio chat in MS Teams |
If time permits request a Collaborate Ultra session outside of Minerva via the IT service desk.
|
|
|
Deliver a low stake summative, or formative MCQ (Minerva Test) |
Consider rescheduling or deadline extension See advice for staff
|
Alternative delivery could be considered using one of the following:
|
|
|
Deliver a summative MCQ exam (Minerva Test) |
Consider rescheduling or deadline extension See advice for staff |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Turnitin
|
Deliver a summative or formative essay assessment requiring similarity detection |
Consider rescheduling or deadline extension, as no equivalent tools provide similarity detection See advice for staff
|
|
|
|
Deliver an online, summative essay exam (inc open book) requiring similarity detection |
Consider rescheduling or deadline extension, as no equivalent tools provide similarity detection See advice for staff
|
|
|
|
Deliver a formative essay assessment by document submission where similarity detection is not required |
Consider rescheduling or deadline extension |
Alternate delivery could be considered using a Minerva Assignment |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Collaborate Ultra |
Deliver live lecture or seminar |
Access previous lecture capture recordings in Mediasite
Consider delivery as Video/Audio chat in MS Teams – max 100 participants
|
Deliver as a meeting via Microsoft Teams - max 250 participants A Team will need to be set up if not already done so. This can be requested via a specific IT request form available when staff are logged in on IT website
|
|
|
Deliver a tutorial |
Consider delivery as Video/Audio chat in MS Teams – max 100 participants
|
Deliver as a meeting via Microsoft Teams - max 250 participants A Team will need to be set up if not already done so. This can be requested via a specific IT request form available when staff are logged in on IT website
|
|
|
Deliver online student presentations |
Consider rescheduling Allow recorded submissions via Collaborate Ultra or Mediasite
|
Deliver as a meeting via Microsoft Teams - max 250 participants A Team will need to be set up. This can be requested via a specific IT request form
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mediasite |
Recording a lecture or seminar via Personal Capture |
Record the session in Collaborate Ultra and share the recording |
Record in Microsoft Teams and share with students
Record and distribute via Microsoft Stream (max 250 users) |
|
|
Recording a lecture with built-in quiz |
Record the session in Collaborate Ultra and share the recording Time permitting, run a quiz separately in Top Hat or as a Minerva Test |
Top Hat Pages: recordings from Mediasite can be included with questions by adding an iFrame |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Microsoft Teams |
Live communication with a group (Tutorial, seminar, meeting) |
Deliver live in Collaborate Ultra using course room or scheduled session |
|
|
|
Asynchronous communication with a student group |
Post an announcement within the Minerva module |
Outlook email in Office 365
|
|
|
Communicating with an individual (staff or students) |
Outlook email in Office 365 |
|
|
|
Collaborating on documents |
Provide access to document(s) in OneDrive available through Office 365 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top Hat |
Top Hat Classroom: Delivering a live formative or summative quiz in an online session |
Run a session in Collaborate Ultra using the poll feature |
Consider using a Mediasite recording with built in quiz Top Hat Pages: assign the session to students as “homework” so they can respond asynchronously Deliver as a Minerva Test
|
|
|
Top Hat Test Delivering a live formative or summative exam assessment in Top Hat test |
Consider applying extra time to the current test or re-scheduling See advice for staff |
Assign the content in Top Hat Pages for students to complete asynchronously |
|
|
Top Hat Pages Delivering an asynchronous formative or summative exam assessment |
Consider applying extra time to the current test or re-scheduling See advice for staff |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gradescope |
Delivering an asynchronous test |
Consider rescheduling or deadline extension See advice for staff
|
Consider using Top Hat Test or Top Hat Pages
Consider using a Minerva Test
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Library search |
Search for library and online resources |
Search via Google Scholar or other search engines. |
|
|
OpenAthens |
Access online resources |
Go directly to the publisher website using one of the browsers in Desktop Anywhere or the new Remote Desktop |
Try searching again later |
|
Online Publishers |
Access an online resource available with a specific publisher |
|
Try searching again later |
Further information is also provided here
For up-to-date Minerva communications, including disruption to service, you are advised to sign up to the Minerva blog.
Library resources and search
Alerts will be displayed on the Library web pages if there are any issues with online Library systems. Report Library resource or search issues through the Library contact form.
Online guidance
Further guidance to support you to teach and assess online is available on the Digital Practice website. This includes information on online learning content and teaching materials you can make available to your students to support them with their learning and on the delivery of online assessments.