Tech Bytes: Updates from Gradescope, Hypothesis, VoiceThread, and more

This week’s byte-sized updates:

• Gradescope has introduced a number of new features, including course duplication to facilitate the transfer of assignments from one course to another; anonymous grading and rubric integration to promote more equitable and transparent feedback; additional flexibility for extensions; and a detailed tool status page. More information and resources related to these features are available on the Turnitin Blog.
• Following an external review conducted by the Inclusive Design Research Centre, the LMS integration for Hypothesis has been certified as fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard. The AA standard is the benchmark for many accessibility guidelines and requirements, and includes requirements such as appropriate color contrast; consistent navigational elements; adherence to proper text spacing and sizing; and correct labels and alt text for form fields and images, respectively. More information on the certification is available on the Hypothesis Blog.
• VoiceThread has introduced a new option to prevent Doodles from fading while onscreen, and has reformatted closed captions to appear at the bottom of the slide, with each speaker identified. An updated design for the setup page that appears while building activities in the LMS will be released on February 26.