Inspera Update – June 2025
Colleagues, the focus of this June Inspera update is on future developments. Inspera’s updates to the platform in June have focused on Item Bank developments which we intend to switch on later this year. An overview of Item Banks is provided below.
This newsletter also includes information on pilot access to Inspera Originality and ideas for how Inspera might support the transition to Block delivery.
Item Banks
Item Banks are a significant new development in Inspera that will impact how assessment content is organised and accessed. We have not yet activated Item Banks on the Coventry tenancies as we need to undertake some preparatory work, which is outlined below, and are also waiting full release of the functionality so we can achieve the full benefits of using Item Banks. Item Banks are being rolled out in four stages, this process started in June and will complete in October.
What are Item Banks?
Item Banks are spaces in which assessment content is collated and to which access can be controlled using Organisational Units. Combined with the use of Organisational Units they will provide a structure for giving controlled access to different users, through specific roles and/or access permissions (i.e. view only).
Item Banks will be an important development toward our use of Inspera to manage assessment workflows. They will allow question banks to be shared with different users, with customisable access, and support enhanced data analysis. Use of Item Banks needs to be developed in conjunction with Organisational Units. Preparatory work defining what Item Bank structure will be required and what Organisational Units are needed has commenced.
What will their use mean for me?
- Once Item Banks have been enabled and set up assessment content (i.e. questions and Question Sets) will need to be moved from the ‘unbanked’ space to the Item Bank.
- All staff with Author access through an Organisational Unit will have access to assessment content in the Item Bank.
- Once view only access has been enabled it will be possible to start to give External Examiners access to Inspera.
What preparation is required before Item Banks are activated?
- Agree Item Bank structure
- Agree Organisational Units
- Determine how responsibility for setting Item Banks and Organisational Units will be devolved.
Action you can take to prepare for Item Banks
- As all staff with Author access to an Item Bank will have access to all questions and Question Sets in that Item Bank it is essential that all content is clearly organised. This makes adherence to Naming Conventions important to ensure questions and Question Sets are easily differentiated for purposes of re-use.
- Action: ensure your questions and Question Sets have specific meaningful names (see article)
Inspera Originality pilot
Inspera have provided Coventry University with access to their Inspera Originality tool. This is for exploratory purposes only and is available on a staff only Inspera space. If you have time to try out the tool and provide us with some feedback then please sign up for the introduction session below:
The session ‘Introducing Inspera Originality’ will be held on the 2nd July 2025, 12.00-13.00. If you wish to attend please complete this form: Sign up to Introducing Inspera Originality
For a little more information in Inspera Originality see What is Inspera Originality?
How Inspera Supports Block delivery
could be used to support Block delivery. Drawing on the expectations for assessment design for Block Delivery it maps these to functionality available in Inspera and provides links to existing resources and support for these uses of Inspera.
Useful links and Inspera Support Information
Inspera support links:
- Inspera landing page – Teaching Knowledge Base – https://teach.coventry.domains/inspera/
- Introducing Inspera – OTL Staff Portal
- Inspera Help Centre
- Inspera site for Students
- Includes videos demonstrating the Candidate Dashboard and link to a generic demo test
- Inspera Roll Out Plan 2024-25
