August 2025 technology updates
1 August 2025Image by Mohamed Hassan on Pxhere
In our technology updates we announce the latest developments in UoA supported tools for teaching and learning.
On this page
Google Gemini and NotebookLM
These AI tools from Google have been freely available for anyone to use since 2023 via the web browser and mobile apps. However, the University has recently extended our Google for Education license so that staff and students have extra data protection while using them. This means that our data is not used to train its LLM, thus preventing sensitive information from becoming ‘discoverable’ by the public.
Learn more about these tools and how to use your data securely by visiting our page on Google Gemini and NotebookLM.
MS Copilot
Introducing the Memory feature
Microsoft Copilot now includes a Memory feature designed to provide more tailored and context-aware responses, helping educators personalise AI assistance based on their preferences and workflows.
How it works
Copilot Memory remembers important details from your interactions, such as your use of Canvas or preferred teaching styles. You can explicitly instruct it to remember preferences, such as accessible slide templates.
Custom Instructions let you guide Copilot’s tone and response style, for example, to use plain English or structure answers with headings and bullet points.
Why it matters for teachers
Memory transforms Copilot from a general assistant into a pedagogically aware partner, reducing repetitive setup, speeding content creation, and aligning outputs with your teaching philosophy and institutional context.
Examples
Copilot can remember your preferred collaboration tools and suggest them when planning workshops.
You control what it remembers, with options to view, edit, delete, or disable memory at any time.
Try it out
Use prompts to help build your instructions, like:
- “Ask me 5 questions about how I design learning experiences.”
- “Ask me 10 questions to understand my teaching philosophy.”
To find Memory and instructions, in MS Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com), once signed in with your UoA credentials, look for the three dots in the top-right and select ‘Settings’:
Figure 3: From Microsoft Copilot’s three dots drop-down menu, select ‘Settings’.
Figure 4: Copilot Memory settings is in the Personalization section.
FeedbackFruits
More flexible publishing of feedback
FeedbackFruits has introduced enhanced flexibility in how feedback is published. Teachers can now release feedback on a student-by-student or group-by-group basis, allowing better alignment with staged course processes. Traditional full-activity feedback publication remains available as before.
Figure 1: Standard publication of a full activities feedback is still possible in the same way as previously.
To publish feedback individually, navigate to the student’s feedback in the ‘Received reviews’ step, where a ‘Publish now’ button will appear. This feature supports deadlines and manual feedback publication but is disabled when feedback is set to be immediately visible to students.
Refer to Feedback Fruits release notes for more details.
Figure 2: To publish on an individual basis, view an individual students feedback in the ‘Received reviews’ step, where you will see a ‘Publish now’ button.
Panopto
‘Save as’ feature
Panopto now allows you to save a copy of a recording to the original or a different folder, and with or without preserving any sections of the video that may have been trimmed.
View Panoto’s full instructions on how to use ‘Save As’ in the editor.
Figure 1: Select ‘Save as’ from the drop-down menu under the three dots at the top of the editor window.
Figure 2: Select a destination folder from the drop-down list.
Figure 3: Choose whether to discard trimmed sections, slides, captions, and comments.
Figure 4: Panopto shows the copied video as a shorter version alongside the original.
Perusall
Interactive training webinars – Perusall Academy
Elevate your Perusall skills with the Perusall Academy webinar series, returning in August 2025. These dynamic sessions guide you through using Perusall and its latest features in your courses.
Attend all three webinars in any order and earn a Perusall Academy Certificate of Completion.
Details are in the TeachWell Calendar:
Looking for a recording? Check out the Perusall webinars page.
We hope these feature improvements will help you improve student engagement and gain insights into your cohort’s progress.
As always, should you have any questions or require assistance, seek support from IT Connect and Ranga Auaha Ako, Learning and Teaching Design Team. We’re here to help.
Disclaimer: The information in this blog post is accurate as of 1 August 2025. Please note that the features and updates mentioned above are based on available information at the time of writing, and there may have been further developments since then.
See also
Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) monthly forum
All staff at the University are invited to join the monthly forum. See the details for the Zoom link, agenda, and past recordings.
Image credit: SamOcean on Pixabay