Image cropping for profile picture and personalised avatars for enhanced recognition.

We are pleased to announce two upcoming features in itslearning: image cropping for profile pictures and avatars in itslearning. This makes the platform feel more personal for users, while giving administrators better tools to manage user images across the system. 

Profile pictures and avatars appear alongside all user contributions, including announcements, comments, submissions, and course cards, making it easier to recognise colleagues, students, and collaborators at a glance.

What are profile pictures and avatars?

Profile pictures: Teachers and students can upload an image to represent themselves, and they can easily crop it to adjust the visible area of their profile picture.

Avatars are pre-defined illustrations that users can select as profile picture instead of uploading their own. Administrators can assign avatars to users who have not uploaded profile pictures. The benefit for schools is that the default grey silhouettes are replaced with more engaging and recognisable content.

For School Administrators

System administrators can manage avatar settings at the profile level, applying rules to groups like students, teachers, or staff.

They can also enable automatic avatar assignment for newly created users, ensuring everyone gets an avatar without manual work. For existing users, sysadmins can assign random avatars to anyone who hasn’t uploaded their own image, while those with custom pictures keep them.

Miksi näillä päivityksillä on merkitystä

The introduction of the image cropping for profile pictures and avatars for teachers and students addresses several key needs in digital learning environments:

• Recognition: Quickly identify who contributed to discussions, announcements, and collaborative work
• Personalisation: Express individual identity within the learning platform
• Engagement: Create a more welcoming and human-centred digital environment
• Accessibility: All tools are designed to work seamlessly with keyboard navigation and screen readers

Aloittaminen

Image cropping for uploaded profile pictures and avatars will be available soon in itslearning. Then, teachers and students can begin personalising their profiles.

To learn more about managing profile pictures and avatars, please read our support articles:

• Profile Pictures and Avatars - Teachers and students

• Profile Pictures and Avatars - System Administrator Guide