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Vocareum provides online environments for practical learning and coursework. This guide explains how to access your activities, work in a lab, submit assignments and find help. Follow your module instructions for the tools and assessment requirements that apply to you.

Key features

• Practical environments can include notebooks, coding tools, virtual machines and cloud labs, depending on your course.
• Assignments can include submission, grading and feedback tools configured by your teaching team.
• Some labs display session timers or resource budgets so you can monitor the time or capacity available.

Accessing Vocareum

Through your course platform

1. Open your module in Canvas.
2. Select the Vocareum link from the left hand side menu. This normally opens the relevant workspace.
3. Use this route each time your course requires it. You do not need to create a separate Vocareum account for access through an integrated course platform.

Missing login instructions or an access code

Contact your teaching team if the instructions or access code are missing or do not work. For direct accounts, use the forgotten password option on the login page if needed. Course-platform users should use their course sign-in route.

Working on an assignment

1. Read the task, deadline and submission requirements before starting. Identify which files or outputs you need to hand in.
2. Open the supplied files. In notebook environments, editable course files are commonly in work; voc is read-only.
3. Complete the activity and test your work using the tools specified in the instructions.
4. Save before submitting or closing. In the Vocareum code editor, use Ctrl+S on Windows or Cmd+S on Mac.

Submitting work and checking feedback

For graded assignments, use Submit when your work is ready. Saving or running code alone does not submit it. Check the result of the submission action before leaving.

Where enabled, review Grades and the Grading Report. Results may also appear in your course dashboard or course platform. Your teaching team determines when feedback is released.

Before a deadline, check that you have included every required part. If you are unsure whether submission succeeded, record the message shown and contact your teaching team promptly. Follow module rules on repeat attempts and late submissions.

An assignment is locked or unavailable

If a message says to access the assignment through your course platform, return to that platform and open its assignment link. For unpublished activities or a course that has ended, contact your teaching team.

You need help with the task or your grade

Contact your instructor or teaching assistant. They set the assignment requirements and grading. Explain the task, what you tried and the feedback or error you received.

Technical or accessibility problems

For platform issues, consult the student help centre. For ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ account or course-platform sign-in issues, contact the ICT Service Desk. Tell your teaching team if a technical or accessibility problem affects a deadline, and ask about an alternative way to complete the task.

Include your course and assignment name, the activity link, the time of the issue, your browser and the exact error. Add a screenshot if helpful, removing passwords and unrelated personal information.

Vocareum is a coding platform for use in teaching, learning and assessment. The platform is a good option for code needs with higher compute needs, for example Machine Learning and Data Sciences (MLDS) modules. Your EdTech lab can help determine if you need this option.

Key features

• Code related to teaching content.
• Space to complete learning activities.
• Assessments which include a need for coding: code challenges for students to work on, with some automated feedback and marking, plus feedback.
• Users: focused on Machine Learning and Data Sciences modules requiring higher compute resources.
• Higher compute resource needs.
• The platform supports use of a wide range of IDEs :
  • Visual Studio Code
  • RStudio
  • JupyterLab

How to access

• To access Vocareum from within Canvas, follow the link in the module.
• Only students enrolled on the module will be able to access the teaching and learning content for that module.
• Only staff recorded in Canvas as teaching on a module will be able to add and manage content.

The licence includes:

• Access to Vocareum for teaching, coursework, and assessments
• Shared compute resources providing up to 4 vCPUs and 12 GB RAM per environment
• Up to two concurrent containers per user
• Access to GenAI resources through the Vocareum AI Gateway
• Centrally managed cloud infrastructure and learning environments

Additional storage, GPU resources, larger environments, or dedicated compute capacity may be available where there is a teaching requirement and will incur more cost to your department, please contact your EdTech Lab for further information.

Student Numbers and Usage

To manage costs effectively, the university licence covers a maximum number of student users each academic year:

• 2026/27: up to 2,679 students
• 2027/28: up to 2,679 students
• 2028/29: up to 2,679 students

If platform usage exceeds these limits, additional charges may be incurred by the university. For this reason, when requesting use of Vocareum, course teams should provide an estimate of expected student numbers.

Compute Budgets

Vocareum charges are based on both student usage and consumption of computing resources.

Course teams are expected to:

• Set appropriate budgets for lessons, assignments, and activities
• Monitor student consumption of compute resources
• Use Vocareum's budgeting tools to manage costs

This helps ensure resources are available to students while keeping expenditure within the university's agreed funding limits.

How Usage Is Measured

Vocareum pricing is based on Monthly Active Users (MAUs).

A Monthly Active User is any unique user who:

• Logs in to Vocareum, and
• Accesses an active course resource at least once during a calendar month

A user is counted only once per month, regardless of how many courses, assignments, or roles they have within the platform.

Important Information for Course Teams

• Platform costs are reviewed and reconciled based on overall institutional usage.
• Additional charges may apply if licensed student numbers or compute allocations are exceeded.
• Courses with unusually high storage, GPU, or compute requirements should discuss their needs with their EdTech team and the Digital Education Services team before teaching begins.
• Estimating student numbers and expected resource consumption during service onboarding helps ensure sufficient capacity is available for your module.