The June update to Blackboard brings delegated grading to Ultra courses. Renamed “parallel marking” in Ultra, this feature is designed to minimize bias when paired with anonymous grading. Parallel marking is a valuable tool for high stakes assessments, allowing faculty to evaluate student submissions with two graders and reconcile the results for a final grade.

A new enhancement to the Courses page provides users with an option to view courses in list or grid mode. Stock images randomly display for each course card when grid mode is active. The banner image can be replaced by faculty who would prefer to personalize the course visual. While image does not yet appear in the Ultra course itself, it is an early step toward course personalization.

Other enhancements coming to Ultra on June 7 include:

• The Organizations page will provide better tools to access content including list and grid view, favorites, and filters. Leaders will be able to upload banner images to organization cards to personalize the community experience.

• During the SP2019 semester, the calendar tool was updated to allow sharing content with external services. In June, users can import external calendars, such as Google, to their Blackboard calendar.

As a separately hosted service, Collaborate will be updated about one week earlier. The June release will feature a session inactivity reminder. If attendees in a session are not active after a time, the session ends. This includes activity such as using audio, raising a hand, sharing content, and so on. Inactive attendees in the session see and hear a reminder that the session is open and will close in a minute before they are removed. Additionally, moderators will be able to share files with one or more breakout groups.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around June 11th and pushed to production around July 11th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access.

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection

• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues | About Ultra

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

As part of the recent initiative to convert all staff to Duo (umbc.edu/go/duo), the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) will be automatically requiring Duo for new employees, starting Wednesday, June 5, 2019. This does not affect any current staff, who should already be enrolled, albeit manually by DoIT this past year. However, it does assure all future employees will be using an effective IT security practice.

Generally, this year’s rollout of Duo to all current staff went very smoothly, and our Technology Support Center (TSC) fielded fewer calls or tickets than expected. Similarly, while UMBC was the first to purchase Duo in the USM, both UMB and UMCP now require all faculty and staff to use Duo and experienced minimal issues. Accordingly, DoIT’s goal is for all current and future UMBC employees to be enrolled in Duo, which we’re close to having now.

Finally, DoIT wants to remind all faculty with PeopleSoft access (virtually all faculty) that they will be required to use Duo by Monday, September 30, 2019. Note: The original 9/1/19 deadline was revised to get past the hectic start of term and 10th day add/drop date.

Again, more information about Duo is available at umbc.edu/go/duo. If you have further questions, please contact the Technology Support Center by either submitting a support request atmy.umbc.edu/help or calling (410) 455-3838.

Using Open Educational Resources (OER) is not just about inexpensive textbook alternatives, it is about advancing student retention, grades, and graduation rates. Given UMBC’s Mission and Vision to “advance knowledge, economic prosperity, and social justice,” OER is a movement well situated to do just that.

With the OER movement declared by EDUCAUSE as a key strategic priority in 2019, and now one in ten faculty nationally reported as using OER, there is an increase in quality OER textbooks and course materials available to review and adopt.

In the recent Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey in Florida, researchers found that students used a variety of cost saving methods to avoid paying the full price of course material costs, such as renting copies for the semester and sharing with a classmate. When students were asked about the academic impact of textbook costs, 64.2% reported not purchasing the required course materials, 42.7% enrolled in fewer courses, 35.6% “earned a poor grade because they could not afford to buy the textbook,” and 22.9% dropped a course due to textbook cost (Florida Virtual Campus, 2019, pp. 13-14).

While lowering course material costs is certainly a goal of the OER movement, the greater purpose is to ensure student academic success. Researchers at the University of Georgia (Colvard, et. al. 2018) who examined student performance from 2010 to 2016 in eight undergraduate courses with both OER course sections and non-OER course sections found that student grades in the OER sections increased for all student populations considered (full-time, part-time, white, non-white, and Pell-grant recipients). At the same time, the rate of students who received grades of D, F, or W (Withdrawal), decreased for part-time, white, non-white, and Pell-grant recipients in the OER sections. It is significant to note that traditionally underserved student populations (non-white, part-time and Pell-grant recipients) showed the greatest increases in grades and decreases in DFW with the OER adoption. The findings indicate that “OER is an equity strategy for higher education: providing all students with access to course materials on the first day of class serves to level the academic playing field in course settings” (Colvard, et. al., 2018, p. 273).

• Want to learn more about OER? Feel free to check out the OER online guide: lib.guides.umbc.edu/OER

• Interested in OER training workshops or in joining an OER interest group on campus?  Please indicate on the OER interest google form: tinyurl.com/UMBC-OER

Erin Durham, MA, MM, MLIS

Reference & Instruction Faculty Librarian

410-455-3592 | edurham@umbc.edu

UMBC Blackboard Update is provided by the Division of Information Technology for students, faculty and staff. If you have questions or need help, please consult the Blackboard Help FAQs or directly at www.umbc.edu/blackboard/help. You can also contact the Technology Support Center at 410.455.3838 or submit an RT (Request Tracker) ticket via the myUMBC Help Menu or directly at my.umbc.edu/help.

HEADLINES

Blackboard & Instructional Technology

• SU2019 Courses Created on April 26, 2019

• UMBC Makes Major Investment in Instructional Technology

• What’s new in Ultra? -- Student Preview & Question Banks

• Meet the Ultra Developers on 5/10 & Complete our anonymous survey

• Ultra adoption takes off as 145 courses opt in

• Ultra Faculty Ambassadors Share Best Practices & Resources

• Improve Accessibility of Blackboard Course Content with Ally

• 10 Things All Faculty Should Do in Blackboard & Why

Training & Professional Development

• Orientation to Ally: Are your course materials accessible?

• Ultra Training

• Ultra Experience Training Webinars (SU2019)

• Ultra Essentials self-paced course (requires Bb login)

• Ultra Boot Camp - August 7-8, 2019

• USM Events on Open Education Resources

• All Instructional Technology Events

Other DoIT News

• REMINDER: Faculty with PS Access Required to Use 2-Factor Login by 9/30/19   

• Panopto Users Required to Download New Recorder App After July 18 Upgrade

• Roddy Named Manager of DoIT's New Media Studio

• Mocko Named Manager of Technology Support Center (TSC)

• DoIT Welcomes Susan Biro as Online Learning Coordinator

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection

• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

Keep up with Ultra: umbc.edu/go/ultra