DoIT is now providing NVivo, a qualitative research software package equivalent to SPSS, Stata, SAS, or R. This software is available to all faculty, staff, and graduate students. It allows the user to import, code, and arrange data for methodologically rigorous and scalable analyses. This acquisition aligns with efforts to support UMBC's strategic plan, including the objective to "vigorously promote a campus culture of multidisciplinary collaboration and multidisciplinary research, scholarship, and creative activity."

Professor Anne Brodsky of the Department of Psychology, who also serves as Interim Director, Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR) and Special Assistant for Social Science Research with the CAHSS Dean's Office, has been conducting qualitative research since arriving at UMBC 20 years ago. She believes this procurement is "great news for UMBC researchers and students" and access to NVivo "will further promote the excellent qualitative and mixed methods scholarship being done across the Social Sciences, Humanities, Arts, and STEM fields at UMBC as we work to further our understanding into some of the most important and exciting questions of our time."

If you are considering qualitative or mixed-methods research, or you are currently gathering qualitative data, this might be just the tool you're looking for to systematize your analytic strategy.

NVivo can be downloaded at https://wiki.umbc.edu/display/faq/Software

Curricular Interdependency Matrix

REX-Finance reports will be improving over the weekend of February 2.  Exciting new functionality will be available for you to use on Monday, February 5!

New features will include:

·      New folder layout and report naming conventions to ease navigation

·      Direct drill to payroll details for employee information by department

·      Additional data including revolving and cost share funds (1113, 1114, and 1115)

·      Additional reports for grants (Funds 1253 and 1263) are coming soon

To enable the launch of the new reports, DoIT will be implementing the upgrade to the reporting system beginning on Saturday, February 3 at 8:30 a.m. to be completed by Monday February 5 at 8:30 am. If you currently have subscriptions set for reports, those settings will also be updated during the upgrade weekend. 

If you have questions, please contact Julia Golbey at golbeyj1@umbc.edu or 410-455-3729. 

Thank you in advance for your patience as we continue to make REX-Finance reports a useful, comprehensive source of financial data for all UMBC users.

“SEEQ Instructor Profiles by Mean” or Median report, provides the SEEQ survey results by Class and Instructor for a given term. Data can be queried by Organization, Subject, Course, Section and Instructor. This REX report mirrors the data in the Blue Instructor Report, but data are presented in a more compact format that prints more efficiently.  PDFs of the Means reports are publicly available on the IRADS website at https://oir.umbc.edu/university-data/sceq-profiles/.

The “SEEQ Instructor Data Over Time” report displays the results of the ‘Overall’ section of the SEEQ survey for an Instructor, which includes questions 30, 31 and 32.  Data can be queried by Begin Term and Instructor to Review.  Data are reported for each course section taught by the instructor from the Begin Term to the most recent term available and compare the instructor mean on the three items with the Org, UMBC and Course Level means.  This report may be useful for P&T review.

All three reports can be accessed by going to rex.umbc.edu, clicking on ‘Guided Reports’, and then navigating to the Census Data > Student Course Evaluations > SEEQ  folder.

Through a University System of Maryland partnership, DoIT has offered online training to UMBC full-time and part-time faculty via the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) over several years. UMBC remains a member of the Online Learning Consortium, but the partnership providing access to a large number of workshop seats is ending.

The OLC workshop format utilizes proven teaching strategies and learning activities while modeling best practices for online and hybrid learning. Participants engage with experienced instructors and collaborate with peers via synchronous (live) and asynchronous environments. Workshops are delivered online over 3-7 days. Faculty can take workshops through the end of the year, but registration must be completed by February 23, 2018. We have 100 seats remaining.

The following list identifies workshops and when they will be offered each semester. The workshop descriptions are linked in titles with the dates. If more than one date is available, it will be listed at the bottom of the description page.

Additionally, OLC offers three self-paced workshops with 365-days of access.

• Strategies for Increasing Interaction & Engagement 
• Giving Effective Feedback 
• ADA & Web Accessibility 

Finally, faculty who complete all four of OLC workshops on the topic of Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning in 2018 may receive a digital credential from OLC. The specific workshops are: 

• Fundamentals: ADA & Web Accessibility 
• Designing with Accessibility in Mind 
• Strategic Planning for Web Accessibility
• Applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles to Online Courses to Increase Accessibility and Engagement 

To register for a workshop, please open an RT ticket. Be sure to include the name of the workshop you would like to attend and the date(s). Instructional technology staff will assist with your registration, answer any questions you may have about the experience, etc. Please request your registration by Friday, February 23, 2018.