Each year, PROMISE and the Graduate School at UMBC host a dinner seminar that allows graduate students to ask questions of faculty. This year, the  “When Faculty Say ‘X’ … ” seminar will be held on Friday, October 10, 2014 in BIO 120.

This is your chance to ask the faculty any questions about expectations, understanding requirements, how they say “no”, how they show their approval, etc.

We will also reflect upon and review past advice from faculty representing many departments in all colleges throughout UMBC.

Your feedback makes this annual session special. Do you have a question that you want a faculty member to answer? Post it in the comment section of this post at the bottom of this page. You may post anonymously.

The following UMBC faculty members will serve as discussants and will answer questions that are posted anonymously, or asked in-person:

• Dr. Susan McDonough – Department of History
• Dr. Kimberly R. Moffitt – Department of American Studies
• Dr. Claudia Galindo – LLC
• Dr. Marie-Christine Daniel-Onuta, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Dr. Brian Cullum, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Dr. Tim Oates, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

UMBC’s graduate students should RSVP here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/26555.

Each year, PROMISE and the Graduate School at UMBC host a dinner seminar that allows graduate students to ask questions of faculty. This year, the  “When Faculty Say ‘X’ … ” seminar will be held on Friday, October 10, 2014 in BIO 120.

This is your chance to ask the faculty any questions about expectations, understanding requirements, how they say “no”, how they show their approval, etc.

We will also reflect upon and review past advice from faculty representing many departments in all colleges throughout UMBC.

Your feedback makes this annual session special. Do you have a question that you want a faculty member to answer? Post it in the comment section of this post at the bottom of this page. You may post anonymously.

The following UMBC faculty members will serve as discussants and will answer questions that are posted anonymously, or asked in-person:

• Dr. Susan McDonough – Department of History
• Dr. Kimberly R. Moffitt – Department of American Studies
• Dr. Claudia Galindo – LLC
• Dr. Marie-Christine Daniel-Onuta, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Dr. Brian Cullum, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Dr. Tim Oates, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

UMBC’s graduate students should RSVP here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/26555.

If you are an employee of UMBC (50% time or more) or a “Non-Traditional” student, and if you are working on your graduate school courses, proposal, or dissertation, then this event is for you! We’ve worked with our UMBC employees who are also graduate students at UMBC, College Park, Northeastern, and other institutions.  This year, we are extending this opportunity to non-traditional students who are coming back to school or working full-time. This time is for you! This session will have support, coaching, and food will be provided for you on both days.

You work hard every day to serve others on our campus! You may be supporting your family members, or you have decided to take some time for yourself to reach your goals.  Now, let us work with you to finish your graduate degree. This version of the “Dissertation House” was created just for you!

Dissertation House for UMBC Employees and Non-Traditional Students
Friday, 10/10/14,   9:00 – 5:00 PM (Part I), COMM 331
Saturday, 10/11/14, 10:00 – 3:00 PM(Part II), COMM 331

Application: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/

Graduate students who are at other schools within the University System of Maryland (http://www.usmd.edu/institutions/) may apply, and will be considered if there is space available.

If you are an employee of UMBC (50% time or more) or a “Non-Traditional” student, and if you are working on your graduate school courses, proposal, or dissertation, then this event is for you! We’ve worked with our UMBC employees who are also graduate students at UMBC, College Park, Northeastern, and other institutions.  This year, we are extending this opportunity to non-traditional students who are coming back to school or working full-time. This time is for you! This session will have support, coaching, and food will be provided for you on both days.

You work hard every day to serve others on our campus! You may be supporting your family members, or you have decided to take some time for yourself to reach your goals.  Now, let us work with you to finish your graduate degree. This version of the “Dissertation House” was created just for you!

Dissertation House for UMBC Employees and Non-Traditional Students
Friday, 10/10/14,   9:00 – 5:00 PM (Part I), COMM 331
Saturday, 10/11/14, 10:00 – 3:00 PM(Part II), COMM 331

Application: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/

Graduate students who are at other schools within the University System of Maryland (http://www.usmd.edu/institutions/) may apply, and will be considered if there is space available.

We have a new cash to card machine in the print/copy/scan area! Now you don’t have to go to the RLC only to add money to your ID card.

It takes general funds for printing/copying/scanning, food funds, etc., and you have to specify which you are adding. The new machine takes any bill between $1.00 and $100.00, but doesn’t give change.

The guest card you can buy here is $ 0.50.

Directions for use are on the top of the machine.

As part of an effort to improve service on Blackboard, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) is changing how the Blackboard system operates at UMBC. Starting in Winter 2015, UMBC will move from running Blackboard on campus to using Blackboard’s own cloud-based instance, often referred to as hosted system, for course delivery. This is being done as part of a new agreement with a consortium of other research universities known as NET+ that is associated with Internet2. A benefit of this new approach is that Blackboard will handle software upgrades directly, which will minimize the impact to students and faculty. 

Currently, about 65 percent of all Bb clients are hosted by Blackboard. In Maryland, this includes Towson University, Morgan State University, Montgomery College, Bowie State University, the Community College of Baltimore County, and the Maryland State Department of Education.

“We’ve considered managed hosting before, but the innovation, commitment to standards and value of this agreement are very compelling,” says Jack Suess, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer. “Ultimately, I believe it will help us advance UMBC’s focus on student success and better use technology to support pedagogical innovation by connecting UMBC to a wider community of research universities innovating with the same tools.”

In addition to managed hosting, the new agreement -- also announced today by Blackboard -- provides 24/7 end-user support, content storage, mobile and collaborative solutions, analytics and other resources. Once migrated, Blackboard will still be available in myUMBC, as well as the blackboard.umbc.edu and www.umbc.edu/blackboard web addresses. However, for Winter 2015 and Spring 2015, new course shells will be created on our hosted Bb server managed by Blackboard.

Starting in Summer 2015, the configuration and setup of courses will change. Specifically, all courses will have a permanent “master shell” for managing content that faculty will link to semester shells automatically populated with officially enrolled students. As a result, there will be no need for faculty to export old courses into new course shells, thus duplicating our overall file storage every semester, as is the case now.

Further details and plans will be announced on the DoIT News site throughout this academic year. In the meantime, DoIT’s instructional technology staff have created a focused set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the Bb migration to managed hosting. For more information or help about Bb at UMBC generally, click the Help tab inside Bb or visit www.umbc.edu/blackboard/help.