Blackboard course shells for WT2024 and SP2024 were created on November 29, 2023.

The Ultra Course Preview setting is enabled in WT/SP2024 courses, which allows faculty to preview OR convert a new Original course to Ultra. The recommendation, however, is to create a new course to optimize the design.

• Please review the release notes for the latest updates as well as feature parity charts -- more than 200 new updates were added over the last year! 
• Discover What's New in Ultra for Teaching & Learning on December 11 or January 12.
• Have a question about Ultra? Ask an Ultra Ambassador!

Many departments have opted into Ultra into Ultra to ensure a consistent approach for their students, which means those courses will start with Ultra by default rather than Original -- please check with your department as this list has grown.

Note: 

• For consistency of instructional technology support, WT/SP2024 courses created in Blackboard on/after January 1, 2024 will be created in Ultra by default.
• The last day we will support Blackboard Original is December 31, 2024.

Tool Updates

Several third-party integrations have planned updates for the end of FA2023. Instructional Technology recommends holding off on adding these tools to your courses until after December 22, 2023. Improvements to the integrations often provide deeper synchronization and support for content, assessment, and grading. These tool updates include:

• December 21: Panopto, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Vista Higher Learning

• January 2: Aktiv, Lumen Learning, WileyPLUS

Accessibility & AI

Plan your accessibility and Universal Design for Learning strategy before students begin working with course materials. Ally, an accessibility tool, is enabled in all course shells. Ally automatically scans uploaded and created course content, then performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Please review the Ally FAQs for more information about the accessibility indicators on course content and alternative formats, or attend a training session.

The AI Course Design Assistant Tools will be available in Ultra courses for WT/SP2024 as of December 13, 2023. These tools are limited to the instructor role in an Ultra course. All capabilities are opt-in and the instructor is always in control of the content generated. Learn more at an upcoming preview session, join the Ultra AI Tools workshop or review the documentation.

Online Teaching & Learning

For faculty who will be teaching hybrid or online, the instructional technology team would like to share several resources to support online course development and instruction.

1. Choose from our PIVOT Solo lessons to refresh or enhance your online teaching preparation. Five key topics cover course organization, active learning, community building, assessment, and supporting students. 
2. Explore our Panopto folder for a wide variety of recorded webinars on various instructional technologies available at UMBC.
3. Learn about the Quality Matters Impact program, a new initiative to formally recognize courses that meet Quality Matters standards and demonstrate exemplary online/hybrid course design.

• If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically. 
• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not see your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.
• If you need a Bb shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.

Split/Merge Requests: Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course will find those enrollments merged into one Bb course shell. These sections may be split upon request by an RT ticket, which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard.

Student enrollment in Bb mirrors the official registration in SA and updates hourly. However, courses are not accessible to students by default until the instructor of record makes them available.

Connect with Instructional Technology

Abstract: In this case study from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), we explore if and how students can be nudged to take responsibility for their learning through one of the university's largest courses, CHEM 102 "Principles of Chemistry II." To do so, Tara Carpenter leveraged the campus' Blackboard learning management system (LMS) in Spring 2021, and then added the RealizeIt adaptive learning platform in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 to implement a pedagogy of 'spaced practice," in which students have time to study, forget, re-acquire, and reorganize new knowledge or content. Specifically, Carpenter leveraged large pools or "banks" of questions to guide students in their "time on task" practice and application of key concepts needed to perform well on high-stakes, summative exams.

Overall, in comparing CHEM 102 final grade data between Fall 2020 and Fall 2021, we see that there is not a statistically significant relationship between the treatment (i.e., course design) and reduced DFW (drop, fail, or withdraw) rates. However, if we disaggregate final grade data, we see there is an overall statistically significant increase in As (p < 0.01) and decrease in Cs (p < 0.05) and Ds (p < 0.05). Notably, all of this gain from increasing As appears to be from students of color (SOC), who demonstrate a nearly 4x advantage over their nonredesigned course peers in attaining this grade (p < 0.001), while White students demonstrated no statistically significant gain in this area. Based solely on whether students used the spaced practice environment Carpenter designed, we also see that a model predicting final grades after only 14 days into the semester is 83% accurate.

The U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA)'s National Distance Learning Week focuses on how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts education and training. 

Instructional Technology invites faculty to test drive the suite of new Blackboard AI Course Design Assistant tools, which are now available for instructors who would like early access to preview the tool. Informed by Anthology's Trustworthy AI Approach and seamlessly embedded into Ultra's workflows, the AI Course Design Assistant tools are opt-in and the instructor is always in control of the content generated. Faculty can choose when, where, and how to leverage the tools in their Ultra courses. Anthology has not created any AI tools for students. 

Faculty interested in early access to the tool may submit an RT ticket to request access. 

Developed to assist faculty in streamlining course preparation, the AI Course Design Assistant tools include the features detailed below. 

Course-Builder Assistant

Create sample learning modules, titles, and descriptions. The generated modules include the module title, description, and images. Content within the module is not generated by the design tool.

Image 1: Option to auto-generate modules in an empty course.

Image 2: Auto-generated modules with an option to select and add to the course.

Image Suggestion and Creation 

The assistant can draw from the Unsplash stock image library and suggest thumbnails for illustration in learning modules or identify an image for the course banner. Functionality also includes AI-generated image creation based on course name and keywords. As of early November, the AI Design Assistant also includes the option to generate images and access Unsplash stock images in Ultra Documents, Discussions, Tests, Assignments, Journal prompts, and Course Messages.

Image 3: Select "Generate images" or "Stock images from Unsplash" to add images to Ultra Documents, Discussions, Assessments, Journal prompts, and Course Messages.

Content-Based Test Generation 

Using the content included in an Ultra Document, Assignment Description, or additional information provided directly in the AI tool panel, the Design Assistant can generate a diverse set of questions for a test or question bank. 

Image 4: Select "auto-generate question" in a test or assignment to see AI-tool generated questions. Test questions can be generated from a test or assignment or at the bottom of an Ultra document.

Rubric Creation 

Drawing on content in an assessment or discussion prompt, the AI tool can analyze and streamline the rubric creation process according to specific learning objectives and assessment criteria.

Image 5: Generated rubric, with options to customize rubric type, complexity, and number of rows and columns.

To discover more about the impact of AI on distance education and training, the U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA) is hosting virtual webinars during the sixteenth annual National Distance Learning Week (Nov 6-10, 2023). All sessions are free to attend, but require registration via USDLA.

Connect with Instructional Technology

• 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
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources

UMBC is committed to providing a consistent learning experience for everyone. The last day we will support Blackboard Original is December 31, 2024. Please check out our training and support: https://umbc.edu/go/ultra.

The sixteenth annual National Distance Learning Week offers many virtual sessions focused on how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts education and training. The U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA) will host a week-long series of webinars designed to generate greater awareness of distance learning, discuss current issues and emerging trends, and highlight best practices. 

This year's events take place November 6-10, 2023. All sessions are free to attend, but require registration via USDLA. Highlighted topics include:

Day 1 - Monday, November 6, 2023 (1-2 PM EST)

Finding the Yin-Yang in Faculty Development Balancing AI-Centered with Student-Centered Learning

With the rise of Generative AI systems and platforms, universities can no longer get too comfortable. Integrating Generative AI into a university culture requires a certain level of risk-taking and commitment from a campus. Explore strategies to build up faculty development competencies and instructional design capabilities amidst this rapidly changing technology environment of Generative AI.

Day 2 - Tuesday, November 7, 2023 (3-4 PM EST)

Uncovering the Potential, Realities, and Future of Generative AI through Research

While much has been said and written about Generative AI in education, systematic investigations about its use are slow to emerge. The Canadian Digital Learning Research Association recently surveyed 438 administrators and faculty across 126 Canadian institutions to gauge their perspectives on generative AI. This webinar will present findings and provide a space for an expansive discussion.

Day 3 - Wednesday, November 8, 2023 (1-2 PM EST)

A real-world implementation of AI in education

Explore the real-world implementation of AI in education. Learn about AI fundamentals, using AI as an instructional tool for personalized learning, reimagining assessment with AI, ethical considerations for student use of AI, and administrative uses of AI for streamlining tasks and decision-making processes.

Day 4 - Thursday, November 9, 2023 (1-2 PM EST)

Data Justice, Data Rights and AI Ethics

Data Justice is an emergent area of digital rights and activism that has its roots in protecting the use of citizens and consumers' data in Europe which includes how AI is impacting worker and student rights. Technology is not neutral. We do need to question what rights learners and workers have in the age of big data, surveillance capitalism, algorithmic bias, and ubiquitous AI.

Day 5 - Friday, November 10, 2023 (1-2 PM EST)

GenAI Holds Great Promise for Distance Learning, But There Are Concerns

Generative AI has emerged rapidly into public awareness in the past year and much has been written about the cataclysmic threats and vast possibilities of this new technology. Working in distance learning, we know that our students have many needs (editors and statistics tutors are just two examples) that could be met by GenAI. But we also have fears that our students may use this technology to avoid the hard work of critical thinking rather than using it to allow more time for such deeper learning. Discover which assignment types that are easier or harder for GenAI to complete, review the challenges of using AI detectors, and discuss some of the ethical concerns of using GenAI with protected student information.

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection & Supported Technologies
• What's new in Ultra? | Blackboard | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources 

UMBC is committed to providing a consistent learning experience for everyone. The last day we will support Blackboard Original is December 31, 2024. Keep up with Ultra: umbc.edu/go/ultra