The Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) Initiative is pleased to announce a Request for Proposals for the 2023 OER Grant Program. For 2023, M.O.S.T. is seeking proposals for two grant programs.  

Faculty OER Grant Program

The Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative is seeking proposals for its Faculty OER Grant Program, which supports faculty efforts to increase access, affordability, and achievement for students at Maryland's postsecondary institutions through the incorporation of open educational resources (OER) into teaching practice.

Available grants in 2023:

• Adopt/Adapt OER ($1,000 grant + Participation in the Lumen Circles Community of Practice)

• Create/Revise and Publish OER ($2,000 grant + Participation in the Rebus Textbook Success Program)

• OLI STEM Courseware Grants ($5,000 grant + Participation in the NSF-Funded Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative (OLI) STEM Courseware Project) NOTE: Available for 2-year colleges only

Institutional OER Grant Program

The Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative is seeking proposals for the Institutional OER Grant Program, which supports strategic institutional efforts to increase access, affordability, and achievement for students at Maryland's postsecondary institutions through more systemic incorporation of open educational resources (OER) into teaching practice.

For 2023, selected institutions will be awarded $20,000 grants to support significant advances in OER adoption, scaling, and sustainability in support of student success. In addition, grantees will receive strategic planning and implementation support for their projects from M.O.S.T. in the form of consultations and regular monthly check-ins.

All proposals must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 1, 2023

All institutional grants and faculty grants awarded to UMBC must be routed to the Office of Sponsored Programs prior to submission. Contact your unit's business manager or proposal development staff to discuss your application.

Informational Webinar

Join M.O.S.T. on Monday, January 23, 2023 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET for an Informational Webinar to learn more about the grant requirements and expectations for successful grants. We will also answer any questions about the grants at that time. Register for the Informational Webinar.

If you have any questions, reach out to us at most@usmd.edu.

These faculty join nine who have earned QM Certification since 2021: 

• AGNG 355 - The Experience of Dementia (Louise Murray)
• CHEM 101 - Principles of Chemistry 1 (Sarah Bass)
• EDUC 667 - Structure of English for TESOL (Mary Tabaa)
• ENCH 300 - Chemical Process Thermodynamics (Mariajose Castellanos)
• PBHL 100 - Survey of the US Healthcare System (Katie Birger)
• GWST 210: Intro to Critical Sexuality Studies (Kate Drabinski)
• SOCY 351: Health, Illness, and Medicine (John Schumacher)
• EHS 115: Medical Terminology (Gary Williams)
• CMSC 104: Problem Solving & Computer Programming (Chris Marron)

In partnership with the Provost's Office, the QMI pilot  launched in FA2021 as an extension of the  award-winning PIVOT program to recognize exemplary course design. A QM Official review provides independent validation of quality, learner-focused course design. 

As of December 2022, 12 of the 17 QM certified courses in the University System of Maryland are from UMBC. QM certifications are valid for five years. A course achieves QM Certification when it meets QM Rubric Standards at the 85% threshold or better and meets all Essential Standards. The newly certified courses are eligible to display the QM Certification Mark, an internationally recognized symbol of online and blended course design quality, on the syllabus or within the course. The QM Certification Mark represents these instructors' ongoing commitment to creating learning environments that provide students with a clear pathway to success. 

DoIT's Instructional Technology team manages the formal review process and facilitates the fully online, asynchronous Applying the Quality Matters Rubric workshop designed to help instructors prepare for a formal course review.

Blackboard course shells for WT2023 and SP2023 were created on November 29, 2022.

The Ultra Course Preview setting is again enabled in WT/SP2023 courses, which allows faculty to convert a new Original course to see what it looks like in Ultra. 

• Please review the release notes for the latest updates as well as feature parity charts -- more than 30 new updates were added over the last few months including hot spot questions, assessment page breaks, gradebook history, reports for course activity and student progress, points-based gradebook and rubrics, question banks, and more! 
• Learn more about What's New in Ultra for Teaching & Learning on January 9, 2023.
• Have a question about Ultra? Ask an Ultra Ambassador!

Ally, an accessibility tool, is also 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.

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.

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.

This year's National Distance Learning Week 2022 Lunchtime Series (November 7-11) at UMBC created space for candid conversations about online learning. These conversations featured 11 panelists who represented faculty, staff, and students sharing their challenges, accomplishments, and lessons learned. 

Instructional Technology will continue hosting monthly candid conversations about online learning starting in spring 2023. Follow us on myUMBC for the latest information about dates, times, and guests.  

If you missed one of these candid conversations during National Distance Learning Week check out the session takeaways below or watch/listen to the recorded session.

• Panelists:Dr. Louise Murray, Director, Undergraduate Programs and Clinical Associate Professor in the Erickson School of Aging Studies; Mr. Gary Williams Jr., Senior Lecturer, Emergency Health Services Department and Clinical Coordinator, Paramedic Concentration; Dr. Eileen O'Brien, Director, College Teaching & Learning Science (CTLS) Post Master's Certificate Program; and, Dr. John Schumacher, Professor, Department of  Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health, Co-Director Doctoral Program in Gerontology.
• Key takeaways: Faculty shared their experiences in online course design and how the Quality Matters framework strengthened their design after taking a course through a formal course review. The rigor of the QM peer-review process also presented faculty with challenges in understanding, learning, and designing for new technologies and methods of designing learning. As they applied what they learned about effective online course design, faculty shared that students reported a clearer understanding of what was expected in the online course, where to find content, and how they were going to be assessed.

Tuesday, November 8th topic: How do we engage disconnected students? (session recording) 

• Panelists:Gary Rozanc, Assistant Professor Graphic Design, Department of Visual Arts (CAHSS); Nancy McAllister, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Science, Geography & Environmental Systems Department (CAHSS); and Dr. Sarah Bass, Lecturer of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry (CNMS). 
• Key takeaways: Faculty shared how their approach to engaging online students evolved from the start of the pandemic to more recent practices. During the fall of 2020, engaging students meant using multiple methods to help online students connect with one other, instructor, and content. In the fall of 2022 with a return to campus, our panelists reported rethinking how they use technology in-person. Today's students  enter college with more experience and comfort using technology and perhaps with a different motivation for learning. Panelists noted that how they taught pre-pandemic may not align with today's first-year students who are seeing the work they'll be doing in the future happening in asynchronous and remote formats. Our panelists asked, what does this mean to engagement in any class format and the ways students are choosing to learn post-pandemic?

Wednesday, November 9 topic: How do we counter the myths of online learning? (session recording) 

• Panelists: Thirandie Bambaradeniya, Director of Sustainability, Student Government Association (UMBC 23); Dr. Tara Carpenter, Principal Lecturer, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry; Dr. Toby Gouker, Acting Graduate Program Director, Engineering Management; and Dr. Delana Gregg, Director of Academic Learning Resources, Assessment, and Analysis. 
• Key takeaways: When it comes to the myth that online learning is easy, panelists were in agreement that online learning is not easier than in-person as it requires students to be even more disciplined in managing their time and asking for help. Debunking the myth that online students don't interact with each other or the instructor, our panelists noted that teaching online is often more intensive and intentional, as students cannot 'hide' in the back of the online classroom. When it comes to the myth that everyone cheats in an online course, panelists said faculty have since created multiple ways for students to be tested, including more formative or open-note assignments. In considering where UMBC could go with online learning, panelists noted that online learning has long been a useful tool for decades and in a post-pandemic time, it remains a viable choice for many students. They would encourage UMBC to consider how we can provide online learning effectively and continue to put services in place to help support our online learners.  

UMBC Instructional Technology

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

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

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 

• What's new in Ultra? |Known Issues 

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow theInstructional Technology &DoIT myUMBC groups

• Request a consult withinstructional technology staff