In this first of a series of updates, we’ll give a brief description of what Salesforce is, provide an overview of UMBC’s goals for the project, and summarize what we’re currently working on and what’s next.

Salesforce is a market-leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform.  Companies and nonprofits use CRMs to advertise and build relationships with, and track the contact they have with, their customers and patrons.  In higher education, Salesforce is used to support recruitment, admissions, student success, and alumni relations.  

UMBC has started an exciting, large, multi-year project to use Salesforce to help us in all of those areas.  In the first phase, we’re customizing and implementing the portion of the platform that helps with the recruitment of both undergraduate and graduate students using the Marketing Cloud component.  Marketing Cloud helps us provide potential students with a better, customized, experience and uses new digital marketing campaigns to show the value of a UMBC education. It helps admissions staff identify who our potential students are and what information might be of most use to them.   

We’ve just finished mapping out the different processes we use to recruit and admit students so that we can improve and automate them in Salesforce and the Marketing Cloud.  Our Admissions, Digital Marketing, and SA Teams have been hard at work in support of the project. The next step involves customizing Salesforce for UMBC. 

We’re projecting a “go-live” date for the first phase in the Spring of 2021.  Go-live includes demonstrating the platform and training our staff to get the greatest return on our investment and better serve our prospective students and families.  

Salesforce is an exciting and important part of UMBC’s Strategic Plan and Strategic Enrollment Plan.  We’re delighted to let you know about it, and that it’s proceeding on schedule. 

Robert Carpenter       
Deputy CIO, Division of Information Technology

Associate Provost, Division of Academic Affairs

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional consultants to work during the Spring semester and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on UMBCWorks to apply. (Search for TSC Student Consultant.) The application will be open until January 12th.

We're specifically looking for students available to work during the following hours:

• Monday 1pm-8pm
• Tuesday 12pm-6pm
• Wednesday 8am-12pm, 2pm-4pm
• Thursday 12pm-4pm
• Friday 8am-2PM

TSC Student Consultant Job Description

Technology Support Center (TSC) student consultants are the first points of technical contact for the UMBC community and those who do well often go on to work in other areas of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Minimally, consultants are expected to provide initial triage and support for a wide range of information technologies including accounts, hardware, instructional technologies, networking, software, telecommunications, and basic web development.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical assistance to users by phone, online and in person;
• Answer TSC phones in a professional and courteous manner;
• Create, update and resolve tickets in the Request Tracker (RT) ticketing system;
• Create, update, suggest and recommend relevant FAQ articles to users (www.umbc.edu/faq);
• Provide direct assistance to users on technical issues they cannot easily resolve on their own;
• Respond to all work-related communications in a timely manner;
• Escalate urgent problems to the Full-Time staff, as appropriate.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate by phone or in person.
• Demonstrated writing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and customers.
• Demonstrated analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability & willingness to learn coupled with a clear understanding of one’s technical abilities, so as to triage and escalate an issue that leads to an effective solution for the user.

The UMBC Instructional Technology 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

What’s New

• DoIT’s Sherri Braxton Leaving UMBC 
• Students praise organized course designs from PIVOT+ faculty
• Promoting Academic Integrity in Online Testing without Webcams
• Chromebook Extension for Respondus Lockdown Browser in Beta
• WT/SP2021 Courses Created in Blackboard on 11/30/20 
• Share your feedback: Ultra Experience Faculty Survey
• What’s new in Ultra for WT2021 
• Upcoming VoiceThread Assignment Streamlines Functionality
• New Batch Group Management Tool Available in Bb Ultra

Training & Professional Development (view all events | recording archive)

• PIVOT Primer: January 6, 2021 & PIVOT Special Topics: January 11-14, 2021
• USM OnTrack: New Quality Matters January Workshops Added!
• Go Online (GO) Chat on Open Education Resources: January 22, 2021
• Subscribe & listen to previous episodes via Apple Podcasts or Panopto
• National Distance Learning Week 2020 Recordings 

Other DoIT & UMBC News

• Educause Podcast: Ethical Issues Around Learning Analytics
• UMBC has enabled Google Shared Drives inside of Google Drive
• Washington Post: College students are weary of ‘Zoom U.’ But they’re also trying to make the best of it.
• UMBC Magazine: Rewriting the rules of academia in the age of COVID-19 

In the inaugural episode of the Educause Exchange Podcast, Associate Provost and Deputy CIO Bob Carpenter contributes his views on how UMBC should use analytics and predictive models to support students.  In this episode, entitled The Ethical Issues Around Learning Analytics(10 minutes long), he argues that we must not use learning analytics to foreclose opportunities to students.  We must act as an agent for the student, supporting them in the pursuit of their educational goals.  A student’s “grit” matters for their success; our models won’t always capture it.