In a world where AI is becoming commonplace, students are learning how and when to navigate these tools. Each student should follow their professor's guidance in regarding to the use of AI in their courses. UMBC's enterprise license for Google Workspace means the basic features of Google Gemini AI are available to all UMBC users free of charge. Importantly, the information you type into the free version of Gemini AI is protected for Level 1 data, which is data not considered public. This could include internal communications and non-sensitive administrative data. 

Resources:

• Access Point: Visit gemini.google.com to use the free version, which is protected for Level 1 data.
• Enablement Toolkit: Gemini for Education and NotebookLM
• UMBC Gen AI FAQ
• UMBC Google Gemini FAQ  

We all use the Google Suite in the form of our emails, docs, spreadsheets, and presentations on the daily. While these tools are awesome on their own, there are a ton of advanced features and hidden gems in the suite that you might not be taking full advantage of (or maybe haven't even heard about). Here's a quick look at some of these under-the-radar tools, features, and applications that could seriously boost your productivity, whether you're working or studying.

Applications

Google Tasks 

'Find a Time'  in Google Calendar

Struggling with busy schedules not lining up? Calendar can automatically find a time where all participants are available for an event with guests. 

Under 'more options', the Find a Time menu shows all guest schedules side-by-side. 

For additional help with Calendar, please consult the Calendar Help Center 

Gmail Tasks Integration

Gmail has a useful integration with the previously mentioned Tasks application, allowing you to turn an email into a task. 

After opening an important email, simply click on the checkmark in the top bar. The email will automatically be marked on your tasks To-Do lists. 

For more help with Gmail, please consult the Gmail Help Center

Google Drive's PDF to Doc Conversion

With only a few clicks, you can instantly open a PDF file in Google Docs for editing. 

Within Google Drive, left click on a PDF file, select 'open with', and choose Google Docs. The 'open with' feature is also available at the top of your screen when directly viewing a PDF through drive. 

Google Calendar Daily Email Brief

Google Calendar offers the useful feature of delivering your tasks for the day as a daily email brief, and enabling it is quite simple. 

Through the settings menu on Google Calendar, under 'settings for my calendars', the option can be found in the 'other notifications' category.

For additional help with Calendar, please consult the Calendar Help Center 

Behind every student is an educator wielding technology tools that can help make success happen! The Academic Success Center (ASC) and the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) have collaborated on a comprehensive initiative to streamline academic support services, making it easier for undergraduate students, faculty, and staff to connect, refer, and track student success. This effort, which involves new software integrations and custom-built systems, aims to enhance academic advocacy, academic support appointment scheduling, and early academic alert notifications.

How do we streamline student academic support at UMBC? We listen to the students and understand what they need to thrive in an academic environment like UMBC. From tutoring to tailored advice from a trusted Academic Advocate, the Academic Success Center has become the center of academic support for undergraduate students, staff, and faculty. With the ASC's centralized and highly visible hub on the 1st floor of the AOK Library, students know where to look for support, and staff and faculty staff are easily able to refer a student for assistance. Since its opening in 2019, the Academic Success Center staff and peer educators have played a role in over 16,000 individual students' experiences at UMBC. 

The Division of Information Technology worked with the ASC team behind the scenes to establish three support systems:  

1. TracCloud Integration for Easy Scheduling of Academic Support
2. Early Academic Alerts
3. Custom System Powers Academic Advocacy

1. TracCloud Integration for Easy Scheduling of Academic Support

Together, the ASC and DoIT have integrated an outside vendor's web application, TracCloud, to simplify appointment scheduling for academic support. All of the ASC's academic peer support options are scheduled through TracCloud, including course tutoring, SI PASS, Writing Center, and Academic Skills Meetings. Students can easily search for support and manage their appointments online. 

The new system is integrated directly with the university's PeopleSoft SA (Student Administration), a Student Information System, ensuring that students are easily connected to relevant academic support resources for the specific courses they are currently enrolled in. Furthermore, the use of single sign-on (SSO) through myUMBC provides a convenient and secure user experience. 

2. Early Academic Alerts

Early Academic Alerts are proactive notifications that instructors send directly to students through myUMBC. Academic Alerts are intended as an early intervention to notify students who are at risk of earning a D or F grade in a currently enrolled course, to provide them with the necessary support and resources to succeed.

By alerting students early in the semester, students have the ability to utilize the various supports available, make the necessary changes to improve their grade before the end of the term, and achieve their highest potential.

This alert system is integrated with PeopleSoft SA, the software suite managing student records and course information. This integration provides a platform for instructors to efficiently access class rosters and provide timely notifications to students and their advisors when concerns arise regarding student academic progress. Formerly the First-Year Intervention Program, UMBC rebranded the alerts system in 2020, from focusing solely on students in their first year to include all undergraduate students, with approximately 65% of faculty sections reporting over 4,000 alerts each semester.

3. Custom System Powers Academic Advocacy 

A third key component is the launch of a unique and custom-built system dedicated to Academic Advocacy. This platform provides Academic Advocates with critical information about student success metrics. Academic Advocates are dedicated to serving undergraduate degree-seeking students to assist them in resolving academic and institutional challenges that may adversely affect persistence, progression, and timely completion of degree.

Undergraduate students identified, or those referred, who may be experiencing barriers to graduation will receive direct outreach from an Academic Advocate to address issues in a timely manner. No matter how complex the concerns (i.e., personal, academic, or financial), Academic Advocates will work together with students to review their progress, present options toward graduation, map out a plan for success, and facilitate communication and connections with the appropriate resources.

Crucially, the system allows any member of the campus community—faculty, staff, or students—to easily refer a student to an Academic Advocate. Once a referral is made, the Academic Advocate will connect with the student to provide timely and necessary support, seamlessly coordinating resources across various campus departments to address the student's needs. Students can easily identify who their assigned Academic Advocate is starting on the first day of class, as the information is front and center on each student's myUMBC profile, another DoIT provided platform. 

"By streamlining these three student support systems, students, faculty, and staff can easily access resources. Additionally, UMBC can track and assess the usage and impact of these initiatives, allowing for data-informed decision-making." 
~ Delana Gregg, Assistant Vice Provost, UG Academic Affairs

Successes by the Numbers

In 2024-2025, the ASC recorded significant engagement from students. The total number of visits to the center was 26,303, with 12,002 of those being tutoring visits. There were also 12,441 Supplemental Instruction/Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (SI PASS) visits. In total, the center supported 4,150 individual students. The ASC also noted a positive trend, with 915 more visits to its services in Fall 2024 compared to Fall 2023. The center connected with 1,689 students through Academic Advocates and worked on 872 student petitions.

For more detailed information, please check out the Academic Success Center's Annual Report.

The success of these initiatives is due in part to the collaborations between the Academic Success Center and the Division of Information Technology, but most importantly, the work of these two groups has facilitated all UMBC community members' contributions to student success! The Academic Success Center and DoIT's clear alignment with UMBC's strategic plan and campus collaborations helps each student achieve their academic goals!

Hello UMBC Community!

The Cybersecurity Assurance and Digital Trust Department in the Division of Information Technology has some tips for you to stay safe from financial scams that have recently taken place.

Attackers send phishing emails to trick unsuspecting victims into providing their user ID, password, and multifactor codes. Often, these phishing lures contain a link that redirects the user to a login page.

DoIT has observed cases where the attackers are mirroring legitimate login screens to capture credentials and multifactor authentication (MFA) codes in real time. The only indicator that something is amiss is the URL in the address bar.

Follow these general tips to safeguard your financial data and funds:

1. Use Strong & Unique Passwords: Never reuse your UMBC password on other platforms — including financial services such as BankMobile. Create unique passwords for each separate account.
2. Periodically Verify Your Personal Information: Log into your accounts and make sure all your information, such as linked financial accounts, billing address, phone number, and email addresses are correct.
3. Check the Link: Look over URLs and ensure you are accessing a trusted service. If you see a login page but the URL does not look legitimate, do not provide your password or MFA codes. It is best practice to bookmark trusted services to navigate to them directly.
4. Don't Give Away Your Secrets: UMBC and your financial institutions will never call, email, or text you to ask for your password or MFA codes.

If you give someone your password and MFA codes, you are handing them the keys to your account. This could result in financial loss or unauthorized activity for which you may be held responsible.

If you see something, say something! Report all phishing emails to security@umbc.edu.

Stay smart, stay safe!

Hello UMBC Community!

Join us today from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in the breezeway near the Commons to learn more and receive giveaways! We have a f(ph)ishing game and Swedish fish.

As part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we want to highlight a new tactic cybercriminals are using called ClickFix. This attack disguises itself as an error message or system alert that looks like it comes from your operating system. The message then instructs you to copy and paste a command into your terminal or command prompt.

Please remember:

1. Never copy or paste commands from a pop-up window or website.
2. If you see a suspicious alert, close the window or browser tab immediately.
3. Report the incident to security@umbc.edu right away so we can investigate.
4. If you have already entered a command, disconnect from the internet and stop using your device until security reviews it.

ClickFix relies on tricking users into taking action. By staying cautious and reporting anything unusual, you help protect both yourself and our organization.

Report the event to the security team at security@umbc.edu. Your report helps protect everyone!

Thank you for staying vigilant and keeping security a priority.

10/22 Update 1:45 pm: 

Amazon has fixed the AWS outage issue. Most systems are working normally with only a few systems with updates still in progress. If you are having any technical difficulties, please contact our Technology Support Center. 

10/20 Update 1:45 pm: 

We are continuing to monitor the situation. The following is an updated list of the services impacted by the AWS outage: 

• Adobe
• Ally
• Blackboard
• Confluence
• CourseArc
• DocuSign
• Panopto
• Pantheon
• Poll Everywhere
• Publisher Integrations in Blackboard
• Respondus Lockdown Browser & Monitor
• Smartsheet
• UMBC's PAW Procurement System
• UMBC Request Tracker (RT) System
• UMBC Travel System
• UMBC Technology Support Center phone system
• YuJA
• Zoom

For more information, please see the Vendor Status Dashboard.

10/20 Update 10:40 am: 

UMBC is currently experiencing impacts on the following platforms: 

• Ally
• Blackboard
• Confluence
• CourseArc
• Panopto
• Poll Everywhere
• Publisher Integrations in Blackboard

10/20 Update 10:04 am:

This morning an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage is causing global disruptions, impacting many platforms. As of 8:30 am, Amazon has resolved the issue but there may be impacts to other systems. 

The Division of Information Technology will continue to monitor the situation. Timely updates will be shared on AWS Health Dashboard. 

Hello UMBC Community,

We rely on Duo two-factor authentication to protect our accounts, and it's an excellent defense. However, cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to get past our security. This week's topic is all about what to do if you receive a Duo push notification you didn't initiate.

You're working on your computer, not logging into anything new, and suddenly your phone buzzes with Duo push notifications, including SMS texts or phone calls from Duo. What's happening? This is likely an attacker who has obtained your password and is attempting to bypass Duo to access your account.

Your immediate action is critical.

• Do NOT Approve It: The most important thing is to never approve a Duo push notification you did not initiate. Approving it will give the attacker access to your account.

• Deny the Request: Decline the request on your phone.

• Report as Fraudulent: If you can, mark the notification as fraudulent.

• Change Your Password: Immediately change your password on a trusted device or computer. This will invalidate the password the attacker is using.

Remember, a Duo push notification is like a digital handshake. You must be the one to initiate it. If someone else is trying to shake your hand, don't approve the connection!

If you received a Duo push notification you did not initiate, deny the request, change your password, and immediately report the event to the security team at security@umbc.edu. Your report helps protect everyone!

Stay safe out there.