Beginning Monday March 6th UMBC’s retention policy for Webex messages, recordings and other storage will change from indefinite to 3 years for meeting recordings and transcripts and 5 years for messages, files, and whiteboards. All content older than the retention period described above will be automatically deleted. 

Webex, like many companies, is recognizing that the indefinite, unlimited storage model is not sustainable long term and is adjusting its policy to reflect that. UMBC’s adoption of Webex occurred predominantly in April of 2020 when the campus shifted to remote work and so UMBC’s new retention policy of 3 and 5 years, as described above, doesn’t pose an immediate concern for many. However, Faculty, Staff, and Students are urged to save important Webex content now before data is lost. DoIT recommends that any critical recordings and transcripts be downloaded and stored on Google Drive or MS Onedrive. Furthermore, users should consider how they store Webex content and develop a practice of moving important files, messages, recordings and transcripts to other locations periodically. 

For more information on accessing and downloading your recordings please use this link.

We understand that for some this change will be inconvenient and present additional challenges. We are here to support you. If you have any questions or challenges regarding this change please let us know by contacting us at DoIT Technology Support Center. 

Ray Soellner

Director of Telecommunications / DoIT

rays1@umbc.edu

I wanted to thank everyone for the quick feedback as we worked through WiFi Issues on Monday that affected several lecture halls and large classrooms. 

We made changes to the wifi devices in these spaces throughout Monday to resolve the connectivity issues we saw in the morning and afternoon. The problems were largely due to a problem with the network not automatically scaling in response to the demand. Our staff was able to troubleshoot the problem and make a number of adjustments to the system late in the day. These adjustments allowed us to force the devices to increase their power and capacity, ensuring everyone could access the wireless during their classes. 

Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday we met with faculty just before class to check in, and had staff sitting within the classes to monitor and check on the adjustments we had made. We observed much better performance, and confirmed with faculty and students on both days that they were able to access the network during class without issue. 

While I regret that the issues on Monday occurred, I really appreciate the cooperation and willingness to  help us get this resolved quickly. We are going to continue monitoring classes in these spaces to ensure everything is working smoothly over the next week. I would encourage anyone who experiences issues to submit a ticket via myUMBC Help so we can address your issue as quickly as possible. I'm also happy to provide more details on the changes and adjustments we made to address this issue if folks are interested, my email is listed below. 

To the entire UMBC community, thank you for all of the communication, feedback and partnership getting this resolved. I'm sorry for the inconvenience it caused. 

Damian Doyle

damian@umbc.edu

Senior Associate VP and Deputy CIO

DoIT - UMBC

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

• Students' Interest Shifts Toward Hybrid and Online Learning

• Faculty and student satisfaction with Ultra exceeds 85%

• Top 5 departments that have adopted Ultra   

• National Distance Learning Week Recap: Faculty, Staff, Students Discuss Online Learning

• Three Faculty Earn QM Certification in FA2022 

• Poll Everywhere Pilot Continues for SP2023 

• Tip: How to limit [remote] cheating in [in-class] Poll Everywhere activities

• Instructional Technology Welcomes Ben Amudzi to Team 

Training & Professional Development (recording archive)

• Ultra Essentials: Jan 23-27 (every day at noon; recordings available)

• Class Synchronous Web Conferencing Demo for Faculty (Jan 24 & Jan 26)

• Quality Matters Impact Program - Call to Participate

In Case You Missed It: Recordings & Tips

• Accessibility Essentials: Make Online Courses Accessible

• Course Prep Checklists

• Tips to Wrap Up Your Blackboard Course for the Semester 

• Effective Practices for Delivering Blackboard Tests

• Tips to Get Your Blackboard Course Ready for Next Semester

Other DoIT & UMBC News

• 2022-23 Learning Analytics Mini Grant Recipients Announced

• All Students Required to Enroll in Duo by End of AY 2022-23

• Blackboard courses created on November 29, 2022

• Collin Sullivan to be "On Loan" to DPS

As we prepare for the winter break, we commonly see a surge in malicious activity toward user accounts. Users receive emails warning about unpaid invoices, expired passwords, or full inboxes. These messages are made to convince people that they are in danger of losing money or access if they don't respond, or click a link within an email. Very often these messages will appear to come from someone you know, from a company you may have done business with, or in some cases, from what looks like your own account.

Other common phishing messages recently have included invoices from companies like PayPal or GeekSquad saying they will be charging your credit card if you don't click a link. These messages are fake.

We have some FAQs available on how to identify phishing/spam messages you can look at below.

UMBC Phishing and Spam FAQs

As well as some best practices for keeping your account secure:

Cybersecurity Awareness - Security - UMBC

If you receive any messages like this, please forward them to security@umbc.edu along with the email headers. For instructions on forwarding email headers, please visit:

How do I forward full email headers? - Find Help (FAQs) - UMBC.

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional student consultants to work during the springsemester and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on Handshake to apply. (Search for DoIT Technology Support Center Student Consultant.)

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.