As part of UMBC’s data warehouse migration to HelioCampus, the Data Management Committee’s “Training & Outreach” working group has published a brief (8 min) video orientation on why and how to explore analytics @ UMBC. 

Developed, in part, as a response to the 2006 Middle States Self Study, UMBC’s Report Exchange (REX) data warehouse was designed to help collect, integrate, report on, analyze and (importantly) act on data from a variety of campus systems such as Blackboard, PeopleSoft, and myUMBC. Not surprisingly, the current 2025-26 Middle States Self Study and UMBC 3.0 Strategic Planning initiative will also focus on continuous improvement through curated, campus-wide data to inform decision making.

In addition to the migration to HelioCampus, which constitutes REX 2.0, the orientation video also describes:

• New and (likely) soon-to-be-required training on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to access campus systems like PeopleSoft and REX itself.

• How to find and use free training videos about Tableau’s “viewer” role, which will be used to access predefined (“canned”) reports largely migrated from REX 1.0 that used Microsoft Reporting Services (RS) reports.

• A new “Analytics @ UMBC” Blackboard community where anyone can learn more about REX, “actionable intelligence,” and (eventually) even do some hands-on, self-paced data analysis with dummy data and AI.

• How to get involved with UMBC’s analytics community of practice, including the REX developers’ and users’ groups.

If it's been a while since you've checked out REX, or wonder why and how you should start, please check out the orientation and refresher video or resources above.

Chelsea Little of Fallston, MD was recently selected as one of the recipients of the 2025 Marilyn Demorest Love of Learning Award from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Chapter 022BC-University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Chelsea was selected by the awards committee for their outstanding academic excellence and active participation within the university and the broader community.In particular, the committee was impressed by Chelsea's perseverance to succeed and to live life by the PKP Motto - Philosophia Kateito Photo - Let the Love of Learning Rule Humanity. Chelsea is currently pursuing a PhD in Business Psychology.

Each spring, this chapter invites applications from its graduate student members. Two $500 awards will be distributed each year to the selected awardees. The Marilyn Demorest Love of Learning Award is bestowed in recognition of the many significant contributions made by Dr. Marilyn Demorest as a key founder and seminal leader of Chapter 22 UMBC of Phi Kappa Phi.  Dr. Demorest's clear-eyed determination, detailed planning, and appreciation of both tradition and innovation infused the infant chapter with the carefully-built scaffolding needed for it to grow into the chapter we enjoy today.  Marilyn's dedication to PKP and her own love of learning are the foundation for this award.

Chartered in 2010, Chapter 22BC invites the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors for membership in Phi Kappa Phi. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.

More About Phi Kappa Phi

Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The Society's mission is "To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others." Since its founding, more than 1.5 million members have been initiated. Some of the organization's more notable members include former President Jimmy Carter, NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, novelist John Grisham and YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley. Each year, Phi Kappa Phi awards nearly $1 million to qualifying students and members through graduate fellowships, undergraduate study abroad grants, member and chapter awards, and grants for local and national literacy initiatives. For more information about Phi Kappa Phi, visit www.PhiKappaPhi.org.

24 X 18 Inches, Includes 1 Eraser
contact: somitac1@umbc.edu

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT), in partnership with the Office of the Provost, invites UMBC faculty members to submit proposals for the 2025 Learning Analytics (LA) Mini Grants. These grants aim to support projects that enhance student success and retention through innovative, data-informed instructional practices.

Grant Overview
Award: $2,000 professional development award, renewable annually, transferred to your department’s PeopleSoft chart string.

Focus Areas

• Student Success and Retention: Projects exploring relationships between activities or learning in one course and outcomes in other courses, particularly critical progression points, low-success courses, or foundational skills.
• Faculty Development and Support: Proposals that leverage institutional data (via REX and Tableau) to inform instructional practices, contributing insights to the LA Community of Practice.

Eligibility

• All UMBC faculty and staff members (including adjunct faculty, lecturers, and tenure-track faculty) interested in improving student outcomes using learning analytics are eligible.

Expectations for Grant Recipients

• Engage actively with the UMBC Learning Analytics Community of Practice (LA CoP).
• Produce and present a final report or scholarly product (conference presentation, external grant proposal, or publication).
• Consider leveraging results to apply for the prestigious Hrabowski Innovation Fund award.

Application Components:
Proposals must include:

• Brief Abstract: Suitable for publication on UMBC’s website (maximum 200 words).
• Research Project Proposal: Clearly outlining objectives, methodology, expected outcomes, and relevance (maximum 3 pages).
• Signed acknowledgement of support: Department Chair (through DocuSign)

Timeline

• Proposal Deadline: Friday, June 6, 2025
• Notification of Awards: Early July 2025
• Grant Period: July 2025 – June 2026

Support and Resources

• REX Data Warehouse (available to all faculty)
• Tableau training and support provided by DoIT’s Analytics & Instructional Technology group
• Access to prior workshops and resources to inform proposal development.

Please submit proposals here. For proposal guidance, questions, or further information, please contact:

Robert CarpenterAssociate Provost for Analytics & Deputy CIO
bobc@umbc.edu

John Fritz
Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology
fritz@umbc.edu

Tom Penniston
Coordinator of Learning Analytics
penniston@umbc.edu