The latest release of Ultra enhancements comes two weeks into the fall 24 semester, bringing formative knowledge checks to Ultra Documents, a redesigned course landing page, and a new learner engagement tool called AI Conversations. 

In the August release, the Ultra Document saw significant improvements to support robust flexible layouts that are mobile friendly and responsible. With this update, instructors can now create formative knowledge checks to enhance the learning experience, allowing students to engage with content and receive immediate feedback. Instructors can provide correct/incorrect feedback and access simple metrics about attempts. Knowledge checks are formative and do not pass to the gradebook at this time.

Image 1: Example of knowledge check question (animated)

As previously announced, Anthology will update the Ultra course landing page to focus content on the left and course actions on the right. Additionally, it will be easier to distinguish between content containers (e.g., folders, learning modules, other content types) to help improve course navigation for all users. Moreover, functional improvements with this redesign provide clearer options to create content throughout the course. 

Image 2: Comparison of old Ultra course page (left) and new Ultra course page (right)

The AI Conversation is a new engagement tool guided by AI, encouraging students explore their thoughts on an assigned topic. Currently available as a Socratic questioning exercise, the AI Conversation's persona is configured by the instructor (name, avatar, and personality trait) with options to test and preview for reliability. Additionally, a customizable reflection question allows students to share their thoughts on the activity and, if prompted by the reflection and instructor, lets them flag any bias or errors from the AI as part of Anthology’s Trustworthy AI Approach. On submission, the instructor can review the AI conversation transcript and the student's reflection. Future updates to this engagement activity in late FA2024 will include roleplaying and debate options.

Image 3: Example of student participating in an AI Conversation

Finally, a new activity log is available to instructors in the Ultra course, helping with decisions in academic disputes and aiding in troubleshooting. Events include course access, assessment start/save/submitted, discussion access/save/edit/reply, document access, LTI (tool) access, and journal access. The Activity log can be filtered by event type and can look to the past 140 days.

Additional updates for September include:  

• Instructors will find a new gradebook Overview tab to improve task orientation and grading efficiency.  This tab contains two sections: Needs Grading and Needs Posting.
• To help instructors stay on top of their grading workload, there will be a number in the Gradebook tab to indicate when there are new submissions to grade. 
• Ultra introduces a new student-facing submission review page for assignments that makes all instructor feedback on a submission more visible, even if the assignment is hidden by a release condition.
• The Wiris engine and equation editor is updated to improve the rendering of subscript and superscript formulas, providing a better experience for STEM courses.
• Ultra added a new option to help instructors remove submissions from the grading workflow without having to delete them. When grading a student, you can now select Exclude Attempt to remove it from the Needs Grading workflow.
• When enabled, the Automatic Zeros gradebook setting gives a zero score to students who haven’t made a submission by the due date. To help instructors find and grade late assessment submissions, they are now indicated as Needs Grading on the Grades and Gradable Items gradebook pages.  

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around September 5-6, 2024. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on September 10, 2024; release notes are posted to the What's New in Ultra that same week. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. Please watch the FAQs, including the What's New with Ultra page, and myUMBC for additional information about Ultra.

The Data Science Scholars Program (DSS) is partnering with the Center for Social Science Scholarship (CS3) and The Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) in Fall 2024.

Students admitted to the program will work as teaching fellows (TFs) and peer mentors. They will also network with UC Berkeley data science students, attend special events, and be mentored by faculty.

The DSS program welcomes undergraduate scholars from multiple disciplines, including the social sciences, looking at all aspects of data and its impact on society. This year scholars will have the opportunity to be teaching fellows or research fellows. Scholars will have an opportunity to work on research projects in Climate Science, Deep fake detection, data storytelling, learning analytics and other data science related projects. For some projects look at these websites,https://www.umces.edu/chesapeake-global-collaboratory, https://iharp.umbc.edu/, https://mdata.umbc.edu/deep-fake-detection/

• COIET Students please reference the CWIT flyer for additional details.
• Humanities students please reference the CS3 flyer for additional details. 

Interested students should complete the Google submission form,
https://forms.gle/gKLakVQMEbWPHUtt6 , by Sept 6, 2024.

If you have any questions, please email iHARP@UMBC.edu.

Fidelity will be on campus on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 to meet with employees in-person via appointment only. Fidelity will still continue to offer virtual consultations.

Are you within 5 years of retirement or just starting out? Do you want to open a supplemental retirement account but not sure where to start? Do you have funds you want to rollover?  Fidelity can assist you with all of these questions and more!

Please visit this link to schedule an in-person meeting with the Fidelity rep, Mr. Paul Vutiprichar, CFP. The meetings will be held in the HRSTM Conference Room, Administration Building, Room 529.