Learn about our Fall 2023 Scholarship Recipients: 

Bolton Scholarship: 

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

• Fall 24 Bb Courses to Use Ultra by Default
• 4 Reasons to Use Copy Content to Prepare an Ultra Course
• Ultra Courses to Support Additional Level of Nested Folders
• Ultra Adoption by Faculty Eclipses Original for SP2024
• Google Jamboard to Retire in Fall 2024
• Learning Analytics Mini Grants CFP Due 6/7/24
• Enhancing Media and Accessibility Using Panopto
• Panopto Mandatory Recorder Upgrade for Mac Users
• Blackboard Courses Created: SU2024 (April 22, 2024) & FA2024 (May 13, 2024)
• AY20-21 Blackboard Courses Scheduled for Server Retirement
• DoIT’s Susan Biro Selected to QM Academic Advisory Council
• 19th UMBC Course Earns QM Certification with New 7th Ed. Rubric

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

• Ultra Quick Start Series: 30 minutes to get you started
• Copy Content into Blackboard Ultra (5.15)
• Content Release and Visibility Settings (5.16)
• Create New Content in Blackboard Ultra (5.20)
• Create Assessments in Blackboard Ultra (5.28)
• Optimizing Course Quota (5.30)
• Blackboard Ultra's AI Course Design Assistant Tool (5.17)
• 30 Minutes: Check Course Accessibility with Bb Ally (5.21)
• Ultra Boot Camp: Kickstart Your First 2 Weeks (choose morning or afternoon on 6.4 or 6.6)

In Case You Missed It: Recordings & Tips

• Learning Analytics: Community of Practice SP2024 Series Recordings
• Selecting Course Materials and Tech Tools For Upcoming Terms
• Course Prep Checklists
• 8 Steps to Migrate Your Course to Ultra 
• 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

• Why & How Getting Help is Changing @ UMBC
• Stacy Cahill '01 Joins UMBC as the New CISO
• Track Attendance in Poll Everywhere (Beta Release)

Michael Hunt of Randallstown, Maryland, was recently selected as one of two recipients of the 2024 Marilyn Demorest Love of Learning Award from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Chapter 022BC-University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

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

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.

Harshal Singh Chauhan of  Indore, Madhya Pradesh (MP), India, was recently selected as one of two recipients of the 2024 Marilyn Demorest Love of Learning Award from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Chapter 022BC-University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Harshal was selected by the awards committee for his outstanding academic excellence and active participation within the university and the broader community.In particular, the committee was impressed by Harshal's perseverance to succeed and to live life by the PKP Motto - Philosophia Kateito Photo - Let the Love of Learning Rule Humanity. Harshal is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Health Information Technology

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 UM-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.

Blackboard course shells for FA2024 were created on May 13, 2024 per our previous announcement to support faculty preparation for Ultra in advance of the fall semester. Ultra will be the default in Blackboard with nearly 70 percent of all UMBC courses using Ultra since spring 2024.

If faculty wish to “roll back” their Fall 2024 Ultra shells to Original, they can do so by RT ticket for this semester only; the last day we will support Blackboard Original is December 31, 2024. DoIT strongly recommends faculty request a roll back before the first day of classes to ensure sufficient time for course preparation. Please review the conditions for requesting a roll back.

Training & Support for Ultra

• Attend an Ultra Boot Camp or 30-minute Ultra Quick Start session. Additional training will be posted throughout the summer and into early fall.
• Request a consult from our staff Ultra “office hours” or download our  8-step migration guide.
• Explore our Panopto folder for a wide variety of recorded webinars on various instructional technologies available at UMBC.
• Have a question about Ultra? Ask an Ultra Ambassador!

Plan your accessibility and Universal Design for Learning strategy before students begin working with course materials. Ally, an accessibility tool, is enabled in all course shells. Ally automatically scans uploaded and created course content, then performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Please review the Ally FAQs for more information about the accessibility indicators on course content and alternative formats, or attend a training session.

• If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically. 
• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not see your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.
• If you need a Bb shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.

Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course will find those enrollments merged into one Bb course shell. These sections may be split upon request by an RT ticket, which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard. NOTE: Courses should not be split after student grade data and engagement activity is recorded since it will be purged as part of the separation process.

Student enrollment in Bb mirrors the official registration in SA and updates hourly. However, courses are not accessible to students by default until the instructor of record makes them available.

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