The Resident Student Association (RSA) will host the Regional Leadership Conference for the Central Atlantic Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls (CAACURH) from November 8 - 10, 2024. This conference could potentially bring 300-400 student leaders to UMBC.

RSA officers submitted the winning bid to host the conference at the Feb. 2024 CAACURH Regional Business Conference: senior Bailey Berg, president, junior Olapeju Otusajo, national communication coordinator, and sophomore Faith Beande, national communication coordinator-in-training, presented their 45-page bid proposal.

Berg is the conference chair, and Grace Collins, residential education and leadership coordinator for Residential Life, is the conference advisor. They will be recruiting a student lead conference team as well as an advisor team in the upcoming month.

RSA at UMBC has a strong history with the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) and CAACURH, which bring together students passionate about leadership, advocacy and collaboration as they work to improve the quality of life for residential students at their institutions.

CAACURH represents one of eight regions belonging to NACURH. The Central Atlantic Affiliate region includes institutions from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. 

If you have any interest in supporting the conference or suggestions, please reach out to Grace Collins at gcollins@umbc.edu  

Instructors have many options available when they select course materials each term. As you select materials for the upcoming term, will you participate in the Course Materials Initiative (CMI), incorporate technology tools, or adopt Open Educational Resources (OER)? 

Course Materials Initiative

The Course Materials Initiative (CMI) provides access to digital course materials through Blackboard. The digital course materials include ebooks and courseware such as WebAssign, MindTap and ALEKS, if applicable, from publishers under contract with UMBC. The course materials are integrated into Blackboard via VitalSource (the common digital platform) for all participating courses and sections. A course materials charge is included on the student bill when they have registered for a participating course or, for some courses, after the CMI Status Change Deadline. Students can elect not to participate in CMI and obtain their own access to materials.

For more information about the Course Materials Initiative program, please contact Jocelyn Ochoa-Garcia (ochoa1@umbc.edu) at the UMBC Bookstore.

Technology Tools

Blackboard supports a variety of third-party tools through Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) integrations. These integrations support single-sign on between third-party content or services and improve instructor/student efficiency by streamlining usage or synchronizing grades. In addition to publisher tools, instructors may incorporate content using CourseArc, Google, Library Reserves, Microsoft, Panopto, Poll Everywhere, and VoiceThread. 

Occasionally, instructors may have an interest in integrating a new technology in their Blackboard courses. New integrations must be reviewed through a formal Procurement process to ensure the tool meets standards for security, privacy, data retention, and accessibility, even if the technology does not have any associated financial cost. As a reminder, students should only access technologies via SSO or LTI integrations in Blackboard to remain in compliance with UMBC cloud computing requirements. 

Request support with technology tools:

• How do I request a new tool or integration for Blackboard?

• Consult with Instructional Technology

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium (digital or otherwise) that are released under an open license that permits no-cost or low-cost access, use, adaptation, or redistribution (UNESCO, 2002). OER can include textbooks, syllabi, supplementary materials, quizzes, assessment rubrics, homework, or labs. 

Explore how you can adopt OERs for your course:

• Follow the Open Educational Resources group on myUMBC 

• Explore the M.O.S.T. OER Commons

• Check out the OER research guide

Contact OER co-chairs Erin Durham (edurham@umbc.edu) or Susan Biro (sbiro@umbc.edu) for more information on OER at UMBC.

Reminders

Course material adoptions for Summer/Fall are due the third Friday in March. Summer and fall textbook adoptions should be submitted by April 24th to permit compliance with USM Board of Regents policy. For inquiries related to course materials, contact textbook@umbc.edu.

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