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CBEE is hiring a part-time staff member to work on Tuesday from 8:30 - 4:30 pm for Fall 2024.
As part of our ongoing commitment to engaging the campus community, Human Resources & Strategic Talent Management (HRSTM) created The Insider newsletter to provide important updates, insights, and highlights from each HRSTM unit. We invite you to take a moment out of your day to read the latest updates. Also, feel free to download a copy to digitally share with your colleagues or print a few copies to place in the gathering spaces of your office.
]]>After many years of use, UMBC’s license for Class Collaborate (formerly Blackboard Collaborate) will end on July 31, 2025.
As one of our longest licensed tools, Collaborate provided synchronous support for Blackboard courses, serving more than 300,000 sessions over the last ten years. However, since it was acquired by Class Technologies in 2022, it is unclear if and how Collaborate will be supported and developed over the long term, given the company’s priority of its own synchronous platform based on Zoom.
In Spring 24, we announced that we would standardize one version of Blackboard (Ultra) starting this fall. Ideally, we would also simplify the synchronous video conference platform used by courses; however, we recognize that students will likely use a variety of tools in their working lives after graduation. Therefore it is essential to expand access to licensed synchronous tools while we also still have Collaborate for another academic year.
DoIT offers three synchronous meeting tools with robust functionality:
To learn more about these synchronous platforms, please explore pedagogical and technical use cases in this comparison chart. If you have a specific use case not listed, please open an RT ticket for a consult.
Attendance Tracking
While these synchronous platforms offer Blackboard integrations at varying levels, none support 1) attendance synchronization to the Blackboard gradebook and 2) groups synchronization between breakouts and Blackboard. All platforms, however, do provide attendance reports, which will be important for faculty who need to track student attendance as well as proposed regulatory changes for attendance in 100% online courses.
We welcome faculty feedback via this brief survey about synchronous platforms and attendance.
Preparing for the Transition
Starting this fall, Instructional Technology will offer training sessions to familiarize faculty and staff with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Webex training is available upon request. These sessions will focus on both the technical aspects of using the tools and pedagogical strategies to enhance student engagement.
Users who wish to save Collaborate recordings will need to migrate them to Panopto by May 25, 2025.
Collaborate recordings made before July 1, 2024 will be retired by October 1, 2024.
NOTE: Due to FERPA restrictions, the reuse of any recordings (Collaborate, Webex, etc.) is not permitted if those recordings feature audio or video of students without their express permission.
Key Dates to Remember
May 25, 2025 - Faculty and student access to Collaborate via Blackboard ends
June 15, 2025 - Access to Collaborate sessions outside Blackboard ends
July 31, 2025 - End of support for Collaborate, including DoIT access to the Collaborate system
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The new Microsoft Reseller RFP (BPM045089) has been published on eMaryland Marketplace Advantage. The RFP is hosted by the University of Maryland - College Park.
The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to establish a contractual relationship with a Microsoft Authorized Reseller, to serve the purpose of procuring, supporting, and distributing Microsoft Education volume licensing, products, and services to participants of the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC) environment.
The selected Proposer will be responsible for providing the most current version of software products and services to the individual MEEC Institutions, under the Microsoft Academic and Academic Subscription volume-licensing program. The selected Proposer will be required to keep all records on behalf of MEEC that are required by the agreement.
To access the RFP: Search the eMMA’s “Public Solicitations” tab, https://emma.maryland.gov/page.aspx/en/rfp/request_browse_public, under the Keyword: BPM045089