Contact tracing is an integral part of the fight against COVID-19.  It speeds response, identifies potential hot spots, and focuses testing efforts.  Unfortunately, it also creates an opportunity for scammers to deploy two of their most powerful tools, impersonating authority and a sense of urgency.

A North Carolina news station conducted an information test by calling a producer's friends and using a script based on CDC recommendations.  

After the initial greeting and confirmation of the subject's name and birth date, the script abandoned the CDC guidelines and started asking for the subject's Social Security number, home address and other personal information.  These questions are presented as necessary to 'confirm' the subject's identity.  In fact, they are the basic elements of identity theft.  Several of the attempts were successful in getting a complete picture of the subject's personal information.

In another part of the same segment, the station interviewed an IT Security professional who demonstrated how a simple, professionally-worded message (from a fictitious contact tracing company) could get recipients to click on a link that could install malware on their computer.  The malware could be leveraged to give  an attacker complete access to all information on the system.

Contact tracing gives scammers a chance to represent themselves as providing a legitimate and authoritative service in combating a pandemic, and to take advantage of the stress their victim may feel on being informed that they have been identified as at-risk for infection.

If you get a text message or email telling you that you will be called by a contact tracer, then just wait for the call.  If you get a message telling you to click a link, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK!

If you live in Maryland, please visit https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/pages/contact-tracing .  If you are called by a legitimate contact tracer, your caller ID will tag the call as MD COVID.  If you do not have caller ID, the calling number should be (240) 466-4488.  You can also call back on (240) 466-4488 if you receive voice mail.  A legitimate contact tracer will not ask you for your Social Security number, bank account number or credit card information, nor will they ask for money.

References:

Rossen Reports: Feds warn of new contact tracing scam

https://www.wxii12.com/article/rossen-reports-scammers-posing-as-contract-tracers/33251285

Notification of Exposure: A Contact Tracer's Guide for COVID-19

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/notification-of-exposure.html

Welcome to covidLINK - Maryland,giv

https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/pages/contact-tracing

Maryland COVID Contact Tracing

https://www.norc.org/Research/Projects/Pages/maryland-covid-contact-tracing-.aspx

In mid-March, UMBC faculty members converted from in-person classes to remote instruction in a matter of days. With virtually zero lead time and, for many, little experience with online teaching, the switch took a heroic effort. However, instructors are well aware that students will be expecting more come fall.

Faculty members are also expecting much more of themselves, and they have demonstrated it by showing up in droves for a variety of programs offered through UMBC’s Faculty Development Center (FDC), Division of Information Technology (DoIT), and the colleges and academic departments. Since May, more than half of all faculty have participated in training activities associated with online teaching, not including the faculty members serving as mentors and instructors for these trainings. 

Each of the three UMBC colleges has taken its own approach to getting faculty members ready, but common threads run through all of their initiatives. 

“I think anybody’s goal, in any sort of class, is to provide the highest-quality, most optimal experience to our students,” says Jamie Gurganus, associate director of engineering education initiatives in the College of Engineering and IT (COEIT).

Translating teaching instincts online

Of course, providing a high-quality educational experience in an online environment looks different than it does in an in-person class. That means reimagining class activities, assignments, and assessments. Perhaps especially, it means thinking deliberately about how to build community across space and time.

“These are all things that our faculty are good at face-to-face, because that’s what they’re experienced with,” says John Stolle-McAllister, associate dean for student success and curricular affairs in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), “but they’re trying to take their good teaching instincts and experience and put that into a new format, which is more than just learning some tech tools. It’s thinking about what makes sense online.”

The challenges to effective online teaching also differ drastically from discipline to discipline. Kathleen Hoffman is associate dean for faculty advancement in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS). “Recognizing that every course has different needs, I wanted to create a flexible program so that the faculty could take advantage of it from many different perspectives,” she shares.  

A quick PIVOT

These three college leads—Gurganus, Stolle-McAllister, and Hoffman—have collaborated with colleagues in their own units, DoIT, and the FDC to create summer training that will help faculty give their students “safe, thriving online environments” for their courses in the fall, as Gurganus describes it.  

All of the colleges’ efforts hinge on the Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT) program developed by DoIT staff. This program comes in several flavors. A starter pack of five, one-hour webinars focuses on the basics of how to design an online course and the tools available at UMBC. It has already been offered twice and will be offered once more before the semester begins. Two different two-week PIVOT+ programs, one tailored for CAHSS faculty (offered twice) and another for COEIT and CNMS, are more comprehensive. By the end of the PIVOT+ program, faculty members will already have done much of the work to prepare an online course.

“All of these initiatives focus on teaching faculty effective practices for teaching online and showing them how to create student-centered learning experiences,” says Sherri Braxton, senior director of instructional technology, and one of the leads organizing the offerings. “Through a program like PIVOT, faculty contribute to a growing community in which they can share their experiences designing courses and teaching online,” she adds. In addition to PIVOT, DoIT is also offering a number of tool-specific trainings this summer. 

Sherri Braxton, senior director of instructional technology, leads the instructional technology team at UMBC that conceived of and implemented the PIVOT program.

In addition to DoIT programs, the FDC has also been busy this summer. Their programming is usually concentrated during the academic year, but not anymore. FDC staff, led by associate vice provost for faculty affairs and director Linda Hodges, have been offering at least weekly programs through the Center. Their workshops create opportunities for faculty to discuss best pedagogical practices for online instruction, including ideas for building community and motivating students online.

Boot camp

In addition to PIVOT and PIVOT+, CNMS has created affinity groups for instructors of large classes, one for lab classes, and one for adjunct faculty members, who may have different concerns. “The affinity groups facilitate a grassroots effort to support the faculty in these particularly challenging aspects of online teaching,” Hoffman says. “And they’re off and running.” Faculty peer mentors who are already well-versed in online teaching lead the affinity groups.

CNMS full-time faculty who participate in 10 hours of UMBC-offered training for online instruction will be considered CNMS Fellows in Online Instruction and receive a Hrabowski Award, which comes with a small stipend.

Rather than group faculty by class format, CAHSS faculty expressed the desire to be grouped by subject area. These cohorts will meet outside the formal PIVOT+ programming to provide additional support and accountability. All CAHSS faculty can earn a Hrabowski Award by participating in PIVOT+ and developing a blueprint for an online class.

“Some of the departments got really excited about supporting each other in this and doing it as a boot camp,” Stolle-McAllister says. “The demand was tremendous. They really wanted to get into, ‘How do I apply and practice this? What does it mean for my class?’”

COEIT is offering a menu of discipline-specific workshops in addition to PIVOT+. Gurganus’s committee selected the topics based on a survey of faculty members’ needs. In order to earn the Hrabowski Award, COEIT faculty must participate in PIVOT+, attend three additional workshops of their choice, and upload an online lesson to a forum for feedback.

An interesting COEIT twist is that Undergraduate Teaching Fellows will also be involved in the work. These rising UMBC juniors and seniors will participate in the workshops and offer feedback on the uploaded lessons. “Students bring a really important perspective,” Gurganus says. “In the end, we’re doing all of this for them.”

By the numbers

Offering tons of programming is one thing. Faculty members must also participate with the sincere desire to improve their teaching practice. The good news is that the UMBC community is rising to the occasion, from the most experienced online educators offering their willing support to colleagues, to the uninitiated dipping their toes in the online teaching world for the first time—and working hard to swim in the deep end.

Based on data from PIVOT sessions that have already occurred, “Conservatively, I’d estimate about 400 participants in various iterations of PIVOT to date,” says John Fritz, associate vice president for instructional technology and new media. “Given that UMBC has 538 full-time and 292 part-time faculty, I am so impressed by how many faculty are investing their time and energy in re-thinking and re-designing their courses for this upcoming year.”

The FDC has seen similar participation levels for their programs: 277 faculty participated in programs focused on strategies for effective online instruction, and nearly one-third of those faculty members attended three or more sessions.

Opening minds

And all this is happening during the summer, when faculty members typically focus on making strong progress in their research programs. “They want to do a good job for our students, so a lot of them are just putting that aside for this summer,” Stolle-McAllister says. “I’m not surprised, but so impressed that so many of our faculty are taking advantage of this. It just reminds me how many people we have here who care a lot about what they’re doing.”

Gurganus agrees. “We really are coming together as a community from all of the disciplines,” she says. “The instructors truly care. They want the students to succeed.”

It’s a challenging, but also exciting, time. Beyond reconsidering lessons and online tools, faculty are also thinking about how to be deliberate and thoughtful about helping students learn the best they can. They’re also learning themselves how to be even more open, flexible, and compassionate, in order to support students who are experiencing a wide range of realities during the pandemic. These shifts in mindset and approach could reverberate long after the pandemic, Gurganus argues.

“I think that this process is going to lead to more open-mindedness. Even when we get back to in-person, face-to-face classes, faculty are going to say, you know what? These issues are important in any context, and I should keep them at the forefront of my thoughts.”

Learn more about how UMBC is preparing for the unique fall semester ahead by deliberately creating community in online spaces and planning for a hybrid model of course delivery.

Banner image: A student studies at a picnic table above the UMBC Library Pond. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.


###

The moral dilemma of a Biden presidency

By Anjali DasSarma

I know that there are people who aren’t voting at all this presidential election. Though I will be voting for Democrat Joe Biden this fall, lately I prefer stating that “I’m settling for Biden.”

The motto “Settle for Biden” has been flitting around social media , specifically pointed toward voters like me: progressive Americans who care deeply about equity and equality and are fully aware of Mr. Biden’s harmful rhetoric and actions in the past. This is truly a painful election, and I want to stress that I am not telling anyone how to vote, nor am I aiming to invalidate the pain anyone feels from Mr. Biden’s actions or words.

Mr. Biden opposed busing in the 1970s, and he wrote the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that disproportionately harmed people of color and led to the state of mass incarceration we now live in. He’s been accused of sexual misconduct, and has even insulted my own heritage as a mixed-race American, with his stereotyping comments in 2008 about Indian-Americans: “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

This year’s vote for president is a choice between the lesser of two evils: Joe Biden and his past or Donald Trump and his present.

Over the past four years, President Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly attempted to obstruct justice. He has called white supremacists “ fine people ,” pulled our country away from crucial organizations and agreements, including the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement , and consistently spewed hateful words about women , immigrants and countless others. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants, so we must stop him by voting.

It’s an uncomfortable choice, but Joe Biden is the right one. He can help steer us away from Trump’s America.

If Mr. Biden wins office, he will have a lot of work to do, including cleaning up Mr. Trump’s mess and moving our country forward, quickly. He’s going to need to create policies that protect oppressed communities, and he’s going to need to actually listen to people of color.

Settling for Mr. Biden means a more diverse Supreme Court. Mr. Trump has already had the opportunity to nominate two conservative Supreme Court justices . In the next four years, another justice is likely to step down, spurring another nomination. If it goes to Mr. Trump, the high court will further erode the rights of immigrants, women and people of color.

Though I’m settling for Mr. Biden, I know many who are not. Mr. Biden must understand that he is not entitled to anyone’s vote. Running an election based on being the “anti-Trump” is frustrating true progressive Americans, who have time and time again outlined what the country needs for a successful future. That often means dismantling systems that are set up to fail people of color, and it always means going beyond words and listening to people of color when they speak up.

Mr. Biden has already formed policy working groups to tackle many of the major issues facing this country and the world, including health care, immigration, criminal justice reform, education, climate change and the economy, according to the New York Times . I was cheered to see Mr. Biden taking on the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force Recommendations after his meeting with Bernie Sanders, stating that the United States will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement if he becomes president and will “commit to eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035 through technology-neutral standards for clean energy and energy efficiency.” As we know by now, Donald Trump doesn’t care at all about climate change, which is hitting oppressed communities first.

This is an entirely frustrating election cycle. But based on the past four years (my entire adult life so far), this country and the people of this country cannot achieve equity while Mr. Trump is in office. Having seen the destruction from the Trump White House as it stands, I’ll “Settle for Biden.”

Anjali DasSarma is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the incoming editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, The Retriever; and the summer editorial board intern at The Baltimore Sun. Her email address is adassarma@baltsun.com ; Twitter: @anjalidassarma.

Phil Hands/TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY

Today we’re revisiting Maurice Berger’s Race Stories article, “The Faces of Bigotry: When the Hoods Come Off.” This article features photos of white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, VA and likens them to photographs of German neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan gatherings in the early to mid 1900s. These photographs intend to make the faces of those who uphold values of bigotry, violence, and hate visible— oftentimes people we know. 

Article: https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/the-faces-of-bigotry-when-the-hoods-come-off/

Networking For Future (NFF) and Cisco Stimulus and Grant Funding Webinar

Thursday, July 23, 2020 | 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET

If your organization needs some extra funding assistance due to the coronavirus pandemic, you are not alone.  This webinar, “Stimulus and Grant Funding: Update on What’s Available” on Thursday, July 23, 2020 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., is designed to answer your questions about the various governmental relief programs. 

Networking For Future (NFF), a Cisco Gold Partner, is pleased to host this unique opportunity for you to learn more about available stimulus and grant funding and hear from your regional government and education IT peers about the funding they’ve received, how they are spending the funds, and their future plans for the funding. 

At the Stimulus and Grant Funding webinar, you will:

• Receive updated information on the economic recovery grants from the state and the federal government during the COVID-19 health crisis
• Hear from your IT management peers about their funding strategies and acquisition processes, including lessons learned and best practices
• Learn about the top three areas where the governmental relief funding is being spent
• Discover actionable steps you can take today 

We're looking forward to meeting you.  Below is the agenda. 

Questions or Comments? Contact: marketing@nffinc.com 

AGENDA 

• Overview and Introductions
• Update on the Funding Awarded in 2020
• Update on Available Funding Options for Government and Education
• Stimulus and Grant Funding Case Studies
• Top Three IT Funding Investments in Today’s Environment
• Actionable Steps to Take Today
• Questions