As we prepare for the winter break, we commonly see a surge in malicious activity toward user accounts. Users receive emails warning about unpaid invoices, expired passwords, or full inboxes. These messages are made to convince people that they are in danger of losing money or access if they don't respond, or click a link within an email. Very often these messages will appear to come from someone you know, from a company you may have done business with, or in some cases, from what looks like your own account.

Other common phishing messages recently have included invoices from companies like PayPal or GeekSquad saying they will be charging your credit card if you don't click a link. These messages are fake.

We have some FAQs available on how to identify phishing/spam messages you can look at below.

UMBC Phishing and Spam FAQs

As well as some best practices for keeping your account secure:

Cybersecurity Awareness - Security - UMBC

If you receive any messages like this, please forward them to security@umbc.edu along with the email headers. For instructions on forwarding email headers, please visit:

How do I forward full email headers? - Find Help (FAQs) - UMBC.

Three additional UMBC faculty have earned Quality Matters (QM) certification of their online or hybrid courses in the Fall 2022 semester following rigorous peer reviews as part of the Quality Matters Impact (QMI) program.

Faculty participants received feedback from certified QM subject matter experts and peer reviewers as part of a formal course review. They also earned a digital credential for completing the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop earlier this year as part of the preparation to take a course through the peer review process.

The Quality Matters Impact program formally recognizes courses that meet Quality Matters (QM) standards and demonstrate exemplary online/hybrid course design. An extension of the award-winning PIVOT program, the call for participation in the Quality Matters Impact program is open now for the 2023-24 academic year with reviews scheduled in fall, spring, or summer. 

Using the 6th edition of the QM Higher Education Rubric, a formal QM course review is a collegial process to provide helpful recommendations for continuous improvement and reinforce effective, research-based practices for online and hybrid course design. The 7th edition of the QM rubric is slated for release in July 2023. 

A QM course review provides independent validation of quality, learner-focused course design. As of December 2022, 70% of the QM-certified courses in the University System of Maryland are taught by UMBC faculty. A course achieves QM Certification when it meets QM Rubric Standards at the 85% threshold or better and meets all Essential Standards. QM certification is valid for five years.

DoIT's Instructional Technology team manages the QM review process and facilitates the fully online, asynchronous Applying the Quality Matters Rubric workshop designed to help instructors prepare for a QM course review.

When a course is deemed having met QM standards, the instructor is eligible to display the QM Certification Mark on the syllabus or within the course itself. To maintain QM certification, and be listed onQM's website, courses may be re-certified for an additional three years or officially reviewed again.

Selection Criteria: 

Participants selected for the Quality Matters Impact program agree to submit a hybrid or online course for a Quality Matters course review.

Full or part-time faculty who meet the criteria and have not previously received funding through the Quality Matters Impact program are encouraged to apply by March 30, 2023. 

Recognizing that the QM Impact program does require an investment of time to participate, a $1000 professional development award will be provided to faculty by the Provost's office once a course meets QM standards and all participation requirements are met.

Eligibility for full and part-time faculty

1. You have taught your course as online or hybrid for at least two semesters at UMBC.
2. You have proficiency with Blackboard by your ability to demonstrate the skills in at least six of the eight Skill Builder themes for Blackboard in a current or prior online or hybrid course.

Faculty who meet the eligibility criteria are encouraged to apply by March 30, 2023 for early consideration and feedback. All QMI applications are due no later than June 1.

Applicants may choose one of two review types:

1. QM Review: Official course review with external reviewers. Courses that successfully met QM Standards for course design are eligible to display the QM Course Certification Mark. 
2. QM Essentials: Unofficial review of a course in its entirety that is completed internally against QM's 23 Essential Standards. This type of review is not eligible for QM Certification. 

Inclusion Criteria

Faculty accepted into the QMI cohort agree to participate in the following activities:

• Attend a 45-minute QMI orientation session (virtually, choose January 20 or March 10 at 12 noon)
• Complete the fully online (asynchronous) Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) 2-week workshop offered January 10-24, 2023, facilitated by UMBC.
• You may also choose to complete the online APPQMR workshop facilitated by Salisbury (with UMBC support) on one of these additional dates: February 14-28, April 11-25, or July 11-25
• However, if you have successfully completed APPQMR, you will complete a QM Self-Review of the course you will take through the review process
• Complete a QM self-review of your course (recommended)
• Attend a pre-review conference call with your assigned review team as QM course review windows are fixed: Once assigned, there are limited opportunities to reschedule.
• Implement recommendations to meet QM standards based on helpful suggestions from your assigned review team
• Respond to both a QM survey and a QMI post-program survey after the course review has concluded  
• Participate on a future panel or record a testimonial about your experience

Each accepted QMI applicant will be assigned a specialist to answer Quality Matters questions and support your course prep for the course review.

Application Requirements 

An application to participate in the Quality Matters Impact program must include both course-level objectives and unit-level objectives.

Ready to submit? Please complete the QMI application.

Questions? Please reach out to one of the QM coordinators for UMBC:

Dr. Mariann Hawken, Director, Instructional Technology, mariannhawken@umbc.edu

Dr. Susan Biro, Manager, Online Learning, sbiro@umbc.edu

DoIT is pleased to announce the availability of Poll Everywhere, which now includes the ability of students, faculty and staff to login with their UMBC credentials. Many UMBC faculty are already leveraging Poll everywhere in their teaching. Through the Fall 2022 term, nearly 2,000 students have participated in at least one Poll Everywhere activity.

Poll Everywhere is an audience response system that presenters can utilize in both face-to-face and online courses instead of traditional, physical clickers. There will be no cost to members of the UMBC community to use this platform. 

Poll Everywhere is web-based and can be managed both through a web browser or through the Poll Everywhere application. Poll Everywhere allows you to ask questions of your students, collect their responses by inviting them to respond through a website or phone text link, and share their collective responses in a variety of formats that update in real-time for everyone to see. It encourages all students to engage with learning content in an interactive way, using a tablet, laptop or mobile phone. Poll Everywhere questions can be launched from a browser or integrated in slide presentations such as Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint. Questions and results can be shared with other colleagues as well. Additionally, Poll Everywhere can be used during synchronous, online class meetings since no other hardware is needed, and the response system integrates with Blackboard allowing instructors to assign points and grade responses. 

Please note that on Jan. 15, 2023 all existing Poll Everywhere accounts with a UMBC email account will be updated to require UMBC SSO access and that instructors and students will need to access Poll Everywhere via UMBC Single Sign On (SSO). Instructors will need to submit an RT ticket to request UMBC presenter access.

DoIT will host a 1-hour Clicker Faculty Coffee Break and Town Hall  on Wed. Dec. 14th from 10-11 to discuss:

• the PollEverywhere Pilot including myUMBC login & converting free accounts.

• Turning Point (now Point Solutions) pricing & proposal

• Next steps

Please also join a 1-hour Poll Everywhere training and demonstration on Thursday Jan. 12th  from 12-1 for an introductory training session to learn how to:

• Navigate the presenter dashboard

• Create and present activities

• Collaborate with teams

• Generate reports 

• Integrate Poll Everywhere in slide presentations

DoIT has prepared a FAQ collection on Poll Everywhere including a getting started checklist for instructors. In addition, please follow our myUMBC group for upcoming training on Poll Everywhere. 

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 

• What's new in Ultra? | Known Issues 

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional student consultants to work during the springsemester and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on Handshake to apply. (Search for DoIT Technology Support Center Student Consultant.)

TSC Student Consultant Job Description

Technology Support Center (TSC) student consultants are the first points of technical contact for the UMBC community and those who do well often go on to work in other areas of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Minimally, consultants are expected to provide initial triage and support for a wide range of information technologies including accounts, hardware, instructional technologies, networking, software, telecommunications, and basic web development.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical assistance to users by phone, online and in person;
• Answer TSC phones in a professional and courteous manner;
• Create, update and resolve tickets in the Request Tracker (RT) ticketing system;
• Create, update, suggest and recommend relevant FAQ articles to users (www.umbc.edu/faq);
• Provide direct assistance to users on technical issues they cannot easily resolve on their own;
• Respond to all work-related communications in a timely manner;
• Escalate urgent problems to the Full-Time staff, as appropriate.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate by phone or in person.
• Demonstrated writing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and customers.
• Demonstrated analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability & willingness to learn coupled with a clear understanding of one’s technical abilities, so as to triage and escalate an issue that leads to an effective solution for the user.