https://fdc.umbc.edu/resources/keep-on-teaching/Following guidance from the University System of Maryland in the rapidly developing public health response to COVID-19, UMBC will transition to fully online instruction when classes resume after Spring Break. Per the announcement on March 10, we expect online instruction to continue for at least two weeks. As UMBC faculty shift to remote instruction using virtual tools, Blackboard has designed a series of free 30-minute webinars to help get started. Multiple dates & times are offered.

Teaching Remotely (Blackboard Learn Basics)

In response to growing concerns on the spread of the coronavirus, and institutions moving to fully online teaching, this webinar is designed to provide you easy step-by-step instructions on how to upload course content, create discussion boards for students to communicate, and provide an overview on the types of online assessments available in Blackboard Learn. 

• Tuesday, March 17:  9-9:30 AM, 11-11:30 AM, 8-8:30 PM 
• Wednesday, March 18:  9-9:30 AM, 11-11:30 AM, 8-8:30 PM
• Tuesday, March 24:  9-9:30 AM, 11-11:30 AM, 9-9:30 PM  
• Thursday, March 26:  9-9:30 AM, 11-11:30 AM, 8-8:30 PM  

--> Register online with Blackboard

Getting Started with Teaching a Virtual Class

Moving from in-classroom instruction to the online classroom does not have to be difficult or stressful. Blackboard Collaborate Ultra is a communication tool that will allow you to continue to engage with your students in a synchronous manner, or record sessions for students to watch at a later time. In this 30-minute session, we will review the Collaborate interface and tools available to use while teaching online. 

• Tuesday, March 17: 8-8:30 AM , 10-10:30 AM,  9-9:30 PM  
• Wednesday, March 18:  8-8:30 AM , 10-10:30 AM  9-9:30 PM  
• Tuesday, March 24:  8-8:30 AM, 10-10:30 AM, 10-10:30 PM  
• Thursday, March 26:  8-8:30 AM , 10-10:30 AM  9-9:30 PM  

--> Register online with Blackboard

Guide to Building Mobile Content

In this urgent response to moving from in-person instruction to online instruction, instructors should prepare for students to access course information on the go. In this 30-minute session, we provide you with basic fundamentals for preparing online course content for mobile delivery. Additionally, we will review Blackboard mobile apps and provide you with a helpful worksheet on mobile content development. 

• Thursday, March 19: 9-9:30 AM, 11-11:30 AM  
• Thursday, March 26: 9-9:30 AM, 11-11:30 AM  

--> Register online with Blackboard 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following resources:

• From DoIT: Academic Continuity | Business Continuity
• From FDC: Keep on Teaching 
• Available instructional technologies to support academic continuity 
• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• Open a ticket via RT 
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

This month's Ultra update focuses on increasing the visibility of Ally in Ultra courses. Faculty who upload files directly to the Course Content area or within folders and learning modules will see more prominent Ally accessibility meters. These tools are also available when content is embedded in Ultra assessments. Students can also access Ally's alternative file formats for content more easily.

Blackboard also enhanced self-enrollment for student groups, allowing students switch groups themselves within the instructor-specified enrollment period. This month offered a few quality improvement fixes. For example, line spacing is improved for Ultra discussion board spacing to improve the readability of posts. Additionally, students who are disabled in an Ultra course because they dropped the class will no longer appear in the participant list.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around February 11th and pushed to production in March 5th 2020. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

Managing large numbers of students and groups is an important tool in Blackboard. In the current version of Ultra, faculty had to create assignments and discussions before they could create and attach a group to the graded activity. With the December update, the Groups Set tool is enhanced to allow faculty to create groups before attaching them to assignments.

An additional enhancement to the groups tool will also allow faculty to assign students to a group if they are not already in one or move a student to a different group. This setting addresses an important need when students join a class after a group activity has started or if they do not join a self-enrolled group by an appointed deadline.

Note: Group Sets still do not have a bulk student enrollment option. We have reported this as a priority need to the Ultra developers. Self-enroll is not available for Group Sets. 

With the December update, faculty can create ungraded assignments. The existing workaround required using a zero-point test question; the upgrade to assignments now allows faculty to set the entire assignment to zero points.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around December 10th and pushed to production in early February 2020. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally

Based on new analysis of how Blackboard (Bb) Ultra has been adopted across campus, DoIT has decided to modify its approach to faculty support across colleges. 

Specifically, DoIT will focus on supporting the College of Engineering and IT (CoEIT) in Spring 2020, and the College of Natural, Mathematical and Natural Sciences (CNMS) in Fall 2020. In addition, the rollout period for all colleges and focus areas will extend across two terms (not one, as previously announced). There are no changes in DoIT support focusing on the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) in Spring 2021. Also, DoIT still plans to discontinue support of Blackboard Classic prior to Fall 2021.

When DoIT announced the phased rollout of Blackboard (Bb) Ultra on April 4 of this year, we did so based on the number of courses typically using Bb in each college as of Spring 2019, starting with least to greatest, to afford more time to colleges using Bb the most. To date, 270 courses have moved to Bb Ultra in Fall 2019, nearly doubling the 147 who did so in Spring 2019. 

However, of the 270 Fall 2019 Ultra courses, 61% are from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), which was not expected, followed by 11% from the College of Engineering & Information Technology (CoEIT), and 3% from CNMS. The Division of Professional Studies (DPS), Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs (DUAA), Erickson School and Social Work collectively represent 65 courses (24.5%), which was DoIT’s priority focus for Fall 2019. 

As a fully redesigned system, Ultra benefits from an intentional focus on accessibility and mobile responsiveness. In addition to extensive checks to meet accessibility standards, Ultra includes support for Ally, an integrated tool that checks course content for accessibility and generates alternative formats for users.

With the November update, both the accessibility meters for faculty and the alternative formats for all users will be as visible as they are in Original courses. Accessibility scores for instructors will be available with attachments in document and tests with, appearing next to the files they are scoring. This makes it easier for instructors to see how their content scores and fix any issues. Students will be able to easily download alternative formats of files and images by selecting the alternative file icon and choosing the desired format.

Note: Accessibility scores and alternative format icons are only available with attached files. They will not be available with files and images added through the Ultra content editor. Instructors may also reference the Course Accessibility Report.

Faculty and students may also note a complete redesign of all icons throughout the Ultra system. Most notably, the updated icons are darker and will appear more prominently, particularly in Ultra courses. Additional updates in November include moving the Batch Edit tool into the overflow menu with other bulk course management tools to better align with how it's used and updating the assessment creation buttons to use Save and Cancel rather than Done. The blank Learning Module will also be removed from the Ultra course page to avoid confusion.

Finally, with the November update, Ultra Documents now have a description field that will appear on the Course Content page, which allows instructors to give high-level details about what the Ultra documents contain, reducing unnecessary clicks for students.

The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around November 12th and pushed to production around December 5th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. 

As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Sign up for a webinar & other training 
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Review your course content with Ally