The UMBC Instructional Technology Update is provided by the Division of Information Technology for students, faculty and staff. If you have questions or need help, please consult the Blackboard Help FAQs or directly at www.umbc.edu/blackboard/help.  You can also contact the Technology Support Center at 410.455.3838 or submit an RT (Request Tracker) ticket via the myUMBC Help Menu or directly at my.umbc.edu/help.

HEADLINES

What’s New

• Fall 24 Bb Courses to Use Ultra by Default
• 4 Reasons to Use Copy Content to Prepare an Ultra Course
• Ultra Courses to Support Additional Level of Nested Folders
• Ultra Adoption by Faculty Eclipses Original for SP2024
• Google Jamboard to Retire in Fall 2024
• Learning Analytics Mini Grants CFP Due 6/7/24
• Enhancing Media and Accessibility Using Panopto
• Panopto Mandatory Recorder Upgrade for Mac Users
• Blackboard Courses Created: SU2024 (April 22, 2024) & FA2024 (May 13, 2024)
• AY20-21 Blackboard Courses Scheduled for Server Retirement
• DoIT’s Susan Biro Selected to QM Academic Advisory Council
• 19th UMBC Course Earns QM Certification with New 7th Ed. Rubric

Training & Professional Development (recording archive | view upcoming events)

• Ultra Quick Start Series: 30 minutes to get you started
• Copy Content into Blackboard Ultra (5.15)
• Content Release and Visibility Settings (5.16)
• Create New Content in Blackboard Ultra (5.20)
• Create Assessments in Blackboard Ultra (5.28)
• Optimizing Course Quota (5.30)
• Blackboard Ultra's AI Course Design Assistant Tool (5.17)
• 30 Minutes: Check Course Accessibility with Bb Ally (5.21)
• Ultra Boot Camp: Kickstart Your First 2 Weeks (choose morning or afternoon on 6.4 or 6.6)

In Case You Missed It: Recordings & Tips

• Learning Analytics: Community of Practice SP2024 Series Recordings
• Selecting Course Materials and Tech Tools For Upcoming Terms
• Course Prep Checklists
• 8 Steps to Migrate Your Course to Ultra 
• Tips to Wrap Up Your Blackboard Course for the Semester 
• Effective Practices for Delivering Blackboard Tests
• Tips to Get Your Blackboard Course Ready for Next Semester

Other DoIT & UMBC News

• Why & How Getting Help is Changing @ UMBC
• Stacy Cahill '01 Joins UMBC as the New CISO
• Track Attendance in Poll Everywhere (Beta Release)

Blackboard course shells for Summer 2024 were created on April 22, 2024.

UMBC is committed to providing a consistent learning experience for everyone. The Ultra Course Preview setting is enabled in SU2024 courses, which allows faculty to preview OR convert a new Original course to Ultra. The recommendation, however, is to create a new course to optimize the design.

• Please review the release notes for the latest updates as well as feature parity charts -- more than 200 new updates were added over the last year! 
• Discover What's New in Ultra for Teaching & Learning on May 8th
• Have a question about Ultra? Ask an Ultra Ambassador!
• For all other resources about Ultra, please visit: umbc.edu/go/ultra 

Many departments have opted into Ultra into Ultra to ensure a consistent approach for their students, which means those courses will start with Ultra by default rather than Original -- please check with your department as this list has grown.

Ally, an accessibility tool, is always enabled in all course shells. Ally automatically scans uploaded and created course content, then performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Please review the Ally FAQs for more information about the accessibility indicators on course content and alternative formats.

About Course Creation

• If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically. 
• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not see your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.
• If you need a Bb shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.

Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course will find those enrollments merged into one Bb course shell. These sections may be split upon request by an RT ticket, which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard. NOTE: Courses should not be split after student grade data and engagement activity is recorded since it will be purged as part of the separation process.

Student enrollment in Bb mirrors the official registration in SA and updates hourly. However, courses are not accessible to students by default until the instructor of record makes them available.

Connect with Instructional Technology

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

• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Student Technology Resources

• 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