In accordance with the Blackboard Course Retention Policy, all Blackboard courses older than Fall 2006 will be deleted. DoIT has scheduled this removal for Friday, August 24, 2012.

Instructors are encouraged to download and keep a copy of the Grade Center for any affected courses. Instructors may also archive an entire course, and keep a local copy for their records. Be aware though that only DoIT system administrators can "restore" an archived course on the UMBC Blackboard production server.

Blackboard has posted the following announcement regarding maintenance of their plagiarism detection utility: The SafeAssign service will be unavailable on Saturday, August 4th, 2012 from 12:01 AM US Eastern (GMT-4) to 9:00 AM US Eastern. SafeAssign is being taken offline for capacity expansion and proactive maintenance in preparation for the upcoming academic term. End-users will not be able to submit papers through SafeAssign during the planned downtime and will receive an error message if they attempt to do so. SafeAssign Originality Reports will not be available to Instructors or Students during the planned downtime, nor will instructors be able to access SafeAssign DirectSubmit. Please make end-users aware of these limitations. Use of SafeAssign can continue as normal after the planned downtime is complete.

If you have participated in the Dissertation House in the past, and if you still have work to complete, then you are invited to join us for the Dissertation House at the 2012 PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI).  “Alumni” of the DH know how to get down to business immediately. So if you need time and space to jump right into DH mode, use the regular application process, and use “DH @ 2012 SSI” in the subject line of your email. This invitation is open to any graduate student, from any school, who has participated in at least one FULL 3 or 4-day DH Session (e.g., any campus, at a PROMISE retreat, any year) or the 2011 SSI DH Marathon in Columbia.  This event will take place on Friday, August 17, 2012, from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, in Room Commons 329, on UMBC’s campus.

Guidelines and Requirements

•  Be an alumnus of a previous Dissertation House
• Be registered for the PROMISE Summer Success Institute, and  plan to fully participate in the other parts of the conference (outside of the DH)  all day Saturday, 8/18 at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve, http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/2012-summer-success-institute-august-17-18-2012-umbc-the-hotel-at-arundel-preserve/
  
• Follow the traditional application procedures and apply by Monday, August 13, 2012: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/, use “DH @ 2012 SSI” in the subject line of your email.
• Login to the DH 2012 Summer Challenge and join the conversation with #TeamGetItDone:  http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/summer-2012-challenge/
  
• Outline your goals for the 2012 online (using the challenge link above) by Wednesday, August 15.

Coach: Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale

This DH session includes breakfast refreshments, a buffet lunch, and an afternoon snack. 

Related articles

• Annual PROMISE Summer Success Institute: August 17-18, 2012 @ UMBC & The Hotel at Arundel Preserve (promiseagep.wordpress.com)
• “Get it out of your head, and put it on paper!” (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Finish the dissertation, because you can’t put “Almost PhD” behind your name (renettatull.wordpress.com)

If you have participated in the Dissertation House in the past, and if you still have work to complete, then you are invited to join us for the Dissertation House at the 2012 PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI).  “Alumni” of the DH know how to get down to business immediately. So if you need time and space to jump right into DH mode, use the regular application process, and use “DH @ 2012 SSI” in the subject line of your email. This invitation is open to any graduate student, from any school, who has participated in at least one FULL 3 or 4-day DH Session (e.g., any campus, at a PROMISE retreat, any year) or the 2011 SSI DH Marathon in Columbia.  This event will take place on Friday, August 17, 2012, from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, in Room Commons 329, on UMBC’s campus.

Guidelines and Requirements

•  Be an alumnus of a previous Dissertation House
• Be registered for the PROMISE Summer Success Institute, and  plan to fully participate in the other parts of the conference (outside of the DH)  all day Saturday, 8/18 at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve, http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/2012-summer-success-institute-august-17-18-2012-umbc-the-hotel-at-arundel-preserve/
  
• Follow the traditional application procedures and apply by Monday, August 13, 2012: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/, use “DH @ 2012 SSI” in the subject line of your email.
• Login to the DH 2012 Summer Challenge and join the conversation with #TeamGetItDone:  http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/summer-2012-challenge/
  
• Outline your goals for the 2012 online (using the challenge link above) by Wednesday, August 15.

Coach: Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale

This DH session includes breakfast refreshments, a buffet lunch, and an afternoon snack. 

Related articles

• Annual PROMISE Summer Success Institute: August 17-18, 2012 @ UMBC & The Hotel at Arundel Preserve (promiseagep.wordpress.com)
• “Get it out of your head, and put it on paper!” (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Finish the dissertation, because you can’t put “Almost PhD” behind your name (renettatull.wordpress.com)

The results are in! The Dissertation House at College Park was a success. Dr. Carter-Veale and Dr. Alexis Williams recorded the full range of sentiments, reflections, and take-home messages on our Summer 2012 Challenge, and on the PhD Completion website.   Here is a subset of those highlights:

• Own the dissertation process
• Don’t try to avoid it
• Visualize yourself in your cap and gown
• Change your perception of productivity
• Trust yourself, own your process
• Set a date and create a schedule. Start the countdown!

The results are in! The Dissertation House at College Park was a success. Dr. Carter-Veale and Dr. Alexis Williams recorded the full range of sentiments, reflections, and take-home messages on our Summer 2012 Challenge, and on the PhD Completion website.   Here is a subset of those highlights:

• Own the dissertation process
• Don’t try to avoid it
• Visualize yourself in your cap and gown
• Change your perception of productivity
• Trust yourself, own your process
• Set a date and create a schedule. Start the countdown!

Bb course shells for FA 2012 were created on July 5, and will continue to be updated daily. Bb shells are available for all courses (designated as lecture, lab, field or discussion) listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), provided that there was an instructor of record listed. The addition of new course sections and instructors will result in new Bb shells being automatically generated each morning. Student enrollment in Bb will continue to mirror the official registration in SA, and will update hourly.

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 get that issue resolved.

Additionally in situations where one instructor is teaching multiple sections of the same course, by default all sections will be combined into one Bb course shell. If you want to have separate shells for different sections, or if you need a shell for for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request or submit an RT ticket with your request.