Dear Colleagues,

As we come to the end of the Spring 2020 semester, I wish to thank each of you for your remarkable work and commitment to the UMBC community, and most especially our students, and for everything you have done to transition so quickly to remote instruction. This is a major accomplishment at a time when we recognize that the current health crisis has had a great impact on both your professional and personal lives. 

I wish to commend our faculty for the high level of engagement with their students and the care they have demonstrated to prepare their courses for remote instruction, including by participating in the new Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT) program, which was offered for the first time earlier this month. So far, 263 faculty have participated in the PIVOT program, and 122 of those 263 faculty will be teaching this summer—a testament to your enduring commitment to teaching excellence.

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has scheduled additional PIVOT sessions throughout this coming summer and is working with the Colleges and the Faculty Development Center to develop specialized versions that are tied to specific peer learning groups. The current training schedule for summer is as follows:

For more information on the PIVOT program, or to sign up for a training session, please visit DoIT’s PIVOT webpage.

Thank you again for all you are doing on behalf of our students during these challenging times. Please take care of yourselves and your families.