AI Initiatives

The DoIT AI site is here to help the community with information on using artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI (GenAI), to support UMBC’s Administrative, Instructional, and Research efforts. This site is designed to support employees looking to advance their use of GenAI. We recommend that our UMBC community start by visiting GenAI Tools, this page will highlight what free resources are available to use and what options exist to safely use GenAI while safeguarding UMBC institutional data.

For staff providing support, we encourage people to look at Administrative AI, as a starting point. Our goal is to save people time and hopefully improve the quality of their work, thus increasing productivity. We highlight some tools that DoIT is providing for support and we are seeking partners to work with DoIT on expanding myUMBC Answers. The real key to your office leveraging myUMBC Answers is to be able to provide validated and accurate content, such as FAQs or a handbook produced annually.

For faculty, we encourage you to also explore instructional AI and research AI. A wonderful resource in the College of Engineering Center for AI.  You can follow news about the UMBC Center for AI on social media through its sites on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, and Facebook.Members of the UMBC community can subscribe to the UMBC AI Group to receive email about AI-related news and events.  If you have news to share with the UMBC AI community or suggestions or comments on the site, please send them to umbc-ai@cs.umbc.edu.

 

AI News

Showing items tagged blackboard. Show All

Free Webinar Series: Teaching with Blackboard Ultra

Monthly training for faculty, TAs, and staff in SP/SU2023

The Bb Instructor Webinar Series offers free 45-minute webinars designed for instructors who are getting started with teaching using Blackboard Ultra. Topics include getting started, creating...

Posted: February 3, 2023, 10:47 AM

Extra credit & exemptions come to Ultra assessments in Feb

New functionality enhances Ultra courses in time for SP2023

In early February, instructors will have the option to help students showcase their knowledge on assessments with the new extra credit setting. With this feature, instructors can assign one or...

Posted: January 30, 2023, 2:24 PM

Top 5 Ultra departments: Adoption increased as much as 100%

Departments may request Ultra as default when shells created

In a recent survey of Ultra users last semester, faculty and students expressed satisfaction with Ultra. During the Fall 2022 semester, faculty increased their use of Ultra in greater numbers. The...

Posted: January 20, 2023, 9:29 AM

Faculty and student satisfaction with Ultra exceeds 85%

Consistent praise for Ultra's clean interface, ease of use

In a recent survey of faculty who used Ultra during the FA2022 semester, 86.5% of faculty who responded said they would use Ultra again, citing its ease of use and consistent experience for...

Posted: January 19, 2023, 11:44 AM

Randomize test pages & lock discussions in Jan Ultra update

New option to create model essay response for graders

Test pagination was introduced to Ultra courses last year, creating new ways to present clusters of questions to students that focused on content or reduced cognitive load. In this month's update,...

Posted: January 5, 2023, 9:57 AM