AI Initiatives

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

For staff providing support, we encourage people to look at Administrative AI, as a starting point. Our goal is to save folks time and improve the quality of their work, thus increasing productivity. We highlight some tools that DoIT is providing for support.

Additionally, we have launched an AI-supported search bar called myUMBC Answers.  We are seeking partners to work with DoIT to expand myUMBC Answers. The key to your office leveraging myUMBC Answers is providing 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. An excellent resource in the College of Engineering is the UMBC 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

AI and Accessible Images for Inclusive Courses

National Distance Learning Week 2023

Providing accessible images is a crucial step to ensure inclusivity and equal access to learning. When images are properly described, students using screen readers are able to access an equitable...

Posted: November 8, 2023, 6:46 AM

Sorting & submission enhancements for Ultra gradebook in Nov

Search & use stock images in Ultra docs, discussions, etc.

Continued enhancements to the Ultra gradebook provide greater flexibility and usability. In the November update to Ultra courses, additional sorting controls allow instructors to sort grade...

Posted: October 23, 2023, 12:56 PM

DoIT's Tom Penniston Presents Paper at Copenhagen Conference

Sharing UMBC's Story Globally

DoIT's Coordinator of Learning Analytics, Tom Penniston, recently presented his paper (UMBC login req'd), Toward a New Paradigm: Learning Analytics 2.0, at the 25th International Conference on...

Posted: September 15, 2023, 8:27 AM

Improved course management tools for Ultra in September

Preview new AI course design assistant tools also coming

As the fall semester starts, the next update for Ultra courses brings improvements to the course management tools and a new stock image resource for course banners. Additionally, faculty will also...

Posted: August 31, 2023, 1:37 PM

Ultra Courses to Offer New AI Course Design Assistant Tools

Generate images, structure, test questions, and rubrics

As the landscape of education continues to evolve, the integration of cutting-edge technology into the classroom has become more vital than ever. The advent of generative AI tools is poised to...

Posted: August 10, 2023, 9:35 AM