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, a page that highlights free resources and provides guidance on using GenAI while safeguarding UMBC institutional data safely.

For staff seeking support, we encourage people to look at Administrative AI, as a starting point. Our goal is to save folks time, improve the quality of their work, and increase productivity. We showcase tools that DoIT provides to support these objectives.

We have launched myUMBC Answers, an AI-supported search bar. We are seeking partners to expand this tool. The key to leveraging myUMBC Answers is providing validated and accurate content, such as annual FAQs or handbooks.

Faculty, are encouraged to explore Instructional AI and Research AI. The UMBC Center for AI in the College of Engineering is an excellent resource for AI-related research and innovation.  Stay informed by following the center’s social media chnnels 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

Google Assignments and File Embed Available for Bb Courses

Use Google's Rich Editor to Provide Student Feedback

In January 2018, Box discontinued Crocodoc in favor of the Box inline grading tool. The goal of this transition was to provide a similar and simpler experience users know from the traditional Box...

Posted: January 8, 2020, 11:32 AM

Students like Ultra design, organized courses

User surveys reveal consistent satisfaction with Ultra style

More than 70% of 606 student survey respondents who took a course that used Ultra during the FA2019 semester said they were satisfied with the experience. When asked, students described Ultra as...

Posted: December 17, 2019, 2:20 PM

New group enhancements scheduled for December Ultra update

Ungraded assignments also coming this month

Managing large numbers of students and groups is an important tool in Blackboard. In the current version of Ultra, faculty had to create assignments and discussions before they could create and...

Posted: December 3, 2019, 11:26 AM

WT/SP2020 Courses Created in Blackboard on December 2, 2019

Blackboard course shells for WT2020 and SP2020 were created on December 2, 2019. The Ultra Course Preview setting is again enabled in WT/SP2020 courses to allow faculty adoption with an updated...

Posted: December 3, 2019, 8:06 AM

DoIT Adjusts Support of Bb Ultra Rollout

All faculty still decide when to migrate before FA21

Based on new analysis of how Blackboard (Bb) Ultra has been adopted across campus, DoIT has decided to modify its approach to faculty support across colleges.  Specifically, DoIT will focus on...

Posted: November 26, 2019, 7:57 AM