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

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Anthology to Change Layout of Ultra Courses on September 6

Design change aims to increase support for creating content

Anthology has announced that in early September, the Ultra course landing page will be redesigned to focus content on the left and course actions on the right. This change emphasizes Anthology’s...

Posted: August 20, 2024, 1:05 PM

Black and white robot dog running with the words "New to Ultra" written on light turquoise background

Ally Now Supports AI-Generated Descriptions for Images

Leverage AI to provide inclusive resources for students

Recent updates to federal guidelines for digital accessibility underscore the critical need for educators to ensure that all course materials are accessible to every student. One of the most...

Posted: August 13, 2024, 9:26 AM

Blackboard Course Copy: Easy Prep for a New Term

Join a virtual or drop-in session

It’s a new academic year and time to prepare your Blackboard course. The Ultra course copy tool simplifies the transfer of course materials, whether from Original or Ultra, into a new course site....

Posted: August 7, 2024, 9:14 AM

Enhanced Ultra Docs, Advanced Release Rules Coming in August

Follow discussions, anonymous forms & converted tests

Whether you're preparing your first Ultra course or updating existing content, the latest features released in August are designed to streamline your teaching experience.  The Ultra Document is...

Posted: August 5, 2024, 10:58 AM