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 ultra-update. Show All

62% of Fall 2023 Blackboard Courses Now Using Ultra

9 of 10 UMBC students are enrolled in an Ultra course

As UMBC finalizes its migration to Ultra, more faculty opted to use the new course experience during FA2023. Specifically, of 1588 total available Blackboard shells, faculty have enabled 991 using...

Posted: September 20, 2023, 2:55 PM

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

Grade by student or question in Ultra courses for Aug update

New Google integration, customize image for learning modules

The August release reveals a new update for the Ultra grading system, enabling faculty to grade by question or student, or mix and match the approach. Additional updates to Ultra for August...

Posted: July 24, 2023, 12:47 PM

Ultra update features tracking meter, resize images in July

Improved file deletion, complete/incomplete schema, and more

The July update for Ultra provides updates to assessment and grading, content delivery, and course management, offering new functionality and quality of life improvements for faculty and...

Posted: June 28, 2023, 8:35 AM

June brings support for CSV upload of Ultra test questions

New location for Announcements, plus anonymous test grading

Creating many questions on a test can be a time-consuming process. Instructors might import questions using third-party tools or publisher test banks, if compatible or available. Beginning with...

Posted: June 1, 2023, 11:47 AM