AI Initiatives

UMBC Shield and the black text UMBC Artificial Intelligence

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

Resolved - Blackboard Service Disruption - System Performance

Access to Blackboard & course content may be impacted

At 6:40 PM on September 22nd, Blackboard reported a system performance issue affecting clients in the US East region. This disruption may prevent users from accessing the Blackboard platform....

Posted: September 22, 2024, 11:19 PM

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