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, BlueskyX, 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

Enhancing Media and Accessibility Using Panopto

Updated media guidelines for Blackboard to begin this summer

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the digital learning environment and support accessibility, all media content must be hosted in Panopto rather than Blackboard as of May 23, 2024,...

Posted: May 14, 2024, 12:20 PM

Blackboard Course File Access Outage

Students & Faculty Unable to Access File Attachments

Blackboard users may be unable to access course file attachments. Error messages may include: The specified resource was not found You do not have permission to access it Refused to connect...

Posted: May 13, 2024, 10:57 AM

Reminder: Blackboard Courses Scheduled for Server Retirement

Courses before Fall 2021 to be retired beginning 6/1

During Summer 2024, DoIT staff and Blackboard will archive our entire instance of Blackboard, which will save individually backed-up copies of every course and organization through SP2024. Courses...

Posted: May 10, 2024, 10:45 AM

Fall 24 Blackboard Courses to Use Ultra by Default

However, faculty can still use Original upon request

In consultation with the Deans as well as the Faculty Senate Computer Policy Committee (CPC), DoIT will make Ultra the default version of Blackboard for all Fall 2024 course shells that are...

Posted: May 7, 2024, 10:04 AM

4 Reasons to Use Copy Content to Prepare an Ultra Course

Choose an easy path to Ultra course readiness

It’s the start of a new semester and you open Blackboard to discover a new Ultra course. As you look over your course materials, gathered and perfected over years of teaching, the thought of...

Posted: May 2, 2024, 2:39 PM