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 ultra-update. Show All

Top 5 Ultra departments: Adoption increased as much as 100%

Departments may request Ultra as default when shells created

In a recent survey of Ultra users last semester, faculty and students expressed satisfaction with Ultra. During the Fall 2022 semester, faculty increased their use of Ultra in greater numbers. The...

Posted: January 20, 2023, 9:29 AM

Faculty and student satisfaction with Ultra exceeds 85%

Consistent praise for Ultra's clean interface, ease of use

In a recent survey of faculty who used Ultra during the FA2022 semester, 86.5% of faculty who responded said they would use Ultra again, citing its ease of use and consistent experience for...

Posted: January 19, 2023, 11:44 AM

Randomize test pages & lock discussions in Jan Ultra update

New option to create model essay response for graders

Test pagination was introduced to Ultra courses last year, creating new ways to present clusters of questions to students that focused on content or reduced cognitive load. In this month's update,...

Posted: January 5, 2023, 9:57 AM

Dec Ultra Update Features Improved Drag & Drop, Course Links

New report for student progress through course content

This month, Ultra updates bring improvements to drag and drop functionality to the course outline, allowing instructors to easily move and rearrange content. Keyboard commands can also be used to...

Posted: December 1, 2022, 11:21 AM

Ultra Tests Gain Hot Spot Questions & Pagination in November

New reports for course activity and student performance

Ultra assessments gain two new features in the November update including hot spot questions and pagination. Hot spot questions allow instructors to assess a student's knowledge of visual content,...

Posted: November 3, 2022, 8:22 AM