What’s New

Akindi Importer Tool Available on 7/1

Write Questions in MS Word and Quickly Add to Blackboard

In the spirit of promoting academic integrity in testing, faculty in both Biology and Chemistry have been leveraging large question pools in their courses. Beginning July 1, the Akindi Importer...

Posted: May 11, 2022, 10:25 AM

UMBC Migrates from Scantron to Akindi

New Platform Easier to Use and Supports Campus-Wide Analysis

Last year, DoIT announced the pilot of a tool called Akindi, which serves as a Scantron alternative and allows instructors to print and score bubble sheets from any local printer/scanner. There...

Posted: May 6, 2022, 3:28 PM

Postponed: Equitable & Inclusive Course for Faculty

An immersive cohort on equity and inclusive course design

After much consideration of the workshop facilitators and subject matter experts, we have decided not to offer a session during Fall 2022. We hope to offer a session during Spring 2023. Thank you...

Posted: May 5, 2022, 11:55 AM

Workflow improvements for Ultra grading & assessments in May

New test question filter for student assessment experience

As the semester concludes, the May update to Ultra brings some improvements centered on assessment and grading workflows and usability improvements. Weighted Calculations: With this upgrade,...

Posted: May 3, 2022, 9:40 AM

SU2022 Courses Created in Blackboard on April 29, 2022

Blackboard course shells for SU2022 were created on April 29, 2022. The Ultra Course Preview setting is again enabled in SU2022 courses, which allows faculty to convert a new Original course to...

Posted: May 3, 2022, 9:14 AM

SP22 Survey Shines Light on Faculty Testing

Key themes: academic integrity, accommodations, testing ctr.

In an effort to gather information on how faculty design and administer tests, DoIT collaborated with the Faculty Development Center (FDC) and Student Disability Services (SDS) to create and...

Posted: May 2, 2022, 1:30 PM

Generate & embed captions for Collaborate recordings in May

Support accessibility for recorded sessions in your classes

Creating captioning for recordings from scratch can be very time consuming for instructors or accessibility staff. Beginning in May 2022, instructors can leverage the help of artificial...

Posted: May 2, 2022, 8:22 AM

Instructional Technology Essentials for June 2022

Select from a menu of trainings

Interested in attending an Instructional Technology Essentials session but unsure when it will be? Sign up for one of our sessions by May 20, 2022. Interested participants will be sent a Doodle...

Posted: April 21, 2022, 12:54 PM

Blackboard Courses Scheduled for Server Retirement in FA22

Courses Before Summer 2019 to be Retired

During Summer 2022, DoIT staff and Blackboard will archive our entire instance of Blackboard, which will save individually backed-up copies of every course and organization through SP2022. Courses...

Posted: April 13, 2022, 2:40 PM

Gain insights on student engagement during Collab session

Also discover student views of Collab recordings

While teaching a synchronous session using web conferencing tools, instructors juggle content, conversation, and context. Engaging participants and maintaining a high level of interaction is an...

Posted: April 11, 2022, 3:30 PM