What’s New

Course banners & table enhancements coming in November

New progress tracking improvements in Ultra courses

Customizing the course interface creates a visual identifier in a Blackboard course. In the next phase of the Ultra course's improved navigation and aesthetic redesign, course banners will be an...

Posted: November 8, 2021, 9:04 AM

National Distance Learning Week 2021 Lunchtime Series

Nov. 8-12, 2021: Teaching & Learning in a Hybrid World

One in four students take some of their courses online, and two-thirds do so at a public institution in the same state where they live (Allen, Seaman, Pouline, & Straut, 2016; Allen &...

Posted: October 28, 2021, 1:13 PM

October brings student receipts & bigger rubrics for Ultra

Tables also available in the Ultra content editor

Rubrics are grading tools that help instructors to assess student performance and give feedback in detail. Prior to the October update, rubrics were limited to 10 rows and 10 columns. Now faculty...

Posted: October 8, 2021, 9:15 AM

New Features for VoiceThread Assignments

Updates to Due Dates, Creating Assignments, and Commenting

There are some new features in VoiceThread Assignments!  New features were added to VoiceThread Assignments at the end of September and we would like to share them with faculty. These features...

Posted: September 28, 2021, 12:36 PM

VoiceThread Assignments for Media Projects and Peer Critique

One Instructor’s Use Case and Lessons Learned

Shifting to teaching in online and hybrid formats has created opportunities to identify how students can share multimedia projects and receive feedback through peer critique. While various tools...

Posted: September 17, 2021, 12:18 PM

Bb Instructor Webinar Series: From Basics to Advanced

Free training opportunities for faculty, TAs, and staff

The Bb Instructor Webinar Series offers a set of free 45-minute webinars designed for instructors who are getting started with teaching using Blackboard, Ultra, and Collaborate. Click on a topic...

Posted: September 16, 2021, 11:45 AM

Synchronize Bb groups in Collab breakout groups coming soon!

Maintain student learning between course & live sessions

Breakout groups are a powerful engagement tool for active learning in a synchronous session, providing private audio, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and chat for small group...

Posted: September 7, 2021, 11:59 AM

Free Training for Respondus Lockdown Browser & Monitor

Join an upcoming webinar to see the latest features

Join an upcoming training webinar from Respondus to see the latest features and integrations for LockDown Browser and Monitor. Learn how these applications are used with a range of online testing...

Posted: September 1, 2021, 2:19 PM

PIVOT Selected to Receive OLC Effective Practice Award

70% of faculty engaged in largest online learning initiative

The Online Learning Consortium announced that UMBC's Instructional Technology team has earned an Effective Practice Award for its Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT)...

Posted: August 24, 2021, 4:22 PM

PIVOT Courses Associated with Improved SEEQs and Tool Use

Faculty training to support empirically driven course design potentially represents one of the most scalable options available for improving student outcomes at an institution. One strategy to...

Posted: August 19, 2021, 3:58 PM