About

Instructional Technology helps faculty solve pedagogical problems or create new learning opportunities through efficient, effective use and support of technology. Professional development services are available to academic and administrative departments. Instructional technology staff are also available to work with department leads to create programs to address customized goals.

To maximize the time and impact of instructional technology services, we recommend each workshop have at least 6 participants. Collaborations and co-sponsorships with other departments for training events are welcome.

Instructional Technology team scheduled training events: Upcoming training events are provided on the DoIT Events page.

Hybrid / Online Course Designer Workshop: The 3-day workshop (sample schedule) provides a collegial environment to support faculty as they design and develop hybrid/online courses in a technology-enriched environment. It includes deep dives & hands-on development time with instructional technology tools and advanced sessions on assessment, learning objectives, and Quality Matters. The workshop is limited to 15 instructors for personalized attention. Priority seating is given to ADP participants.

Alternate Delivery Program (ADP): Through a partnership between DoIT and the Office of Summer & Winter Programs, faculty may apply for one-time course development support to redesign an existing course for either online or hybrid delivery in summer or winter session.

Ultra Essentials I

This hands-on webinar focuses on the essentials of using the Ultra Experience Blackboard course interface for communication and content creation.

Ultra Essentials II
This hands-on webinar focuses on the essentials of using the Ultra Experience Blackboard course interface for tests, assignments, and grading.

Ultra Experience (UX) Boot Camp
A full-day workshop designed for faculty, instructional designers, course builders, and teaching assistants who are ready to develop courses and adopt Blackboard’s redesigned course interface. Participants will take a deep dive into the Ultra Course View including its basic course building features as well as the pedagogy and best practices for its various features.

Optimizing Blackboard Course Quota
In this webinar, we will review cloud storage options faculty can utilize to upload large content and link to the content within their Blackboard course shells in order to optimize course storage.

Adjunct Orientation to Blackboard
For adjunct faculty who may be new to teaching with Blackboard (Bb), getting started may feel overwhelming. During this 90-minute orientation, Instructional Technology staff will review the basics of getting started with Bb Ultra to ensure your course is ready the first day of the semester.

The Skill Builder workshops include training in core components of the LMS (Blackboard) and supporting technologies (Bb Collaborate, Panopto) to ensure minimum success with foundational tools or to refresh existing knowledge. Each Skill Builder workshop is typically scheduled for 45-55 minutes. Many are delivered in webinar format for faculty convenience.

Topics include:

  • Intro to Building an Ultra Course
  • Creating & Adding Content to an Ultra Course
  • Ultra Communication & Engagement
  • Creating Ultra Tests & Assignments
  • Grading & the Ultra Gradebook
  • Planning Your Ultra Course Roadmap

Or Build Your Own Custom Workshop: Request a combination of topics and objectives to create a customized workshop for your department.

Ally: 5 Things You Didn’t Know Bb Ally Could Do
Learn about Ally, a tool available in Blackboard Original and Ultra courses, that improves the accessibility of your course content. This 30 minute workshop will offer ideas for developing a strategy to improve your course usability and accessibility and how to get started with Blackboard Ally.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Best Practices
Creating accessible content and interactions to support diverse learning preferences are the guiding principles of Universal Design for Learning. Improving the accessibility of course content not only helps ensure students with different abilities can access materials, but it improves the learning experience for everyone, including those who use mobile devices.

Panopto Essentials
Are you interested in learning how to create video screencasts? Using Panopto, faculty can capture and narrate anything they see on their computers, and then publish an online screencast video tutorial or mini-lecture for students to watch and replay on their own time.

Advanced Panopto: Quizzing, Sharing & Storing
This session will focus on advanced Panopto quizzing, sharing, and storing options. Focus will be given to ways to edit your videos to include external content and quizzing. The session will also review ways to effectively manage your video collection, including storing, copying, moving, and sharing videos.

Panopto: Quizzing & Captioning
Learn to use Panopto’s quizzing and captioning features. This session will focus on advanced Panopto editing skills, including leveraging the quizzing features within Blackboard courses to allow for automatic grading and captioning of the recorded audio.

VoiceThread Essentials & VT Assignments
VoiceThread is a learning tool for enhancing student engagement and online presence. With VoiceThread, instructors and/or students can create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs, using microphone, webcam, text, phone, and audio-file upload.

Video Performance Assessment with Panopto & VoiceThread
Are you interested in expanding your uses of Panopto and VoiceThread to create multimedia student assessments? This session will highlight a variety of ways that student-created videos can be used to authentically capture and promote student learning.

Jamboard Essentials
Jamboard is an interactive collaborative whiteboard system that allows students to brainstorm and create dynamic visualizations. Students can work in small groups using Jamboard, collaborating in real time to integrate drawings, images, and text.

CourseArc Essentials
CourseArc is a digital content creation tool that encourages the design of interactive, accessible, and engaging online content. CourseArc is available to UMBC faculty for the ability to integrate captivating course content into Blackboard. This webinar provides a brief introduction to get started with CourseArc.

Introduction to Poll Everywhere
Get a basic introduction to Poll Everywhere and start creating your first activities like multiple choice, Q&A, Competitions, and more. Whether you’re presenting from your browser, slide deck, virtually, or asynchronously, we’ll go over the key steps you need to know for a successful, engaging presentation using Poll Everywhere