News

As UMBC continues strengthening digital accessibility across teaching and learning, many faculty have already taken steps to reduce, remake, and remediate existing documents, videos, and course...

Video can be one of the most effective teaching tools you use, especially when every student can access the content. Captions and audio descriptions boost clarity, reinforce key ideas, and...

When it comes to improving digital accessibility, documents and PDFs are often the biggest barrier -- and the biggest opportunity. Whether you're uploading files to Blackboard, sharing materials...

Two UMBC faculty were selected by the William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation to participate in the Boosting Course Accessibility mini grant program. This initiative aims to enhance the...

Anthology, the parent company of Blackboard, has announced that they will retire Original courses and organizations on December 31, 2026. At this point, all Original content in courses and...

After five years of a phased migration, more than 99% of all available Blackboard courses for the fall semester are now using Ultra. This marks a significant milestone in our transition from...

After many years of use, UMBC’s license for Class Collaborate (formerly Blackboard Collaborate) will end on July 31, 2025. As one of our longest licensed tools, Collaborate provided synchronous...

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...

In the final nine months of UMBC's Ultra migration, the overall faculty adoption rate continues to grow. For the spring 2024 term, Original course usage decreased by 33% between fall 23 and spring...

The first faculty member from UMBC has earned Quality Matters (QM) certification for an online course utilizing the new 7th Edition Higher Education Rubric as part of the Quality Matters Impact...