M.O.S.T. OER Workshop Series 

Blackboard course shells for WT2021 and SP2021 were created on November 30, 2020.

NOTE: In recognition of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing social distancing practices, UMBC’s spring session will mostly be online with some exceptions. Please review the Spring 2021 Course Information and these resources to prepare:

• DoIT’s Academic Continuity & Student Technology Resources
• Instructional Technology Training  
• Faculty Development Center’s Keep On Teaching resources
• Check our extensive FAQ collection 

About WT/SP2021 Course Shells

The Ultra Course Preview setting is again enabled in WT/SP2021 courses to allow faculty adoption with anupdated support schedule of Ultra (see prior announcement). The Ultra Course Preview tool allows faculty to convert an existing Original course and see what it looks like in Ultra. 

Ally, an accessibility tool, is also enabled in all course shells as of last summer. Ally automatically scans uploaded and created course content, then performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Please review the Ally FAQs for more information about the accessibility indicators on course content and alternative formats.

• If you are an instructor, and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please see your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your Bb course shell will be created automatically. 
• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not see your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.
• If you need a Bb shell for a research or independent study course, please submit a new course request.

Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course will find those enrollments merged into one Bb course shell. These sections may be split upon request by an RT ticket, which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard.

Student enrollment in Bb mirrors the official registration in SA and updates hourly. However, courses are not accessible to students by default until the instructor of record makes them available.

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources 

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 

• What’s new in Ultra? | Known Issues 

• Open a ticket via RT

• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups

• Request a consult with instructional technology staff

How It Works

Not all job scams are identical, but those we have seen follow the general pattern described here.

You may see scams arrive as text messages, email, or in almost any other form possible.  The messages are all similar.  You are told that the sender has some association with your school and that you have been selected to apply for a work-from-home position.  You are asked to contact the sender and/or go to a website to provide personal information, including name, address, phone number, email address, and possibly Social Security Number.  Some scammers go to considerable effort to appear legitimate.  They may have set up a website.  They may even use the names of real people from real companies. One very through scam earlier this year took names and photos from the website of a real company and used it to set up their own website.

Once you have accepted the position, you will be provided with either a check or a picture of a check to print out and be directed to deposit it into your checking account.  At the same time, for whatever reason, you will be told to transfer some of your own money (check, wire transfer, etc.) to someone else.  For instance, if the check you get is for $1000.00, you may be told to deposit it and immediately send $700.00 to someone else, keeping the remaining $300.00 as your payment for the work.  The check for $1000.00 turns out to be a fake and is rejected by your bank.  You have just lost$700.00.  The scammer you have been working for will stop responding.  Any contact information you have will no longer be valid.  

Some Examples

E-mail message

What to do

If you do receive anything like the offers above, even if you are not sure, , please DO NOT respond any further or click on any URLs. If you have provided any banking or financial information, please notify your bank or financial institution immediately. If you have been sent a check, you should not attempt to cash or deposit it. If you have deposited a check already, please contact your bank and tell them that it may be part of a scam.

Whether or not you responded to the scam or not, please forward the message (with the email headers - see link below) to security@umbc.edu. We will also keep track of any other information you submit about the scammers, such as their phone numbers if you receive a text message from the scammer.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970 

To read more articles published by DoIT Security please visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice.  

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19 

• Online friendly. Almost all OER is digital and designed to be accessed via technology rather than on paper. Much OER comes in a format that is compatible with the most commonly used learning management systems.(1)
• Adaptable. In contrast to traditional textbooks, which are locked by copyright, OER can be customized by instructors as they adapt their courses to remote instruction.  
• Accessible forever. Given the economic impact and potentially long duration of COVID-19, students are more likely than ever to take extended periods to complete their degree paths. Being able to reference materials from prerequisite courses months or years later will help them persist. Unlike commercial access codes that expire at the end of a semester, students can retain OER permanently. 
• A good investment. Budgets are tight right now for both students and institutions. OER adoption is one of the few interventions that can both save students money and generate additional revenue for institutions. Faculty use of OER has saved college students nearly one billion dollars in textbook costs in the U.S. and Canada as of 2018.(2) New research shows that there is also a positive financial return on investment for institutions that adopt OER, as students who save money on texts often take additional credits in a given semester.(3)

• M.O.S.T. Commons - M.O.S.T. Commons is a collaborative, online space designed to support the sharing and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER). Through M.O.S.T. Commons, you will have the opportunity to access openly licensed content and collaborate with faculty within your institution and across Maryland. The site also provides authoring tools to create your own OER.
• M.O.S.T. Website - The M.O.S.T. website includes links to help you discover, adapt, and create OER. There is also a section that points to research on what we know about OER and its effectiveness. If you’re brand-new to OER, you can start with this page, “Why OER?”.
• In Spring 2021 we will also announce our next round of M.O.S.T. OER Grants to support institutions’ efforts to increase access, affordability, and achievement for students through the incorporation of OER into teaching practices. Join our mailing list (below) to be notified when that opportunity is posted.