Predicting and Supporting Student Success
Importance of the Blackboard Grade Center
Update from 2/1/18 Blackboard Analytics Symposium: Using Bb Predict and UMBC's FYI alert program together is more accurate than using either service alone.
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Recent high profile articles in both the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times have highlighted the important and growing role of analytics in higher education. UMBC in particular is working to develop accurate means to predict and subsequently support student academic success. Of particular interest is faculty and student Blackboard (Bb) Grade Center use.
Based on a pilot project looking at UMBC Bb data for the past two years, it is possible to predict with 83% accuracy whether or not a student will earn a C or better in any given course before the term begins using prior academic and demographic characteristics. By the start of week 4, however, student grades in a Bb course become the most important predictor throughout the remainder of the term. The model was developed using an 80% random sample of all UMBC Bb courses, tested against the remaining 20%, and included several demographic and academic factors. It was 83% accurate thru week 3, 87% accurate by week 4, and 93% accurate by week 12 (final 20% of a 15-week term).
These findings echo prior research on first year students in UMBC Bb courses. Specifically, when viewing student activity and if faculty enabled the Grade Center, students were up to two and a half times more likely to earn a C or better in Bb courses that used the Grade Center compared to courses that did not. The highest student activity and Grade Center interaction effect occurred among Freshmen (1). These findings also complement research by the Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR) that students value faculty use of the grade center more than any other LMS function (2). Finally, a recent Bb study found that students’ frequent checking their grades online was highly predictive of their course success (3).
By increasing the use of of the Grade Center, faculty can enhance students’ potential for self-efficacy while furthering the effectiveness of systematic efforts to enhance student engagement.
(1) Fritz, J. L. (2016). Using analytics to encourage student responsibility for learning and identify course designs that help (Ph.D.). University of Maryland, Baltimore County, United States -- Maryland. Retrieved from http://umbc.box.com/johnfritzdissertation, pp. 168-169.
(2) Caruso, J., & Salaway, G. (2007). The ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology, 2007 (Key Findings) (pp. 1–15). Educause Center for Applied Research. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers0706/ekf0706.pdf.
(3) Young, J. (2016, September 7). What Clicks From 70,000 Courses Reveal About Student Learning. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/What-Clicks-From-70000/237704/
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Update from 2/1/18 Blackboard Analytics Symposium: Using Bb Predict and UMBC's FYI alert program together is more accurate than using either service alone....
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Fri, 25 May 2018 16:30:16 -0400
Come Fly With Me: Goabroad Makes it Easy to Study Abroad
Study Abroad Office and DoIT Launch New Tool for Students
16 years ago, the
Study Abroad Office (SAO) had a simple software tool called FileMaker Pro to track study abroad requests. However, many of the ‘features’ the tool could not adequately match the needs and demands of UMBC today. Only one person could be logged in at a time, information inputted couldn't be tracked, and data could be easily deleted. On top of all that, SAO had to come in to the office since the software was only available on UMBC machines.
On the student side, they started out with paper forms and later moved to Google forms. Both were ineffective, as manual entry of this data still had to occur, leading to out of date contact information. A student could apply to study in one country but change their mind and SAO would have no idea.
“Everyone just got used to it being limited.”
It wasn't until sometime later where,
Caylie Zidwick, Assistant Director for Study Abroad, had enough. “I started working here, and finally had it,” said Zidwick. “Everyone just got used to it being limited.” She decided to reach out to DoIT, where
Bryan Lee, a Cloud Business Analyst, worked with her to find an improved solution, and that solution was
Goabroad.
Lee and Zidwick worked together to specify the needs and requirements of SAO and set out to integrate PeopleSoft data and Single Sign On (SSO) capabilities, which allows a student to sign in with their myUMBC credentials rather than creating a separate account.
“Not only is this is an important step in securing student’s data, but also it removes the hassle of students needing to create and remember yet another username/password combination,” said Lee.
“We’re going to eliminate approximately 6 weeks of data entry…”
With the integration of PeopleSoft, Zidwick now could have up-to-date information for any students applying to the study abroad program, which was essential to eliminating the laborious, manual data entry they had to previously conduct. “The information we were inputting was already in PeopleSoft,” said Zidwick. “We're going to eliminate approximately 6 weeks of data entry that we previously did with our old system.”
Working with Bryan was a great experience for Zidwick, and not one she was expecting from IT. “Bryan was my hero,” said Zidwick, “We couldn't have done it without him. IT was very helpful as well in making sure all of the elements that needed to be in place by the deadline.” With the collaboration a success, the Goabroad tool was successfully implemented.
Goabroad is robust compared to the old process. Before, SAO had a static website that pointed to four different programs students had to use depending on where and how they wanted to study abroad. Now, everything is easily accessible in one place with multiple search options to help narrow down specific results. You can do an advanced search, a simple search, or even a map search.
Screenshot of the Map Search function. It’s easy for users to click on a region that they want to travel to, and see a list of all available programs for that area.
Other features include the ability to embed Powerpoints, videos and custom questionnaires. If a faculty member wants to know more about a student applying, they can create a custom questionnaire for their respective program. Students can also submit recommendations on Goabroad and even send out recommendation requests to faculty members.
SAO has more control and an easier way to keep track of students and where they are in the application process, in addition to what they need to complete. The system checks for what the student is missing allowing SAO to reach out if needed to give a reminder of what is needed for submission.
Goabroad also integrates several forms that were previously in paper form. Now students can sign all their documents easily and both SAO and students can keep track of them with a checklist of things that need to be completed. Best of all, SAO can log into other devices instead of the old process of coming into the office to check on students.
Screenshot of what a user would find on the profile view. The Goabroad tool can keep track of what you have submitted, and what you need to do next.
“The capabilities are much better than what we had before…”
Thanks to Goabroad and help from DoIT, SAO was able to transform their entire departmental process for addressing study abroad requests. “The capabilities are much better than what we had before,” said Zidwick, “We can focus more on the student, and not the student’s papers.”
Note: The implementation is not always a linear process, so often, it takes some time to fully implement a cloud solution for an office or department.
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16 years ago, the Study Abroad Office (SAO) had a simple software tool called FileMaker Pro to track study abroad requests. However, many of the ‘features’ the tool could not adequately match the...
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Fri, 10 Feb 2017 06:54:11 -0500
Wed, 19 Sep 2018 12:37:19 -0400
USM Announces MOST Initiative High-impact OER Mini-Grants
Project expands Maryland Open-Source Textbook initiative
The
William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation is pleased to announce the
High-impact OER Mini-Grant Program, a new funding program designed to strategically support Maryland public institutions’ efforts to adopt and scale Open Educational Resource (OER) adoption.
Building upon the prior success of the MOST initiative, this new program will support individual faculty adoption of OER and OER scaling initiatives within institutions in “high-impact,” high enrollment courses for which high-quality OER already exists.
Two types of mini-grants will be awarded:
- Adopt/Adapt OER ($500 - $1,500)
- Scaling OER ($1,500 - $2,500)
In addition to grant funding for their OER adoption or scaling project, selected grantees will also receive training and technical support in Spring 2017 to assist in the implementation of their OER plans.
- Adopt/Adapt OER Mini-Grants ($500 - $1,500)
- Faculty commitment to teach at least one section of a “high-impact” course using OER during the Fall 2017 semester. Adoption in more than one section is encouraged.
- Targeting OER adoption in an eligible high enrollment course with existing high-quality OER content.
- Reducing students’ course materials costs to $40 or less
- Scaling OER Mini-Grants ($1,500 - $2,500)
- Scaling of OER to at least four sections of a “high impact” course during the Fall 2017 semester to reduce students’ cost of course materials to $40 or less.
- Targeting OER adoption in an eligible high enrollment course with existing high-quality OER content.
- Institutional and/or departmental support and collaboration with multiple instructors, instructional designers, librarians, and support staff preferred.
Informational webinars will be conducted February 13 - 22, 2017, to provide more details about the program and the application process.
To apply for a mini-grant, applicants must complete a High-impact OER Mini-Grant Program Application and submit it to cai@usmd.edu by 5 PM on Wednesday, March 8, 2017. The Mini-Grant Planning Document and the application, which provides additional information and details about the program, is attached to this announcement. Faculty may indicate their intent to apply or register for an informational webinar on the Center's website.
Questions about the High-impact OER Mini-Grant Program may be directed to Dr. M.J. Bishop, Director of the Center for Academic Innovation, via
cai@usmd.edu.
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Thank You,
Damian Doyle
Senior Director of Enterprise Infrastructure
DoIT - UMBC
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Earlier today some users on campus experienced slowness or inability to access certain aspects of the Peoplesoft Student Administration System. We have worked to stabilize the system have...
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There's Been a Change in Schedule: A New Tool for Students
How collaboration brought the Schedule Planner to UMBC
It was several years ago that UMBC students decided that the best tool for them to utilize would be a 'schedule builder'. They created a custom program that would look at the list of classes being offered for the semester and block out certain times to help make the perfect schedule.
By word of mouth, the schedule builder spread around the campus but the group of students graduated and did not maintain support for the product.
“We sought a more holistic solution…”
Arnold Foelster, Director for Enterprise Applications, was just one of the several people who helped bring
the new Schedule Planner to life. “UMBC looked at the [previous] product and saw great value, however we also found some shortcomings.” Foelster said, “We sought a more holistic solution that had single sign-on, was mobile friendly, and real-time integration with our student system.”
DoIT had been listening to student feedback carefully, with common complaints that registration isn't the best experience it can be and that it doesn't match the needs of today's student.
Image shows a screenshot of an example schedule generated with the tool. In the top right, you can see a “Send to Shopping Cart” option that automates the process of registering for courses, while making a visually appealing layout.
“I couldn’t really stop and get lunch or a snack.”
In the last spring semester, Matthew Titzer, a sophomore in Information Systems, was enrolled in classes back to back, creating a very stressful schedule for him. “I couldn’t really stop and get lunch or a snack.” said Titzer.
After discovering one of his classes was cancelled, Titzer was able to use the Schedule Planner to easily find a new class. “The Scheduler Planner is extremely helpful,” said Titzer, “it has helped me fit a class into my packed schedule.”
Now, thanks to the planner tool, Titzer has more control over his time and highly recommends it for anyone to use. “Generate schedules for your classes to see if you can find a more stress-free schedule.” said Titzer, “I highly recommend it for anyone to use.”
Image shows Ken Baron, Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Advising and Student Success, next to a UMBC map. Baron was just one of several people that helped bring the Schedule Planner to UMBC.
“Collaborating with DoIT on the Schedule Planner has been, and will continue to be instrumental.”
Ken Baron, Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Advising and Student Success, worked closely with both DoIT and the Registrar’s Office on the tool. Baron said, “Collaborating with DoIT on the Schedule Planner has been, and will continue to be instrumental.”
The Office of Academic and Pre-Professional Advising worked with DoIT to review, test, and evaluate the Schedule Planner so that it suited the needs of students. They also have leveraged UMBC’s Academic Advising Community through demonstrations and feature reviews during Advising Community meetings, specific training sessions and through targeted communications posted on the Advising Community’s myUMBC group.
Image shows UMBC Advising and Orientation day.
“We believe that one of the most dynamic qualities of College Scheduler is its ability to strategically reveal exciting and relevant general education courses.” said Baron. “The College Scheduler has the ability to present a rich array of potential course options that meet the specific needs of students while also highlighting for consideration – a whole host of courses that students may not have considered otherwise.”
Working with DoIT however, was key in delivering a great product. “In particular, DoIT colleagues have taken the time to understand our desire to reduce and eliminate (where possible) the “clerical nature” of certain academic advising tasks.” said Baron.
“Moving away from pen and paper process….is what students and the campus as a whole would like to see.”
The collaborations didn't just stop with Baron though, another key figure was Iman Riddick, Assistant Registrar. Riddick understood the need to enhance the enrollment & registration process for students. She was instrumental in working with a team comprised of Academic Advising and DoIT for the initial setup and soft roll out of the tool during the Summer 2016 orientation.
Image shows student advising underway.
Riddick sees students using this during enrollment periods to find the best possible schedule of classes for each term. “Moving away from the pen and paper process and being able to instantly and easily generate all conflict free schedules possible is what students and the campus as a whole would like to see.” said Riddick.
Riddick also emphasized the role DoIT played with the tool. “DoIT has been very instrumental in the technological set up of our PeopleSoft system and the College Scheduler product.” said Riddick. “The team made sure that all security requirements are met in order to protect the students and UMBC’s systems.
“A step of many in improving the registration process and system…”
Thanks to a strong collaboration from DoIT, Advising, and the Registrar's Office a very useful tool was able to come forth and help enrich student lives. Before, student schedules could be a mess. Now, the new planner tool amends all that, in what Foelster calls a step in the right direction.
“A step of many in improving the registration process and system so that it better meets the needs of not just today’s students, but tomorrow’s students as well.” said Foelster.
Read more about how to use the Schedule Planner here
Like this story? Read more DoIT success stories:
The Schedule Planner offered by UMBC is a dynamic tool that can generate multiple possible schedules, and then send them to checkout in PeopleSoft. You can access it by navigating to myUMBC, selecting topics, and then selecting classes & grades.
It’s important to note that the scheduler does not replace Peoplesoft when adding classes, but it does make scheduling classes easier.
Before beginning, you may need to disable the pop-up blocker on your browser to launch the Scheduler Planner. The Scheduler Planner helps you plan your classes you want to take while factoring in your free time needs. It’s a mobile friendly, cloud based tool that will remember all your values you select while using it. The planner can be broken down into three key sections: search terms, courses & breaks, and schedules.
Search Terms
Once you’re set, using the planner is easy and intuitive. You can select which campus you want to plan your schedule on (Shady Grove, Off Campus, UMBC), or even incorporate all three.
Image shows what the search fields look like when using the desktop client. From here, you have complete customization of how you want to search for classes and generate your schedule.
The Schedule Planner takes into account many different terms you can set yourself. You can search for open classes only, open & full, or even open & full with an open waitlist. You can also choose between online classes and hybrid classes. Want to set the search to only Engineering & Information Technology? You can change that under the Academic Groups field.
Courses & Breaks
You can search for any class through the Schedule Planner by subject or by course attribute. To get started, select “Add Course” and then proceed to search for what course you want. After adding the course, you can select “Options” to choose what sections you want to include or exclude before you generate your schedules.
Image shows an example course selection list when using the desktop client. Under “Options” you can select which section you want to include before generating your schedule. The “i” in the blue circle gives the course info. Note that until you view a possible schedule, the lock icon will be greyed out. After you do view a schedule and lock it from there, you can unlock it
Breaks are times during the day that you do not wish to take classes. You can add multiple breaks that can be customized individually and applied to whichever day you want.
Schedules
After you have added your desired courses and breaks, simply select “Generate Schedules”. If you have any course conflicts, you won't be able to see the schedule until you address the conflicts. If you select the magnifying glass you can get a quick glance at what each schedule looks like.
Image shows what the view screen looks like using the desktop client. You can lock courses, see how many seats are open and get a basic overview of how long each course runs. Note the message up top that reads "You are viewing a potential schedule only and you must still register." These classes are not in your cart so be sure to use the "Send to Shopping Cart" option to proceed to PeopleSoft's interface
For more in-depth information, you can select 2 or more schedules to compare side by side. You can also select view to give you a complete look and overview of everything. One thing you can do is “lock” a course by selecting the lock icon. This tells the planner tool that you want to keep that particular section for a course which it will then only incorporate if you decide to generate alternative schedules.
Once you finalize which schedule you want, you can send all of the courses you have selected straight to PeopleSoft checkout. There are helpful videos at the top of the Schedule Planner tool in addition to
DoIT’s FAQs on the tool.
Image shows an example of a 'finalized' schedule.
Interested in learning about how the Schedule Planner came to be? Check out that story here.
Want to know what other software is available to UMBC students? Check out the Student Resources Page over on the DoIT website.
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The Schedule Planner offered by UMBC is a dynamic tool that can generate multiple possible schedules, and then send them to checkout in PeopleSoft. You can access it by navigating to myUMBC,...
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Mon, 23 Jan 2017 15:16:24 -0500
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 08:02:38 -0400
Kudos to Jeremy Gude for Receiving Employee of the Quarter
A master in database performance tuning & web services
DoIT would like to recognize our own Jeremy Gude for receiving the Employee of the Quarter (EOQ) award. The EOQ program recognizes the outstanding qualities and contributions of employees towards departmental and institutional goals and mission. Gude is a Specialist/Database Administrator for DoIT, who has been with DoIT for 15 years.
Gude was presented his award on January 12th at a department all-staff meeting. Gude will receive a check for $500, a special parking space, and one day of administration leave.
“Jeremy is the model employee and a pleasure to have on our team.”
Todd Haddaway, Director for Database & Identity Management, nominated Gude for the award. “Jeremy is the model employee and a pleasure to have on our team.” said Haddaway.
Gude’s most recent accomplishment was completing a project to real-time replicate production student, finance, and HR Peoplesoft databases. Gude was able to reduce the risk of lost data in the event of a computer room disaster, from up to one day to less than 5 minutes.
Stacy Long, Director for DoIT, said, “Jeremy has been instrumental in tuning PeopleSoft Processes so that they complete in a timely fashion.”
“...a major asset to our division and his work ethic is second to none.”
Other accomplishments include working to process more transactions within PeopleSoft. In the Finance department, one job was taking up to 12 hours to finish but thanks to Gude working diligently on finding database changes to make, the job now runs in under an hour.
“Gude is a major asset to our division and his work ethic is second to none.” said Haddaway, While having a broad knowledge of each technology in our group, his knowledge is also deep.”
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is another key area where Gude works, where he was instrumental in architecting a robust deployment model, increasing reliability and speed to changing system needs.
When not working at DoIT, Jeremy has coached his daughter’s lacrosse teams and currently participates with his son’s swim team, while also being a member of his community pool board.
Congratulations to Jeremy Gude on his EOQ award!
]]>
DoIT would like to recognize our own Jeremy Gude for receiving the Employee of the Quarter (EOQ) award. The EOQ program recognizes the outstanding qualities and contributions of employees towards...
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Tue, 17 Jan 2017 12:26:18 -0500
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 10:07:39 -0400
How Student Disability Services Ditched Their Paper System
With help from DoIT, a new cloud solution was implemented
Student Disability Services (SDS) had a major problem. Their paper system they relied on for years was not keeping up with the increased demand they saw at their office. Rather than look for help outside, they came to DoIT with a solution in mind: implement a cloud-based system that would not only keep their department organized, but infuse it with new data analytics to gain better insights into their operations.
Tawny McManus, Director for SDS and Cassie Kilroy Thompson, Advising & Accessibility Specialist for SDS, needed accurate information not just for themselves, but for faculty as well. There would be some cases where faculty would get a letter from SDS informing them there was a student in their class who needed special accommodations, but there wouldn't be enough information about that student.
The problem with doing everything on a paper system comes from the inherent flaws of such a system. A paper system assumes everyone can come in and fill out the necessary forms. For SDS, printing out paper copies and creating files would just lead to more steps for something to get misfiled or misplaced entirely.
“You’re making people write on a card when their schedule is in a computer…”
“Students did not know their campus ID when coming in,” said McManus, “They would give us a hotmail or Gmail address, there would be no connection to other offices, and some of the handwriting was tough to read.”
“All of those bits and pieces inspired us to have something better.” said Thompson. “You’re making people write on a card when their schedule is in a computer. This is insane.”
The other problem they faced was the lack of integration with existing campus systems. Without PeopleSoft, they could not view a student's current status, or even when a student dropped or added a class.
“A lot of the information we were collecting was already in PeopleSoft.” said Thompson.
Screenshot of the Advising Appointment screen in the new Accommodate tool. Individuals gain more flexibility in choosing when they want to meet and for long they are able to.
One of the many services SDS employs is student note takers. Before, their process required note takers to come into the office just to wait in line to get to a form they had to fill out. SDS would then received an overwhelming amount of requests that required a face to face interaction.
This is where Bryan Lee, a Cloud Business Analyst for DoIT, came in. Working together with McManus and Thompson in addition to the vendor Symplicity, they were able to create a cloud-based solution, called Accommodate, that met the business needs of SDS.
SDS now had access to PeopleSoft data in Accommodate so they could see when students dropped or added classes and even their schedule. They could also pull relevant and up to date contact information straight from PeopleSoft as well.
“The data is literally there in a minute....”
In addition, SDS was able to track all their tickets and have them update for everyone at the same time. They could view notes written on each ticket and see who was signed up for note taking and for which classes, at a glance. “No more lines to sign up for being a note taker” said McManus. Also, thanks to integration of Single Sign On (SSO), both the department and students could log in just by using their myUMBC credentials, increasing security for the student and allowing for overall better data analytics reporting.
SDS was also technically no longer restricted to the office for business information. McManus said, “The data is literally there in a minute, I can log in from my phone [or] at home and quickly see what tickets were made, if they are active, classes, status, or major.” Thompson shared a similar experience, where she was able to open up everything on her ipad to find out a student’s schedule.
“Part of our mission is to empower students to be more independent.”
An added benefit to migrating to the new Symplicity tool was just how much independence it gave to students. Students could now schedule appointments themselves, which feeds into part of SDS’s mission. “[This] allowed students more freedom to do everything themselves.” said Thompson, “Part of our mission is to empower students to be more independent.”
“Having other modules from Symplicity, it’s nice to know who's going to walk into your office before they get there.” said Thompson.
Working with DoIT was a key highlight for McManus and Thompson. “Bryan would ask what we do, and tried to understand what we were doing and helped shape the needs of our department. We didn't expect ongoing communication, we thought IT would stop after it is implemented.” said McManus.
By collaborating with DoIT, SDS was able to find a solution that met the business needs of their department. “When people ask me for data, I feel 100% confident to give it to them now.” said McManus.
You can follow the myUMBC Group for SDS here
]]>
Student Disability Services (SDS) had a major problem. Their paper system they relied on for years was not keeping up with the increased demand they saw at their office. Rather than look for help...
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Tue, 17 Jan 2017 11:52:10 -0500
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 13:22:50 -0500
Technology Support Center To Be Closed Jan. 27, 12-2:30 PM
DoIT's Technology Support Center will be closed from 12PM-2:30PM, Friday, January 27th to allow our staff to attend our departmental staff meeting.
If you need assistance during this time, we encourage you to refer to our FAQ knowledgebase available at
umbc.edu/faq for answers to many frequent questions. If you require further assistance, we ask that you please submit a ticket online by going to
my.umbc.edu/help.
This change is fairly significant because the VPN will no longer rely on java to launch the client, which means there is a new launcher program that has to be installed before the client can be run. From a security standpoint, this is a better approach, but it means the upgrade may have more steps than it has in the past.
The next time you login to the VPN it will upgrade the software to the newest version. It may also require you to download a small launcher program to enable the upgrade. We have pre-installed that program on centrally managed windows machines to make the update easier. We will have extra staff from desktop support available Thursday morning to assist groups as needed. We will be updating the FAQs Wednesday morning for both windows and mac to try and answer any questions that may come up during this process. If people encounter any issues please call the TSC at 410-455-3838 or put in an RT ticket at http://rt.umbc.edu Windows FAQ Pagehttps://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867886Mac FAQ Pagehttps://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867888If you have other questions or want more information on the changes, please email me.
Damian Doyle
--
Senior Director of Enterprise Infrastructure and Support
DoIT - UMBC
]]>
We will be upgrading our VPN software this Wednesday evening from 10:00pm to 11:00pm. This change is fairly significant because the VPN will no longer rely on java to launch the client, which...
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