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) program. Led by Dr. Mariann Hawken, representatives from the Instructional Technology team will receive the award at the OLC Accelerate conference in Washington, D.C. 

“As we return to campus life, it is undeniable that the pandemic shift to online learning and PIVOT’s support has made an impact on our faculty and students,” said Jack Suess, Vice President of IT and CIO.

The Effective Practice Awards are peer-reviewed and evaluated against OLC’s five pillars of quality in digital education:

• Learning Effectiveness: The practice demonstrates effectiveness in producing learning outcomes, which are consistent with learner needs and representative of the distinctive quality of the institution.

• Scale: The practice offers the best possible educational value to learners and supports achieving capacity enrollment. 

• Access: The practice has improved access to education by expanding opportunities and/or reducing barriers.

• Faculty Satisfaction: The practice has maintained a high level of faculty satisfaction.

• Student Satisfaction: Learners who are impacted by the practice express satisfaction with their learning experience.

“The OLC Awards program is an opportunity to showcase leadership and innovation in the field of online, blended, and digital learning,” said Dr. Jennifer Mathes, Chief Executive Officer of the Online Learning Consortium. “The awards program allows us not only to celebrate the incredible work that has been done by our community in the past year, but to look forward to what is possible in the year to come.”

Given the rapid shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Instructional Technology team created the PIVOT program to help faculty better prepare for a long-term commitment to virtual instruction. Leveraging an approach that targeted an individual instructor’s reflection on technology use, online pedagogies, and course content, PIVOT took faculty through a course design and online teaching journey. Since faculty engagement in planning and delivering this important training is critical to establishing peer relationships, the program included peer mentors for pedagogical and technical facilitation. “For many of our faculty members,” said Dr. John Stolle-McAllister, Associate Dean, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, “this collaboration was a highlight of the program because they learned from each other and engaged with instructors from their own and other departments, sharing ideas and exploring tasks and projects that they would not have otherwise considered.”

PIVOT reached about 70% of UMBC’s faculty, and the majority of participants said the program was helpful for their pedagogical shift to online teaching. Faculty found their role as students in the training course and access to peer mentors to be among the most valuable aspects of the program. Students reported PIVOT-designed courses were well organized and planned. Moreover, there is a statistically significant, positive relationship between instructors completing PIVOT training and elevated course-level average values on end of semester evaluations (p<.001). Courses taught by PIVOT-trained instructors also have increased LMS interactions, which indicate improved learner engagement. “While the pandemic has been a huge challenge,” said Dr. Sarah Shinn, Associate Provost, “our PIVOT program has played a critical role in helping our faculty and students be successful.” Earlier this year, PIVOT also received the 2021 "Job Well Done" award from UMBC's Human Resources department.

Through the OLC Effective Practices program, the OLC community shares techniques, strategies and practices that have worked effectively in their institution or program. Two rounds of Effective Practices Awards are awarded annually.

A free panel discussion and celebration is scheduled for the OLC Accelerate Virtual Awards Gala on Monday September 20, 2021 at 7:45 PM as a part of the OLC Accelerate virtual program. Further opportunities to engage directly with these winners are currently being scheduled for after the conclusion of the OLC Accelerate conference when a selection of these award-winning individuals will be hosting free public webinars for the OLC community. The final schedule for these webinars will be announced in a future release.

More information about the OLC Effective Practice Awards can be found online at https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/about/olc-awards/effective-practices/

As the University prepares for a return to campus this Fall, DoIT’s Audio-Visual and Desktop Support units have been busy upgrading classrooms and equipping instructors with new technologies to support hybrid and in-person instruction. 

For example, the University Center (UC) Ballroom has now been turned into a hub for 25 large-enrollment lecture courses that can meet in person, as well as in the adjacent Ballroom Lounge (302) and nearby 310 and 312 rooms. In addition to cameras, mics and monitors peppered throughout these spaces to provide a synchronous, socially-distanced learning environment for students and faculty, DoIT and Commons staff will be available on-site to provide support. DoIT is also reaching out this week to faculty teaching in these spaces to provide on-site training next week.

In addition, AV has added a variety of mobile carts specifically design to support synchronous lecture capture (SLC). The intent of these carts is to provide a higher level of video and audio quality to an instructor's streaming application (Webex, Bb Collaborate, Zoom, etc.) than is possible with a laptop alone. A secondary purpose is to provide a backup for any built-in system that is experiencing technical difficulties. DoIT AV Student Specialists designed and assembled these carts, which include the following:

Monitor SLC Cart(4 units available)

• 55” monitor with HDMI cable for user’s laptop
• Logitech Meetup with remote
• Single USB connection to user laptop
• Camera with pan/tilt/zoom control
• Array microphone
• Sound bar
• Built in echo cancellation
• No software download required

Projection SLC Cart(5 units available)

• Epson projector
• Dell PC built in
• User may opt to use own laptop with HDMI cable
• Huddlecam ePTZ camera with remote
• Use for marker board capture
• Reposition for instructor or classroom view
• Built in microphone array
• Yamaha speakers

BYOD - SLC Cart(1 unit available)

• Epson projector
• Attach user’s device with supplied HDMI cable
• Huddlecam ePTZ camera with remote
• Use for marker board capture
• Reposition for instructor or classroom view
• Built in microphone array
• Attach to user’s laptop with supplied USB cable
• Epson Document Camera
• Dry erase surface attached to cart surface
• Attach to user’s laptop with supplied USB cable

AV Services is also equipped with approximately 200 bluetooth headsets faculty can use in class -- even when masked -- to support lecture capture with Blackboard Collaborate or Webex. 

Finally, as announced late last fall, a handful of classrooms were converted to be HyFlex capable rooms in which students can choose (during course registration) to meet in person or remotely. These include ADMIN 101, SOND 105, ITE 227 and ITE 233.

For more information about classroom upgrades or additions, please visit DoIT’s Desktop Support and AV Services site. To request help, please submit a myUMBC request via my.umbc.edu/help. 

By Steve Anderson & John Fritz