Grading & The Blackboard Grade Center

The Alternate Delivery Program (ADP) provides financial, technical, and pedagogical support to faculty who agree to redesign an existing face-to-face (F2F) course for online or hybrid (part online, part F2F) delivery in summer or winter session.

The expansion of the ADP includes three tracks: 

I. Skill Builder Track

The Skill Builder track offers modular training in core components of Blackboard and supporting technologies (Bb Collaborate, TechSmith Relay, Box) to help faculty better utilize the features available in Blackboard and to prepare for the Course Designer track.

II. Course Designer Track

This track, which most closely resembles the "old" ADP, is available to faculty who have either completed the ADP Skill Builder track or demonstrated competency with the Skill Builder components. The Course Designer track typically requires at least a semester for course development before the redesigned course is offered in summer or winter session. It includes a one day training workshop and an opportunity to work one-on-one with an Instructional Technology Specialist in the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Faculty who participate in the Course Designer track should have prior experience teaching in summer or winter sessions and convert courses that have a proven enrollment “track record” in Summer or Winter Sessions. 

III. Quality Booster Track

The Quality Booster track is designed for faculty who are already offering hybrid or online courses, but who have either not previously participated in formal course redesign training through the ADP or participated in ADP prior to the Quality Matters (QM) process integration. Quality Matters is an internationally recognized peer review process to assess the design quality of an online or hybrid course. The goal is to carefully evaluate the components of a hybrid or online course to ensure that it meets nationally identified quality standards.

The Skill Builder workshops are on our training schedule; sign up for them now on the Instructional Technology Events page. The Call for Participation for the Course Designer Track is available now; access it here. We are also currently seeking participants for the next Quality Booster Track.

To learn more about the Alternate Delivery Program and Quality Matters, attend the Quality Matters-Focused Course Design Workshop on June15, 2016.

Starting this summer, the campus will transition from TurningPoint 5 to TurningPoint Cloud as our new clicker software. During this time, all Division of Information Technology controlled labs and lecture hall computers will be updated with the latest software. Turning Technologies, our current clicker vendor, announced in early 2015 that the TurningPoint 5 software would no longer be supported as of June 2016.

The Instructional Technology Team conducted a comparative analysis of clicker options available for the campus, and deployed a survey to the campus community last fall. In November, the results were shared at a Faculty Town Hall. Based on the feedback from both students and faculty, DoIT and the Instructional Technology team decided it was best to stay with our current clicker vendor, and migrate the campus to TurningPoint Cloud.

By the start of Summer Session I, Blackboard will also be updated with a new integration, which will allow students to create Turning Accounts and register their clicker information within the Learning Management System (LMS). This new integration requires that students have a license code in order to register their clicker information on Blackboard. Students who purchased a clicker prior to Summer 2016 will receive an email containing a license code. Students who have not yet purchased clickers will be able to choose from one of these bundle options in the UMBC Bookstore.  

Faculty will also need to sign up for Turning Accounts in order to gain access to the TurningPoint Cloud download. To check system requirements for TurningPoint Cloud please view the PC or Mac release notes. If you have questions or concerns regarding the software download, please submit an RT ticket.

Drop-in Clicker Help Sessions have been scheduled for:
Tuesday, April 19-1:00 PM-1:30 PM
Wednesday, May 4-12:00 PM-12:30PM
Wednesday, May 18-12:00 PM-12:30 PM
All sessions will be held in ENG 025.

Faculty who plan to use clickers for instruction during the ​​Fall 2016 semester will need to have device order(s) submitted to the Bookstore no later than Friday, March 25, 2016. This deadline allows the Bookstore to shop national wholesalers early for used books and items, prepare for buyback, avoid sending back to publishers leftover stock that will be reused next semester, and notify faculty of any availability problems. "University policy dictates that summer and fall 2016 textbook adoptions should by submitted by April 24 to permit compliance with the USM Board of Regents policy".

There are three options for submitting your request(s):

1. Online System

2. Email

3. Paper Form

Please refer to the Bookstore's site for more information and instructions applicable to each these options.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UMBC bookstore at textbook@umbc.edu or 410-455-2699.

To learn more about the clickers:

• visit our  Clicker FAQ page

• open an  RT Ticket  for any technical issues

• view the schedule of training workshops on the DoIT group page

• contact  the Instructional Technology Team with any questions or concerns

On Wednesday, March 9, from 11:30am - 1:30pm, DoIT’s Instructional Technology team sponsored Techfest in the University Center (rooms UC 310, UC 312, and the UC Lounge) to bring the campus community together and present ways that technology can both support and improve the efficiency of day-to-day activities.

Students, faculty, and staff were all welcome and encouraged to attend. The event was a huge success, and we'd like to thank everyone who participated. 

We'd especially like to thank all of the vendors who both donated raffle items and attended the event.  All raffle winners have been contacted; congratulations to those of you who won items ranging from $20 Starbucks gift cards to headphones and webcams.

We can't thank all of our workshop presenters enough; their willingness to share their knowledge with our community is greatly appreciated. Our workshop presenters were as follows:

Caroline Bodnar, Career Center

Brad Boyle, DoIT

Lin DasSarma, DoIT Student Worker

Emily Duan, DoIT Student Worker

Mariann Hawken, DoIT

Kate Phelps, Career Center

Ken Schreihofer, Student Affairs

Jack Suess, UMBC CIO

Collin Sullivan, DoIT Student Worker

Finally, we want to thank the student worker on our Instructional Technology team, Collin Sullivan, for spearheading the planning and implementation of TechFest, and we look forward to bringing you another TechFest event in the future!