Tanyka M. Barber (she/her)

Beginning this month, UMBC will introduce Mathpix Snip as a new resource to support the creation of accessible STEM course materials. With 300 licenses available through Instructional Technology, this new tool represents a major step forward in making handwritten mathematical, scientific, and technical content more usable for every learner -- particularly those who rely on screen readers, text-to-speech tools, or alternative formats.

Why Mathpix?

Mathpix is a tool for extracting text, and particularly math, from images and documents. This text/LaTeX can then be pasted into a document editing tool such as a LaTeX or Markdown editor. Powered by advanced OCR and AI-driven parsing, Mathpix can:

• Convert handwritten equations, diagrams, and formulas into accessible MathML, LaTeX, HTML, and Mathpix Markdown.
• Transform images, screenshots, and PDFs into structured text that supports screen readers.
• Recognize tables, code, and complex expressions often found in STEM disciplines.
• Streamline remediation of legacy course materials, including scanned notes, worksheets, problem sets, proofs, and solution keys.

These features allow instructors to move from static, image-based materials to content that is both editable and accessible, reducing the time and technical expertise required to meet federal accessibility standards. While Mathpix is a powerful engine for character recognition, it is a tool for extraction, not for authoring or delivery, and it cannot describe images for accessibility.

For those who want to explore the capabilities further, Mathpix offers a snipping tool, browser extension, handwriting recognition engine, PDF and image conversion tools, markdown workflows, and accessibility-focused use cases. Mathpix is available as a desktop application for Mac, Windows and Linux; on mobile (iOS and Android); and as a web browser (Chrome extension).

Who Is Eligible?

Licenses are reserved for instructors who teach in disciplines where handwritten or non-digital content remains common, including:

• Mathematics and Statistics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Computer Science
• Engineering

Faculty who regularly create handwritten materials or who need to convert existing handwritten materials for accessibility compliance will receive priority access to Mathpix. 

How to Request Access

To request one of UMBC's 300 Mathpix licenses, instructors should submit an RT ticket to Instructional Technology with the following information:

• Name and email
• Course ID and course name
• Anticipated number of students
• How many new handwritten files you typically create each semester
• How many existing handwritten files you need to remediate for accessibility

This information helps the Instructional Technology team allocate licenses equitably and determine where additional support should be directed.

Training and Support

Access begins in January, accompanied by future training opportunities hosted by Instructional Technology and a group of faculty Mathpix ambassadors. These sessions will provide demonstrations, best practices for creating accessible STEM materials, and hands-on time with Mathpix workflows, ranging from quick equation conversions to full-document remediation.

If you'd like help determining whether Mathpix is a good fit for your course materials, Instructional Technology is happy to consult. This initiative supports UMBC's broader commitment to digital accessibility and ensures that all students, especially those in STEM pathways, have equitable access to the content they need to succeed.

For more information about digital accessibility, please visit UMBC's Digital Accessibility site or run an Ally course report today. Support is also available from Student Disability Services and Instructional Technology.

Online Courses via Vector Solutions

Due to a snow and ice storm that impacted the region, all in-person and remote (synchronous) classes will begin on Monday, February 2, unless further closings or delays are announced. Asynchronous online classes will occur as scheduled, and instructors are encouraged to consider asynchronous learning to make up for missed class time during the first week of the SP2026 semester. This updated article from last winter provides helpful tips for preparing and maintaining your courses.

With Mother Nature bringing heavy winter weather for the start of the spring 2026 semester, the first day of class may look somewhat different than planned. Preparing a Go Online (GO) Kit can help launch a smooth transition to a virtual classroom when in-person classes aren't an option. Here are five steps to help you stay on track.

1. Stay connected and up-to-date on issues impacting whether your class is canceled or postponed.

• Sign up for UMBC Emergency Alerts to receive text notifications about closures, delays, or campus-wide emergencies.
• Follow Campus Announcements on myUMBC to stay up to date on any university-wide decisions affecting classes.

2. Identify instructional technologies you can use to support course content distribution, active learning, and assessment.

Familiarize yourself with instructional technologies that support academic continuity using online teaching strategies and tools -- three tools may be very helpful starting points:

• Blackboard for content distribution, assessments, and asynchronous discussions.
• Copy content from any Blackboard course or organization
• Create rich Documents with text and visual elements and knowledge check questions
• Control how content is displayed with robust release conditions 
• Interact with students using Discussions
• Create assignments, tests, or forms
• Quickly generate rubrics and test banks using your own course content with Blackboard's AI Design Assistant
• YuJa for asynchronous video updates/mini-lectures.
• Record (or upload) and edit videos with a variety of quizzing options 
• Share media with your students
• Ensure accessibility with captioning or language translation
• Web conferencing tools for live class sessions. 
• UMBC currently offers Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex
• Consider making synchronous optional in the event of network difficulties due to weather conditions. 

3. When classes are canceled or postponed, communicate expectations and next steps with students.

• Notify students as soon as possible about schedule changes and how instruction will continue.
• Use Blackboard Announcements, Messages, or your PeopleSoft roster to send UMBC communication to your class.
• Keep TAs and graders informed about any adjustments.

4. Provide clear instructions for coursework and assignments.

• Ensure students know how to access learning materials and submit their work:
• Will you upload files to Blackboard, send files via email or share documents through Box or Google Drive? 
• TIP: Using Blackboard lets you scan for accessibility via Ally.
• Set expectations for deadlines, participation, and communication while remote.
• Do you want students to email their work to you?
• Will students use Blackboard or another type of tool to submit their work?

5. Keep students updated on grading and feedback

• Let students know how they will receive their grades, whether through:
• Blackboard gradebook for assignment scores and feedback.
• Integrated third-party tools, which may offer grade synchronization back to Blackboard.
• Spreadsheets or alternative tools for tracking progress need to keep FERPA and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) confidentiality in mind.
• Ensure that students have access to feedback even when in-person meetings aren't possible. You can embed feedback in Blackboard assignments, including audio & video (up to 5 minutes).

Week 1 Tips

Keep Week 1 expectations manageable and focused on getting started.

• Share essential materials first: Get your syllabus and Week 1 content to students via Blackboard or email. 
• Focus on orientation activities that help students understand your course without requiring complex technology:
• Will you post a welcome announcement or video introduction?
• Will students complete a brief introductory discussion board or survey?
• Should students review the syllabus and complete a syllabus quiz?

• Set realistic expectations for Week 1 participation and deadlines. Winter weather might interrupt access to power or internet for some students.

A GO Kit can be a handy addition to your teaching and technology portfolio, no matter how classes might be postponed (or canceled) in the future. Taking time to prepare a plan now means you'll be ready to launch your course with confidence, whatever comes your way.

Connect with Instructional Technology

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

• Check our extensive FAQ collection | What's new in Ultra?
• Open a ticket via RT | Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity | FDC's Keep On Teaching | Student Technology Resources

Dear UMBC Community,

UMBC remains steadfast in its commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable environment where every voice is heard and valued. The campus climate shapes the lives of us all, and understanding our community's diverse experiences is crucial to ensure we are upholding our core value of inclusive excellence.

Last spring, our community took part in a Community, Engagement, and Belonging survey, led by the Division of Institutional Equity and its vice president, Tanyka Barber. We hope you will join us and the Rankin Climate team to hear results from the survey on Monday, February 9. The presentation will highlight what we are doing well and where challenges remain, helping us better understand the perceptions of our learning, living, and working environments related to sense of community, engagement, and empowerment across faculty, staff, and student bodies. The presentation is an important step in ensuring our university continues to be a place where all individuals feel supported and able to thrive.

Join in-person: Fine Arts Building Recital Hall, Room 118, 12 – 1 p.m.
Join online: Livestream available for the full campus community

Registration is required. 

This will be an opportunity to learn, reflect, and ensure your voice is part of our collective effort toward a more inclusive UMBC.

Best wishes,

Now that your media has migrated from Panopto to YuJa, you have access to all your videos in your new YuJa media library. While the migration preserved most of Panopto's course folder structure, faculty may want to review, reorganize, and prepare media using Yuja's user-based structure for the spring semester. This article provides two key strategies for organizing and sharing your videos, and how to get help if you have questions.

1. Organizing Your Migrated Content

Your migrated videos arrived in folders that mirror your Panopto structure, and depending on how you used Panopto, you may find a mix of content that represents prior courses (named by courseID) and folders created manually (e.g., weekly lessons, meeting recordings, etc.). Now is an ideal time to audit and reorganize for the semester ahead. Here's a practical approach:

Start with a content audit. Review what you have and sort videos into categories:

• Media to use immediately this semester
• Media that needs revision or re-recording
• Media to archive or delete (deleted videos remain in your Recycling Bin for 60 days)

Create a folder structure that works for you. In your YuJa "My Media" library, click "New Folder" to build an organizational system. Consider creating folders for each course section, topic theme, or semester. You can create subfolders by double-clicking a parent folder and repeating the process.

Use bulk actions for efficiency. Rather than moving videos one at a time, select multiple items to move  or copy them into folders at once. You can also apply tags to groups of videos to make them easier to find later.

Improve your metadata. Give your videos descriptive titles that make sense to both you and your students. Instead of "Video_0001," try "Week 1 Lecture - Intro to Marketing." Adding descriptions or tags also improves searchability across your library.

2. Sharing Your YuJa Content in Blackboard

Once your media is organized, you'll want to make it available to students. However, when it comes to sharing your videos with students, how you link them matters for both accessibility and security. YuJa offers flexible options depending on how you want students to access your content:

Embed videos directly in your Blackboard course. Use the YuJa Media Chooser to embed videos exactly where you need them -- within an Ultra Document, directly on the Content page, in an announcement, test, or discussion. This option gives you the most control over where and how students encounter your media, and ensures that permissions are automatically handled. Learn how to insert YuJa videos in Blackboard.

Publish to your YuJa course channel. When students open YuJa in a Blackboard course, they'll see a channel specifically for your course. If you publish videos to this channel, you'll create a centralized library of course media that students can browse on their own. This works well for supplemental resources or recorded lectures students might want to revisit. Learn about publishing to channels.

Share folders with specific users. Need to share media with colleagues, teaching assistants, or users outside your course? Create folders in your YuJa library and share them with specific permissions (read-only, edit, or full access). You can also generate shareable links for external users. Learn about folder sharing.

3. Getting Hands-On Support: YuJa Video Production Labs

Need dedicated time and one-on-one assistance? Join us for a YuJa Video Production Lab where our instructional technology team will help you upload, organize, and manage your course media. We're offering three sessions in ENG 102:

• Tuesday, January 20 | 12:00 - 1:30 PM - register (in person)
• Thursday, January 22 | 12:00 - 1:30 PM - register (virtual)
• Thursday, February 13 | 1:00 - 2:30 PM - register (in person)

Faculty can sign up for a 30-minute appointment to meet with Instructional Technology staff for a personal consultation about organizing content with folders and tags, optimizing video settings, adding captions for accessibility, and publishing media to courses. We're also offering other sessions on getting to started with YuJa, recording, and editing.

Questions?

If you have questions about YuJa or need help with your migration, check ourYuJa FAQs oropen a support ticket.

The migration of our campus video library from Panopto to YuJa is now complete. While the data export process from Panopto took longer than initially anticipated, the import into YuJa was finalized as of January 5, 2026.

All users can begin using YuJa for recording and hosting video content now (via Blackboard or your myUMBC login at umbc.edu/go/yuja). As we transition fully into the YuJa environment, please review the following information regarding your imported content and the next steps for managing your media.

1. Locating Your Content

You can now access your migrated videos by logging into YuJa and navigating to Media Management. Your content now includes migrated videos and has been organized into a folder structure that reflects your previous Panopto setup, including folders for specific courses and any custom folders you manually organized.

2. Identifying "Orphaned" or Missing Content

While the vast majority of content migrated successfully, we are aware of some minor issues regarding "orphaned" videos -- content that may not have successfully migrated to your account due to the way it was stored in Panopto. Instructional Technology is prioritizing SP2026 faculty who used Panopto to ensure their content will be available by mid-January.

• If you find that content is still missing after January 16: Please open a support ticket with Instructional Technology.
• The Instructional Technology team will conduct a review of orphaned content to identify your videos and reassign them to your YuJa account.

3. Content Created After November 10, 2025

The automated migration captured content existing in Panopto up through November 10. If you created or uploaded videos to Panopto after November 10, including the Spring 2026 semester, this media will not not appear in your YuJa Media Management unless you self migrate that specific content.

Faculty and staff have until March 23, 2026, to complete any necessary self migration before our access to the Panopto archive ends. After that date UMBC will no longer have access to any Panopto content. 

4. Next Steps and Support

Although Panopto will continue to be available in Blackboard until March 23 for video linkage, we strongly advise faculty to use YuJa for new media creation. To help you navigate and organize your new YuJa library, please refer to our YuJa FAQ collection and review our follow-up article about organizing content. 

• Upcoming training and webinars focused on YuJa features.
• Best practices for linking YuJa content within Blackboard.
• Tips for organizing your imported content and managing your Media Management folders.

We appreciate your patience throughout this complex migration. Our goal is to ensure that your instructional media is preserved and even more accessible in its new home. 

If you have immediate questions, please reach out to the Instructional Technology team via RT.

Join Us at the Dialogue Symposium!

We are thrilled to invite you to the Dialogue Symposium: Bringing Campus and Communities Together, a unique space to explore how dialogue can deepen connection, foster inclusion, and shape the way we work together across campuses and communities. This event will feature interactive sessions, hands-on workshops, peer-led exchanges, and kick off with a dynamic keynote fishbowl conversation you won't want to miss. Register today!

Meet Our Keynote Speakers

We're honored to present a distinguished group of leaders whose work advances dialogue, inclusion, and community engagement:

• Dr. Felipe Filomeno — Professor of Political Science and Director of the Global Studies Program at UMBC. His interdisciplinary work on immigration, civic engagement, dialogue, and human development brings a global and community-centered lens to the conversation

• Dr. Bridget Turner-Kelly — Associate Professor in Student Affairs at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Turner-Kelly's expertise in student development and campus community building highlights how dialogue supports belonging and transformational learning.

• Rhonda Fitzgerald — Executive Director of the Sustained Dialogue Institute, where she brings decades of leadership to efforts empowering campuses and communities to use sustained dialogue for conflict transformation and inclusive engagement.

• Dr. Brighid Dwyer — Vice Dean for Academic Excellence & Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts & Sciences and Vice Chair of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center Board. Dr. Dwyer brings decades of leadership in higher education and intergroup dialogue, offering insight into structural and educational approaches to inclusive campus climates.

What Makes This Keynote Special?

Instead of a traditional panel, our keynote will be presented as a fishbowl conversation — a structured, participatory dialogue method in which a small group discusses key questions in the center while others observe and engage. This format allows for vibrant, inclusive exchange and reflects the very principles of active listening and shared meaning-making that dialogue advocates. 

Whether you're new to dialogue or an experienced practitioner, this conversation will offer rich insights into the benefits and challenges of dialogue as a campus and community approach, and create space for reflection, connection, and shared learning.

Don't Miss Out — Register Today!

Spaces are limited, and interest is growing. Whether you're an administrator, educator, student, facilitator, or community member, this symposium offers opportunities to build skills, connect with peers, and be part of shaping dialogue practice across our region.

Register now and be part of this engaging, thought-provoking event! Link to register: https://umbc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3qT4mFIw7bWNZFY

We look forward to seeing you there — ready to listen, share, and learn together!