Please see below some November Wellness webinars provided by the State Employee Benefits Division. Register now to secure your spot!

In this month's newsletter you'll find opportunities to learn how to reduce your risk of developing diabetes, and if you've been diagnosed with it, how to better manage it. And there's more to support your good health, from Mindful Mondays and Wellness. From the Kitchen to Healthier by the Minute and Unwind Time on Fridays. Here's to a healthy November!

Mindful Mondays: Embrace the Good!

Monday, 11/18, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: What is Self-Compassion?

When you are overwhelmed by stress, do you become self-critical? If so, you are not alone - psychological stress often has this effect. This soul-searching session will teach you how to be more gentle, empathetic, and gracious to yourself.

Register for 11/18 What is Self-Compassion?

Monday, 11/25, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Embracing the Good

When you are overwhelmed by stress, do you become self-critical? If so, you are not alone - psychological stress often has this effect. This soul-searching session will teach you how to be more gentle, empathetic, and gracious to yourself when stress takes over.

Register for 11/25 Embracing the Good

Tuesday Wellness from the Kitchen with Chef Sandra Lewis:

Tuesday, 11/12, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Warm Cranberry Feta Spread

This elegant yet easy oven-baked appetizer is a delicious combination of creamy baked feta that perfectly balances with the sweet-tart flavor of cranberries. This is ideal for cozy gatherings and entertaining during the holidays!

Register for 11/12 Warm Cranberry Feta Spread

Tuesday, 11/19, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Roasted Cornish Game Hen

Discover how easy it is to roast a Cornish game hen that is infused with the bright flavors of lemon and the earthy aroma of fresh rosemary. This dish, perfect for any occasion, will elevate your dining table!
Register for 11/19 Roasted Cornish Game Hen

Tuesday, 11/26, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Turkey Pot Pie

You'll know just what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers with this perfect comfort food! Featuring turkey, carrot, potato, leek, and green peas served in a puff pastry shell, this is a recipe for any night of the week!
Register for 11/26 Turkey Pot Pie

Healthy U Wednesdays: Women's Health Latest Updates:Healthy Habits and Coaching for Success!

Wednesday, 11/13, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Healthy Habits for Success

In this interactive discussion, learn from the facilitator and other participants how to enhance your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health in simple actionable steps that ensure success.

Register for 11/13 Healthy Habits for Success

Wednesday, 11/20, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: Health Coaching for Success

Just as a sports coach can help an athlete excel at a sport, a health and wellness coach can help you excel at living your best life! Health and wellness coaches are experts in areas such as nutrition, physical activity, weight management, stress management, and more. Learn about the resources available to you as a State employee and hear from coaching participants about their experiences.

Register for 11/20 Health Coaching for Success

Thursday Health Focus: Get "InStep" with Diabetes

Thursday, 11/7, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: InStep with Diabetes - Improve Your Understanding of Diabetes

Learn how diabetes develops, its impact on your or your loved one's health, and why it's important to manage blood sugar levels.

Register for 11/7 Improve Your Understanding of Diabetes

Thursday, 11/14, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: InStep with Diabetes - The Benefits of Healthy Eating and Regular Physical Activity 

Review the benefits of healthy eating and regular physical activity and set achievable goals for both.

Register for 11/14 The Benefits of Healthy Eating and Regular Physical Activity

Thursday, 11/21, 11:00 am - 11:45 am: InStep with Diabetes - How to Minimize Diabetes Complications

Review the how and why of taking diabetes medications and get additional tips to minimize the risks of diabetes complications.

Register for 11/21 How to Minimize Diabetes Complications

Unwind Time Fridays: The Gratitude Experience!

Friday, 11/8, 11:00 am - 11:15 am: The Gratitude Experience

When you experience gratitude, you release feel-good hormones that elevate your mood. Join this guided meditation for an immediate mood boost!

Register for 11/8 The Gratitude Experience

Friday, 11/15, 11:00 am - 11:15 am: Fill Your Cup of Gratitude

In this guided meditation, you will fill your gratitude cup to drink from it all day long!

Register for 11/15 Fill Your Gratitude Cup

Friday, 11/22, 11:00 am - 11:15 am: Share Your Cup of Gratitude

This guided meditation will help you discover your best way to express gratitude to others.

Register for 11/22 Share Your Cup of Gratitude

Healthier by the Minute

Friday, 11/8, 11:30 am - 11:45 am: Healthier by the Minute - Understanding Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions such as high blood pressure and blood sugar, excess fat around the waist, and high cholesterol. Learn how to prevent or manage metabolic syndrome.

Register for 11/8 Understanding Metabolic Syndrome

Friday, 11/15, 11:30 am - 11:45 am: Healthier by the Minute - Understanding Diabetes

It may feel overwhelming to manage life with diabetes. Join this session to learn about support and resources available to you.

Register for 11/15 Understanding Diabetes

Friday, 11/22, 11:30 am - 11:45 am: Healthier by the Minute - Living Tobacco Free

November is both Diabetes Awareness and Tobacco Cessation Month! Join this informative and empowering session to learn how to start (or re-start) a tobacco-free life.

Register for 11/22 Living Tobacco Free

PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS

Faculty accepted into the QMI Spring/Fall 2025 cohort agree to complete the following activities:

• Attend a 45-minute orientation session: Friday, November 22 at either the 12 PM or 2 PM slot (choose one)
• Complete the DoIT-facilitated Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) asynchronous online workshop either January 7-28 or June 3-24, 2025.
• Complete a QM self-review of the course (highly recommended)
• Meet with your assigned review team for a pre-review conference call
• Implement recommendations to meet standards based on helpful recommendations from your assigned review team
• Respond to a QMI survey after the program concludes  
• Participate on a future panel or record a testimonial about your experience

SUPPORT

• Each participant will be assigned an Instructional Design Specialist to answer Quality Matters questions as the course is prepared for a QM Course Review.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

An application to participate in the Spring/Fall 2025 Quality Matters Impact cohort must include both course-level and unit-level learning objectives.

Ready to submit?

• Please complete a QMI application no later than December 6.

For more information about the Quality Matters Impact program, contact the QM Coordinators for UMBC:

Dr. Susan Biro

sbiro@umbc.edu

Dr. Mariann Hawken

mariannhawken@umbc.edu

(Image: Decorative, Quality Matters logo)

Instructional Technology is pleased to announce the pilot of Qwickly Attendance Plus in Blackboard Ultra courses. Featuring mobile check-in and advanced reporting, Qwickly Attendance provides faculty with tools to identify student absences and send email notifications automatically. The Qwickly Attendance Plus pilot will take place November 4, 2024 through May 25, 2025. 

Qwickly Attendance was launched at UMBC in 2016, providing an easy tool to take attendance and synchronize points to the Blackboard gradebook. One popular feature of Qwickly allows faculty to set up attendance self check-ins -- in the upgraded version, a rapidly rotating QR code appears on the screen instead of a PIN, reducing the possibility of false attendance. Students can use the Qwickly Attendance mobile app to check in from their smart phone or check their attendance records on the go.

Another exciting new feature in Qwickly Attednance Plus will convert student activity in Blackboard to attendance records. When we consider attendance in an online course, login is often the first metric considered. However, proposed federal regulations for attendance in distance education suggest tracking student activity including LMS activity such as discussion posting and test taking. Qwickly Attendance Plus will automatically derive attendance status for students based on their engagement with specified course activities during a designated period and mark attendance accordingly. 

Additional features of Qwickly Attendance Plus include:

• Check-Out: Add an option for students to check-out at the end of a class meeting.
• Forgive Absences: Specify how many absences are excluded from grade calculations.
• Schedule Sessions: Create attendance sessions in advance for the entire semester.
• Hyflex Support: Create context for attendance location (in-person vs. remote).
• Location Confirmation: Specific locations create approved zones for attendance tracking.
• Concurrent Check-in for Groups: Take attendance for any or all groups in a single session.
• Updated Reporting: Review and identify attendance trends. 

We invite faculty to explore the new features during the pilot. Upon conclusion of the pilot, Qwickly is expected to revert to the normal attendance application. Faculty feedback will help inform future adoption of the upgraded features.

• Visit Qwickly Attendance FAQs for additional resources. 
• For technical support, please submit a ticket to Instructional Technology.

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

This month's update to Ultra increases support for assessment, accessibility, learner engagement, and course management.

Instructors can now choose roleplaying as an option for AI Conversations, providing another active learning opportunity in a simulated environment. For example, students can role play a doctor speaking to a patient (played by the AI persona) and practice diagnostics or other soft skills in a safe environment. As with Socratic questioning, the instructor can review the AI conversation transcript and the student's reflection on the experience. All AI tools in Ultra courses are optional to use. Faculty can learn more about the AI Conversations at a webinar on November 4 before the go-live date of the latest feature.

Image 1: Example of decision tree in AI Conversation set-up. Instructors must choose between a Socratic Questioning exercise or a Role Play exercise.

Another helpful update for instructors is the option to print tests that include question from Question Pools. This feature supports just the test or the test with the answer key. Note: The system will generate a unique version of the test and/or test with answer key each time a test is printed when the test has randomized questions/answers and when the test includes question pools.

Image 2: Example of printing a test with questions from Question Pool

Discussion formatting improves to better distinguish between responses and replies including indentation. Additionally, the delete option for discussion topic is removed, and instructors can edit instead. Future changes to discussions will include better navigation, improvements to terminology, updated interface, and clearer calls to action.

Batch edit is a helpful course tool in Ultra courses, and the change dates is the most popular function. As such, it is now the default option to simplify the process for faculty and help prepare courses.

In support of accessibility, Blackboard added a second skip link to the Course Content page. In addition to the current skip link to tab directly into course items, users can now press the Tab key again to skip to course information. If users don’t use either skip link, they will tab into the course features. 

Additional updates for October include:  

• Instructors can download the Student Activity Log as a CSV. All filters applied to the log also apply to the CSV. 
• To help with resizing blocks that are vertically tall, Blackboard modified the resize handle. Now, instructors can resize a block by selecting the vertical edge of a block. It is not necessary to place the mouse directly over the handle. 
• To prevent issues when uploading multiple files, students will now be required to wait for the first upload to completely before attaching additional files. 
• A message will display if a file exceeds the permitted size limit. 
• In the unlikely event of a student attempts to submit a corrupted file, a message will notify them of the issue, and the system will alert the instructor.

• The mobile app will now be known simply as the Blackboard App, aligning with Anthology's rebranding. In addition to an updated name, the app has an updated splash screen, icon, and description.

Faculty should see the latest updates in their Ultra courses around November 7-8, 2024. The next update to our Ultra test environment will take place on November 12, 2024; release notes are posted to the What's New in Ultra that same week. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access. Please watch the FAQs, including the What's New with Ultra page, and myUMBC for additional information about Ultra.

Update @ 6:37 PM: After a rolling restart was performed, course menus appear to be consistently stable and content is available. Users also report the error messages are no longer appearing. 

At approximately 10:00am on October 29th, UMBC users began reporting error messages upon attempting to access Blackboard courses. Instructional Technology staff opened a ticket with Blackboard Support and are continuing to monitor the service disruption.

As of 11:15am, this issue remains under investigation with Blackboard support.

Users may observe missing items from course menus including attendance, announcements, groups, and messages. Users who are able to log in courses may experience degraded performance and difficulty accessing course content and assessments. Most users are able to log into Blackboard itself and the issue is not system wide at this time.

Clearing the browser cache may offer temporary relief for the issue. 

If you encounter an issue when accessing a Blackboard course, please open an RT ticket and provide the session debug code, if available. The unique error id can be shared with Blackboard support to help clarify the errors observed in your course(s). Screenshots are also helpful.

This post will be updated with additional information as we receive it.

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

Please share this information with your departments. 

Please join us for a live, virtual Open Enrollment Information Session hosted by the HRSTM Benefits & Wellness team on Wednesday, 10/16/2024 at 12:00pm via Webex. No need to register, you can join via this Webex link. 

In this session, we will discuss the following information and more!

• The new prescription vendor, MedImpact. 
• What’s New for 2025 and who needs to make changes. 
• The OneLogin process for your SPS Workday account.
• State of Maryland Wellness activities - 2025 is a reset year.
• Healthcare Flexible Spending account – new annual limit!

Please mark your calendar and use this Webex link to join the session.

Not able to attend the information session? No worries! The session will be recorded and posted to the HRSTM Benefits Open Enrollment website by 10/22/2024.