In recent years, the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support  (IRADS) has installed or built a nifty set of “bird’s eye view” reports about teaching & learning in the campus’ Report Exchange (REX) data warehouse that any instructor might find useful. These include but are not limited to various campus-wide Blackboard usage reports such as the following:

Blackboard

• Bb Learn Course Use By College (shows Bb use by students across campus)

• Bb Instructor At A Glance (shows overall use for each instructor’s courses)

• Student At A Glance (shows individual student activity across all Bb courses)

Grade Comparison and Distribution

Similarly, the following "summary level" REX reports could be interesting to instructors who want to benchmark their own courses with peers from any discipline or department across campus:

• Course to Course - Grade Comparison (inspired by Dr. Hrabowski's definition of student success: "not only passing a course but also the next one that requires it.").*

• Outcomes After Course Completion (includes retention and graduation)

• Grade Distribution by Organization (by college and campus-wide).

• Courses by DFW Rate and Average Grade (by course view only)

• Most Popular REX Reports (see what reports others are using)

The aggregate data these summary REX reports provide could provide useful context for understanding any course, but by default, none of them will have “drill to detail” student ID information.

Background

UMBC faculty may recall that DoIT used to publish a list of most active Blackboard courses for every term. However, we discontinued this after Spring 2013, when we completed our transition to Blackboard’s Analytics for Learn (A4L) product that UMBC’s own experience helped influence. A4L reports for students and faculty are now embedded in every Blackboard course (see Control Panel → Evaluation → Analytics), but there is still nothing that provides a “bird’s eye view” of Bb usage across campus -- except the Bb Learn Use by College Report mentioned above.

Why might this be important? Increasingly, UMBC and other institutions are looking at institutional Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard as a real-time indicator or even predictor of student engagement, not just a static content repository of syllabi and powerpoint presentations. If so, then understanding effective design of LMS courses -- as measured, in part, by students’ use of them -- could be helpful as well.

Accessing REX

Until recently, access to REX itself was granted “upon request,” so one might first want to know what lies beyond the login screen before doing so. However, the summary reports above offer a sneak peek at what REX can do, and are now available to any instructor with access to the PeopleSoft advising system by default.**

Sophia Haire has joined the Instructional Technology team as the new Turning Technologies Clicker Intern for the Spring 2017 semester. Sophia is a senior Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) scholar majoring in computer science and mathematics, and minoring in sociology. Sophia will be supporting UMBC faculty and students with the use of clickers. Her main tasks will be to respond to RT tickets, develop a self-paced clicker training course on Blackboard, and conduct clicker workshops.

Sophia has served in several capacities during her time here at UMBC, including being a grader for MATH 215 and a learning assistant for PHYS 122. Post-graduation, she will be starting an internship with AmeriCorps in Minneapolis teaching basic digital literacy skills to vulnerable populations seeking employment. Following her internship, Sophia plans to pursue a graduate degree in applied sociology to help nonprofit organizations tailor their services to their populations more effectively. 

If you would like to contact Sophia for assistance with clickers, please submit an RT ticket.

Welcome to the team Sophia!

Last year, the Instructional Technology team held UMBC’s first TechFest. TechFest is designed to bring together UMBC students, faculty, and staff to share their favorite technologies with the campus community through workshops and presentations.

There are two types of sessions that will be offered at TechFest 2017:

• Workshop Session (35 minutes)-Presenter(s) provide a brief overview of the instructional technology and offer information based on best practices and use. Participants are provided with at least three take aways implementing use of the technology.

• Power Session (70 minutes)-Presenter(s) provide a more in-depth overview of the instructional technology and offer information based on best practices and use. In Power Sessions, participants are given the opportunity to explore the technology through "hands-on" activities.

Deadlines and Notifications

Proposals must be submitted no later than 5pm on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10 by completing this Google Form.  Applicants will be notified about acceptances approximately two weeks after the submission deadline. Selection will be based on how well the proposal connects to the themes, goals, and overall contribution to TechFest.

Mark your calendars: TechFest 2017 will be held on Monday, April 10, 2017. More details are forthcoming. Sign up here to be notified when registration opens for this event.

For more information, please contact Holly Owens at holly3@umbc.edu or Collin Sullivan at csulli1@umbc.edu.