DoIT Alerts

The UMBC Albin O. Kuhn Library recently partnered with the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) to solve the challenge of accessing information for all. There is a need for rapid and high-quality transcriptions. An automatic transcription is an AI-powered process that converts audio or video recordings into text in minutes. The library wanted to find a way to automate the transcription of recorded meetings, lectures, and other forms of audio media that are not already transcribed. An automated service would be beneficial for providing immediate transcripts, eliminating the need to wait for someone to manually transcribe each recording. This type of service would ideally allow a user to upload a recording of a lecture or talk and receive a transcript as a PDF or Word document. Another use case would be helping to differentiate multiple speakers in a recording by identifying "Speaker 1", "Speaker 2", and so on. 

Solution

During one of his Internet2 Cloud meetings, DoIT's own Associate Director of Research and Enterprise Computing, Tim Champ, learned of an open-source transcription program from Indiana University (IU) that was shared for testing at other institutions. Tim, having heard of the library's problem a year prior, decided to experiment with the program as a possible solution. Tim's coordination with the technical setup and creating an AWS account for the library has offered a successful process for transcripts. Additionally, there is no regular maintenance needed for this application as it uses AWS-managed services. 

The collaboration has since proved successful with the library transcribing media in their archives and on UMBCScholarworks, as well as with two weekly podcasts, I Hate Politics and I Hate the News, created by UMBC Shady Grove Political Science Faculty Member Sunil Dasgupta. At the moment, this tool is only available to the library; however, Tim sees this as a tool that could be implemented in other departments at UMBC to support increased accessibility. 

Future Opportunities

For any department or researcher interested in learning more about accessing and using this tool, you can Request Help under AI tools. 

Improving accessibility at UMBC is a major priority, both towards UMBC's mission and recent federal accessibility standards. Everyone has different needs, and it is our responsibility to adjust and adapt our existing methods to meet the needs of our community, whether in lecture halls or virtual environments. This ongoing commitment is strengthened by the collaboration between faculty and staff to improve tools and resources. 

Learn about the Indiana University Automated Transcription Service.

10/22 Update 1:45 pm: 

Amazon has fixed the AWS outage issue. Most systems are working normally with only a few systems with updates still in progress. If you are having any technical difficulties, please contact our Technology Support Center. 

10/20 Update 1:45 pm: 

We are continuing to monitor the situation. The following is an updated list of the services impacted by the AWS outage: 

• Adobe
• Ally
• Blackboard
• Confluence
• CourseArc
• DocuSign
• Panopto
• Pantheon
• Poll Everywhere
• Publisher Integrations in Blackboard
• Respondus Lockdown Browser & Monitor
• Smartsheet
• UMBC's PAW Procurement System
• UMBC Request Tracker (RT) System
• UMBC Travel System
• UMBC Technology Support Center phone system
• YuJA
• Zoom

For more information, please see the Vendor Status Dashboard.

10/20 Update 10:40 am: 

UMBC is currently experiencing impacts on the following platforms: 

• Ally
• Blackboard
• Confluence
• CourseArc
• Panopto
• Poll Everywhere
• Publisher Integrations in Blackboard

10/20 Update 10:04 am:

This morning an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage is causing global disruptions, impacting many platforms. As of 8:30 am, Amazon has resolved the issue but there may be impacts to other systems. 

The Division of Information Technology will continue to monitor the situation. Timely updates will be shared on AWS Health Dashboard. 

At approximately 3:42pm, DoIT staff became aware of a potential outage with third-party tools on our instance Blackboard Learn. System admins confirmed reports that an AWS outage in US-East is impacting Blackboard and many third-party tools in Blackboard including, but not limited to:

• Class Collaborate
• VoiceThread
• Cengage
• Pearson
• CourseArc
• WileyPLUS

The service disruption prevents users from authenticating into an application, whether through Blackboard or directly via the vendor's website. Active sessions may also be disrupted. Inline grading and viewing student submissions is also affected by this outage.

AWS is responding to the incident and will provide further updates to vendors about the service disruption. Instructional Technology staff opened a ticket with Blackboard support and continue to monitoring the outage.

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

Update 5:15 PM - Many AWS cloud services have been restored. Amazon continues to work on the issue. Blackboard appears to be functioning normally, but Instructional Technology staff will continue to monitor server performance for the next 24 hours.

• More Information about RESOLVED: AWS Outage Impacting 3rd-Party Tools in Blackboard

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• More Information about Kudos to Jeremy Gude for Receiving Employee of the Quarter