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.

Since 2006, EDUCAUSE, the professional association for IT in higher education, has conducted an annual survey of students about their technology usage and preferences and, beginning in 2014, a survey of faculty on similar topics. In 2023, nearly 2,000 students from across 10 U.S. institutions participated in the study.

With the exception of 2014, UMBC has participated every year in this ongoing research. The resulting longitudinal data have helped us benchmark trends, such as the increasing ubiquity of smart devices. These insights have, in turn, led to advancements, including the adoption of phone-based responseware.

As with previous administrations of these surveys, this year we will randomly select 25% of UMBC students and faculty to participate. If you are among those selected, you will receive an invitation later this week. Please complete the survey to help us better understand and support your needs. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us enhance technology services and support.

Reflecting on the insights gained from previous years’ participation, the results of the 2023 surveys offer valuable perspectives on student and faculty preferences.

Flexibility in instructional modality was also a principal theme highlighted by EDUCAUSE when providing their survey reflections and next steps.
Image by Freepik

• More Information about National IT Survey Highlights Teaching and Learning Trends

DoIT welcomes Khalil Alston as a new full time AV Specialist. He joins the AV Services team in the operation, support, and installation of classroom and conference AV technology on campus.

Khalil joins us from the University of Baltimore, where he served as an IT Specialist for the Office of Technology Services.  He brings experience with AV troubleshooting, coding, along with excellent customer service skills to the team.

Khalil earned his B.S degree in Simulation and Game Design from the University of Baltimore in May 2022.Please join us in welcoming Khalil into the UMBC family. We look forward to his future contributions to UMBC.

UMBC's Division of Information Technology (DoIT), in partnership with the Office of the Provost, is pleased to announce the call for proposals for the 2023 Learning Analytics (LA) Mini Grants. This initiative aims to encourage, identify, and exchange effective practices to enhance student success and retention.

The mini grants are specifically designed to address two key areas of focus:

1. Student Success and Retention: The grants welcome proposals that explore the relationships between activities and learning in one course and outcomes in other courses. By investigating these connections, instructors can gain insights into strategies that can improve student success and retention rates. This research is particularly crucial for courses with low success rates, critical progression points, or those imparting fundamental skills required for success in the major or program.
2. Faculty Development and Support: Recipients of the mini grants will receive a $2,000 professional development award, renewable annually, directed to their faculty member or department's PeopleSoft chart string account. In addition to access to warehouse data (REX), recipients will also receive support for Tableau, a powerful data visualization tool. Furthermore, participants will be expected to present a report at the conclusion of their project, and they will have the opportunity to engage with the LA Community of Practice. These grants also provide an opportunity for recipients to use their results to compete for the prestigious Hrabowski Innovation Fund award.

The LA Mini Grants build upon the university's commitment to utilizing data-informed insights to improve student outcomes. In line with this objective, the Provost's office, in collaboration with DoIT's Analytics & Instructional Technology groups, has been organizing workshops on supporting student success throughout the academic year. These workshops, illustrated by our Spring 2023 lineup below, have covered various topics faculty may want to explore further in their own mini-grant proposals:

• Democratizing the Doer Effect: Using AI to Scale Learning by Doing (2/24/23)
• The Case of Test-Optional Admissions: A Pandemic Natural Experiment (3/3/23)
• How Analytics Informs UMBC's Strategic Planning (4/7/23)
• How Analytics Improved a Dept's Student Success & Enrollment (5/5/23)

These presentations have provided valuable knowledge and resources to support faculty in their understanding and utilization of data to support their pedagogy, and the meeting recordings linked through each event are available for anyone with a UMBC account.

The LA Mini Grants program presents an exceptional opportunity for faculty members to enhance their teaching practices and contribute to the university's commitment to student success and retention. Interested faculty members are invited to submit their applications by Friday, June 2, 2023. The application package should include a brief abstract that could be published on the UMBC website if accepted, a maximum three-page research project proposal, and a letter of support from their department chair. For further inquiries or to submit applications, please contact Robert Carpenter, John Fritz, or Tom Penniston.

For anyone interested in an additional professional development opportunity outside of (or in addition to) the LA Mini Grants, Indiana University Bloomington will host their 5th Annual Learning Analytics Summit virtually next week (5/17-5/19), and participation is 100% free.

By Tom Penniston, with initial draft generated by ChatGPT

Image by katemangostar

In an effort to gather information on how faculty design and administer tests, DoIT collaborated with the Faculty Development Center (FDC) and Student Disability Services (SDS) to create and distribute a short survey to all 941 instructional faculty teaching in Spring 22. There were 157 complete submissions, representing a 17% response rate. Of these survey participants, 78% were full-time faculty, and about half (54%) were Associate, Assistant, or Full Professor. Almost all were from CAHSS (48%), CNMS (24%), or COEIT (22%), and 86% primarily teach undergraduate students.



Academic integrity is approached in several ways, including the use of psychology (lecturing students and/or acknowledgment of an "honor" statement or pledge) and overall design of the assessments, such as question banks, randomization, synchronous testing, and, in direct conflict with student accomodation concerns, time constraints.¹ These approaches are carried out in two different environments: in-person and online. In the case of the former, respondents indicated traditional means of face-to-face proctoring. With the latter, instructors may use Blackboard, along with the Respondus Lockdown Browser, and potentially the Monitor option. Other respondents described having their students turn their computer cameras on during the assessments. Plagiarism checkers such as SafeAssign and Turnitin are also leveraged.

There is an acknowledgement by some, however, that there may not be anything that can be done to fully redress issues concerning academic integrity "other than theatrics." As one respondent noted, "it is impossible to keep students from posting the questions (from memory) on the Internet as soon as they are done with their own test." Some stated, however, that they believe their tests are relatively impervious to cheating due to the tailoring and formatting of the questions. Others stated they didn't think they have a big problem with cheating, or did little to curtail it beyond making sure students aren't using their phones or looking at other students' papers, which can be of particular concern when rooms are at full seating capacity.

The student disability-based testing accommodations described universally involve faculty providing more time on assessments for individual students, or through the course of the pandemic, expanding the testing window for all students. Few faculty indicated a pervasiveness of need, with some emphasizing how few occurrences of student accommodations they've received in their teaching careers. Additionally, multiple respondents seemed to be under the false impression that SDS has a testing center to support this need, rather than just ad hoc space allocation that is only available for SDS registered students with disabilities. Meaning it is not for general make up test proctoring for all students, can only seat 15 students at a time, and has computer stations only intended for specialized assistive technology needs..

Interestingly, when asked about the possibility of a dedicated UMBC testing center, only 14% of respondents teaching 50 or more students don't believe a testing center would help them; none of the respondents teaching more than 100 students are of that opinion. In fact, several respondents voiced support for this kind of facility, with one saying "I would be THRILLED for a testing center at UMBC!"

Some faculty, however, never use high-stakes testing. They may choose not to due to a lack of familiarity or experience with it (e.g., having begun teaching during the pandemic), while other instructors stated they did not believe in using high-stakes assessments on pedagogical grounds, or employ qualitatively graded assessments, such as case studies or written assessments, rather than discrete answer assessments. These types of assessments, of course, can still be high stakes, although much more difficult to scale for larger classes than multiple choice bubble sheets. Other faculty described offering more "smaller" assignments or quizzes. One respondent specifically cited their PIVOT training for adoption of this "best practice."² Of those who did make use of high-stakes assessments, some stated they were important to encourage students' motivation to learn. "You have to have some high-stakes testing to get students to study," responded one instructor.

• Attached Image for SP22 Survey Shines Light on Faculty Testing
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