Info for Summer 2022

All Summer 2022 Courses are Hosted on GPS Blackboard

GPS will provide blank Blackboard sites for summer courses, add students to your course site(s), and provide support and training for you and your students. We are planning to create Summer 2022 Blackboard course sites for all courses during the week of  April 11, 2022. 

NEW PROCESS for ONLINE TEACHERS - For Summer 2022, blackboard logoGPS is changing the way we copy courses into your Blackboard sites. In the past for online courses, we have copied over a prior term's course so that your new shell is pre-populated with your course materials. This usually causes issues with timing because we have to wait until the current term is ended before we can copy courses. Starting with Summer 2022, we will give online instructors* access to Blackboard sites earlier, and give you the ability to copy your own course materials, including an entire course, into the new course site. It is a few clicks and usually takes less than 1 minute (instructions and support for this provided below). Copying past courses into the current semester's Blackboard shell is now the responsibility of the instructor. GPS will provide support and training, but if you teach online and don't take this step, then your course will be empty on the first day of the term.  

Important Exception: if you are teaching a course using existing content and the original author of the content is teaching a section of the same course, your content will be copied automatically once the original course author updates their section. Please do not copy any content into your Summer 22 shell.

How to Copy Course Materials Into Your Summer Blackboard Site

We are planning to create Summer 2022 Blackboard course sites during the week of April 11th. Once you have access to your new courses, all instructors will have the following options:

  1. Copy an entire course into your Summer 2022 Blackboard site (Most online instructors will want this option)
  2. Start from scratch with a blank Blackboard site

Options #1 and #2 have been available to faculty teaching on-campus or virtual graduate-level courses. Starting Summer 2022, we are now making this available to faculty teaching online courses as well. We are giving you the ability to copy a previous term's materials, including an entire course, into your new course site. It only takes a few clicks and minutes, and if you run into issues then we can assist. Or, please attend one of our virtual Drop-In Sessions in April or May if you'd like assistance doing this. If you need support with this step, please contact onlinelearning@uml.edu and someone will be able to assist.

Here are some additional set-up guides that may be useful as you start building for Summer 2022:

Weekly Course Dates for Summer 2022

Faculty should refer to the Academic Calendar and Summer Class Dates for semester start/end dates, holidays, and final exam days. 

8-week, 10-week and 12-week (Full Term) courses: 

Week  Dates (Monday-Sunday) 
1 May 16 – 22 (Summer Start I begins on May 16)
2 May 23 – 29
3 May 30 – June 5
4 June 6 – 12
5 June 13 – 19
6 June 20 – 26
7 June 27 – July 3
8 July 4 – 10 (8-week session ends on July 10)
9 July 11 – 17
10 July 18 – 24 (10-week session ends on July 24)
11 July 25 – 31
12 August 1 – 7 (Full-Term session ends on August 7)

 

6-week Session I and 6-week Session II semester dates: 

Week  Dates (Monday-Sunday) 
1 May 16 – 22 (6-week Session I starts)
2 May 23 – 29
3 May 30 – June 5
4 June 6 – 12
5 June 13 – 19
6 June 20 – 26 (6-week Session I ends on June 26)
1 July 5 - 10 (6-week Session II starts on a Tuesday)
2 July 11 - 17
3 July 18 - 24
4 July 25 - 31
5 August 1 - 7
6 August 8 - 14* (6-week Session II ends on August 16)

* 6-week Session II officially ends on Tuesday, August 16. Faculty can decide to use those extra two days or end on the 14th.

Blackboard Access and Support

YOUR BLACKBOARD COURSE - If you are teaching online or a graduate-level course during Summer 2022, your course site in GPS Blackboard will be available for you in mid-April. If you don't see your course site in Blackboard, or would like to request a site for a Directed Study, please email Alena_Woods@uml.edu or onlinelearning@uml.edu.

LOGIN PROBLEMS – You can login to GPS Blackboard using your UML username and password. Retrieve your UML password or set your password retrieval security questions at the UMass Lowell MyPassword website.

STUDENT AND TA ACCESS TO BLACKBOARD - Students are loaded into Blackboard courses a few days prior to the start of each term, and then incrementally each day thereafter 2x daily. Faculty can request TA or Grader access to their Blackboard course site by emailing Alena_Woods@uml.edu or onlinelearning@uml.edu.

CROSS-LISTED COURSES - We will automatically merge all cross-listed courses in Blackboard based on SIS.

 

Technical Support