Think twice before you rush to enter an old friend’s March Madness pool this week. There’s nothing wrong with a little camaraderie, but the email invite might be coming from a cybercriminal looking to steal your personal information or money.

Cybersecurity researchers say the annual NCAA basketball tournament brings a slew of phishing emails from scammers looking to capitalize on the public’s eagerness to join the fun. March Madness captures widespread attention, and the yearly rush to get brackets filled out before the first game tips off adds a sense of urgency. That combination makes March Madness a slam dunk for cybercriminals. Emails mentioning the tournament have a better chance of drawing clicks from unsuspecting victims.

Online NCAA pools have been around for years, but March Madness-related phishing has become a growing problem due to the proliferation of social media and artificial intelligence. These technologies have made it much easier for criminals to write and send custom scam emails known as spear phishing. In the past, cybercriminals had to craft spear-phishing emails one by one, doing painstaking research to find the personal details needed to make emails look real. Now social media platforms provide all the personal data needed for potential victims. Artificial intelligence then automates the composition process, allowing scammers to send out millions of highly customized emails that boost their chances of a payoff.

Here are some reminders to avoid getting scammed:

Think before you click. If something doesn’t seem right about an email, just delete it—ideally before you open it. You’re better off not taking the risk.

Examine the link. Before you click on a link, try hovering your mouse over it. This will reveal the full address, which can expose signs of fraud. A “.ru” on the end, for example, means the site was created in Russia. Misspellings are another good tipoff to a fake website. If the URL says marchmadnness.com, avoid it.

Don’t open attachments. They may contain malware. Never type confidential information into a form attached to an email.

Guard your financial information. Be wary of emails asking for account numbers, credit card numbers, wire transfers, or failed transactions. There’s no reason to share such info via message or an unsecure site.

ITS will continue to simulate phishing and assign training to those most susceptible. If you believe you’ve been targeted by phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to).

— Chris Mielke, ITS

This article is part of a series of OnCampus articles  called “About … Blackboard Learn Ultra.”  The series is designed to provide information on Blackboard Learn Ultra in small soundbites.

Blocks are the content elements that you add to organize and segment content. You can add blocks for paragraphs, images, headings, lists, videos, and more.  With blocks, you can easily edit the order of the content by reordering the blocks within a Blackboard document.

Example of Block Editing

Block editing in a syllabus would allow you to separate each of the typical sections. Using the example layout below, you could build it into 5 blocks or 13 depending on the depth of flexibility required:

1. About the course: 1) course title, 2) course description, and 3) learning objectives
2. Course environment: 4) instructor contact information, 5) meeting schedule, 6) open education resources and textbook requirements, and 7) technology requirements to be successful
3. Standard syllabus statements: 8) policies, 9) academic success resources, 10) academic honesty, etc.
4. Assessments: 11) assessment descriptions and 12) grading schemas
5. 13) Course schedule

To reorder the syllabus, click the two-direction arrow under the (…) menu of any given block and drag the block of content to drop it in the preferred order.

Block Editing Benefits

Using block editing also makes it easy to:

• Add different types of content (typed/copied-pasted content, uploaded files, HTML, and cloud documents) inline in a specified order.
• Keep your content evenly spaced and yet separated slightly to add white space without managing the formatting between sections.
• Remove blocks without editing other content on the page.
• Only editing the section of the content you want to change without disturbing the other content on the page.

How-to Build Blocks

In the Blackboard content area select the add tool (+) and Create a Document. Choose a type of content to add to the document and keep it brief (a course description or learning objectives, for example). Save that block and hover below it to add (+) another block of the same or different type. Remember to practice editing with blocks in mind by practicing simple acts like reordering the content as you see fit or removing unnecessary blocks. Learn more about creating content in Blackboard documents.

— Karly Good, ITS

This semester we are starting a series of OnCampus articles  called “About … Blackboard Learn Ultra.”  The goal of these articles is to provide some development opportunities in small soundbites that provide the information needed to work efficiently in Blackboard Learn Ultra.

Calendars in Blackboard Learn Ultra

This month we are sharing features of the calendar tool at all levels and roles in Blackboard.  You can use the calendar tool to help you stay on top of course schedules and due dates. Watch the video below to learn more about how to integrate your calendar into your workflow. In addition, once you start using the calendar in your workflow, it also supports the students using the calendar in their workflow. Once you begin adopt in the calendar, share resources with your students to join in!

Instructors

The information provided in the video is also available in a detailed written document about using calendars from the instructor perspective.

Help Your Students

Share this resource to help Students with their workflow of using the calendar in Blackboard Learn Ultra. If you like, you can post the embedded video from within this document into your course content or send it as an announcement to encourage students to use calendars to improve student success.

— Karly Good, ITS

We have had terrific attendance at faculty development centering on artificial intelligence, and a great set of conversations. Nicki and I are working to continually update the CTE website. We’re trying to make a weekly practice of those updates, starting later this week, to include resources as they become available from a host of global institutions.

I also invite you to join a group of dedicated faculty and staff to talk about teaching and artificial intelligence like Chatbots and text-to-image generators. We’ll have a brief opening presentation, then you’ll have a chance to mingle—café style—to get feedback on and brainstorm about your particular instructional concerns related to the technology, including a table to conversation about the question of our value in light of the technology, and a table where you can get ideas for incorporating AI into your class’ work. We’ll have two sessions via Zoom, and two in person—if you come in person, we’ll provide light refreshments.  The sessions will be:

Thursday, March 23, 12:00 – 1:00 via Zoom
Tuesday, March 28, 11:00 – 12:00 in person
Monday, April 3, 12:00 – 1:00 via Zoom
Friday, April 7, 11:30 – 12:30 in person

Please register here. You’ll be able to pick your session and modality on the Eventbrite link.

And, please sign up now for Books for Breakfast on April 7 and April 21 from 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. We will meet to eat good food and talk about a lovely book: Helen Sword’s Air and Light and Time and Space: How Successful Academics Write.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Join All Staff Council Tuesday, March 14, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Parents Hall South, Olmsted Center, to celebrate National Pi Day with free pizza pies and bingo. This is a family-friendly event and winners will receive baked pie goods.

— Sydni Jennings, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences

Drake faculty and staff who exemplify the Core Value “All in This Together” will be recognized at the Provost’s Drake Social Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the Cline Hall Atrium beginning at 4 p.m.

All those nominated will be recognized on a rolling display at the event. Several nominees will be chosen at random for prizes.

Refreshments will include wine, beer, soft drinks, and an assortment of light snacks. This is a family friendly event. Please feel free to bring your children and partner.

— Madison Bemus, Provost’s Office

We talk a lot, in higher education, about the massive changes we are currently undergoing.  But what does it mean for us when we say that enrollments are shifting, that knowledge production is being radically altered, that the classrooms we teach in are quite different from the ones we were learners in?  CPHS faculty member Shankar Munusamy will be leading us in a four-part conversation on the book The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present, and Uncertain Future. We’ll meet to discuss on Thursdays ,March 2, 9, 23, and 30, from 3:30–4:30 p.m. in Howard Hall, Room 210.  Please register so we can plan to see you and get you a copy of the book.

Of course, one of the upheavals we’ve been talking most about, lately, comes from the disruptive technologies related to Artificial Intelligence. A good group of faculty and staff are working to develop some April and May opportunities—workshops on AI in the classroom and in assessment practices, as well as conversations about more existential aspects of the technology and what it’s proliferation means for our students and ourselves. On the way to those workshops, there are some terrific opportunities to engage.  

Drake’s Comparison Project is hosting Luther College Professor of Religion Gereon Kopf, who will be presenting a talk titled “Trans-humanism, AI, and Memory: Zen Buddhist Ruminations on Digital Immortalities.” You needn’t register; the event is free and open to the public, Thursday, Feb. 23, 7–8:30 p.m., Cowles Library Reading Room.  The next week, at The Varsity Cinema, Drake faculty member Chris Porter (associate professor of mathematics and director of our Artificial Intelligence program) will be presenting a pre-film talk “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Our Lives,” just prior to a viewing of After Yang.  You can purchase tickets for this event on the cinema’s website, the talk and film will be Feb. 28, starting at 6:30 p.m.  It is exciting to share that this talk part of a series supported by an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant for “Science on Screen,” which was awarded as a result of work done by Cowles library faculty member Dan Chibnall, and community member Bed Godar. The program, according to Dan, pairs science and sci-fi films with notable local experts—and I’m excited that later this spring Professor Jerrid Kruse (SOE) will present a talk prior to a screening of the classic movie Wall-E.

Drake faculty members Chris Porter and Martin Roth (Philosophy) have been collaborating to bring two exciting panel discussions on AI to campus. Save the dates now for March 7, 4–5:30 p.m. and April 20, 4–5:30.  These will be held in Sussman Theater; the first will examine the impact of AI large language models; the second will consider text to image generation.

Finally, if you’ve read this far, you deserve some music. I was listening to Sleigh Bells the other day, heard Riot Rhythm and had the impulse to check out the video—it’s an oldie—and it has fears of AI woven through it.  We might all have differing views on the impact of AI on our lives and careers—but tell me, who doesn’t love mid-2000s noise pop?

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Deputy Provost 2:10 (two articles with a read time of 10 minutes) is a communication series by Deputy Provost Renée Cramer sharing important scholarship, teaching, and development opportunities.

The All In 24-Hour Giving Challenge is our opportunity to support, share, and celebrate everything that makes this University and our students exceptional. For the past nine years, the Drake community has come together in inspirational ways to go All In for this University. This year, as we mark our 10^th All In, we are excited to announce an overall matching challenge: if we reach our goal of 1,250 gifts, we will unlock $110,000 for Drake!   

In addition to the overall match, there are also tens of thousands of incentives available with specific challenges for each college and school, athletics, fine arts, students, first-time donors, and more. A gift of any amount, to any area, will be doubled or even tripled through these generous matching opportunities. When you support Drake during All In, you are embracing and empowering the innovations, connections, achievements, and opportunities that happen here each day. 

For Drake faculty and staff: In celebration of your support to All In, Griff II wants to honor faculty and staff. Departments at Drake University with a participation rate of 75% or higher will be entered into a drawing for one of two prizes:

1) Professional headshots with Griff II
2) Treats delivered by Griff II to your department

Join your fellow faculty and staff and go All In for our Bulldog community March 2–3. Learn more at drake.edu/allin and follow all the fun and excitement on the Drake University and Drake Alumni social media channels.

Reach out with questions to Laura Roling, director of annual giving, at laura.roling@drake.edu.

— Laura Roling, University Advancement