MINUTES

UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

May 15, 2000

Members Present: Others Present:

Richard Crosby, Chairperson Joann Campbell

Gerry Merckel Tony Turrin

Zella Boulware Bob Jones

Judy Perkin John Sharp

Andrew Farkas Debra Abbott

Jeff Michelman Lance Taylor

David Jaffee Kathy Hughes

John Venn Scott Runnion

Bruce Kavan Dan Wastchak

Stuart Chalk

Chairperson Crosby convened the University Technology Committee (UTC) meeting at 11:00 a.m. in the Board of Regents Room at University Center.

1. Minutes

Crosby announced that the minutes from the May 1, 2000 meeting had been distributed and asked if there were any corrections to the minutes. Hearing none, the minutes were approved.

2. Announcements

Crosby reported that the loss of air conditioning in a number of buildings on campus was due to a rupture in the conduit that carries chilled water to the AC units.

Crosby gave an update on Marsha’s progress and hoped she would be back at work the following week. Lance Taylor gave an update on Jim Collins who is scheduled for heart surgery on Tuesday.

Kathy Hughes announced that the OspreyNet (Residence Hall) networking position had been filled by Hayse Denmark who began work on May 12. She also announced that Dan Simon had been offered and had accepted the position of Lab Manager.

3. Distance Learning Action Team

Discussion on the proposal that Tom Serwatka had submitted on behalf of the Distance Learning Action Team was requested. Bruce Kavan announced that he had visited Indiana State University and talked with some of their business faculty members. He said their faculty began using the Blackboard product three years ago and they were unhappy with the product due to the ‘high-level of designer involvement’. Their faculty reported that it took too long to have changes implemented.

David Jaffee commented that it seemed to be more of a problem on how Indiana State chose to implement rather than the product itself. Joann Campbell asked if the plan was to support faculty using Blackboard the same way as faculty had been supported in using WebCT. Faculty are now highly involved in the development of their own courses and currently have the ability to make all changes themselves. The consensus from the group was this would not change and that the owner and developer of the course was, and would remain, the faculty member. It was also stated that one of the roles of CIRT was to assist faculty with their course development through group training as well as providing one-on-one assistance. CIRT will now play a much larger role than it had in the past due to the hiring of additional staff to provide the services.

Debra Abbott stated that Blackboard offers consistent menu choices making it much easier for faculty to administer and develop courses in this product.

It was suggested that there be additional discussions with faculty at other Florida institutions as well as outside of Florida.

Bruce Kavan asked for an inventory of the committee meetings, faculty forums and other conversations that are referenced at the beginning of the proposal.

Joann Campbell moved that the proposal be accepted as a recommendation. Andrew Farkas seconded the motion.

Additional discussion took place about looking at what other SUS institutions were using and that faculty as well as support people should be contacted about the course development software platforms currently being used at their universities.

Gerry Merckel asked about the pricing and then asked why we wouldn’t go forward considering the amount. Stuart Chalk wanted to find the easiest product for him to use among the tools suggested. Debra Abbott stated that Blackboard was being proposed due to price, functionality and the relative ease of use for faculty. Bruce Kavan proposed an amendment to the proposal. There was discussion about the wording of the amendment and the final amendment read ‘provide the server capacity to run both Blackboard and Learning Space’.

Jeff Michelman stated that COBA had acquired Lotus Notes on their own and felt they had taken all the steps required of them but hadn’t been treated fairly with respect to the LotusNotes/Learning Space acquisition. He also stated that he didn’t feel there had been a thorough enough analysis of all the products being considered. Jeff then called the question and asked for a vote. The vote on the amendment to the proposal was all FOR with Jeff Michelman and David Jaffee voting AGAINST. The vote was then taken on the motion that the proposal be accepted as a recommendation and the vote was all FOR with Jeff Michelman and Bruce Kavan voting AGAINST.

4. Mac Action Team

Stuart Chalk handed out a report from the Mac Action Team on the topics his group was dealing with. Zella Boulware stated that Computing Service’s implementation of the CSDLAB distribution list to report problems had really helped with issues in the lab. If problems were reported this way they were fixed very quickly. Kathy Hughes will have a summary prepared of the issues that were reported to the action team and what resolutions were implemented.

5. Internet 2 Action Team

No report

6. Project Updates

800 Dial In – Lance reported that Computing Services would be testing 1-800 services on a limited number of the dial-up lines over the summer. The cost for this service is 6 ½ cents per minute without a pin number. Crosby stated there are implications with this for Distance Learning and that if the test was successful University funds may be requested for this. The results of the test will be reported back to this committee.

I LOVE YOU VIRUS – Kathy reported that the Exchange server was currently running the Antigen Virus Protection software and that Computing Services would be looking at a number of other virus protection products and alternatives over the next few weeks in order to better protect file and print services as well as the email system.

ADA Technology Classrooms – Dan Wastchak stated that Building 39, rooms 1002 and 1003 had recently been equipped with the ADA style podiums and he would be soliciting input from faculty with ADA needs as well as other faculty to see if these podiums would be a design that could be used in all technology classrooms due to their low profile. There was discussion about the TV’s and VCR's being removed from the classrooms where video projectors had been installed. It appears that the closed captioning cannot be displayed through the video projectors as they are currently configured. This was to be a discussion item at the next Associate Dean’s meeting.

Crosby said that funding had been identified for classroom improvements and if there were items like blinds, or lighting changes, such as dimming capabilities, Charlie Bear should be contacted.

OspreyNet – Village – Kathy Hughes reported that Osprey Village network wiring was back on schedule. There had been some issues with the location of data closets but those had been worked out and the new locations had been approved.

7. Schedule

Crosby said that the next meeting of UTC would be held June 5 and that the committee would probably meet in June and July, first and third Mondays, and then possibly the committee would take the month of August off. He asked that the committee members look at their schedules and this would be discussed again at the next meeting. Crosby stated that there had been some concern that the committee had lost focus on strategic issues and he proposed that next year the committee focus more on these issues rather than the operational issues. He will distribute some issues that the committee may want to consider before the close of summer business.

8. Lunch

The meeting was adjourned at 12:15pm and lunch was served.