Instructional Technology Services (ITS) Meeting Notes
Up to Minutes | IT Services

  ITS meeting on 09/20/01

Number of participants: 25
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Eric Nathan: TTLC Administrator started the meeting by welcoming all the participants.

• Based on the feedback he received from faculty, the meeting time and date has changed from the third Wednesday of each month to the third Thursday of each month.
• Meeting minutes and agenda will be available on the web two to three business days after each meeting.

Steve Casburn: presented updates on New proxy server.

• Enabling faculty access
• Library has TIF grant $190.000
• Library bought 15 additional computers, new printer, in the process of buying laptops

Dr. Evans: updated on schedule for spring semester 2002.

• Working on finding enough classrooms to offer distance education courses at Ft. Bend.
• Classes offered will be based on maximum number of classroom available.
• For all online courses, multiple sections will be eliminated to avoid confusion. Also, it will be helpful in managing online courses.
• Working on cleanup process for articulated students.
• Working on forming a group to address academic issues/Technology issues.

Comment from Dr. Anjoo Sikka

At least three courses will be using Chat tool in their classroom using WebCT. She expressed her concern about timing synchronous sessions so that they do not interfere with other course times. Students will be notified in advance in order to avoid a conflict between other courses that they might be taking face to face.

Dr. Evans raised the question of the system's load and availability for synchronous testing sessions. Hossein responded one way of easing the pressure off the server is to monitor exam schedules. The ACL and TTLC need to be notified in advance as to who is planning to administer and how many students will be participating. Last year, the target was 100 synchronous testers vs. 200 this year. It will be monitored closely.

Hossein stressed the need to email Lucy to let her know as soon as exams are scheduled. As a result, IT can plan and coordinate better support and avoid performance problems during exam week.

Dr. Evans thanked everyone for having the Fall Schedule ready on time. It was a big help while coordinating classrooms and distance sites.

WebCT Statistics by Eric for Fall 2001 semester:

• Number of fully online courses using WebCT:18
• Number of supplementary courses using WebCT: 87
• Total number of students seats in WebCT courses: 3,000
• Total number of unique students in the database: 1874
• Just under 20% of the UHD student body enrolled in at least one course: 19.3%

Dr. Evans asked if the IT could keep fully online and supplemental courses separated for statistical purposes. Hossein recommended that we needed to define when we declare a course to be "fully online". Dr. Evans indicated that the Coordinating Board defines a course fully online when the percentage of time spent outside the classroom reaches greater than 50%. Further investigation of this definition is required.

Rhonda gave details on Student Online Orientation:

• The Student Online Orientation was made available last semester. Initial response has been good. The TTLC will collect comments/suggestions from faculty when this semester ends.
• Working on developing online orientation for faculty as well.

Eric: Online testing tools are being evaluated by TTLC at present to give faculty more choices of online testing tools.

Dr. Evans: She was successful in getting test bank from the publisher in WebCT format and that eliminated a lot of work on her part to put her exam online.

Mark: Be careful with publisher content, let TTLC evaluate and QA the product before putting it up on WebCT because there have been some concerns in the past with the quality of the content.

Mark: List of COW (Campus Online Workshop) recipients and OCDP (Online Course Development Project) participants:

• Drs. Nazemzadeh and Islam ECO 2301
• Drs. Spilger and Kauffman BA 3320
• Drs. Hodgess and Yoon MATH 3309
• Dr. Herb Rebhun CIS 3301
• Dr. Ruth Robbins CIS 1301
• Dr. Gail Evans

 

• Three fully online courses are being developed this semester

• Drs. Nazemzadeh and Islam ECO 2301
• Drs. Spilger and Kauffman BA 3320
• Drs. Hodgess and Yoon MATH 3309

• OCDP handbook will soon be available online along with faculty online orientation, details on the layout of OCDP.
• Showed layout of the new course templates available to faculty who are going thru OCDP.

Eric: List of IT Grant Recipients

• Dr. Robert Jarrett - Department of English - Online English 3304
• Dr. Ann Jennings - Department of English - Virtual Professional Writing Society
• Dr. Henry Roubicek - Department of Arts and Humanities - Speech Foundation Video
• Dr. Shirley Key - Department of Urban Education - Self-Paced Module Exam

Each IT grant recipient gave a brief summary of their project.

• Dr. Ann Jennings from Professional writing society: Developing a Virtual Professional Writing society to discuss on-going issues etc.
• Dr. Roubicek: Developing a video on public speaking, oral presentation
• Dr. Key: ExCet state exam material online

ITV update by Lloyd Matzner:

• 40 ITV course requests received for spring semester
• Looking at the model to have ITV/WebCT combination to accommodate faculty needs
• Reservation for equipment can be done online
• 12 new TV/VCR added to the main building classrooms
• Media carts requests have increase this semester. Desktop Videoconference capabilities are being evaluated
• New projector has been installed in the auditorium

ACL issues - Update by Said:

• Printing has increased tremendously and new policies and applications to limit printing are being evaluated. May be each student will be allowed to print no more than 2 copies and they may have to pay for additional copies. Faculty and students will be notified when something concrete is in place.
• Issue has been raised of WebCT Exam printing. Faculty should let ACL staff know if they do not want their student to print the exam. They will monitor and will notify faculty if there is any evidence of students' printing exams.
• Rhonda added that one way of possibly preventing students from printing might be to set up the exam to deliver one question at a time.
• Planned power shut down will be Saturday and Sunday (10/6 and 10/7). Please plan accordingly. ACL will be open but no network connection will be available for those two days.
• All PC's are up and running in ACL and maximum PCs have been installed in that facility. Classroom are opened at the times when needed.
  • Migrating to windows 2000 in classrooms now
  • Anyone who will be receiving a new PC will get Windows 2000

Hossein: No chronic problems of PCs in the labs at this point but electronic classroom availability is a big issues at this point. Classroom "C" in TTLC has computers in it now.

Update by Steve Cachia on B.A.S.I.S. (Security system):

• An overview of how the system works. Also, passed out a layout diagram to get better understanding of the security system.
• Instructors' responsibility to lock the classrooms after the class is over.

Dr. Rehbun raised the possibility of expanding eighth floor into lab area. Hossein indicated that it might not be possible because of the structure limitation.

Hossein gave details and progress on wireless network. Network provides access to Internet email, printing etc. Piloting with learning community. Identified individual (staff, student, guests) will be allowed to use it.

Open Discussion