FTC March 2, 2011

Item 1. B. Schaudt renewed his suggestion of a faculty/IT Lunch Table with staff of ITS and FTCs and other faculty. 60-90 minutes; once per month? Purpose – ITS staff wish to get to know faculty and faculty cocumstances/concerns; they do not see this as a lunchtime HELP desk or a complaint system; informal meetings; scheduled by topics. IT Desk folks. Advertise?

R. Jenson suggestion. Send out a notice to FTCs announcing who would be attending from ITS. Barry supposed a handout with an introduction sheet. Biweekly trial for three sessions – next step will be Barry’s. These will be attempted later this spring on a trial basis.

Item 2. R. Jenson. Raving about iPad. New release – dual core processor, camera, long battery life - $100 cheaper than equivalent Android; old iPads will also now be reduced $100. HDMI wireless projection out from screen, not from an app only. You, too, may one day be able to afford an iPad.

Item 3. Rita Owens on Blackboard Vista. Tech articles (2) Initial interview of Owens and Bourque in Heights gave eLearning a sense of the student view of our learning systems. Second reporter about CMS, eTeaching tools; Beth Clark and Jeanne Po interviewed as part of advertizing “teaching with Media” awards. 2013 is the end of Blackboard’s support for old-style BbV. Students “disgruntled” about BCShare – complaints about what it is and its limited functionality. Students know about and expect much greater functionality – do not use.

First option being considered. E-learning’s B. Clark has reviewed market for CMS – Blackboard 9 a good product; we were reminded that our BbV is the transitional software from WebCT after Bb bought the company (Vista is a WebCT name).

Second option. SAKAI 3 about to be released – open source (Tufts has just adopted; originates with UMich, MIT and Indiana; SAKAI 2 operational; test at sakaiproject.org. Even though sakai is open source, companies can be hired who will support it for a school. Sakai links out to Google University.

Third option under study. Instructure’s Canvas LMS which is a new product but one with a contract for the State of Utah (Utah company) – product has been turned over to open source. Canvas is beautiful, according to R. Owens.

Moodle is another option, but largely moving to k-12; Drupal-based;

Beth Clark wants course volunteers to test the Open Source options. Anyone interested should make themselves known to eLearning.

Considerations for adoption. Sakai a cousin of KOALI (the university info. System which BC is also studying – as explained by Bourque in December) – probably IU will integrate these two at some point. KOALI vison is based on learning modules (not coursed-based). T.Duket offered a preference for “learning modules” in the light of above suggestion that BCShare will be by-passed (if not phased out). Course-based systems are not flexible enough (likely feature of Blackboard 9). Programs and campus organizations do not work well in BbV type environments.

B. Schaudt offers ITS perspective on MYSQL. Any home grown solution on the BCShare model or better brings with it many security and other technical issues.

All of the LMS products listed as options here will have portfolio functions. R. Owens points out that several programs/departments are pushing the portfolio idea.

Item 4. Barry Schaudt – laptop/desktop numbers – trend towards Macs; trend towards laptops; Dells will not include new monitors.

Item 5. IT is undergoing External Administrative Review; ATAB

Members, library and IT met with the reviewers – IT happy to meet with us about the results when available.

Item 6 – network upgrade Sunday, March 6.

Compiled (with added links) by T. Duket

Meeting schedule:

Tue 08 February, 
Wed 02 March, 
Tue 05 April (next meeting), 
Wed 04 May