FTC May 14, 2013
I Scott Cann and Barry Schaudt on Alertus (text of handout below – Appendix A) Software – texts and voice messages now; how to alert people in classrooms. All BC owned computers. Receives messages only.
Can it be installed on personal machines? Barry will carry this question back to see if license allows this.
II Barry – gathering information from faculty about BCShare
340 faculty accounts
60 responses so far
Not too many people are using it, it appears
Survey will be resent ÒBrief questionnaireÓ instead of a survey.
III Scott Cann - E-mail reminder – cleanup of email accounts remains a work in progress. There has not been much faculty feedback – Scott characterizes the issue a Ònon eventÓ (i.e. not a difficult problem to solve, nor one causing much concern among faculty).
IV Rita Owens – LMS (Ôcourse management systemÓ) – InstructureÕs Canvas
Will not be announced tomorrow (May 15) at eTeaching Day, but still the choice is Canvas.
Letter will be sent to all faculty by Friday (at latest next Tuesday). In the Fall, eTeaching will be asking for at least 100 faculty (tops 150) to have their courses go live in January Why then? eTeaching will be trained this summer (with libraries). Then ITS will integrate with enrollment information system – fall building out courses without student populating ÒOpt inÓ means that this will begin in the fall, but not live until January. They seek a willing first group. Currently, 700 users in current LMS First year will all be by choice.
When faculty opt in, there will follow a survey to determine what kind of faculty groups will be needed Probably from Sept 15 to Dec. 1, all the spring courses will need to be created. In other words, the process is behind by a semester because of the delay in adoption. From Brown U, we learned to offer the option of giving faculty a zip file to carry over content. This will be done by faculty member, not by course. Put in another way, courses will not be moved from WebCT to Canvas as such.
From June 1, ÒInstanceÓ in 6 weeks. Then, training can begin in August. eLearning staff eager for the change, according to Rita.
New faculty will not be added to Canvas in the fall, but sadly new faculty will be expected to start in BbV This is a change from the original plan, too.
Portico in CSOM, also hoped to begin in the fall. This will not be possible.
IV Scott Cann - Google apps for Faculty
ATAB finished discussing Google apps today at 4 (just before this FTC meeting). Demand exists from faculty to move to Google apps. Over the summer, a faculty group from FTCs will work together on this. Some discussion about this so far based on experience with students.
Advice – just get started and see what it will take; good to figure out timing and connections with LMS (Canvas) adoption.
V Michael Connolly - sample of what he has done with Canvas Michael is in the ÒSandboxÓ Possibly somewhat different from what Canvas will be within the BC perimeter.
VI MC - FMRC has a 3-D printer – faculty interested should give it a try?
VII Canvas upgrades and addons
Plugins are numerous and available; plugins and imbedding codes for UTube, etc. all work. Integrating of Mediakron, i>Clicker, etc. is planned Many will be free; some will require licenses.
Twitter? Within a course group or everywhere?
CHE announcement of a competition to encourage new app development
VIII eTeaching Day – highlights of MediaCron in the process of extending to other universities. Bucknell School of Engineering – Bridge building course in Mediakron.
Keynote Speaker - Gardner Campbell, Virginia Tech, English Dept, but does technology and professional development there. His talk can be found at this link.
VIII techno-goodies; 20 people eligible; eleven prizes
Nursing 32 Gig iPad
Theology and Ministry – 32 gig mini
Music – terabyte of storage USB
Germanic – Airport Xpress
Sociology – track pad
Classics – flash drive
HP – battery charger
Law – ear plugs
Theatre – Magnetic Stylus
English – Stylus
Math – tablet (paper)
Bill Stanwood from Communication leaving the committee –
Dom Doyle, Theology and Ministry also leaving
Adjourned at 6-ish. Notes submitted by Tim Duket