Academic Computing Committee
Meeting Minutes
March 7, 2005
Members Present:
University Senate Representatives: J. Alvares, M.
Heller
Faculty Representatives: A. Adarkar [CHSS Faculty
Rep.], A. Pemberton [SART Faculty Rep.], A. Koeller
(CSAM), M. Davidson [CEHS Faculty Rep.], R. Xing [SBUS Faculty Rep.]
Administrative Representatives (Academic Deans): A.J. Kelton
[CHSS Administrative Rep.], J. Donadeu [Graduate
School Administrative Rep], M. Mallery [Library
Administrative Rep.], K. Tighe [CEHS Administrative
Rep.], R. Salomon [Proxy for Dean Alan Oppenheim], J.
Youn [CSAM Administrative Rep.]
Non-voting Members Present: E. Chapel, Associate Vice president for
Information Technology, R. Wolfson, Local 1904
Observer
Absent: R. Julian Robinson [SART Administrative Rep.], S. Shapiro
[Library Faculty Rep.], D. Stevens [Undergraduate Student Rep.], T. Devlin,
Academic Coordinator of Education Computing Network, A. Mohiuddin
[Graduate Student Rep.], Drew Stevens [Undergrad. Student
Rep.], Vivian Lilikas [Undergrad. Student Rep.], VACANT, Associate Director of Academic Technology.
Guest: P. Kahn, J. Minier
Presiding: J. Alvares, Chair
Reporting: M. Mallery, Secretary
Distribution: ACC Web at http://frontpage.montclair.edu/acc
Convened: 3:07 p.m. [Library Special Collections Room]
Adjourned: 5:00 p.m.
1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:07 p.m.
2. Minutes: Minutes for February 7 were approved with amendments.
3. Announcements: No announcements.
4. Reports
• Chair's Report: Alvares
introduced Jordi Donadeu,
the new Administrative Representative for the
Davidson noted that the ACC Web site need updating and
that the email links for members are incorrect. Alvares
will contact Shapiro for corrections and updates.
• OIT Report: Chapel reported that Blackboard had responded regarding browser
compatibility issues for the Course Management System (CMS). Patty Kahn’s
demonstration of CMS for ACC Learning Systems Subcommittee on Feb. 9 was well
received (See LSS report below). Chapel agrees that Blackboard could
document the workarounds better. Kahn is working with Bb and IT to plan
implementation of CMS.
Chapel called attention to the recent EDUCAUSE ECAR (
Alvares asked what can the ACC
do for IT to help with the ECAR survey. Chapel answered
that the ACC could look at the ECAR instrument and consider what
questions are omitted from the survey.
Chapel reported that the MSU Cell Phone Pilot Project is going well. IT
distributed 100 Nextel cell phones to students in residence halls. Wave
Wireless has developed applications for students to check bus schedules and use
text messaging. Chapel noted that using cell phones as a pedagogical tool
is just getting started. Other schools are giving student iPods with applications built in. MSU has tested only
LAN-based cell service with program proscribed cell services. The pilot
works well in campus buildings, but it is not good on the southern end of
campus. Next, IT will sit down and cost out the program setup with
resource allocation. The pilot will end in the end of April, and Chapel
will report then to the ACC.
On the search for Director of Academic Computing, Chapel noted that Dr. Lynde is currently providing comments to the position description,
and then Chapel will advertise the position. Alvares
asked if candidates could give presentations to the ACC to show what they
consider to be innovative teaching styles. Wolfson
noted that presentations are a standard part of faculty searches, and Chapel
agreed that is was part of the MIS Director search, and he would look into
making it part of the current search.
Chapel will distribute the Administrative Systems Program plan to the ACC for
comment after he hears back from one last member of the MSU Management
Council. Chapel noted that ACC members should feel free to comment on the
plan or to recommend members of the Committees being formed, but keep in mind
that the Committees cannot grow too much as to become unwieldy.
• Ad Hoc Committee Reports:
a) Learning Systems Subcommittee (LSS) – Koeller
(Chair) reported that at the first meeting on Feb. 9, Patty Kahn gave a
demonstration of the Blackboard Course Management System (CMS), and the
consensus was that the workarounds are not too difficult and CMS is a robust
system. There is ongoing discussion about the archiving issue and how
long MSU should keep old courses in storage on Blackboard.
Heller asked Kahn to report on recent on–site Blackboard CMS Planning and
Implementation meeting February 16-18. Kahn said that MSU will stage
implementation with the Faculty WebDev application as
the first part released. IT will initially work with LSS on understanding CMS
versioning, tracking and permissions.
Minier asked if CMS implementation would be part of
the new Administrative System Project Plan. Kahn noted that CMS could be
used as the portal to access the administrative systems. Alternatively,
MSU could interface with CMS through a tab on Administrative system’s
portal. Adarkar noted that this would require
more than one userid/password to access.
Salomon said that single user sign-in is the ideal, but it may not be available
at the time of Administrative System implementation.
Koeller concluded by noting that he is finalizing LSS
membership. Alvares will meet with Koeller separately to facilitate next meeting of LSS.
b) EDCUAUSE Representation: Kelton
(Chair) reported that most schools have updated their EDUCAUSE
representation. He is waiting for Alan Oppenheim,
Jeff Newman and Jack Samuels to respond before sending in the update of
membership.
c) Mandatory MSU NetID Registration and
Use: Heller (Co-Chair) and Youn (Co-Chair) reported
that the Committee recommended that distributed computing staff open netID to be used by other units than IT. Youn said the campus should work toward a system of single
sign-on authentication against NetID.
d) Wireless Implementation at MSU: Pemberton (Chair) deferred
discussion of the results of the "Survey on the Future Use of Wireless
Technologies at
e) Student Technology Survey: Kelton
(Chair) will look at the ECAR student survey that Chapel noted in OIT Report
above.
f) Restructuring Committee for ACC: Wolfson
(Chair) reported that the Committee has had three meeting since December.
The initial recommendations are for a three-committee structure: Steering
Committee, Academic Technology Committee and Administrative Technology
Committee. The goal is to have formal recommendations for ACC review at
the April meeting. Wolfson noted that
constitutional amendments require two readings in the Faculty Senate.
5. Ongoing Business:
a) Internet Access Control in Classrooms: In response to discussion about
faculty wanting to cut off Internet access that was distracting students in
classrooms, Kelton sent an email to the ACC listserv
with a review of three software products recommended by IT and Technology
Coordinators:
1). NetSupport School 7.5 -
http://www.netsupport-inc.com/nss/netsupport_school_overview.htm
2). LanSchool 6.2 - http://www.lanschool.com
3)
http://www.crossteccorp.com/netopschool/index.html
Kelton reviewed some of these software products.
There was discussion about possible hardware alternatives, such as the use of
filters to stop IM use or using the ComWeb electronic
classroom system, which Davidson reported enjoying using and Koeller reported was too
complicated and faculty did not use it in Computer Science Department.
Minier noted that Millennial
learners are good at multitasking, and perhaps it would be better to discuss
instructional strategies to address this classroom behavior. For example,
faculty should be striving to bring students’ attention back to the subject of
the class if they are so bored they are playing computer games. Adarkar agreed and said just asking the student a question
would help in this situation.
Kahn added that faculty don’t want to just control
students; we should have more active learning situations. Also, faculty
have to consider what learning happens after the class is over. Kahn
recommended that we see demonstrations of each of these systems to see how they
are used in a classroom setting. Kahn added that Blackboard CMS has
applications that could be used to create active learning environments.
Koeller noted that different courses have different
requirements. We won’t find one solution that will make everyone happy.
Alvares noted that since MSU is implementing CMS, we
should learn to use it most effectively. Kelton
noted that not all faculty will use CMS. Some
tech-savvy faculty have developed their own ways of
delivering classroom technology.
Youn asked if perhaps we were looking for a
technological way to address a non-technological issue. Kahn noted that
faculty could just turn off the students monitor if they are not paying
attention.
Pemberton said that this action interrupts the class too much. The
software enables the teacher to focus all students on the subject quickly and
easily. He thought every teacher who works with technology would want
access to this software that assists in controlling classroom access to the
Internet.
Kelton called for an informal vote of the ACC to
support review and purchase of software to address these issues. The vote
was unanimous in support.
6. New Business:
a) Proxy Voting: After discussion about what constitutes proxy voting and
establishing that the ACC follows Roberts Rules of Order in defining proxy
voting, Kelton moved that: “The Academic Computing
Committee resolves that no person casting a vote can also cast a proxy vote and
that no person casting a proxy vote can cast more than one proxy vote.” Heller
seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
b) Test Scoring System: Davidson noted that Chapel send
an email in October about the Remark scanning system for test scoring.
Davidson used the system and has questions and concerns. He asked for a
subcommittee of the ACC to look at the test scoring system and ask for faculty
comment. Minier asked if IT had received other
comments on the Remark system. Chapel said that some faculty had asked
about how to change the form, but no one had substantial concerns. Alvares asked that Davidson send his concerns to the ACC
listserv and asked that IT give a demonstration of the Remark system for the
ACC at a future meeting.
c) Spyware: Xing asked about what anti-Spyware applications does MSU have
for computers. Koeller noted that anti-virus
and anti-Spyware are separate applications.
Salomon said that different department have Spyware applications that the technology coordinators
install. For example, SBUS installs SpyBot on
PCs. Youn noted that there is no current University
license for anti-Spyware applications. Kelton said that this is not a classroom issue, and the
Tech. Coordinators should discuss this question and report back to the ACC.
7. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 PM.