February 2008 Minutes

Name	Unit Represented	Department	Date: 02/13/2008
Voting Members
Tim Trainor	Faculty	CIS	P
Becky Evans	Faculty(teaching online)	English	P
Maria Andersen	Faculty	Math	P
Jeff Stipes	Faculty	Technology	P
Sue Meeuwenberg	Distance Education	Business	P
Carol Briggs-Erickson (Vice Chair)	Librarian	Library	P
Phyllis Robey	Clerical		A
	Custodial	Maintenance
Joe Doyle	Administrative	Administrative SVCS	A
Rosemary Zink	Administrative	Financial SVCS	P
Kelley Conrad	Student SVCS	Counseling	P
Jean Roberts	Student SVCS	Registration	P
Jason Miller	Student	Student	P
Scott O’Neal (Chair)	CIO or designee	Information Technology	P
Non-Voting Members
Julie Weller	Web Committee Chair	Public Information	P
Patricia Werly	Systems Analyst	Information Technology	P
Mindy Stevens	Recorder	Information Technology	P
Mike Alstrom	Network Administrator Technical Director	Information Technology	P

The regular monthly meeting for the technology council met on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 in room L163-L165 at 1:30 pm with Scott O’Neal as chair. There were no guests present.

No changes to Council Membership. Scott announces open position still available for one student worker

Internet Explorer 7 upgrades discussion presented by Mike Alstrom. Internet Explorer was announced in 2006 and Blackboard was incompatible. Now with the change Blackboard compatibility is no longer there. Scott stated to Pat that there is an incompatibility problem with Internet Explorer 6 with Web Advisor. Pat stated yes. There was a question of Firefox but Firefox is not supported by Datatel. Recommended to move to IE7, any questions? No response

Sue stated that the committee was to explore different platforms and different vendors. We narrowed it down to two which are Blackboard and Angel .The decision is to stay with Blackboard. The decision was to be made this year. Scott stated that the whole reason to go to Angel was because of price, but the price difference is only $2000.00 and has risen due to same features similar to Blackboard, but it is not good business sense to move to Angel due to all the training required to learn Angel. Also Blackboard issues are noted but it is possible that Angel may also have issues once it is explored. Grade book feature in Blackboard 7 is not liked but the grade book in Blackboard 8 is upgraded to better features. Do not need to commit to a time decision can be a 1 yr decision or 2 yrs etc.

Gene asked can instructors register students to a class without being officially registered. Scott stated yes faculty can add students but what the Blackboard 8 has a feature that takes a snapshot of enrollment and compares to registration and adds as drops as needed. Becky stated instructors should check Web Advisor often to determine enrollments.

Scott presents the After Hours support as something of Information Technologies interest and would like to know the needs of Staff in order to provide customer service and meet the needs of faculty and staff. Presently the hours for full time support are Monday through Friday 7:30am – 4:30pm and after hours Monday Through Thursday with limited support is 5:00pm till 10:0pm. What kind of problems are out there and what is needed to serve the needs. Tim asked when target date for information for After Hours tech support is. Scott stated no target date end of this month or next month sooner the better.

Jeff Stipes noted that there is a need to contact students when an instructor change is needed in event of emergency. Recently this was an issue when an instructor was injured and may not be able to return. In order to notify students it took hours to find and email the entire lists of classes. If she had access to the class list she could have simply emailed students. Sue stated that there was discussion with Mike that every instructor to have BB class whether they have a BB class or not. They can choose to make it unavailable. Scott stated there are multiple reasons why this can’t be feasible. Too many changes in class rosters and someone would have to constantly monitor the lists. Use CSV in order to create a list needs to be learned first. Tim Trainor asked if module for Blackboard will come this semester. Scott stated that it depends on if cabinet approves the funds. Jeff asked if we were going to create Blackboard accounts or what? Scott stated it would be extra time consumption and funds are needed in order to create all the classes. Jeff asked why is this a problem? Scott stated that we are moving in that direction. Tim asked if we can we set a default for secretaries to be added as an instructor. Sue stated that that is something that can already be done. Scott stated we will look into Query to create a student list.

Jeff Stipes says why bother to check email it is so packed in order to find something. Some items are being sent twice. Scott stated that #all is from old system which is all faculty and staff. There are duplicates of emails also that are being received. Kelly stated some departments sending an overabundance of Emails that are filling accounts. Email accounts were already enlarged to address the issue. Maria Anderson states that our Web Access is cumbersome and unable to use features other emails servers support. Scott stated that this is not a primary email address for students and should be used for school functions. If used for other items it is not our responsibility to monitor. Jeff states there should be only one email per department. Is there a motion? What is the motion? No motion made. Mike stated that they may be a perception issue because they are using same templates that are used previously. Marie Anderson asked If possible to add a banner on email page to avoid the amount of information being sent in email. Scott may need to refer to Julie Weller on this. Mike states that we cannot regenerate email page it is a Web Server that is unable to be changed. Scott says that most of this stuff is already on home page. Mike suggests a welcome page that links to when you click on email link. Scott stated that however student s that are saavy enough to bookmark web page they will bookmark past that page. Scott stated that Joe Doyle has presented that he is bringing to cabinet that controls graphics and creates a standard to avoid to the bog down from excessive graphics. Mike and I have not found an email policy that controlled usage of email this might be a need for an action item for the development of email policy. Julie suggested signature to be standard. Marie Anderson suggests a “can of Spam” for the highest sender of email sent out to all students and staff, as a joke but to help slow down the amount of spam. Scott stated that he is going to have Mike draft up a policy and have committee go over it and make a decision on items acceptable.

Rosemary stated that the Datatel committee has met a couple of times and and Datatel users group will meet for the first time next week nothing new. Carol asked what the representatives for user groups are. Rosemary stated every major model: registration, financial aid, trying to cover all the areas etc… without it becoming too big. Tim asked who would they report too? It depends on the issue or to their administration. Scott stated it is more of a meeting than a committee. Tim felt that it should come through this committee. Scott stated that it should go through their own administration.

Scott stated that he is putting OIT monthly overview back on website for review. Jerry Voltura new Instructional Design Specialist will start March 3 he is coming from Alaska. CTL met last week and has a large list for him. New network Administrator is narrowed down to 3 and second interviews will be next week. Would like the individual to start at the beginning of March along with Jerry. Working with CIS vista Labs resolved any other questions. No response on any other issues.

Marie Anderson stated WMU uses a survey that had good questions fot thought that encompasses many things students would like on their email. This gives the students view of what they would like on email. I thought I would share it in order to change the Email website for students.

O.I.T.

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