Notes - October 18, 2001

Attending: Jann Randle, Eduardo Rivera, Anna Stewart, Ray Spinhirne, Jason Rosenblum, Brenda Adrian, James McGuffee, Mary Lambert, Connie Cabezas, Brad Robinson, Robin Zuniga

I. Student and Faculty Survey on Use of Technology in Courses

Robin Zuniga reported on the Spring 2001 survey.
Faculty Survey:

• 92 faculty responded (approx. 1/3 of all faculty)
• 84% were teaching 4 or fewer classes
• 15% were online classes (50% or more of activities online)
• 78% used e-mail in classes
• 23% haven't found a reason to use e-mail or don't think it would add value. Reasons for not using e-mail seem pedagogical rather than technical. Some did mention that they were not sure students were checking e-mail.
• 77% put web resources in syllabus or assignments
• 52% plan to use web pages in course
• 31% didn't use internet resources because they don't have the time to create materials
• 18% said they didn't have the knowledge to teach with technology

Student Survey

• 45 courses were surveyed. Most were undergrad. Response rate was low with a 25% overall response rate
• Students don't feel skills or access was a problem
• No frequent technical problems
• 50% found web materials usefule
• 50% found web materials not applicable
• 80% said online was useful for discussing concepts
• 80% said online was useful for getting feedback from faculty
• 80% would recommend online courses

Trends

What do faculty need to go on with technology?

• Jason suggesed offering open-ended workshops.
• Jann suggested using Donna Jurick's meeting to demo good examples of web sites for areas.
• Jann suggested having one school be the focus for a technology enrichment program for their discipline. The work could have a discipline specific focus with a group of faculty. This would also be good for students as there would be consistency across classes. This could also be done at the level of a department.
• Eduardo suggested handouts (not online) with specific FAQs for incorporating technology.

II. Strategic Priorities Subcommittee
Faculty needs:

• Windows training is needed for Mac faculty
• Need better control of scheduling of classrooms to schedule for specific computers and software. Ray reports that CARS does have fields for this information.
• Signs are needed in every classroom with instructions on how to use equipment

III. Campus Communication Subcommittee

Proposal to create listservs for common categories of e-mails sent to students. These would include areas of announcements of events, athletics, internships and official announcements. All students would be automatically subscribed to each listserv each semester. Students could choose to unsubscribe to all but official announcements.

Ray is exploring how this would work technically. We will also look at setting up community forums in Blackboard so there is a space for communication on "hot topics" on campus.

We would need buy in from all members of the campus community. Someone would have to enforce rules.

IV. Meeting times for Fall 2001 semester

November 15 11:00