Present: T. Silvestre, C. Trovato, S. Lyon, P. Beeson, S. Sereika, A. Blair, J. Rajgopal, and J. Erlen (co-chair)

Topic Discussion/Action

Call to order The meeting was called to order at 12:05 by J. Erlen, co-chair.

Approval of minutes of February 26, 2008 meeting The Committee requested that prior to approving the minutes of February 26, 2008 that they be reviewed by N. Laudato in regard to the following:

--clarification regarding accessing the old server. When is the end of this? Where will it be housed?

--Is the Blackboard system self-contained? Can any modifications be made?

--Is it the extra security that is slowing the system down?

--How far back can a course be archived? What is the accessibility of archived courses?

These points can be included in or as an addendum to the minutes of February 26, 2008. quite possibly

J. Erlen will ask N. Laudato to review the minutes and provide any feedback/clarification.

Recommendations regarding how to communicate changes regarding Blackboard The Committee identified the following recommendations:

1. Communicate with faculty how the old server and archived courses are being preserved.

2. Use of faculty liaisons within schools/departments.

3. Header of any e-mail needs to catch faculty's attention.

4. Providing enough time to make change, that is, one term is probably not enough. The actual implementation of a new system should probably occur in the summer.

5. Highlight responses on my.pitt.edu by using bullet points and links similar to FAQ since the answers are of interest to faculty using Blackboard.

Follow-up regarding the new procedure for faculty who assign their own books The Committee raised the following questions: How many of these requests were processed by the bookstore? Who handles the reduced prices? What is the process? Were there any issues for faculty? P. Beeson will follow-up on these questions with R. Pack. K. Kelly will need to announce this at an upcoming Faculty Assembly. The Committee agreed that it is the faculty responsibility to comply with the new procedure and to let the Committee know if there are any issues.

Adjournment and next meeting The meeting was adjourned at 12:45 p.m. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 in Room 826 Cathedral of Learning beginning at 12 noon.

Submitted by,

Judith A. Erlen

Co-chair and recorder