Council on Academic Computing

October 7, 2002

Meeting Summary

THE COMMITTEE CHARGE

Provost Maher delivered the Committee charge.  He asked the Council to:

·         Explore how the University can satisfy the future needs of both the academic community and the individual researcher over the next five to ten years.

·         Help develop a faculty version of the University portal, which is currently available only to students.

  • Work with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to develop a program that provides broader access to the center’s high-speed processors.
  • Work with the Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education (CIDDE) to determine how electronic teaching might be better facilitated among the faculty.

THE BLACKBOARD SOFTWARE

Committee members subsequently discussed the charge with Provost Maher.  Discussion centered upon electronic teaching tools, in particular the Blackboard software.  Members of the Committee expressed concerns regarding:

  • Programmatic Blackboard sites. Departmental Blackboard sites can both integrate a variety of common resources and provide an umbrella for individual faculty sites.
  • Faculty training. Departments can create these sites only after all members of the departmental faculty are trained in the use of the Blackboard software (primarily so they can understand intellectual property laws).

 

TECHNICAL HELP

 

Members of the Committee expressed concern regarding the disparity in computer training among different departments.  In particular, the humanities faculty seem to lack adequate training.  This lack of knowledge can be attributed to both the inability of the Humanities departments to hire technical help and a lack of knowledge of the resources available via CIDDE.A possible alternative would be to create a program where CIDDE staff periodically travel to different departments and offer specialized assistance.

SUBCOMMITTEES

Dr. Klinzing announced the formation of the subcommittees that are to fulfill the Provost’s charge.  These subcommittees and their members are:

  • High Performance Computing Initiative: Drs. Dick, Galletta, and Hellman.
  • Faculty Training: Drs. Chandra, Frieze, Sereika, Vana, and Zemaitis.
  • Future of Academic Computing: Drs. Chow, Connolly, Hoelzeman, Karimi, and Mosse.
  • Faculty Portal: Drs. Anderson, Cohn, Draus, Francois, and Stone.