COUNCIL ON ACADEMIC COMPUTING

DR. GEORGE E. KLINZING, CHAIR
MEETING SUMMARY – JANUARY 17, 2002

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The meeting convened at 10:10 a.m.

BLACKBOARD 5.5 UPDATE

Diane Davis, Director of the Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education (CIDDE), reported that Blackboard 5.5 seems to be running well. This version has more features and allows more instructor control. Some of these new features include: guest access, assignment weighting, some control over sequential learning, and course archiving. Various levels of training on Blackboard are available through CIDDE. Nick Laudato will provide instruction to members of Council at a future meeting. (Questions regarding use of Blackboard 5.5 and problem troubleshooting should be directed to the CSSD Help Desk.)

Council members shared some of their experiences with Blackboard. Frieze inquired about the frequency of student list updates. In her experience, students who have dropped the class continue to receive messages, etc. (Davis stated that faculty can drop and add students.) Dick remarked about Blackboard's lack of an html editor and Sereika commented that she would benefit from an alert when something is added to the drop box.

MINUTES/ANNOUNCEMENTS

No changes were requested to the minutes of the December 3, 2001 meeting.

• Klinzing will arrange a demonstration of electronic journal access for the March meeting of Council.

• Klinzing will coordinate an initiation seminar for the High Performance Network Applications Initiative sometime during February.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

Communications -- Cohn
Klinzing distributed the draft survey prepared by the subcommittee. He will look into administration of the survey. Council members offered suggestions on restructuring the survey. Frieze will communicate these concerns to Cohn.

Faculty Training --
Karimi reported that this subcommittee (a joint group with members of the Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence) has not met yet.

Security -- Draus
Draus had nothing to report.

High Performance Network Applications Initiative -- Hoelzeman
Klinzing reported that the updated Call for Proposals will be distributed. Galletta suggested that information about previous HPNAI winners be placed on a Website.

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF COMPUTING SERVICES & SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT -- JINX WALTON

Walton reported that:

• The Productivity Lab in B43 Masonic Temple will open on January 28. This is a special purpose lab equipped with Windows-based and Linux machines.
• The Help Desk has been moved to the Masonic Temple. The new space is larger and permits additional staff to be added during peak periods.
• A software asset management system is being established to track software purchased through site licensing.
• T1 links have been installed to the Bradford and Titusville campuses. All four campuses now have upgraded connections to the Pittsburgh campus.
• Security staff are working on physical security, workstation and server security guidelines, enterprise security tools, and user awareness.

NEW BUSINESS

The HPNAI Call for Proposals will be distributed via hard copy to the administrative (3D) mailing list. Klinzing will also forward the announcement via e-mail to the deans.

The meeting adjourned at 11:16 a.m.