DDLC Meeting Minutes - May 24, 2007

Distance and Distributed Learning ASAC Workgroup

Meeting Minutes

May 24, 2007 10am – 3pm

I. Call to order

Kim Blosser called to order the regular meeting of the DDLC at 10:00 am on May 24, 2007 in Featherstone.

II. Roll call

Kim Blosser conducted a roll call. The following persons were present:

Kim Blosser (BRCC), Charles Boling (VHCC), CJ Bracken (GCC), Joan Trabandt (NVCC), George Hoffman (LFCC), Kristen Kelly (JTCC), Leslie Smith (RCC), Ramona Coveny (VWCC), Ruth Smith (TNCC), Jaime Shetrone (WCC), Inez Farrell (VCCS - AS&R), Shelia Hobbs (PDCCC), Colleen Kehoe (JSRCC), Jeff Burleson (MECC), Linda Claussen (NRCC), Ken Fairbanks (SwVCC), Scott Case (ITS), Susan Wood (VCCS - AS&R)

Members absent: Susan Beasley (CVCC), Bill Dey (DCC), Mark Nelson (PHCC), Lori Ledford (PVCC), Reo McBride (DLCC), Richard Wilt (ESCC), John Ambrose (JSRCC)-(Colleen subs for him) John Zwick (TCC), Joan Tuck (SVCC), Joan Osborne (LFCC)

III. Approval of minutes from last meeting

Kim Blosser read the minutes from the last meeting (2/07). The minutes were approved as read.

IV. Open issues

a) Inez Farrell presented a sample of a published DL survival kit for faculty. This can be enhanced with best practices and published on the DDLC web site.

b) Inez Farrell announced that college presidents will select the DDLC representative for their college as a yearly appointment. There is a job description for the DL representatives. The description for the DDLC chairperson was also provided.

c) A tentative calendar was created for DDLC meetings in 2007-2008:
September 6, 2007 Piedmont Community College

November 8, 2007 (backup date of November 15)

February 7, 2008 (Joan Trabandt will setup Centra meeting so travel is not necessary)

May 14, 2008

d) Several attendees shared effective communication strategies with the group.

e) Inez Farrell reported that the DDLC Peer Group meeting would be October 17,19 and would include Library Services and Blackboard Administrators. Wimba training may be available at the meeting.

f) Inez Farrell reported on status of Backpack and Atomic Learning and will investigate CampusPack and SurveyTool. The system will be previewing LockDown Browser for one year. The Respondus contract includes StudyMate. SoftChalk will remain available.

g) The GIS announcement was sent to each designated college contact on May 23, 2007. DL staff may contact that person to get software if they wish.

h) The VCCS is pursuing a state-wide agreement for iTunes.edu.

i) The group was encouraged to use surveys to determine which software is being used to assist in system decision for purchasing and continuing software contracts. Impatica, Auto Desk, and SoftChalk are three such software products that will need to be reviewed this year as the contract expires.

j) Scott Case from ITS proposed that Explore.vccs.edu (Blackboard 7.1) be upgraded to Blackboard 7.2 on May 25. He explained that the technicians would need a short time frame that Explore.vccs.edu would not be available. The proposal was accepted by the group so Explore.vccs.edu was upgraded on that date.

k) Inez Farrell presented the timeline for the upgrade of Blackboard 7.2 for the entire system for the implementation and upgrade of Blackboard in Spring 2008.

l) The approval of the revised, renamed, and rewritten document of guidelines for distance and distributed learning (previously VDEN) brought a lively discussion. The result of the discussion was that a survey should be created that included a different structure than the previous survey instrument. The survey should have categories (i.e. heard of this or do you use). Each item should have some means of displaying a short description of each software item. Another item to be included could be “What do you want to be able to do that you currently cannot do?” Main category items were:
SoftTalk Impatica Respondus
Wimba StudyMate LockDown Browser
GIS AutoDesk Merlot
Other:
Web Conferencing (Breeze, Elluminate, Centra)
Flash Paper Articulate BackPack
Atomic Learning SurveySoftware Captivate/Camtasia
Podcasting

m) VDEN Work Distribution and Suggested Formats – There should be an intro page with the named target audience and purpose. An agreement between providers and receivers and responsibilities of each which will also include contact information. There should be links to current “Best Practices” from individual faculty and colleges. The three main areas are procedures, compensation and MOU.

n) Guidelines for Quality Assurance (Best Practices) would include:
1. Evaluations (faculty and courses)
Include what should be included in each course as basic structure
Suggested additions to syllabus, etc
2. Accessibility information
3. Listing of system-wide instructional software
4. Assessment strategies (include example proctored activities)
5. Key terms
6. Contact information (w/person links)
7. Student Services (tutoring, admissions, orientation modules, etc)
8. Advising (faculty modules)

o) A motion was passed that stated that each college would send a table of contents for their current faculty DL manual to Inez by the following week. All the members of the group agreed to volunteer for a section and provide tentative material for the September 6 meeting.

V. New business

p) There were no new business items.

VI. Adjournment

Kim Blosser adjourned the meeting at 2:45 pm.

Minutes submitted by: Ramona Coveny

Minutes approved by:

Distance and Distributed Learning ASAC Workgroup

Distance and Distributed Learning ASAC Workgroup
February 15, 2007, 10am – 3pm

Minutes
Meeting called to order at 10:00 am

Members present: Susan Beasley (CVCC), Kim Blosser (BRCC), Charles Boling (VHCC), Joan Trabandt (NVCC), Kristen Kelly (JTCC), Leslie Smith (RCC), Ramona Coveny (VWCC), Ruth Smith (TNCC), Stacy Harris (SWCC), Joan Tuck (SVCC), Jaime Shetrone (WCC), Bill Dey (DCC), Inez Farrell (AS&R), Shelia Hobbs (PDCCC), David Carter-Tod (ITS)

Members absent: Mark Nelson (PHCC), Lori Ledford (PVCC), George Hoffman (LFCC), Reo McBride (DLCC), Jeff Burleson (MECC), Ron Wilt (ESCC), Linda Claussen (NRCC), John Ambrose (JSRCC), John Zwick (TCC),

Action Item 1.

Recommendation to Educational Technology Committee of ASAC for elimination of outdated VDEN procedures.

Background: The policies and procedures developed by VCCS and college administrators for distance learning were created to ensure the quality of this course delivery method. The method most in use during the creation of this document was compressed video. Other methods of delivery are now primary. The DDLC has been charge by the Education Technology Committee of ASAC to determine the following:

1. Recommend what sections of the VDEN procedures should be considered by ASAC to be added to policy.


2. Determine what sections are already in policy and recommend for deletion.


3. Ascertain what remains in the VDEN that is valuable and should be incorporated into either:
   
   
   
   1. MOU
   
   
   2. Best Practices
   
   
   3. Other
   
   
   
   

Action Recommended: Review Section IV of VDEN and determine whether any parts that are already covered in the Policy Manual should be eliminated and if any parts should remain and be incorporated into the Policy Manual.

Rationale: Changes in distance learning delivery methods and the increased awareness that all delivery methods of content should follow the same quality criteria necessitate the updating of this procedural document.

At the meeting, much time was spent discussing what the VDEN document is and what it’s purpose should be within the VCCS. Several members indicated that it was used as a procedures guide and was still very helpful to many. Others still noted that the information was outdated and certainly needed to be updated.

During the previous DDLC meeting, small groups worked to recommend which parts of the document needed to be eliminated or revised. This information had not been captured in a format that could be sent out to the entire DDLC membership, so some time was spent re-creating those recommendations. Google docs were used to collaborate on the specific parts of the VDEN document. For the next meeting in May, the revisions that were proposed in this meeting will be distributed for further review.

The main charge for this committee was to determine whether or not any of the language in the VDEN document needed to be moved to the policy manual (recommended that it be moved) or how in fact it would best be modified to make it current and effective. The committee agreed that the document was valuable and needed to be considered a Procedures Manual. As a result, the committee agreed on the following motion:

Motion:
The Distance and Distributed Learning Committee (DDLC) recommends that the VDEN document as it stands contains no reference to policy that is not already covered in the VCCS policy manual, but is an outdated reference guide for procedures and best practices. The DDLC requests it be allowed to rework the VDEN into a current set of E-learning procedures and best practices for Virginia’s Community Colleges.

This motion will be sent to the next ASAC meeting for response by the Educational Technology subcommittee. The hope of the DDLC is that we will be asked to revise this document so that it can remain an effective procedures document for those working with distance education.

Discussion Item 1.

Develop a calendar of dates for ITS to add and delete student email account or Blackboard account to the system for each semester. (When do the courses come on and when do they come off. When does the email account get activated, when does it get deleted).

Background: ITS needs help in determining the best time to add or delete student email accounts and Blackboard accounts to the system.

Action Recommended: Formulate a system-wide calendar to present toTech Council in March.

ITS indicated that they needed firm dates for when to delete email accounts from the system, as well as a process by which students are notified that their account will be terminated. Although this was initially a discussion item, this led to discussions about coming up with dates and was therefore moved to an Action Item.

After much discussion, the motion was as follows:

Email accounts to be de-authorized:

3rd Thursday after August 16, January 2, and May 16.

Email authorization:

July 1, November 1, and April 1.

Course de-activation:

December 15, August 15, and May 1.

Dates to flag:

December 1, July 15, and April 15.

There was an email later asking that ITS ‘flag’ accounts at least 4 weeks in advance, which David indicated was not a problem. ITS was more concerned with the deactivation process than when the accounts are flagged and sent a notice.

Information Item 1.

WIMBA update

Inez updated the group regarding the feedback she’s received on the WIMBA pilot project. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. ASAC is expected to approve the inclusion of WIMBA as an add-on to Blackboard system-wide.

Information Item 2.

Backpack pilot status from Leslie Smith

Leslie Smith reported that Ruth Greene (RCC) has been piloting another Blackboard building block called Backpack. They currently have a 30-day free trial version. The add-on allows students to download all the course material, with the exception of those items that are interactive such as quizzes, discussion boards, and assignments (etc). Anything not interactive gets downloaded and students can then review documents, PowerPoint presentations, etc without having to connect to BB. For students with a dial-up connection, this is very helpful.

Leslie and Ruth are looking for funding to continue the pilot so that they can share their results. Inez encouraged them to contact the rep for Backpack to see if they would be willing to allow RCC to pilot this for possible inclusion by more VCCS schools.

Information Item 3.

Blackboard 7 Update

As of this meeting, ITS is still planning for a fall 07 go live date. Further details will be forthcoming in regards to training and specific timelines.

Old BB COURSES TO BE DELETED MAY 7, 2007!!!!!

http://community.tncc.edu/faculty/smith/blog_docs/coursesToBeDeleted-May2007.xls

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT YOU READ THIS CAREFULLY AND UNDERSTAND IT (original VCCS message at bottom). THE COURSES ON THE ATTCHED SPREADSHEET WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DELETED ON MAY 7, 2007. THE LIST CONTAINS THE OLD SP06 COURSES BUT

IT ALSO CONTAINS ALL OF YOUR SANDBOXES!!!

You must export your sandbox content immediately and request a .devl sandbox to import your old sandbox content into.

To request a .devl sandbox email me with your sandbox id
TN293.Sandbox.??? (you can see the ID on the Control Panel) and your
Bb login do not use the request form.

As a reminder Jan Klingberg will be presenting workshops on Ending the Semester and Moving Content in Bb6

Tuesday April 24, 2007 917 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Tuesday April 24, 2007 917 02:00 pm – 03:00 pm
Wednesday April 25, 2007 917 08:30 am – 09:30 am
Thursday April 26, 2007 917 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

---

Posted on Discuss
Author: David Carter-Tod
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 11:34 am:

At the end of the Fall 2006 semester we deleted courses from Fall 2005 and before. You can read the relevant thread here:

https://discuss.vccs.edu/scripts/discus/show.cgi?19/5852.html



It is now time to remove all Spring 2006 courses and before. All Spring 2006 (and prior) courses will be removed from the production Blackboard environment on May 7, 2007.

The criteria for removal at this stage is:

1. Course ID ending in "SP06"
2. Or created before January 1, 2006


Per ASAC policy, colleges should also poll faculty to identify other courses on the production blackboard system that are eligible for removal from the production system.


Procedure:
- April 18, 2007 — Courses are identified to Blackboard Administrators (list is attached to this message as an Excel file)
- April 23, 2007 — Title of courses is changed to included "Will delete 7 May 2007" and
courses are made unavailable
- All courses are archived (this is an ongoing standard procedure)
- May 7, 2007 — all flagged courses will be removed from production
- Archived courses are available on ITS servers until May 2008 at http://chat.vccs.edu/vccs-archives/

------------------
Preserving courses
------------------
Blackboard is not designed as a permanent historical archive of course activity. It is a production system for current classes. Keeping old courses, especially those with student data such as test attempts, can have a negative effect on the performance of the system for current courses and
current students. This is why all courses are constantly archived and then eventually removed, so that if they need to be restored for current production purposes they can be, but otherwise they do not adversely impact performance.

Blackboard administrators should review the current course ID standards (in the Blackboard documentation - https://discuss.vccs.edu/scripts/discus/show.cgi?19/3922.html). In addition to the four semesters of current courses, faculty may have one .DEVL space for working on content and other experimentation, and they may, of course, have courses that have IDs for
future courses.

In that light, the necessary procedure for keeping a course is to copy it to a more current and appropriate ID. This would apply if for some reason the course still had active users. The recommended approach is:

1. Make the original unavailable
2. Do a Copy Course with Users (Exact Copy) to the new course ID format
3. Make the new course available

If the course should really be a DEVL space for a faculty member, i.e. it is being kept for the content, it will significantly benefit the overall performance of the system to copy the course content without users (to clean out assessment and other student data).

If colleges require an exception, for example for an uncopyable cartridge-based course
that students still require access to, please file an IssueTrak ticket including the course id and reason.

Thanks
David

David Carter-Todd
ITS
Virginia Community College System

Instructional Technology Notice: Upgrade to Bb7 Now Scheduled for Spring 2008

Mon 4/9/2007 5:14 PM

To VCCS Vice Presidents and Provosts,

Over the last six months, the VCCS Information Technology Services (ITS)staff has negotiated with Blackboard in an attempt to meet long-term VCCS goals of high reliability and robust, high performing technology at thelowest possible cost. This extensive effort involving IBM, Blackboard, andOracle was concluded in the last week. The goal was to enable the VCCS to incorporate Blackboard services into its new computer architecture ­ aclustered environment running on IBM's AIX operating system. A clustered computing environment allows tremendous flexibility as well as an inexpensive and relatively easy method to add processing power as required. Unfortunately, due to myriad non-technical factors, Blackboard has declined to certify the IBM environment as requested.

The VCCS must acquire additional hardware that is certified by Blackboard inorder to provide essential support for the Blackboard 7.2 environment. As a result, the upgrade to version 7.2 of Blackboard will go live in Spring 2008.

VCCS Academic Services and Research will continue to work with ITS to prepare Blackboard System Administrators for the upgrade, with training scheduled to begin June 25, 2007. Instructional Technologists will continueto train faculty in the use of enhanced Blackboard 7.2 tools, such as the discussion board. Additional information and a schedule for testing andother key milestones will be made available in the next few weeks.

Please share this notice with deans, faculty, instructional technologists, and others as appropriate at your college. Questions should be directed to Dr. Inez Farrell, Director of Instructional Technology (ifarrell@vccs.edu).

Thank you,
Inez Inez Farrell, Ph.D.
Director of Instructional Technology
Virginia's Community Colleges
101 North 14th Street
Richmond, VA 23219

Dealing with Office 2007 files

PROBLEM:
I can't open a .docx or .docm file!

BACKGROUND:
Microsoft Word 2007 is using a new file extension, *.docx, as its default for new documents. This new format, along with *.docm, are incompatible with older versions of Microsoft Word.

SOLUTION:
If You are Trying to Open a *.docm or *.docx File:

There may be times when you must view a *.docx or *.docm file. If you are using Microsoft Office 2000, 2002 or 2003, you will need to install the Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack. Users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office cannot use the Compatibility Pack. If you are using an older version of Word, we recommend that you contact the author of the document and have them convert it into a different format (.doc or .pdf).

1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en
2. Download the Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack

You can read more about the Compatibility Pack at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx

WHAT TO TELL THE STUDENTS WHO USE OFFICE 2007:
We recommend that you convert your *.docx and *.docm files into *.doc files. Here's how:

1. Open the file in Word 2007
2. Select File
3. Select Save As...
4. From the drop-down menu called File Type, select Word Document (*.doc)
5. Click Save

The file will be saved with an extension of doc and users of Microsoft Word 2000, 2002 and 2003 will be able to open it.

Migration Q&As from VCCS

These answers are subject to change based on input from the VCCS workgroup

FACULTY

1. What will faculty need to do to prepare for the fall 2007 upgrade?
Faculty need to prepare their courses to be copied as they would for any semester. Clean up any courses that are not current. It would be extremely helpful to un-enroll students from old courses if their data is not any longer necessary.

2. What should their timeline look like?
Faculty should have their courses ready to be exported by May 10, 2007.

3. What new Blackboard 7 enhancements need faculty training?
The discussion board is the most widely used change. The dashboard, Wimba, early warning system, and adaptive release are cool new tools but faculty can do business as usual without training in these areas.

4. Will current content be batch copied to production Bb7? If so, will this be tested beforehand so that any issues might be planned for?
Yes the content system will be automatically copied. This will be tested and there are some questions outstanding as to whether the links will still work. We think they will but must test.

5. What is the status of Blackboard 7 for the summer (will faculty be able to continue piloting or will it become a playground for training)?
19 colleges responded to the survey. Three colleges would prefer to continue the pilot. Sixteen colleges preferred to train and experiment. We will use Explore for training and experimenting beginning May 10, 2007. Students who are still in Explore with incompletes will continue their work in that environment. All other courses will no longer be active.

6. If you keep it for piloting, how are we supposed to do training?
See question 5.

7. What is going to happen with the instructors who developed courses in Bb 7.1 this SP07 semester? Are we requiring that they copy their course back to Bb 6 if teaching in the summer after using the tools in Bb 7.1?
Courses cannot be brought from Blackboard 7 to Blackboard 6. Instructors can have a course archive from the pilot that their Blackboard Admin can put on the new system.

8. I have faculty who are asking to create courses now for FA07 with course cartridges to develop over the summer. If we use Bb 7.2 as a training environment how will a course copy over with a cartridge from Bb 6 to Bb7?
Course cartridges often do not copy within a system, let alone across systems. Faculty should develop content in a separate course area from the cartridge content in case it does not copy (licensing again). In this way a new cartridge key can be applied to the course in 7.2 and the work done by the faculty member can also be applied to that course (via import or restore). It is recommended you communicate the following to faculty: If you are using a course cartridge that is copy protected (most with a key are like this) you should plan to begin working with your course after July 1, 2007. If you are using a course cartridge that is a zip file (your Blackboard system administrator will know the difference if you do not) you can create your course content and modify the cartridge as you have done in the past on Blackboard 6. These courses will be exported and imported without problems. Course cartridges that are copy protected will not import.

STUDENTS

1. What will students need to do to prepare for the fall 2007 upgrade?
Generally, nothing. Blackboard provides good tutorial videos and documentation in 7.2. Students will not need any other preparation for the upgrade.

2. What are new Blackboard 7 enhancements for which students need training?
Students may need training on the discussion board. Faculty may want to alert students to the new early warning system.

3. What happens to students that need to access the courses that were piloted for SP07 due to incompletes?
The courses will be available on Explore. And then can be migrated over to production at the instructor's and college Blackboard admin's discretion. If the student finishes the course after May 10, 2007 then the admin will need to archive and restore the course to the new production system.

TRAINING

1. Will there be a training committee formed that will consolidate training materials for each Bb Admin / Instructional Technologists to use at their college?
Training material is provided by Blackboard. Training specifically created for Blackboard Administrators and for Instructional Technologists to use for their faculty will be compiled and stored either in Blackboard or on the ITDE website. You vote.

INTEGATION

Full integration with PeopleSoft, which includes the automatic creation of courses and enrollment of students and instructors into those courses, will not occur this Fall. A workgroup on integration of Blackboard and PeopleSoft will be convened to discuss the design. Code will be written as soon as a design conclusion is reached. Integration is expected to begin summer 2008.

1. When will integration with PeopleSoft take place?
Plan is for summer 2008.

2. What are the plans for centralized automatic course creation in the fall of 07? Is it a go or not?
No go!

3. Will courses be created and integrated with PeopleSoft automatically?
Yes, when integration is implemented.

4. What will happen if a course is created and not assigned an instructor? (staff)
Determined with input from workgroup

5. What happens if a course is created and then the instructor is changed?
Determined with input from workgroup

6. If a course is automatically created, an instructor assigned who loads content, and then the instructor is changed, will the content be cleared?
Determined with input from workgroup

7. After integration sections can be automatically combined at a college’s request. Does ITS then do the combining? What is the turn around time needed? Can Bb admins do the combining?
Section combining will be handled by the user interface. Blackboard administrators can do this.

8. How will course templates work? Currently colleges that use templates have to request the system office create their courses with the template the college submits. Will this be the same or different?
The same until integration. After integration the templates will need to be tied to the course creation. This is a question for the workgroup to discuss.

9. Is it true: Integration of a course cannot prevent Blackboard Administrators or faculty from manually adding additional users in a non-student role to that course.
This is correct. Other users can be added to an integrated course in other roles. Work group will address use cases of when non-enrolled citizens need to be added to a course.

10. A standard course naming convention will be used that includes: Semester—Course ID—Section Number—Course Name—College
Correct. ASAC certified a naming convention. The current common course ID format will continue to be used, which typically includes College ID.Subject.Number.Section.Semester
Other valid course ID formats are for:
Personal faculty development spaces - College ID.facultyid.DEVL
Training courses - College ID.workshopInfo.WRKS
College-level template courses - College ID.optionalInfo.TMPL. Template courses are NOT subject nor faculty specific. Faculty get one personal development space for creating content to be reused in other courses.

11. Students will be disabled as a user in Blackboard when they are backed out of the PeopleSoft course for any reason. Can ITS show the reason the student is out of PeopleSoft to the admins?
A student's enrollment in the relevant course would be disabled within the parameters defined by the workgroup. ITS might be able to reveal this information, but appropriate PeopleSoft access is a decision for colleges

12. Can a Bb admin be able to turn students back on manually while issues are being resolved?
Not necessarily. ITS would have to build an interface, but this is also a question of policy. SIS is the system of record

Blackboard Administrators

1. Is Blackboard Admin training necessary? Mandatory?
Blackboard admin training is necessary.

2. When will it take place?
Training to take place during June 25th to 29th. We will train at John Tyler’s Chester Campus (Bird Hall, room B142) and at Greenfield. Training will last one day. The training from June 25 to 29th will be for the 23 Administrators and 37 Domain Administrators.

3. What will it cover?
Training will cover managing your college domain and creating course templates. User roles, modules

4. Are we going to start out using the domains feature and if so, will the colleges have input on the policies and procedures for managing domains?
Yes, we are, and yes, they will. The procedures for managing domains will be determined by a committee of seven instructional technologists representing the 23 colleges. No policy will be determined except by ASAC. Role permissions will require some input from this committee. We will use Google docs to survey the other colleges for their ideas.

The current design goal is for 23 primary admins with super user access (one per college). Backup admins will not have this level of access, but only domain-level access. Colleges will be able to have as many admins as they want within their domains.

5. What will Blackboard Admins need to do to prepare for upgrade?
ITS will automatically migrate all courses that conform to the ID standards and fall within the ASAC definition of courses to be retained in production. For portal migration, Blackboard Admins will need to update their tracking spreadsheet with portal modules and layout identifying the ones they want to migrate by May 1, 2007

It may be useful to refer to your log of manually created users to make sure that is up to date as you will have to recreate the ones that you intend to keep using

It will be useful to facilitate clean-up of courses that will be migrated (Fall 06 and forward).

Summer 07 courses will remain on the current learn server until the course end date. Those courses will be identified by the Blackboard Admin. If there is a common end date for a sufficient number of courses they will be automatically migrated to Bb7. If there are stragglers than those courses may need to be exported and imported separately into Bb7. The name for the new Bb7 will be a temporary one until all live courses are migrated from Bb6. Then Bb7 will become Learn. Bb6 will be available for a short amount of time (16 weeks) if our licensing permits.

6. Courses created in Blackboard will be unavailable to students and the availability will be left up to the discretion of the college. Does the instructor have the responsibility to make it available or the Bb admin? Is this to be determined on a college by college basis?
Courses will be brought over from Bb6 with their availability the same as in Bb6 after May 10th. As in the past, courses can be batch created when requested by the colleges and their availability will be at the request of the colleges. Courses on Explore should be exported and imported (or archived and restored) into 7.2 production by the college Domain administrator.

7. When will we (Bb Admins) be able to create fall sites for faculty?
On the new system, July 1, 2007.

8. What courses are being copied over from Bb 6 (Organizations, SU07) and how long will we have to clean up and archive courses in Bb 6?
All properly ID'ed Fall '06 and later courses will be automatically moved to Blackboard 7. ITS will provide a list of courses that will be migrated for verification. May 10th is the date the migration process will begin. Changes to courses after that date are not guaranteed to be in the new system and Blackboard administrators should be prepared to export and import (or archive and restore) those courses manually into the production server.

9. What courses are being copied over from Bb 6 (Organizations, SU07) and how long will we have to clean up and archive courses in Bb 6?
All organizations will be imported. Licensing for Bb 6 will determine it be turned off the middle of the fall 2007 semester in October. All courses will have been archived at that time if they meet the correct naming convention. Course IDs must start with the college designator.

10. What is going to happen with the content system? Will faculty still have the same 100 mb of space or more? How will content be transferred over? Will faculty have to reestablish links from the content system in courses that are copied over?
In theory faculty should not have to re-link but this has not been tested. Faculty will still have the same allocated space as they currently have. It will be transferred automatically.

11. Will we have guest access in Bb 7.2?
Guest access will be the same as Bb 6.2. Catalog will be performance tested.

12. When will we have access to Bb 7.2? Will that be upgraded now or after the SP07 term? Will we continue to use explore?
The production server will be available to you on July 1, 2007. You will continue to use Explore for training-we can upgrade to Bb7.2 if there are no spring students with incompletes.

13. Will all SU07 & FA07 courses already in Bb 6 be migrated to Bb7? If so, if there is a change in course ID format, how will they be handled?
The course ID format stays the same. All courses will be migrated on May 10th. After that time fall and spring courses will have to be migrated by the Bb admin manually. Summer 2007 courses will be migrated at the end of the summer semester.

14. Will the Portfolio feature be available in Bb. 7.1?
Portfolio feature will not be available in Bb 7.

WIMBA RELEASED FROM CAPTIVITY!

From: Inez Farrell [mailto:ifarrell@vccs.edu]

Hello All,

I am pleased to announce that WIMBA is now activated for all faculty use in Bb6. This version does not have the podcasting tools but that portion will be available in Blackboard 7.2, July 1, 2007.

I flipped the switch on in Bb6 so it is now available in every course, but I do think it is critical that faculty are trained in its usage. WIMBA offers a one hour web training several times each week. Their schedule of training events can be located here: http://www.wimba.com/eventreg/participant/registration.php?eventid=842
Thank you all for participating in a successful pilot and subsequent enterprise purchase of a software our faculty enjoy. I would love to find more just like it!

Towards that end I want to show you a new tool (free this time) that GOOGLE has just introduced. David Carter-Tod pointed it out to me and it is slick. Go to http://maps.google.com/ and click on NEW. You will see some very creative ways faculty can use this tool for instruction and even better, students can do group projects and presentations!! Can you see the creative possibilities?

I just love it!

Inez Farrell, Ph.D.
Director of Instructional Technology
Virginia’s Community Colleges
101 North 14th StreetRichmond, VA 23219

It Begins...

Blackboard Administrators
Key activities for Blackboard 7.2 upgrade

May 10, 2007:
Last date to update courses scheduled for migration from Bb6

• Reviewed courses for migration (FA06 and beyond)
• Standardized course IDs for courses to be migrated if necessary
• Facilitated clean-up of courses scheduled for migration. The less data we migrate, the faster it will be.

Week beginning June 25:

• Attend one-day training for Primary Administrators or Attend one-day training for Backup Administrators
  

Explore-related tasks (no specific date)

• Verify archives of Explore courses
• Schedule time to restore archived Explore courses to new system
• Monitor incomplete students on Explore – after full Go Live (August 15) on new system, these should be finished on new system
  

June 1: Portal-related tasks

• Identify portal modules for migration
• Review college tab layout
• Review current branding

Before Faculty and Staff Go Live

• Review manually created users in Bb6 and identify any needing recreation
• Review current VCCS Blackboard documentation
• Review Course ID standards
• Review privileges associated with different system roles in Explore
• Continue familiarizing yourself with new features of 7.1 and 7.2

July 1: Go Live for Faculty and Staff
Post Faculty/Staff Go Live tasks

• Verify course integrity
• Verify content system items
• Verify portal configuration
• Add manually-managed users
• Request batch creation of Fall courses or manually create Fall courses
  Strongly recommended
• Continue training faculty on new discussion board
  

August 15: Go Live for Students
Strongly recommended

• Train students on new discussion board
  

New Software available for all TNCC users: Atomic Learning

TNCC now has a site license for Atomic Learning. Atomic Learning is available in two locations: http://highed.atomiclearning.com/ and http://atomiclearning.com . The tutorials and login are the same, but the http://atomiclearning.com has additional resources geared toward the K-12 market.


What is Atomic Learning?
Atomic Learning provides web-based software training for more than 100 applications faculty, staff and students use everyday. Our short, easy-to-view-and-understand tutorials are an integral part of a professional development program, a valuable curriculum supplement, and an anytime/anywhere training resource.


Tutoriales, versión en español
¡Bienvenido a nuestra selección de tutoriales en español! Aquí encontrará tutoriales en español para los programas populares con versiones en español.


Alright, I want it… what do I do?

Go to http://highed.atomiclearning.com/

(Contact me for the user name and password. )


How do my students use it?
You distribute the URL, login and password. You can distribute the information in your class, email your students, or post it in your Bb course but you cannot publish the information on a public webpage.


Recently Added tutorials:

New Windows series

• Blackboard 7 - Student
• Encore DVD 2
• Office Suite 2007 - What's New?
• Photoshop Elements 5

New Macintosh series

• Acrobat Pro 8 - Intro
• Blackboard 7 - Student
  
  

Instructional Technology Notice: Digital Drop Box Unavailable in Upgrade to Bb 7

From: Susan S. Wood
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 10:27 PM
To: dlist_vccs_vice_presidents_provosts
Cc: Susan S. Wood
Subject: Instructional Technology Notice: Digital Drop Box Unavailable in Upgrade to Bb 7

To VCCS Vice Presidents and Provosts,
The Digital Drop Box function will be made globally unavailable to colleges in the upgrade to Blackboard 7. VCCS Academic Services and Research concurs with the recommendation made by VCCS Information Technology Services (ITS) to discontinue availability of the Digital Drop Box in the upgrade to Blackboard 7. Problems with the Digital Drop Box have been documented, such as the disappearance of student work, errors in submission dates and times, and the delayed appearance of submitted files. Lack of functionality can impact on critical academic issues including the flow of instruction and the assignment of grades. The ITS technical recommendation and background are included below.

Campus instructional technologists and trainers should instruct their faculty in the use of the recommended replacement tool, the Assignment Manager. Excellent training materials are available on the explore.vccs.edu log-in page.

Please share this notice with deans, faculty, instructional technologists, and others as appropriate at your college. Questions should be directed to Dr. Inez Farrell, Director of Instructional Technology, ifarrell@vccs.edu .



The Digital Drop Box was first introduced as a new feature in Blackboard 5.5 as a tool for students to exchange files with instructors. Soon the colleges who were using it began experiencing and reporting problems with the Digital Drop Box. The problems were serious in nature and threatened the integrity of academic records. Documented incidents include student files disappearing from the Digital Drop Box of instructors, submitted files having incorrect dates and times of submissions, and grade disputes filed because of delayed assignment reception although the student submitted on time.

In 2005, colleges were encouraged to discontinue the use of the Digital Drop Box and to use instead the Assignment Manager. Also in 2005, the Blackboard Administrator Guidelines recommended that the Digital Drop Box be made unavailable. IssueTrak tickets filed in 2006 regarding the Digital Drop Box remain unresolved as solutions were not forthcoming from Blackboard. In November 2006, the Distance and Distributed Learning Committee (DDLC) heard a report from ITS regarding significant challenges with the Digital Drop Box.

Thank you,

Susan

Time to request Summer 2007 Bb course shells

We are now processing Summer 2007 distributive course shell requests. We are no longer combining classes. You must request one shell per class. If you have questions about this please call (825-2807).

Distance and hybrid course shells have already been created. Please check your Blackboard.

Request form:
NOTE: NEW URL!
http://community.tncc.edu/cgi-bin/rws3.pl?FORM=bb_new_request

Requests will be processed every Friday.

New to Blackboard?
To begin:

• You must have TNCC email. If you do not, please contact your division Administrative Assistant.
• You must have a Bb login. It is the same login as your SIS login. To look up you SIS/Bb login go to http://tncc.my.vccs.edu .
• You must know your course, number and section before you request a Bb course shell.
• You must request a blank Bb course shell. Fill out the request form located at: http://community.tncc.edu/cgi-bin/rws3.pl?FORM=bb_new_request
• If you need Bb help once you have a Bb course shell contact:
  Jan Klingberg
  Blackboard Trainer
  klingbergj@tncc.edu
  825-3880
• Our faculty self-help materials are located at:http://www.tncc.edu/blackboard/bb6_faculty.htm
• Our help materials for your students are located at: http://www.tncc.edu/blackboard/bb6_student.htm

Jan and I are looking forward to working with you.

New Software for TNCC Faculty& Adjunct Faculty

TNCC now has a site license for Turnitin. Note: We only purchased the Plagiarism Prevention Package (web based version). We have a one year license. We will be able to obtain a usage report and will be asking for feedback from faculty users prior to the renewal period to determine if we want to continue using this product.

What is Turnitin?
Plagiarism Prevention: Turnitin is recognized worldwide as the standard in Plagiarism Prevention. Turnitin instantly identifies papers containing unoriginal material and acts as a powerful deterrent to stop student plagiarism before it starts.


Alright, I want it… what do I do?

• Send an email smithru@tncc.edu
• Include in the email your MyTNCC login (the one you use to get access to SIS and Blackboard – not your TNCC email). Do not send your password!
• You will be sent directions to the online TNCC Turnitin Workshop (complete the workshop at your own pace).
• After successfully completing the workshop you will receive the Account ID and Join Password
• Begin using Turnitin
• Participate in feedback surveys
  

Security Status Bar in IE 7

Security Status Bar in IE 7

Scenario:
I just upgraded to Internet Explorer 7. One of the websites that I must visit (WebMail @TNCC) now displays the message, "There is a problem with this website's security certificate.” I also see a red X in the address bar, indicating a certificate error.

Question:
What is it and what do I do?

What is it?
It is a new feature in IE 7 and is also included in the new Windows Vista operating system. It is there to enhance awareness of website security and privacy settings by displaying color-coded notifications next to the address bar. Internet Explorer 7 changes the Address Bar to green for websites bearing new High Assurance certificates, indicating the site owner has completed extensive identity verification checks. The address bar changes to pink if it can not verify the security of the website.

What do I do?
In the case of the WebMail @TNCC you would click Continue to this Website (not recommended). If you receive these warning messages while browsing to other secure websites (website that begin with https) you have to determine if you can trust the website.

Thomas Nelson Community College is working to obtain and issue the new High Assurance certificates.

New Software available for Checkout (TNCC employees only)

TNCC now has a site license for OpenMind 2. It can be checked out of the library by any faculty/staff/admin./adjunct faculty. There are only 10 circulating copies you may want to call the library before you go to check it out to be sure a copy is available.

What is OpenMind 2?
Easy to learn and easy to use, OpenMind is a highly effective way of brainstorming ideas visually, structuring them, developing them and increasing the comprehension of complex concepts. Ideal for use by individuals, small teams or large groups, OpenMind generates illustrated Mind Maps® which you can view in different ways (flowchart, outline, timeline and others) and use in presentations, study guides, web sites and more. Integrating seamlessly with Microsoft® Word, Microsoft® PowerPoint, HTML and Mediator, OpenMind is a flexible and versatile concept development tool.

OpenMind is particularly suited for:
Visual outlining of written documents
Storyboarding and creating websites or presentations
Creating timelines

Perfect for:
Brainstorming and visualizing ideas
Organizing and outlining ideas
Storyboarding and creating presentations
Improving memory and concentration
Simplifying decision-making
Critical thinking
Note taking

Export to:
HTML (Includes Wizard)
Mediator (Includes Wizard)
Word / RTF (Includes templates)
PowerPoint (Includes templates)
Timeline (HTML)

Import from:
Microsoft® Word
Microsoft® PowerPoint
Mediator

http://www.matchware.com/en/products/openmind/default.htm

DDLC minutes 11/16/06

Distance and Distributed Learning ASAC Workgroup
November 16, 2006, 10am – 3pm

Minutes

Meeting called to order at 10:05am

Members present: Rebecca Blankenship (GCC), Susan Beasley (CVCC), Kim Blosser (BRCC), Charles Boling (VHCC), Colleen Kehoe (for John Ambrose - JSRCC), Jeff Burleson (MECC), Joan Trabandt (NVCC), John Zwick (TCC), Kristen Kelly (JTCC), Leslie Smith (RCC), Adam Bryant (for Linda Clausson – NRCC), Carrie (for Coveny – VWCC), Reo McBride (DLCC), Ron Wilt (ESCC), Ruth Smith (TNCC), Stacy Harris (SWCC), Joan Tuck (SVCC), Jamie Shetrone (WCC), Bill Day (DCC), Inez Farrell (AS&R), Matt Lawson (AS&R)

Members absent: Shelia Hobbs (PDCCC), Mark Nelson (PHCC), Lori Ledford (PVCC), George Hoffman (LFCC)

Action Items:

Action Item 1: VDEN document review

ASAC has requested that the DDLC review the documentation and make further recommendations.

• Should the VDEN documents be abolished or revised and updated?
• What parts of the document should be kept either in policy or revised?
• What parts of the document are already included in policy manual?

After much discussion, it was decided that some clear, easy to find guidelines were needed in addition to the hard-to-read official policy manual.

Issues were noted such as the difficulty in meeting the VDEN standards for compressed video and the need for possible additions to the standards such as integration of VITA and accessibility standards. For now, it was agreed that the focus needs to be on revision or deletion of items from the present documentation with recommendation for additional items to follow.

The committee broke into five groups to take a preliminary look at the different sections of the document and recommend changes. The resulting edited document will be compiled and sent back out to the committee for further work and discussion.

Action recommendation: Inez will report to ASAC that work has begun and that a recommendation will be available for their March meeting.

Jamie Shetrone made the motion as stated above and Leslie Smith seconded it. It passed unanimously.

Action Item 2: Integration of PS and Bb

A workgroup was formed at the last DDLC meeting to address the integration of PS and Bb.

This workgroup met twice and the minutes from those meetings were distributed. As a result of the workgroups recommendation to the entire DDLC, the group recommended that ASAC support the integration with the attached guidelines.

Discussion followed on a number of points including how to opt out of the integration and who has access to the flags to flag courses for integration. A major issue was the Blackboard administrator’s access to control the flagging of course in a timely manner. This item was added to the guidelines listed to go forward to ASAC. Inez requested that the wording be simplified.

Matt Lawson stated that the integration would be implemented in the summer along with the version upgrade.

Action Recommended: The DDLC recommends the integration of PS and BB course creation and student enrollment with the attached guidelines.

Motion was made by Leslie Smith and seconded by Reo McBride. The motion was passed.

Discussion Items:

Discussion Item 1: Automation of VCCSOnline

The process of listing online courses in the VCCSOnline system is a manual process. It was discussed that this process is time-consuming. At least one college has developed a process to pull the courses directly from Peoplesoft. It was generally agreed that integration would be beneficial if individual colleges have the ability to remove a course if the college did not want a course listed.

Action Recommended: Action was recommended on this item due to the general agreement by all that it would be of great benefit.

A motion was made that the DDLC recommend that the resources be provide so that the system office staff can create a process to automate pulling online courses into the VCCSOnline system. The motion was passed.

Discussion Item 2: Biweekly audio conferencing

Discussion was held on the possibility of having biweekly audio conferences where college distance learning and instructional technology staff could ask questions and receive updates on the system office’s initiatives. This had occurred in the past with previous AS&R staff. It was stated that the meetings would not involve policy decisions but would just be a chance to ask questions and receive update information on initiatives of individual colleges as well as the system office.

Inez Farrell, AS&R’s Director of Instructional Technology stated that she would be willing to hold informal, monthly audio meetings. The group decided on the second Monday of each month from 2-3 pm with the first session on December 11^th. Further details would follow.

Discussion Item 3: Backpack in Blackboard Version 7 (Leslie)

The need for our students to be able to access materials in Blackboard despite the issue of low bandwidth and large downloads was discussed. The pervasive nature of this issue was highlighted in that we still have many areas where dial-up is the only option or the only affordable option. Technology to assist in providing equal access to all students is a continuing need and one of the Chancellor’s 2009 goals.

The Blackboard Backpack was highlighted as one possible solution to meet these issues and a pilot to test its feasibility was discussed. It was agreed that this item would be reworked by Leslie Smith and a recommendation framed for a pilot. This will be brought back before the DDLC meeting as an action item. (Hand-out attached)

Information Items:

Information Item 1: Update on WIMBA pilot (Inez)

Inez reported a large response on the pilot currently in progress. Arrangements have been made for WIMBA to be turned on for use in the new version of the Blackboard pilot in spring.

Information Item 2: Update on E-Portfolio pilot (Inez)

C.J. Bracken from Germanna Community is working with the college’s Nursing department and the system office on a pilot of the e-Portfolio system for SP06.

Information Item 3: Update on Blackboard upgrade and training (Matt)

Inez Farrell reported on training she is working on providing for Instructional Technologists the week of December 14^th. She stated that the training will be to prepare the Technologists for training the faculty. It is not Administrator training. She is also working to access funds for faculty training at New Horizons. Concern over lack of training for administrators was expressed and it was suggested that any funds be used for her December ‘train the trainer’ sessions with the idea that these persons could provide sessions at New Horizons. Matt Lawson advised that Version 7.1 is available now for exploration on the explore.vccs.edu site and that faculty will be asked to pilot Version 7.1 for the spring semester for full implementation for the summer semester. Questions were raised about how faculty could begin preparing for the pilot as soon as possible.

Information Item 4: Blackboard Digital Dropbox (Matt)

It was reported by Matt Lawson that the Digital Dropbox has become a support nightmare for the system office as well as the colleges. Its poor design has caused numerous issues from the beginning. It was brought to the attention of Blackboard and their response is that the Assignment feature should be used as a replacement and the Digital Dropbox disabled. This is what the system office will do in version 7.

There was discussion that at least one college strongly objects to loosing this feature and want it left available. Matt responded that the Digital Dropbox would no longer be supported.

Information Item 5: Atomic Learning (Leslie)

Leslie Smith brought up the continuing question of supporting tutorials for some of the applications that all of us use and must support. Previous efforts to work together to create tutorials have had mixed results and then there is the problem of the need for continuous updates. It is suggested that we discuss the need for system wide purchase of appropriate tutorials such as what is provided by Atomic Learning. These tutorials could be used to support such systems as Blackboard, MS Office, and others. (Hand-out attached)

DDLC Integration Guidelines

• Colleges will have the option to opt in or out for integration.
• The courses will be created “unavailable” to students and the availability of the courses will be left up to the discretion of the college.
• Integrated courses will be assigned a template (optional) through an additional flag in PeopleSoft and by specifying the template ID
• Integration of a course will not prevent Blackboard Administrators from manually adding additional users to that course.
• A standard course naming convention will be used that includes: Semester—College—Course ID—Section Number—Course Name.
• Students will be disabled as a user in a course when they are backed out of PeopleSoft.
• Staff designation for instructor will be used if there is no instructor assigned to a course.
• Blackboard administrators will have access to control the flags that set courses for integration.

Proposal for systemwide implementaton of a online tutorial system for software applications

What’s the Need?

Students need assistance with various software packages at all hours of the day or night. One of the Chancellor’s goals for this year in technology is to continue to develop a world-class teaching, learning environment that is sufficiently sustainable and scalable to meet the growing demands of access and operations. To help achieve this goal, an online tutorial program is need system wide.

specific opportunities to be achieved:

• Economies of scale.
• Access across all colleges for students that take courses at multiple colleges.
• Streamlined assistance for students by pointing students to a central repository of helpdesk type tutorials.
• Systems office and all colleges can point students to one location instead of 23 different instances of support.
• Tier 1 helpdesk support through 24 x 7 online support when and where needed.

HOW TWO SCHOOLS HAVE PROVIDED SUCH SUPPORT:

RCC and GCC are owners of site licenses for Atomic Learning. They choose this product for a number of reasons. Those that might be appropriate for this proposal are listed below:

• Provide both audio and video tutorials
• Software tutorials are kept up to date
• Variety of software that is supported
• Flexible in terms of providing special tutorials, if needed, such tutorials for Mirapoint, PeopleSoft, Blackboard content system, etc.
• Can connect an objective in Blackboard to a specific tutorial.%
• Ease of use and timeframe of each tutorial is from less than a minute to a maximum of 3 minutes.

Spring 2007 Blackboard Course Shell Requests

We have batched created SP07 Distance and Hybrid courses. Please check Bb to be sure your course was created. I will begin to process Distributive Spring 2007 course shell requests: November 20, 2006

We no longer combining classes. You must request one shell per class. If you have questions about this please call.

Requests will be processed every Friday

Definitions

• Distributive (Web Enhanced) Courses use technology in concert with face-to-face classes.
  
  A course that is based exclusively in a brick-and-mortar classroom (face-to-face), and the instructor supplements face-to-face classroom instruction with valuable online resources supported by Blackboard, the supported course management system or the Web, such as grade book, syllabus, assignment submission, etc.
  
• Hybrid (Blended) Courses have a percentage of the content delivered/taught in Blackboard, the supported course management system and a percentage of the content delivered/taught face-to-face.
  
  A course whose web delivered components meets the same Standards of Good Practice used for online courses and significantly impact learning while reducing the amount of classroom time.
  
  
• Distance (Online) Courses have the content delivered/taught in Blackboard, the supported course management system. Any face-to-face meetings (such as an orientation, exams, or labs) are only held if they appeared in the registration class schedule and notes field of the Student Information System.
  
  A courses that is based in the Blackboard, the course management system, where students access instructions, instructor’s office, all course materials (lectures, assignments, resources, etc.) and communicate via email, discussions, and/or chats with the instructor and other students.
  

Wimba Voice Tools for Blackboard - Pilot

Wimaba Voice Tools
Give your online Class a Voice!

To join the pilot and try the Horizon Wimba Building Block for Blackboard:

1. You will need to register the class that is going to use Wimba with me (that means just give me the course ID). I must send that information to Inez Ferrell,the Director of Instructional Technology, in Richmond.
2. The instructor will have to give me (to send to Inez) a detailed description of its use within the class instruction (what objectives it will support) the number of students who are in the class and may make use of it
3. Then an evaluation at the end of the course that illustrates its effectiveness from both the instructor and student point of view.
   

This may seem like a lot of documentation but it really is not if the students are asked to evaluate Wimba in a discussion board and the instructor can pull the information from both what the purpose of its use was with the objective and the result.

Of course all of this is to help us make a business case for purchasing Wimba on an Enterprise level.

Please call me if you want to join the pilot or have questions.

What is Wimba?
http://www.horizonwimba.com/products/voicetools/

Benefits

• Offer live discussions between students and teachers, anytime, anywhere
• Teach foreign languages by emphasizing speaking and listening
• Encourage on-going discussions and debates about different subjects and ideas
• Easily teach pronunciation, rhythm, stress, and emphasis
• Students learn all aspects of a language through listening, speaking, and writing exercises
• 24/7 access
• Seamlessly integrate within Blackboard and WebCT - no new interfaces to configure or commands to learn
• Instant anytime, anywhere access to language resources as students are no longer constrained by the availability of a physical language lab and/or instructors

Features

• Live Conversation and/or Voice Coaching
  Practice a language by actually speaking it with someone. This real-time voice conferencing feature allows for live oral language instruction, small group role-plays, and other live, conversation-based tasks. Additionally, instructors can conduct lectures, conferences, discussions and debates, keep virtual office hours for conversations with students, and even record discussions for future playback.
• Threaded Voice Boards
  Speak and read a language at the same time, or simply create threaded voice discussions about any subject. Great for brainstorming and collaborating on almost any topic in any language, instructors and students can post vocal messages with accompanying text into our voice-based message boards. Discuss multiple subjects at once by dividing new topics into their own threads. This is one of the best ways to practice all aspects of a new language.
• Embedded Voice within Course Pages
  Easily add listening exercises and voice messages into any CMS course page. Our Voice Tools incorporate a small recorder and playback feature that can be placed within any CMS page allowing instructors to verbally explain complex ideas, post assignments, or simply highlight important ideas that will be discussed in upcoming lessons.
• Voice-Enabled E-Mail
  Students and instructors can send vocal email messages to anyone, and recipients simply reply by sending their own voice email. Voice emails are particularly useful for role-playing activities and question and answer sessions. And to ensure security, instructors have full control of the distribution of every email.
• Integrate into your Course Management System
  Our voice tools integrate with course management systems so they have the same look and feel as other tools, significantly reducing barriers of adoption and minimizing learning curves. Our vocal tools appear within your CMS like any other resource; if you know how to use your CMS, you already know how to use Voice Tools.
• Oral Assessments
  Assess your students 24/7. Enable language instructors to build a wide range of test questions types, such as multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, pairing, voice dialogue, vocal multiple-choice, or vocal pairing multiple-choice. These questions can be associated with a variety of oral, visual, and text-based prompts, requiring oral and text-based responses. Learners simply log into the system and proceed through the test questions, recording their responses as they use Voice Tools.

Minutes- DDLC September 14, 2006

Distance and Distributive Learning Committee Meeting
September 14, 2006

Meeting called to order at 10:00 A.M.

Members Present: Inez Farrell (AS&R), Jeff Burleson (MEC), Charles Boling (VH), Jaime Sheltrone (WCC), Kristen Kelly(JT), George Hoffman (LF), Joan Trabandt (NOVA), Lori Ledford (PVCC), Linda Claussen (NRCC), Reo McBride (DSL), Ruth Smith (TNCC), Kim Blosser (BRCC), Leslie Smith (RCC), Rebecca Blankenship (GCC), Ralph Lucia (ITS) , Matt Lawson (AS&R), John Zwick (TCC), Bill Hightower (AS&R), Joan Tuck (SSVCC), Susan Wood (AS&R), Colleen Kehoe (JSR), Monty Sullivan (AS&R), Susan Beasley (CVCC).

Members Absent: William Dey (DCC), Dick Wilt (ESCC), Shelia Hobbs (PDCCC), Mark Nelson (PHCC), Stacy Harris (SWCC), Ramona Coveny (VWCC).


Opening Remarks: Dr. Monty Sullivan

Distance and Distributive Learning Committee (DDLC) has been reconstituted as an advisory workgroup to the Academic and Student Affairs Council (ASAC) subcommittee on Educational Technology (ET)
The committee will make recommendations on policy level decisions to ASAC’s ET. Inez Farrell will be the voice of DDLC to ASAC’s ET.
The committee is now comprised of nuts and bolts personnel including faculty, and structured to improve communication and electronic services to students,
The Educational Technology group has been reconstituted to bring in Vice Presidents who have experience in technology realm; ASAC is to act on issues of concern.
Impact of this committee affects how we function on a campus level and communicate on a system level


Agenda:

Action Item 1: Election of New Chair: Rebecca Blankenship was nominated by Reo McBride and elected by unanimous vote.

Action Item 2: Recommendation of Archiving Courses In Blackboard

Discussion

ITS initially proposed current semester and two subsequent semesters.
It was proposed to ITS that faculty would not want archiving to take place until early in 4th semester. ITS explained this would be a hardship on the system as the number of courses makes backups take longer, increases the size of the databases and slows performance. Ralph would like a calendar of semester start and end times so scheduling of events such as this could be facilitated. It was asked that a schedule of dates when courses would be removed from production be published. The calendar would be well in advance and notification sent to Blackboard Administrators.

Various suggested processes were discussed to assist individual instructors who want courses to stay on the system for more than three semesters.

*Recommendation for archiving of courses in Blackboard: It is propose to the Educational Technology Committee of ASAC that courses created in Blackboard for specific semester will be retained for three semesters beyond the semester offered and then be removed from the Blackboard server. Additionally, Blackboard administrators will be responsible for polling faculty each semester and deleting unused courses according to local college guidelines.


Action Item 3: Outdated VDEN procedures that exist outside of VCCS policy
manual

*Action Recommended: Recommendation to Educational Technology Committee of ASAC for review of existing VDEN document and eliminate outdated VDEN procedures. Additionally, incorporate revised procedures into VCCS policy manual and eliminate the VDEN document entirely.

(The goal is to pull out what is relevant, reword it appropriately and put the results into the VCCS policy manual, and in the process eliminating the VDEN document.)

Discussion Item 1: Deletion of course records in Bb archived courses

Course syllabi retained until superseded or obsolete and then destroyed
Academic Records – including roster, grades, postings, student information
When are archives deleted – 2 years total at system level (1 year production, 1 year archive)
What policy for colleges to delete Bb archives?
Will individual college policy supersede Library of Virginia recommendations of three years?
Need to find out what home college does in People Soft – gather information

Homework: DDLC members will find out what their home college does for records retention in People Soft and the effect if any on the records kept in Blackboard. Many committee members did not know of this requirement and do not think it is followed on their campuses.


*Discussion Recommendation: Recommend ASAC discuss policy for retention or deletion of Blackboard archives in compliance with Library of Virginia policy GS111.


Discussion Item 2: Integration with People Soft

*Recommendation: Recommend pursuing the integration of People Soft with Blackboard. DDLC workgroup was formed to further discuss the issues and to write a proposal for ASAC ET that will include a rationale, benefits to the colleges, and strategies that may need to be addressed to successfully implement integration.


Work group: Reo, Jaime, Colleen, Ruth, Kim, Kristen, Leslie, Jeff, and Rebecca. This group will be further divided when the issues are determined.

Information Items:
Merger of EMPLIDs to end: Difficult to tie back to individual SIS records at multiple institutions, email problems. ITS can identify who has multiple IDs. Colleges can accept other colleges EMPLID in order to simplify student process. A and R needs to be aware of situation, can merge accounts by agreement. Help Desk also.
Migration to Blackboard 7.1: 6.3 is available, but will not go to it, but to 7.1. Possible migration summer 2007. 7.1 will be put into BBTrain demo environment so people can experience. Timeframe is not yet concrete. Pilot in spring 2007.
Wimba: NOVA and Piedmont currently use. Willing to allow any colleges to test/pilot for free with two stipulations: feedback is provided and online training is required. May be shared cost (template pricing for system/FTE based). Matt will look at Pronto.
Student Email Licenses: Retention of email accounts (current semester minus two plus next semester, change in registration caused current semester minus two plus two) Oversubscribed by over 30,000. Much discussion ensued about the summer semester and add/drop dates. Recommend current semester minus one and up to the second eight week add/drop date. Propose semester plus one with incompletes adding another semester so that any students who did not enroll in a summer course would not lose their college email address at the beginning of the Fall semester.
Definition of hybrid and blended courses: Definition part of Course Coding Document submitted to ASAC.
Meeting Dates:
a) November 16, Thursday, 10 – 3 pm, Central Virginia, Lynchburg
b) February 15, Thursday, via Breeze or compressed video
c) May 24, Thursday, Featherstone
7. Secure Socket Layers – still some technical problems. Work around is putting certificate on feeding site.

Meeting adjourned at 3:00 P.M.