Minutes of September 19, 2012 ACPAC Meeting

Academic Computing Policy Advisory Committee

Minutes of Sept. 19, 2012

• In Attendance:Ali, Angel, Asamoah, Balint, Blood, Brzycki, Cunningham, Ezekiel, Ford, Giever, Lenze, P. McDevitt, McElroy, Mocek, O'Neil, Onyett, Pagnucci, Powers, Rodgers, Schwartz, Sherwood, J.B. Smith, VanWieren, Yost, Yuhas.
• Absent: Fortushniak, Lowery, T. McDevitt, Nelson, Papakie.
• Guests:none.

Proceedings of the Meeting

Approval of Minutes

• The April 18, 2012 minutes were approved unanimously (m/s Brzycki/Lenze) with the corrections that Mocek and Lenze were in attendance, the Mobile Apps Task Force report was changed to a guest presentation, and in the last bullet of the Online Learning report the contract concludes in 2015 not 2016.

Co-Chairs' Report

• Financial Report - The ACPAC balance was $12,804.92, $5,979.00 awarded in ACPAC Innovation Projects, and the new balance is $6,825.92. In addition, $15,000 from tech fee funds was awarded for Innovation Projects.
• Announcements - New members: Dr. Mike Schwartz (College of Fine Arts) replaces Richard Kemp, Tom Rodgers (IT Support Center) replaces Ed Zimmerman. We are still waiting for the appointment of several student representatives (an undergraduate student and a second graduate student). Dr. Branthoover can't attend this semester, so we are waiting for a replacement for the Off-campus representative. The Roster on our website has been updated.
• Because of holidays and breaks, the meeting scheduled for November will be November 28 and the March meeting will be March 27, 2013.

Standing Reports

• CIO office (Balint)
  • Tech Fee Budget - For the first time since the Tech Fee was created in 2001 the amount received for Academic Affairs was decreased. Hopefully when the fall re-budget occurs in October, we will receive additional funds. The Tech Fee budget is down by $100,000 and then $136,000 additional had to be given up to help support budget cuts in Academic Affairs. This will impact instructional technology this year. In 2007, the rules for the Tech Fee were liberalized so that now the funds can be used for more types of expenditures.
  • Ed Zimmerman Transition - Ed Zimmerman is no longer the College Technology Manager for the Library. He is now working with IT Services Desktop Services. At this point we don't know what the Library plans to do with that position.
  • C-Cue FYI - Lloyd Onyett will be the IUP representative to the C-Cue organization (Consortium for Computing in Undergraduate Education). IUP has been a member of C-Cue since 1984. C-Cue consists of 25 colleges and universities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The October 5 meeting of C-Cue will be held in Erie at Penn State Behrend. We will be hosting the December 7 meeting at IUP, and the theme of that meeting will be scanning and archiving and will be held in the IUP Library.
  • D2L/Moodle - this discussion was moved to the On-Line Learning report.
  • Project Review (Cunningham) - (See Addendum A for a copy of the handout that was provided at the ACPAC meeting.) - Items at the top of list that Cunningham distributed are underway or ready to begin, and those at the bottom of the list are unranked at this time. Projects currently underway or ready to begin are:
  • Test Scoring - this project has been completed.
  • MMC upgrades - This year we will be replacing 82 PCs and 50 projectors (we have MMC systems in 280 classrooms) plus maintenance on doc cams and other components. (This represents approximately $250,000 per year in upgrades). Sherwood asked about the status of changing the aspect ratio of the systems. Rodgers explained that when we shrink the image from a 16x9 to a 4x3 screen, we lose a lot of the visibility for the back of the classroom because of the reduced image size to accommodate the 16x9 aspect ratio. We would have to double the size of the screen to provide the same view area. We will be correcting many of these issues when we move into the digital format because now are current systems are analog. At this point we are keeping the monitors in the classrooms in the same aspect ratio as the screens can accommodate to reduce the distortions that would occur otherwise. We will be moving to 16x9 on both screen and monitors as we move into the digital format. In some cases we will need to move the projector farther back. Some of the screens are automatic and built into the ceiling and very expensive to replace. It is estimated that it will cost approximately $6,000 per room to go from analog to digital.
  • Digital Repository - This project has been completed.
  • DegreeWorks Web Advising - We have had a soft launch per the Registrar's office, and the Registrar will be sending out an announcement.
  • Single Sign-on - This is an ongoing project. As new services come online, we try to incorporate them into our single sign-on model.
  • Luminis Portal - We are beginning this project this fall and winter. Eric Barker is the portal administrator.
  • Collaboration System - The action team has finalized requirements. At this point there are no recommendations for software at this time, but this is being worked on now.
  • Curriculum Development System - Todd requested that we form an Action Team. He will contact Dave Piper in the Grad School.
  • Calendar System Replacement - We are in the process of determining how we will implement the CGP calendar replacement for Webcal. Most faculty who use the current Webcal are in the Library.
  • ACPAC will be asked to approve the project list at the October meeting.
  • Virtual Computing Lab (Cunningham) - It is sometimes known as VDI or Desktop Virtualization. Todd gave demonstration of the new Virtual Computing Lab. A VM Ware View client can be opened on your PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone (Android or Apple). Once that client software has been opened, you can then access a desktop that looks like the desktop of our public computer labs. If you go to www.iup.edu/itsupportcenter, you can get the instructions for installation of the VCL system. In addition to the desktop, you also have access to your H, I, N, P, and X drives, and various Uniprint network printers, as well as your local default printer on the computer you are using. You can also map other drives, but need to map them each time you use the VCL system. It can also access local USB devices plugged into your local computer. This provides access to the same software found on the public computer labs, no matter where in the world you are sitting. This system is now available for employees and students at IUP, although this is still a pilot. Currently there are 99 concurrent connections available, but this will be expanded as needed.
  • 2012 Semester Start-up Stats (Cunningham) - IT Support Services had the following statistics for the start-up of fall semester (Aug 20-Sept 7): we had 4,119 help tickets, and on Aug 20, we had 171 walk-ins (the most ever in a single day - that was the first day of the CUSP program). We sent 1,950 surveys out to the visitors to the IT Support Center during that period and received 363 responses back.
  • Guest Wireless (Cunningham) - There is nothing new to report. We were working with AT&T, but that broke down and they were not responding to us.
• Student Operations Group (Blood)
  • The fall 2012 enrollment exceeded last year's numbers.
• On-Line Learning Subcommittee (Brzycki)
  • (See Addendum B for a copy of the handout provided at the ACPAC meeting.)
  • Most of the discussion related to the migration of Moodle to D2L and the future of Moodle (see the handouts for more details). Our current contract for D2L ends in 2015, but it may be renewed. We won't know for some time whether the contract will be extended by PASSHE.
  • Giever discussed an idea he has suggested that IUP become a support center for Moodle for the entire PASSHE system.
  • MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) systems were also briefly discussed (see the handout).
  • Downtime for D2L has also been a concern of the OLC. Rodgers presented a report showing the downtime statistics (see Addendum C for a copy of the report handed out at the ACPAC meeting).
  • Balint explained that the Library has a program called IDC (Instructional Design Center) to provide audio/video media services. Faculty may be referred to the IDC for those special services by the IT Support Center, but faculty should start with the IT Support Center. IUP does not have enough resources to make one place for all of the needs for support of faculty for development of on-line materials. Lenze explained that Communications Media has many intern students who can assist with production of web, audio, and video materials, and has a special capstone course to help prepare those students.
  • Sherwood expressed concerns regarding the Moodle migration timeline. Balint explained that we need to migrate to the new version of Moodle by the end of Summer II, and try to get most moved over before that.
• Taskforce on Accessibility Guidelines (Brzycki)
  • See the addendums of these minutes for a copy of the handout provided at the ACPAC meeting.
• Student Computing Subcommittee (P. McDevitt)
  • A student technology advisory group that is being formed to help address concerns related to technology.
• Emerging Technologies Subcommittee (Sherwood)
  • The next meeting will be the week of Sept. 24th
• Branch Campuses (O'Neil)
  • No report

Action Team Reports