Provost’s Academic Computing Advisory Committee
Minutes for September 21, 2009
September 21, 2009 PACAC Agenda
1. Purpose and recent history of PACAC work – Chair, Angie Golden
2. Update on Google system for students and faculty – John Campbell
3. LMS – update and volunteers to work with eLearning – Don Carter
4. Identity Management Committee Charter – Chris Michels
5. Amend PACAC Charter to include Disability Resources – Angie Golden
Meeting Minutes
Attending: Robert Alban, John Campbell, Tom Carpenter, Don Carter, Joe Collentine, Fred
Estrella, Pattie Gibson, Ray Huang, Chris Johnson, Jill Koelling, Marc Lord, Casey Machula,
Georgia Michalicek, Chih Tu, Paul Wagner, Steve Cernohous, and Chris Michels.
Fred Estrella chaired the meeting for Angie Golden.
Purpose and recent history of PACAC work
The purpose of PACAC is to help Information Technology Services and the Provost study and
review certain issues involving technology in relation to the academic areas of campus. Some
examples of recent work by PACAC includes the Learning Spaces report, a decision on web
conferencing software between MS Live Meeting and Elluminate that was informed by the
Instructional Web Conferencing Subcommittee Report, and the document created on sustainable
budgets.
Fred asked the members to please communicate with the constituents in their academic areas to let
them know what’s going on, and to make sure they are aware of the PACAC web site address at
http://www.nau.edu/provost/pacac, where meeting minutes and information is posted.. He said he
appreciated the time that members give to the committee, and he wants to see that faculty have all
the tools they need.
Update on Google system for students and faculty
Paul Wagner reported for John Campbell. He said as of this morning, 31,000 out of 60,000 student
email accounts had been migrated to Gmail. An additional 7,000 Gmail accounts had also been
created for new students. The pace of the migration was increased to 2,000 accounts per day
because the machines were keeping up with the load and not as much support was needed as had
been anticipated. Migrations are being made by date with the most recent accounts being handled
first.
Although the Dana server will no longer provide email, it will still be used as a web server and file
storage area for students. This allows for a huge cost avoidance since ITS will be able to use a
Linux box and won’t have to do an expensive upgrade.
PACAC Minutes for September 21, 2009 – Page 1
Provost’s Academic Computing Advisory Committee
Minutes for September 21, 2009
Paul also reported there is an issue with spam management on Google where messages going out
from NAU would not necessarily get to a student’s Inbox, but would go into their spam folder
instead. He said the problem is getting better. Fred said they hope to improve the situation even
further by working with Google.
John Campbell’s strategic plan for Gmail is to have the student accounts in good shape by midOctober, and then he will look at creating alumni accounts. Until all students are on the new system,
it doesn’t make sense for faculty to use Google docs, so requests from faculty for Gmail accounts
will be delayed until November.
Gmail is accessible by using screen reading software, such as JAWS and Kurzweil, but the only
office applications that work well with the screen readers is Google docs, the word processing
application. Google is not making any promises to make the other office applications or Google
sites accessible.
LMS – update and volunteers to work with eLearning
Don Carter reported he had spoken to the Deans Council about rumors regarding the imminent
replacement of Blackboard Vista. (See the Deans LMS Information document on the PACAC web
site.) He said the rumors are not true, but what is true is the following:
1. A change will have to be made because Vista will no longer be supported after 2013.
2. A decision needs to be made this year.
3. Next year, a process for migration, training, etc. will be set into motion.
He said, PACAC will have a subcommittee, but it will be an open process and others will
participate. It will be similar to the same process used when the campus made the decision to go
with Vista. PACAC members are encouraged to seek volunteers in their colleges and departments
who are interested in the LMS decision process.
Don shared a slide that showed the history of the various learning management systems (LMSs) that
were bought up over time. (See LMS History, listed under Information, on the PACAC web site,
located at http://www.nau.edu/provost/pacac.) Don pointed out that Prometheus was purchased by
Blackboard and was required to shut down after two years. Blackboard then bought WebCT, and
most recently purchased Angel. Blackboard Learn is their new system and is founded on the
Academic Suite which includes Web 2.0 and drag ‘n drop functionality. He said, file management,
rubrics and grading reports were dropped and added back in, and that course email may be dropped.
Don also pointed out how the LMS History slide shows that the open source LMSs, Moodle and
Sakai, are growing.
Don then showed the committee an estimated NAU LMS Selection and Migration Timeline that can
also be found on the PACAC web site. He said the older system we are currently on will need to be
available for incompletes for one year following our move to a new LMS. Migration, training, etc.
will take additional time, so 2011 is the target. He said any new course development next summer
will take place in the new LMS under this timeline.
PACAC Minutes for September 21, 2009 – Page 2
Provost’s Academic Computing Advisory Committee
Minutes for September 21, 2009
Joe Collentine said he is looking at developing new Spanish curriculum and will be developing in
HTML because he does not know what LMS will be used a couple years from now. Don said that
the e-Learning Center has always advocated course development outside of the LMS system. He
cautioned faculty about putting things into Learning Modules in Vista because it’s unclear whether
or not they’ll be in the new system.
The e-Learning Center will beta test Blackboard version 9.1 in November, and instances of Moodle,
Sakai, and Blackboard, version 9, are already up and running. Therefore, the e-Learning Center will
have a good idea of how to develop in any of these systems because of their experiences with the
new products. However, migration will be very different from their past experience with migrating
to Vista. There is now one online instance for every course and a total of about 4500 online courses
in Vista; it will be a much larger migration than last time.
Fred Estrella addressed a question from Joe Collentine about the cost of an open source project by
saying there would not be a lot of savings. He estimated the need for at least two more personnel for
a Moodle migration and said even the new Blackboard system did not have a good migration tool.
There will also be costs associated with faculty training. Student training will be needed, too.
Fred Estrella said the bottom line for NAU is now well over $100,000; this year we will pay
$180,000 for annual support costs to Blackboard. He said he is currently negotiating with
Blackboard since the current contract ends at the end of June next year, but has asked for prices for
1-year and 2-year contracts instead of locking into a 3-year contract.
Don Carter expressed his desire to make the decision based on choosing the best tool for NAU’s
teaching and learning environment. Fred agreed that the decision needs to be made based on what
the tool can provide. He said the funding for Vista has been moved to the Student IT Fee which was
increased last spring. He offered that the largest challenge is the timeline – will we have enough
time to look at the products to make the decision?
Don said the timeline needs some adjustment and will change over time. The next steps include:
 Forming a PACAC subcommittee
 Asking for volunteers outside of PACAC
 Coming up with criteria to be used for the selection process
His preference would be to make a decision by May but this could be difficult and needs to be
discussed. The 9.1 version of Blackboard will not be out until March or April, Moodle is coming
out with a new version, and so is Sakai.
Initial volunteers for the LMS subcommittee include:
Pattie Gibson
Chih Tu
Jill Koelling
Paul Wagner
Don Carter
John Campbell
Georgia Michalicek
PACAC Minutes for September 21, 2009 – Page 3
Provost’s Academic Computing Advisory Committee
Minutes for September 21, 2009
John Campbell nominated Don Carter as the Chair of the subcommittee. Don accepted the
nomination.
Identity Management Committee Charter
Chris Michels of Information Technology Services asked for the committee’s endorsement of the
Identity Management Committee Charter (IDMC,) which was linked on the PACAC web site under
Information, and sent to members for their review prior to the meeting. Identity management
includes determining how you get a userID, how to provision those userID’s, identity vetting, role
management, access management, and group management. Chris said identity management affects
a lot of people and crosses administrative and academic areas; no one area can really be responsible
for it. That’s the purpose of the IDMC – to coordinate those projects among all the players.
Fred asked the committee for a vote to endorse the IDMC Charter. Tom Carpenter made a motion to
endorse the charter, Jill Koelling seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Amend PACAC Charter to include Disability Resources
Fred asked the committee to add an appointment from the Disability Resources group as a
permanent member on PACAC. He said there is a need to have someone familiar with accessibility
issues and laws involved in the decision making processes, such as deciding on a new learning
management system. John Campbell added the Director of Disability Resources has agreed to name
a representative if approved.
Jill Koelling made a motion to approve the appointment, and Robert Alban seconded the motion.
The motion was approved.
Other business
Fred announced two new ITS projects:
1. ITS has purchased a new grants and contracts software package for research purposes. He
expects it will be up and running in late spring or early summer for use by researchers at
NAU. It will be an online tool and there will be a project web site created for more
information.
2. LOUIE (PeopleSoft) will be upgraded from version 8.9 to version 9.0. This upgrade is more
on the functional side and may impact Financial Aid, but the databases will not change this
time. We have to be off version 8.9 by June 2011. ITS is working collaboratively with the
other universities to cut the costs of conducting training.
PACAC Minutes for September 21, 2009 – Page 4