Minnesota State University, Mankato
Learning & Technology Roundtable
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
CSU 238
Present: Queen Booker, Marcius Brock, Becky Copper-Glenz, Diane Coursol, Yvette Dulohery, Jianwei Hou,
Catherine Hughes, Avra Johnson, Mark Johnson, Ted Johnson, Sarah Koenen, Peg Lawrence, Gary McKinley,
Danae Quirk Dorr, Steve Robinson, Bryan Schneider, Wayne Sharp, Steve Smith, Julie Snow, Gary Urban, and
Steve Vassar.
Absent: Brett Anderson, Evan Bibbee, Ron Browne, Jan Eimers, Jennifer Guyer-Wood, Brian Jones, Joan
Roca, Tom Williams
Guest: John Banschbach, MSU – English; Darrel Huish, MnSCU Vice Chancellor & Chief Information
Officer; Marty Mitchell, MSU – Geography; Carolyn Parnell, CIO - Technical Services, Office of the
Chancellor; Fey Yuan, MSU – Geography;
Co-chair Vassar called the meeting to order at 2:03 p.m. He welcomed Darrel Huish, MnSCU Vice Chancellor
& Chief Information Officer. Jianwei Hou was introduced as the new representative from the College of
Business.
Announcements & Upcoming Events/Conference (FYI)
• LTR Meetings fall semester: 11/30 (CSU 238)
• Other Announcements
OLD BUSINESS
• Approval of Minutes of 10/5/10/10 [LTR minutes posted at: http://mnsu.edu/ltr/ltrinfo.html]
A motion was made to approve the minutes of October 5, 2010 as written. Seconded and carried.
• EDUCAUSE Debriefing (J. Roca & B. Schneider) – Bryan Schneider reported that he focused on
“cloud computing” at the EDUCAUSE Conference. He said that this term is widely used and it is
comparable to yesterday’s outsourcing. There are services such as Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail and
others. MSU may be looking at doing the same type of thing with our student mail. There were success
stories shared related to cost saving. We need to remember that there may be outages and we should
maintain a relationship with the vendor. We will continue to work on this over the next few years.
The ECAR (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research) Survey has published their findings for the year.
Web-based use of technology has arrived. Mobile web applications are growing. Instructors tend to
need training in technology. Students need training in technology. As online courses continue to
increase, IT Services needs to be reliable.
Bryan attended a session on collaboration in classrooms. He said that the classroom was constructed of
white board including the floors, tables and walls. One challenge to this type of learning environment is
the ability to record information before it is erased. He stated that they were taking digital images of the
data to preserve it.
There was collaboration with students in other locations such as Australia, Singapore and Paris using a
video device similar to Skype. This was an experience that will allow students to collaborate with others
in the world. Bryan reported that there weren’t any infrastructure problems with this type of technology
because the resolution was low. He said that there were some delays on the screen and individuals
LTR Minutes 11/02/10
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sometimes talked over one another. That was solved by signaling to the other party that you were
finished talking.
•
LTR Faculty meeting: The faculty group of the LTR met a few weeks ago. Some issues that were
discussed include: 1) How do we improve communication with faculty? 2) What software exists and
what is needed? How do we go about acquiring new software? 3) There should be a link to Graduate
Research on the MSU homepage as well as Admission forms. 4) A faculty resource page would be
helpful. 5) Direction on where faculty should go to find the new and exciting software. 6) E-textbooks.
7) Help Desk Call Clarification and 8) VCRs in classrooms. Mark Johnson explained that if faculty
notice that there is not a VCR in a classroom and one is needed, they should make the request to IT to
get one ordered. VCRs are not a technology that people are investing in right now but we can still get
them. It was also discussed that videos are more expensive to purchase when they are available in
streaming format. We also should discuss where we could host a terminal for students to request videos
online. The next Faculty LTR meeting will be announced.
•
TelePresence – Reactions, feedback, recommendation (VP Johnson) - Mark Johnson requested
feedback from the presentation. It seems that there is a lot of interest in this technology. IT has met
with the Cisco Sales and Marketing people and is trying to negotiate a discount on these products. Sarah
Koenen announced that there is student interest but they are getting impatient. They would like to see a
decision and progress made soon.
Mark Johnson suggested possible partnerships for MSU with St. Paul Schools, Inver Hills, Century
College and possibly Mesabi Range Engineering. Another suggestion was to partner teaching courses
with 7700 France. TelePresence would be a good solution to putting courses online that need some
face-to-face time.
•
Tech Fee Subcommittee – LTR Members needed (B. Schneider) – Bryan made a plea for participation
from LTR members on the Technology Fee Subcommittee. Diane Coursol, Jianwei Hou and Julie Snow
will participate. If you are interested, please let Bryan know. This committee will be convened after the
participants are identified. Sarah Koenen has interested students on board. There will be six meetings
of this group.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Updates from MSU, Mankato Faculty on Past MnSCU IT Grants
Wayne Sharp introduced Marty Mitchell and Fey Yuan from the Geography department. They received
an $18,500 IT grant. An article was published in June. The study has been worked into three separate
courses and they have also had a master’s thesis come out of it as well. The project was in conjunction
with the National Park System. The Black Hills field data provided high resolution satellite imagery and
has improved the curriculum.
John Banschbach from English spoke of their project. The request was for online English education
courses. It was directed at people that wanted to change careers.
The MnSCU funding will be $5.2 million this year. The distribution of funds may have changed.
2. ITS Update Report (VP Johnson)
Mark Johnson provided an ITS update. He will be posting a summary of the updates for review. The
powerpoint updates are posted at: http://www.mnsu.edu/its/about/interaction.html.
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3. Update from MnSCU ITS: Current & Future Projects (D. Huish & Guests)
Darrel Huish thanked the LTR for allowing him to be present at the meeting. He introduced himself and
also explained that he was an amateur singer/songwriter and that presentations were available on
YouTube. He stated that he would be speaking on the vision of MnSCU, how they position themselves
during the budget cuts and the future of D2L.
Darrel explained that centralized IT is not broken but it needs more time to mature. MnSCU is only 15
years old and they have been doing things ad hoc. They need to replicate the processes to drive errors out
of the system. The plan is to focus a fair amount of time to align the new MnSCU (a new Chancellor
coming in and the Trustees manipulating the variables of the program). Their involvement places a new
set of demands on MnSCU. The Trustees are interested in: a. Students First (John Eichten, Director); b.
Responsiveness to Legislative Auditor, and c. Develop service delivery strategy for the system.
There are budget constraints at MnSCU. Under the direction of the Chancellor, they are trying to
position themselves in front of the cuts. They have reviewed all of the programs. MnSAT is high quality
but does not deliver to the core mission. They will be eliminating the 3rd shift staffing but some people
will remain on call. The Project Management Office staff will be cut in half. 17 FTE (approximately 18
people) will be receiving lay off notices that are being finalized now. There are no gimmicks. This is
real people with real programs. Consultant use has decreased substantially.
D2L – MnSCU issued a RFP for IMS replacement but this process has been put on hold. There are
unanswered questions about the parameters and boundaries of this environment. We do not know how
long the vendors will offer services. We will have about 6 or 7 years to recover the investment. Faculty
issues with D2L must be taken into consideration. MSU faculty seem to be impressed with D2L and how
it runs. MnSCU is D2L’s largest customer. It is possible that faculty could help D2L move forward to
better their product. Dawn Leech is the MSU participant on the IMS Advisory Council. The LTR
faculty should form a subgroup to take a position on D2L.
Darrel encouraged the LTR to contact him at anytime.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:42 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by: Julie Dornack LTR Minutes 11/02/10
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