Meeting Minutes – Academic Computing Users Group (ACUG)
March 24, 2005
Members Present: Victor Alatorre, Mark Dishaw, Nick Dvoracek, Barbara Fahey, Penny
Garcia, Gueorgui Gueorguiev, Joan Hart, Laura Knaapen, Ken Liske,
Sue Schierstedt
Members Absent: Garry Briscoe, Rick DCamp, Thomas Fischer, , Jeff Herzig, Todd
Kostman, Brian Ledwell, Lynda Lord, Peter Morgan, Ken Splittgerber,
Stephanie Stewart, Dawn Vreven, Patti Wild
Others Present:
John Berens, Dan Hoyt, Jerry Jacklin, AnnMarie Johnson, Randy
Loch, Dan Petersen, Ann Powell, Bruce Schierstedt
Laura started the meeting at 8:00am
Questions on Berens or Knaapen Reports
What did you learn from the power outage? The power outage caused problems with
maintaining network connections between the servers, their storage and administrator
work stations. We couldn’t log into the Novell or Windows servers to shut them down.
AnnMarie was wondering what they can do to prepare D2L for the August electrical
shutdown. D2L can’t be used during the electrical shutdown which is a problem for the
accelerated nursing program. Nick suggested that we change them temporarily to non
Oshkosh students and they will be able to use D2L. The students will have to change
their password temporarily. Ann Marie and Nick will work on a message to send out to
the students. Ken has put in a request for a room generator for the email and network
server, but we will not have it by this August.
IT Plan
John handed out a draft of the IT plan. This is one of 7 operational plans requested by the
Chancellor. The chancellor wants a first draft by this mid April.
The plans will be reviewed over the summer; there will then be an open forum closer to
when they are being finalized.
There is not a mention of MIO in the draft that John handed out, but they will be
incorporated.
Would you like us to send an annotated copy to you? Yes. If you have time to share
with other colleagues to get some input that would be good.
This is just the first draft. The chancellor will review.
This is the IT plan for the University as a whole. The library has their own plan; Barbara
Fahey will bring a draft to the next meeting.
Student Tech Fee
John handed out a list of the 2005-2006 Student Technology Fee proposals. We received
about the same number of proposals, but the funds requested are significantly less then
prior years.
The Student Technology Fee Committee meets Friday, April 8th. There are clearly
enough funds, so they will have to decide if they would like to fund them all.
Any unspent money left from this year will be rolled over to next year. It is possible that
we could consider a second round of proposals in fall. We can pre spend the Student
Technology Fee money; so that we have the new equipment when the students return in
Fall.
John will let ACUG know what the Student Technology Committee decided to fund.
Standardization of Classroom Response Systems
Nick handed out a sheet explaining the eInstruction Student Response System. Nick
showed an old student response system from 1996 that wasn’t used that much. The old
system was tied to just one specific computer, and it cost $25,000; to upgrade the
software it would cost $1700.
In the Fall of 2003 Maureen Muldoon submitted a Class Modernization proposal to
install a new student response system in Halsey. The proposal was funded and the
response system was installed last fall.
With eInstruction students purchase a remote for $4.25 and pay a $15 a semester
registration fee; the student can receive a discount if they purchase a brand new book.
Remotes from other vendors typically cost about $35-$40, but the students didn’t have to
pay a registration fee.
The other software was more difficult to use, and made it harder for faculty to move data
to other computers.
The way the students view that their response was received was different on the other
system. The PRS and HIIT showed it received the information in the order it was
received by displaying a code; which the student had to search for. In eInstruction they
have a designated spot on a grid for each student.
The technical support for eInstruction is much better than any of the other vendors.
Four faculty adopted technology in the fall and an additional 4 this semester.
Maureen Muldoon asked her students if they felt that the use of CPS was beneficial to
their learning. The majority of the students felt that it was beneficial to their learning.
A Lab Modernization proposal has been approved to install receivers in the remaining six
lecture halls.
Each instructor who adopts the system is given a receiver which will work for up to 80
users.
eInstruction offers a standardization plan. If we would agree to the standardization plan
students will get a discount on the registration fee; with out the plan the fee would still be
$15. With the standardization plan the first year fee will be $10, and then 12$ if the
adoption is less than 20%. With the standardization plan there are also discounts on
receivers; which will save about $1000 on equipment for the remaining lecture halls.
Another issue is the new radio frequency technology that was released after we adopted
the infrared system. The radio frequency system supports up to 1000 users, and it can
accept 1000 responses in 7 seconds. Radio frequency doesn’t require line of sight, and it
doesn’t have any interference with light like the infrared system does. The radio
frequency system allows 12 character numeric responses. A down side to radio frequency
is that the remotes cost $16.40. The book store will buy used radio frequency remotes
back for $8.20. The book store doesn’t buy back the infrared remotes.
Students were asked if they thought the cost of the current system was reasonable; 85%
said that it wasn’t reasonable. Most students think the system is beneficial, but they don’t
want to pay that much for it.
Radio frequency has a 2.0 band width so it doesn’t interfere with wireless networks.
Purdue has the radio frequency system installed in every class room, and they have not
had any problems, and Arizona State has also tested it. Chris will receive a model to test.
The remotes for the radio frequency system are registered to a specific receiver; so there
will be no interference with other receivers.
The advantage of student response systems is that the students are more attentive.
A disadvantage is that the instructor can’t cover as much material, because it is more like
a discussion instead of a lecture.
The remote automatically expires and can’t be shared between students.
Items from the Floor
Next week is National Library week, and there is a book sale in the library on Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Meeting adjourned at 8:55 a.m.