By Sonja Walti

In attendance: Simpson, Yates, March, Jee, Fernandez, Jackson, Carmel, Walti, Isaac, Ho

WordPress: Laura March shows how to use our WordPress site, esp. minutes,

• Add “/wp-admin” to get to the backend
• Enter the backend by picking a username and a password (adjusts along with AU password)
• Contact the chairs for the password to access the password protected “documents”

Photo use for Blackboard: up in the Senate (this Wed, 2 pm, Butler Board Room, open)

• WLC to refer to
• Univ. of Missouri, St. Louis
• London School of Economics
• Terry: OIT very supportive, remaining question whether to do this piecemeal, along with other photo requests or whether to roll it into a broader effort of managing photos; what source of authority to use; student life has access to ID photos, Dean’s office will benefit too; will probably be implemented this academic year already.

Access to AU website

• Laura reporting, doesn’t know of a particular group
• Some current diagnostic tools one can use: wave.webaim.org (type our web address in and examine assessment); also allows you to download something into a toolbar that will help spot issues “along the way” (e.g. while updating Blackboard pages for example)
• Erran: Re compliance, how “deep” do we need to go? Laura: Would include faculty producing webpages. Terry: Not every flag would indicate we’re out of compliance. Clement: Most of the big vendors are assumed to be compliant.
• Chris at one point contacted Terry Flannery (who leads a committee monitoring, updating)
• We could forward the diagnostic to get some simple fixes made
• We could double-check that “accessibility” is included in the service contract re the new website
• Chris: Write a letter to Terry Flannery on behalf of CIS. Agreed. Chris will start (Brian, Ann, Laura, Student will take a second look) and aim to draft a letter some time before the next meeting.

Clement Ho: reporting on library activity, esp. with regard to open questions with online teaching

• Clement: effort to standardize distance education
• Alan: goal is “standard compliance” of platforms, not “standardization of platforms”, which equates to “lock-in”

ATSC, this Friday 2pm, somewhere in the Library: on E-Portfolios

• Who’ll be there this week: Monica for sure, also Erran, Clement, Chris
• Alan: our BYOD suggestions need checking on; Monica: it went forward but in different wording (trouble with VPN access for widely used scientific platform) – Monica will look for final wording

Other units

• SOC: effort to include Turnitin into Blackboard (existing policy: faculty can but are not obliged to use it)
• OIT: big initiative: end of support for Windows XP (end of spring 2014, possibly extended until August), still 1500 XP machines still in circulation, many of which can be retired (not active on the network); schools are urged to make replacement of XP machines a top priority (will bring up a message); XP will be denied a login
• Phishing: fix on our webpage to avoid phishing and divert users to replica website (direct fund deposits were diverted in such an attack)

Wrap-up

• December 13 ATSC meeting: dedicated to LMS
• Next semester’s ATCS topics (Monica will forward those to Sonja)
• Sonja will compile topics & dates we had decided on at the last meeting

By Erran Carmel

In attendance: Yates, Fernandez, Smith, Carmel, Walti, Davenport, Simpson Hayden, March, Lee

• New student rep joined
• Hayden will set up WordPress for committee
• ATSC report  on VCL, Andresen usage.
• Chris reported he will try to have CIS report to senate rather than budget comm
• Carmel will write draft proposal on photos onto Bb
• Accessibility. Some debate on whether AU is in compliance. To be discussed more. Committee will reach out to others including Cogburn.
• Davenport gave us slide show on library move.
• LMS – will be covered in December meeting

Recorded by:  by Nancy Davenport

The majority of the meeting was devoted to determining the topics the committee would explore over the academic year.  The following list of issues were chosen by the assembly using the guidelines of : Can it be done in one year?  Will it be influential politically? Will it have impact on the campus?

Software licensing –  can the committee recommend a strategy that would better ensure all products on campus are the same version, that purchases are bundled for best prices,   are available to faculty and students free of charge, and are virtualized when possible.

LMS –  the evaluation would look at support for the virtual classroom, at  positive benefits for teaching and learning, would meet accessibility standards, would support MOOCs as well as other online teaching.

Accessibility — are all the information services, including any website, accessible to all students and faculty?   Are all the facilities one might have to use to access the technology accessible?

Other topics that were raised for consideration but not moved to the action list include:   platform dependence ( Microsoft products) mobile pedagogy,  Airplay, classroom technology, word press, the library move in 2015 – 2016, privacy, and the AU website.