| LINKS | Academic
Computing Steering Committee (AcCSC) Minutes of
Meetings: Present: Batson, Boyer, Cossey, Keller, Klein, McFadden
Review of last week's minutes 1. Discussion of how the proposed Integrated Advising System (IAS) can help Union boost its retention and graduation rates. Better advising will help us guide students into courses and programs which best suit their needs, and help advisors detect potential problems early. Discussion over the best way to achieve online advising as soon as possible. The ad hoc system provided to Economics and Mechanical Engineering several years ago is not practical to extend to the full campus, because it is time-consuming to set up, and relies on the soon-to-be-discontinued Colleague 13 system. Colleague 16, which will go into operation in December, supports web-based advising and degree audit, but (as outlined in the IAS proposal) requires additional hardware, software licenses, and technical support. It is important for the AcCSC to help keep these needs a high priority. Charles Batson agreed strongly with the need for added technical support for faculty. 2. Tom McFadden asked about the status of the Masters in Bioethics proposal, and in particular what arrangements were being made to ensure that enrollees would have full access to library materials. He noted that this has implications for library staffing and funding, as well as requiring reliable internet connections for students studying at a distance. Doug Klein reported on the current status of the proposal. 3. Dave Cossey noted that the College had suffered a "denial of service" attack this (April 27th) morning, causing a disruption in our internet service. 4. Dave Cossey gave an overview of Union's #21 ranking in the Yahoo Internet Life survey of the nation's most wired colleges. He noted several areas where we may slip next year: a smaller percentage of computers less than two years old, because the Olin computers will not be in that category; not having online advising and registration (unless IAS is funded). Dave also noted that EDUCAUSE has responded to the Yahoo survey by publishing a consumers' guide to technology on campus, which can be found at: http://www.educause.edu/consumerguide. 5. Diane Keller handed out copies of "Institutional Readiness Criteria: Prerequisites to Large-Scale Course Redesign", by Carol Twigg from RPI. The article discusses what institutions need to do to integrate IT into the curriculum in a meaningful and effective way. 6. Doug Klein reviewed the plan to create 6 international virtual design studios (IVDS) in Olin 110, perhaps as early as this summer. The studios are funded by a grant from the Keck foundation, and will enable Union to expand the programs begun by Mechanical Engineering in its work on international design projects (which were cited in the Yahoo survey). The committee urges wide publicity of the impending availability of these facilities so that faculty across the curriculum can devise creative uses for them. Charles Batson asked for information about which remote foreign sites will have similar equipment to ours to permit full international communication and collaboration. 7. Doug Klein demonstrated the pilot project to make campus
forms available online. The project (under construction) is at: Next meeting: May 4, 2000, 3:30 pm, Olin 110 |
© 2000 Union College, Schenectady, New York |
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