-+Discussion+notes,+April+12th+2011

=AGENDA=

o Welcome - 5 min. o Updates on any communication with colleagues at other university - 10 min. o Identification of items of concern - 30 min. Challenges or obstacles to putting course on-line + Technical issues? + Pedagogical issues? + Resource issues? + Conceptual issues? + Philosophic issues? + Scheduling issues? + Logistics issues? + Shared structure vs. diverse approaches o Tasks for the coming months - 10 min o Next meeting time - 5 min

=Actions items=


 * Steve to send UiA specs on the VM used in the labs.
 * Janis to post some assignments, etc. to the wikispaces. for IS 209 and IS 303 (in Norwegian - can be translated).
 * Steve to further develop of CIST 4370 with Spring 12 online offering as a target.
 * Peter look into opening ISQA 4300 for Norwegian students Fall 11.

=Next meeting:= Tuesday, May 10, 07:00 / 14:00

=Updates=

George. Discussion of IS 303. Impressed with depth of course. ISQA 4380 less in depth and a bit broader, focusing on business process automation, service-oriented architecture. Some of our computer science majors might find it very valuable. Some of the students in ISQA 4380 don't have has much background in development.

Janis: Impressed with details of assignments in ISQA 4380. Good pedagogy. In IS 303 students mainly design their own assignment, proceeding through the system development lifecycle. I try to use material from other courses, systems analysis & design (SAD) course, but applying SAD to distributed systems. Usually a simple distributed system, consolidating material from various web sites, using middleware. Students start with theoretical concepts and then apply them, then reflect on those theoretical concepts. There are lots of in depth questions in the assignments in ISQA 4380. That course focuses more on business issues.

Steve: CIST 4350 and CIST 4370 used to be Linux, and Linux + security. CIST 4380 is now Secure System Administration using Linux; CIST 4370 is Secure System administration using Windows.

Janis: What could be a contribution from UNO side is the Windows security part in particular. Students have requested more on Windows, while Janis is focused on Linux. IS 209 was developed originally for teachers to get them up to speed on system administration for schools. Now offered as 5 ECTS for students. In recent years have adopted material from Free Software Foundation. IS 209 was last offered in Fall 2010. GNU license. There are some assignments that can also be posted to the Wiki.

Steve: Teaching Linux is a bit easier, since there are no licensing issues. In Windows, we focus more on the command line. Many students have never seen the command line.

Janis: We use the DBN version of Linux. In intro course we use ArchLinux. Can start with a very tiny installation, and go step-by-step.

Steve: We are using Ubuntu because there are more books on this version, and more support in the virtual machines. We try to do our things in an isolated lab environment, not connected to the Internet, so it is harder to get updates, both with Windows & Linux.

Janis: We have similar problem with IT services, which doesn't support Linux. Students install distribution on machines in labs or their own. Use Virtual box. Another issue is how much you want to introduce other system, e.g. Red Hat. But introducing other packages is too much for the time in the class. Therefore focus on DBN. Some students installing Ubuntu on their laptops.

=Challenges=

George: I'm offering ISQA 4380 on-line for this first time this semester. Use Camtasia quite a bit. Post this on web site. For the students, they sign into Blackboard. Would we select a common location for students? Where is the "blackboard equivalent" for students when there are Norwegian students in the class?

Peter/Hallgeir: Students taking the courses at the other university would be treated as exchange students. With this status, they are given access to the course management system.

Janis: if we are teaching a course collaboratively. Which system do we use?

Peter: We can use a number of different content management systems. Blackboard, Fronter are used mainly for grading & posting some files. Course content may be in wikis, etc.

George: I also use some external blogs, etc.

Steve: wrt Windows. Which version? We'd like to transition to Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008..

Hallgeir: During the next year will use Windows 7.

=Schedule.=

Calle: Arne B. is a part-time teacher. His material for IS 204 is in Norwegian. He has limited time. Probably the best for him would be to offer a version in Norway in Fall 2011 and an on-line version in Spring 2012. That way he could develop material at the same time as he's teaching in Fall 2011.

Also touches on resources available for development.

Janis: IS 303 could be available in Spring 2012, depending on the level. If you don't have any on-line lectures, you'd have to be text-only.

Calle: For the UiA department, the funding is a little bit shorter in time. If we want to give a choice to the students..if we have too long a project period, some students wouldn't benefit from it. But it depends on how much time the instructor has available.

Steve: Will be teaching CIST 4350 Fall 2011. CIST 4370 in Spring '12. Will be working on it over the summer. One of the challenges will be that we'll still need someone there to help students with installation.

Calle. We'll need to see what lab availability we'll have. A place with adminsitrative rights.

Steve. It's all virtual machines. We've be using VMware. We have an adjunct who is an expert in that area. The challenge was getting the IT support to allow students to have administrative privileges on the virtual machine.

Calle : Steve, could you please send specifications on how you do this?