-+Discussion+notes,+May+3,+2012

May 3, 2012

Recording: []

(1) IT Administration Certificate
 * discussed in the ISQA faculty. Lots of enthusiasm for it. The only questions were around mechanical things, how students register etc. Unanimously approved here, and also by the IS&T Academic Committee.

(2) Experiences with online courses this spring ISQA 4380 (George).
 * Now goes to UNO. The chart needs to be rewritten so that people who are not familiar with the European system and our partnership work can understand it. Board of Regents. Moving.

- We need to simplify the "on-boarding" process. Once that happens, got into good rhythm of working. Week starts with video greeting, something due every week (in this class, system integration problems get progressively more complex.

- Contact with UiA student was via email, Blackboard. Good experience overall. Saturday office hours starts 7am, on Skype, which worked well with time difference.. Ad hoc communication via Skype ("if I'm green, skype me")

- UiA student was "group of one," his main concern was time zone difference. Final presentations were sometimes on-campus, others with 4-way skype presentation.

- Overall experience very positive. The UiA student was very patient with the on-boarding, but we should do better. How about a target of one week to get this done? The more resistance we place in front of people, the less likely they will be to adopt.

- Mutual uses Kaizan event to resolve these problems - get the right people in the room, discuss the current process, come up with ideas to resolve, assign resources to get it done, follow up. This also helps to share the sense of urgency.

- Hardest part was getting UNO netid and email. IS 203 (Peter)

- Eugene was also in Peter's class and was a "group of one". We will need to address the transatlantic groups issue in future.

- Class was all UiA students, as there is overlap between the UNO and UiA and students have not been taking both.

- Weekly rhythm:


 * meet Mondays in 90-minute synchronous meeting in Adobe Connect for any students who choose to show up (around 12 to 18 do so) - discuss material, work through any questions or issues, work problems similar to homework assignments, help clarify expectations. All students used chat to communicate, not audio/video. Sessions were recorded and links posted in Fronter.


 * put detailed assignment expectations on Fronter.

- There are teaching assistants on site at UiA who are students who have taken the course before, to help onsite. Challenge is communicating quickly and clearly enough to TAs so they can provide consistent guidance. This model of local TAs might be a recurring pattern for the other courses. (3) Looking forward - Fall 2012 classes
 * we have 1 UNO student wants to take IS 204 in fall, UiA does not have enough as of now. Most likely IS 204 will be once a year, in spring. Decision not made yet but probability for fall is low.


 * ISQA 4300, Peter's DB Admin class is this fall. Students at UiA who have taken 203 get half the credits for ISQA 4300.


 * George's class is spring only, so this fall we will just have the DB class. Let's consider in future whether 4380 should become a fall course

(4) Getting 4350 & 4370 online (Steve)
 * Hallgeir will check whether Janis' 209 course will be online this fall.
 * Should we have both Windows version and Linux version, or is one preferred over the other? Hallgeir recommends both. Fall is Linux, Windows is in spring, currently. Would be reasonable to have Windows version online by Spring 2013.


 * Bill Mahoney will be teaching starting fall, in addition to Steve. We may want to get him more involved in online development. Let's use some of our funds for this - confer with Steve offline.

(5) Recognizable Elements (6) ACTION ITEMS a. UNO - rework the process for getting the UiA students into our system
 * Some of the challenges with virtual labs will be tested and solved in a freshman-level class in fall, which will help for use in other classes.
 * pattern of interaction with instructors - e.g., how frequently is instructor available, when is the instructor available, frequency and nature of meetings with instructor
 * on-boarding process
 * organization of the learning management system
 * local teaching assistants

b. UNO - keep moving the certificate through the approval process

c. Peter - continue to be in contact with Steve and Ann for getting system administration classes online for fall

d. Hallgeir - let Peter know if any students are interested in taking DB class in fall Next meeting of the large group will be scheduled for fall.