Technology Advisory Council (TAC) Notes

February 5, 2009 Meeting Notes

Members Present: Warren Ashley, Ron Bergmann, Kim Clark, Mohammad Eyadat, Farah Fisher, Nathlyn Hirohama, Kazimierz Kowalski, Shon Lee, Sandra Parham, Marion Smith

Guests: Lynn Anderson, Stewart Baker, Doug Borcoman, Linda Goldman, Shirley Lal

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Ron Bergmann, CSUDH CIO and Acting Associate Vice President, Information Technology.

Strategic Plan - Ron Bergmann

A consultant has been hired to help the campus write the campuswide framework ("watershed model") for a new strategic plan. The framework will provide vision, mission, and goals. Plans written by entities such as this one will fit into the campuswide plan. Ron believes that technology has to be included in all plans and must thus be included in the campuswide framework.
Ron distributed "2009 Strategic Planning Initiative: A Planning Structure to Engage the Entire Community", a one page graphic showing the touchstones of students, staff, community, and faculty. Nine or ten people will synthesize the document into themes for which they will seek additional input.
The campuswide plan will be completed by the late spring, and other entities are to write their plans in the summer.
Ron indicates that it's important for this council to attend open forums, answer surveys, and encourage others to participate.

Semester Startup - Ron Bergmann

The IT Help Desk received thousands of calls at the start of the fall semester. The startup was complicated by the movement from Banner to PeopleSoft and the upgrade and integration of Blackboard. Consequently Ron extended help desk hours to 7 p.m. for three weeks around the start of the semester.
Happily the start of the spring semester was much smoother. Ron received no calls about Blackboard. The help desk now gets hundreds instead of thousands of calls, many of which are related to forgotten passwords. Auto-provisioning went into place in the fall and has helped the situation.
We have three LDAP servers, and we've asked Blackboard to point to more than one in the event of a server-failure. Consequently, Blackboard will go to a secure socket layer and the URL will change from "http://" to "https://". Linda Goldman asked Ron to send out communications (including e-mail and on the Blackboard home page) advising folks to change the Blackboard URL on their Favorites lists. However, there will be an automatic redirect from the http: location to the https: location.
When single signon comes, Blackboard will not require a separate login.
Stewart indicates that Robert Downs of the library is waiting for training. Ron says Robert needs to call the help desk unless it's urgent, in which case he should add a follow-up call to the appropriate director.
The student census is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Campus Internet Availability - Lynn Anderson

Yes, Lynn retired in December, and yes, Lynn is here on a part-time basis for a short time.
CSUDH is in the middle of the 2-year Internet Terminal Resources Project 2 (ITRP 2) project. The project is paid for by the Chancellor's Office (CO). We're in the early group of campuses to get the upgrade because we were in the early group to get ITRP 1 in 2000. The project includes switch upgrades for state-supported buildings. However, the jacks in use last year were the only ones upgraded, so you might find a dead jack in a classroom. We have about 7,000 jacks on campus, and something over 3,000 were in use last year. If you encounter a problem with a jack, contact the help desk giving the number on the jack.
Wireless Project
- So far campus wireless hotspots have been limited to common areas, not inside rooms, except for a few rooms in the College of Education. Now our vendor Aruba designed coverage for every floor of every building. Much of the work will be done by IT staff. The additions will start in SBS, NSM and LaCorte Hall because most of the faculty offices and classrooms are in those buildlings. Though staff members are busy with other duties, we hope this work will be done by the end of the summer.
- Ron asked Kim Clark to consider upgrading student housing wireless now.
- Kim and Linda indicate that basic instructions for using the CSUDH wireless network (GoToros) are needed.
- Linda asks how classroom assignments are done. She was assigned a classroom that had a plate over jacks.

Open Forum

Ron reports that Provost Ronald Vogel is well-informed on technology. They've talked about faculty laptops and smart classrooms. It costs about $10,000 to equip a classroom with a podium, laptop, projector, etc. It would cost about $2,200 to provide a projector, power supply, and a plug for a laptop. A podium could be added later for $5,000. The provost plans to use leftover budget money on smart classrooms.
The CO has struck a deal to provide Elluminate, a video conference program, to a campus for a one-year license fee of $2,800. Marge Gordon of Extended Education and Ron will split the cost. There's no limit on the number of events, but there can be a maximum of 25 seats in one room for the synchronous chat. The classroom can have a webcam and microphone or just a microphone. Warren anticipates getting a video to Elluminate server. The issue of accessibility was raised. Would the videos be captioned?
Computer standards for next year: Ron distributed the specifications for a Dell OptiPlex 760 Minitower, 12 of which he has ordered for the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). Please send your comments about the specifications to Ron. If he hears no objections, these specifications will become our recommended computer standard for next year.
Ron announced that Jeremiah Woolsey joins us Monday from the University of Quebec as director of Instructional Media Services.

Next meeting: Thursday, March 5, 2009