College Technology Committee

Tuesday, September 19, 2006 2:30 P.M.
HTC1-124 - Teleconference Room

Meeting Agenda

I. Welcome & Introductions

II. Announcements & Reports 

III. Current Topics

• Technology Assessment Taskforce
• GCC Website
• Flowchart of Technology Departments
• Smartboards
• Hybrid-Online Courses
• Wiki Student Accounts
• Process for Software requesting, approving and implementing

IV. New Issues

Minutes

I. Everyone introduced themselves and James welcomed the group.

II. The following reports were given:

LMC - Frank Gonzalez gave an update about ezproxy authentication for viewing movies and digital publications. He noted that this new digital media collection promoted online and distance learning. Questions about bandwidth requirements and network performance were raised, but no conclusive answers could be given at present; it was recommended that the topic (of bandwidth use issues) should be explored next month; students can access the digital publication collection from the main Library page http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/lmc/ under "Books and Media" link.

OIT - KC Hundere dovetailed his report with Frank's to initially address bandwidth issues. He noted that some performance problems are alleviated with the use of "bandwidth shaping", or prioritized/regulated internet traffic to particular sites. As an example, District banned myspace and youtube websites the other day and performance increased significantly. However, some service issues were raised such as: is District making decisions without asking us (the campuses) about our needs?; as of yesterday 9/18, we have told them to unblock those urls - in response they gave back limited access to those sites.  We need to have a discussion about priorities - obviously increasing bandwidth is a major issue, however, we seem to eat up anything they give us (demand inevitably exceeding supply); do we also want to look at bandwidth restrictions for some sites as the District is doing? Or, do we want to establish our own connections to the internet (maybe more reliable especially with online & distance learning support needs); but this type of initiative will compete with salaraies and other funding priorities. Are we the only ones to run into this? No, first heard about it from Estrella - maybe we should discuss it among the campuses; are the resoures limited? we can still do what we need to on campus - our network is fine/fast; what are other campuses and universities doing? We need to identify a process to work through those decisions - a subcomittee from CTC would help. It was noted to include students from ASG in the process.

Comments and questions about bandwidth are noted:
Marla Desoto: is increasing bandwith expensive? maybe we cough up some of our own cash? - even though we dont have a budget line dedicated for it?;

Scott Kozak: what will it take to accomodate an increasing demand? to stay on the "cutting edge" we need to develop a strategy and a plan that doesn't limit students; like the DPUP (Data Projector Upgrade Plan) was collaboratively developed to stay ahead of the curve and allocate resources effectively to answer all the needs;

KC: we have a full pocket of money to fund the DPUP because of the bond; however, in the case of operational dollars and the bandwith discussion, funding is expected to go down and this will be a factor to consider;

James Abraham: we will schedule a meeting in two weeks (an all call CTC meeting) to explore the options.

KC continued with his report saying that Rich Lang would be going back to District in the next few days. He stated that Rich has done a fabulous job here and is going to be missed. Other topics included the newly revised GCC Help page that includes a view of open workorders. Everyone was encouraged to use the page to check on the status of workorders they have called into the Helpdesks. KC referred to a printed handout of recent open eGCC workorders. Also distributed were handouts on budget figures from the Network Redesign Project and the initial GCIS Executive Summary acknowledging the TAT Report findings and recommendations.

Innovation Center - Jim Daugherty updated everyone about the shortage of staff in the dept due to maternity/paternity leaves, and ongoing network projects. He asked everyone to please be patient when calling to the Innovation Center for assistance.

III. The following topics were discussed:

TAT Update - it was noted that since their report had been published, the TAT committee was no longer actively meeting. It was noted that no formal recommendations were mentioned in the report re: the approximate $200,000 set aside (at the request of VP Sherman; see dl-gc memo titled Penultimate CRC recommendation from CRC Chair Gary Calderone dated November 2, 2005). The question was raised as to whether a recommendation would come from Administration; it was noted that CRC had also committed to reconvening to evaluate any recommendations re: spending as a result of the TAT findings. Please see the CRC Recommendation 2006-2007 document.

GCC Website - James asked about the progress of the Website Advisory Committee (assembled during the Spring semester at the direction of then Interim President Jean Abel to focus page layout/content on recruitment/retention of more students). It was noted that there is a group from A&R and Marketing working on the main page and student portion of the site, and their work will be made available for review soon; however, that hasn't happened yet, so for now we are continuing with what already exists. It was noted that the comitttee seemed to have changed focus and stopped meeting; a recommendation was relayed that the committee should get together to come to a consensus to move forward; by December 31, 2006 we need to have a new site ready to go.

Other comments and recommendations made:
Marla: recommends revisiting the layout design that Bobby Sample presented to the CTC in April '06 since it was well received. She suggested Bobby's work be considered when determining a course of action.

It was noted that Marketing has created microsites for its own purposes of recruitment - maricopachoices.com - and all ten colleges have supported that.

KC: stated that the college's main web server needed to be restructured as part of the network redesign project. He mentioned that there should be an agreement from the college on how things are organized - he cited 350 individual directories with no one pruning or maintaining continuity, and as a result, it has overgrown over the past 15 years. He indicated that the new web directory structure should keep in line with what is being done with the shared course folders. He stated that GCIS would like to come forward with a directory structure recommendation to whatever group will be reviewing this topic.

Marla: recommended a new websteering subcommittee of the CTC be formed. Marie Villarba, Marla Desoto, Jim Daugherty, Jeremy Bessee and BJ Jacobs volunteered as the initial members. They will involve the existing campus web groups and committees as well as department webmasters. It was noted that department webmasters are supposed to be representatives to the CTC, but there hasn't been substantial support/participation in this. A suggestion was noted that maybe webmaster responsibilites should be passed on to another department employee willing to attend and become involved in CTC if current webmasters indicated that they did not have time/desire to do so.

Flowchart of Technology Departments - the question was raised about how to route problems/issues through the Technology departments (GCIS). KC stated that the Helpdesks are the primay point of contact. All calls are logged as workorders and routed (and/or escalated) to the appropriate technical area for resolution. It was noted that routing information through the Helpdesks is a strategic intake process that is vital to the resolution of error reports, and the follow-through of GCIS customer service. Also, the GCC Help page provides a way to view up-to-the-minute progress on workorder requests. A comment in response to KC's remarks was noted: "there is no accountability that way".

Smartboards - Jim D. stated that demos are available in the Faculty Connection Center (FCC) and the Innovation Center; the small one is checked out at the moement, but the big one is in HT2-149. If you would like one for your department, remember to include it in the budget request for this year. They are not terribly expensive - about $1,000. Just a reminder that department budget requests are due by Friday, September 29.

Hybrid/Online Courses - Jim D. says they are in the process of finding a person to provide leadership, planning and continuity, and are getting ready to fill a position titled Hybrid/Online Coordinator. For details about the position, please contact Jim. It was noted that Mike Aragon's online student start page is being updated; faculty will need to make sure their content is current by contributing to the page. For assistance with updating information, please contact Mike.

Wiki Student Accounts - John Kakritz responded to questions about the status of wiki server development by saying that he was not sure of the order of the college's priorities and deferred to those still directly involved in the network redesign project. KC stated it has been troublesome to integrate the Confluence software that runs the wiki with Active Directory; however, he expected to have it done before the end of the semester. Part of the issue is the need to reinstall the software from scratch. Toni [McClory] stated that she needed to be able to plan on this resource for next semester - will it be available? Roger Siggs responded that, to date, the wiki has been a pilot project, and expectations have not been cleary set - nor a strategic plan set in place. Marla and Toni reiterated that they just needed to know when...

Software Process - it was noted that a process does exist to request, approve, and distribute/install software; however, the mechanisms across support areas seems disconnected. Part of the problem remains that there are extremely limited resources to implement a seamless solution at this time. A draft of the internal workflow to process software does exist on the wiki: [SoftwareProcessing].

REMINDERS

The Next Regular CTC Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 16th at 2:30pm in the HT1-Teleconference Room.

Be on the look out for the next special CTC meeting to discuss bandwidth, and updates from the CRC about TAT recommendations.

Attendance

Jeremy Bessee, Technology; Susan Campbell, Technology; Fernando Garcia, Technology; Lori Foster, The Institute; Dee Dee Denslow, GCC North; Toni [McClory], Social Science; Fernando Camou, Academic Affairs; José Aguiñaga, LMC; Lori Bush, Procurement; Dorene Kessler, OIT; Jennifer [McCormick], OIT; Josh Krek, OIT; Theresa Hilding, OIT; Steve Smith, OIT; Roger Bontrager, OIT; Bill Stewart, BIT; Gary Marrer, BIT; Jim Daugherty, Innovation Center; Marie Villarba, Chemistry; Roger Siggs, Innovation Center; Don Smith, Music; BJ Jacobs, Psychology; Mark Edgar, Innovation Center; John Kakritz, Instructional Computing; Preston Bennes, OIT; Ken Macleish, Math; Frank Gonzalez, LMC; Kim Smith, Chemistry; Marla Desoto, English; Justin Bruce, OIT; Jennifer Jakes, OIT; Matt Ashcraft, Research Services; KC Hundere, OIT; Ellen Neal, Financial Aid; Dennis Topel, Instructional Computing; James Abraham, Foreign Language/Communications; Amber Medrano, OIT