NJEDge.Net - The New Jersey Higher Education Network

DLAAB Meeting - June 14, 2001

Minutes & Addendum

Site: Middlesex County College

Lunch began at 12:30pm

Meeting called to order at 1:15pm

Attendees:
B. Solomon, Burlington CC; R. Hamilton, St. Peter’s College; E. Spaldo, Fairleigh Dickinson U; B. Richards, Middlesex CC; S. Prupis, NJEDge.Net; M. Kolitsky, Rowan; D. Prisco, College of St. Elizabeth; R. Loneker, College of St. Elizabeth; G. Carroll, NJEDge.Net; G. Laskaris, NJEDge.Net; M. Kassop, Bergen CC; L. Diane Cambpell, Mercer CC; J. O'Brien, Monclair SU; P. Shapiro, WPUNJ

Agenda Items:
1) Thanks to Brian Richards for hosting the meeting and serving a great lunch!
2) Introductions - Participants introduced themselves around the table.
3) Updates:

NJEDge.Net - G. Laskaris
Out of 45 Higher Educational Institutions, 37 have subscribed to the new network (NJEDge.Net). This obviously has assisted in gaining the best economy of scale for the state with regard to pricing. Now we move toward implementation. Challenges of getting there - video and data infrastructure teams are working together. We are currently planning a series of seminars to assist each campus that has signed up to plan for the implementation phase of the new network.

Other Developments -
In striving for cost savings and maximum interface, NJEDge.Net explored the possibility of merging with the Access NJ system. Out of these discussions, it was determined that NJEDge.Net will be a separate system, but will be easily linked to Access NJ as the two systems will be housed in the same space at Verizon. On the cost savings side, NJEDge.Net has been in discussion regarding some potential grants from Verizon. Two grant concepts have emerged and may be placed on the agenda of the Council of Presidents final meeting of the year: A) Equipment based grant designed to cover some of the expensive core equipment for the network. This grant could potentially be for as much as 2.8 million dollars; B) Content development grant constructed to offer money for collaborative efforts among higher educational institutions to develop programming for and to engage in cooperative projects with the K-12 community. It is also possible that NJEDge.Net would be asked to manage this grant.

NJEDge.Net continued - G. Carroll
George spoke about the opportunities to collaborate with the K-12 sector. DLAAB and the VRG are interested in this type of outreach.

The work of the VRG and EATF was reviewed. It was noted that Phyllis Pickens of Ramapo College will be retiring and ending her eight years of leadership of the EATF. The DLAAB acknowledged with gratitude Phyllis’ leadership and expressed appreciation for her hard work. Ron Loneker will be taking on the job of chairing the EATF.

Moving forward, it will be important to take a look at the structure and inter-relatedness of the NJEDge.Net committees - NJVU, EATF, DLAAB and VRG - and clarify the role of each group. Over the next few months, all groups will explore two questions: What are the natural overlaps? What are the unique things that these groups bring to the table? Each group will compose a description of its mission which will be incorporated into a brochure describing NJEDge.Net and posted on the website.

NJVU - S. Prupis
There was a brief overview of NJVU's history. NJVU will now be looking back at its core mission and establishing some long-range objectives based upon that core mission and vision. A foundational question: What can NJVU do as a collective that the individual campuses in NJ can't do? Very soon the NJVU site will be moved to the NJEDge.Net website.

In conjunction with NJVU, faculty development activities will be developed in partnership with DLAAB, EATF, NJVCCC and VALE. In the coming academic year, 10 days of faculty professional development with Blackboard and WebCT will be offered. The workshops will focus not only on the mechanics of these two web course management systems, but on specific pedagogical techniques.

In conjunction with EATF, NJVU will present 4 discipline specific presentations:

1) Social Sciences - Georgian Court College - Oct. 11
2) Business and Marketing - Ramapo College - Oct. 19
3) Math and Science - NJIT - late Oct.?
4) Language Arts and Writing Across the Curriculum - Rowan Univ. - late Nov.?

A full-day conference on Disabilities and the Web in Spring 2002 is planned.

Other topics under consideration:
Online Student Services
How to build shared content for distribution.

EATF - R. Loneker
It's been a year of activity for the EATF. Ron reviewed the faculty showcase which was held in November, and the retaining/hiring HR recruitment seminar in December. This past year EATF began to look at its role, and it is a discussion that is still evolving. Planning has begun for the Ethics and Legal Issues conference, to be hosted by the College of St. Elizabeth on January 9, 2002 with a snow date of January 10, 2002. The attached handout describes the current suggested tracks for the full-day conference. A discussion forum for the group that is planning the conference has been set up on Blackboard. Planning committee includes: R. Loneker, E. Spaldo, Sheri Prupis, Sister Ellen Dauwer (CSE), Laura Barrett (UMDNJ). Anyone with suggestions can email Ron Loneker - rloneker@liza.st-elizabeth.edu. Some of the comments regarding EATF -

G. Laskaris suggested that we host a mini EDUCAUSE type of conference in NJ during the academic year 2002-03. EATF could take the lead in this. In general, the EATF has been addressing institutional policies involving technology.

VRG - R. Loneker
This past year the VRG group has been heavily involved in the structure of the NJEDge network. There have also been discussions in the group regarding an increase in ITV training for faculty. ITV training will incorporate integrating web-based teaching and learning into the workshops.

4) DLAAB Activities

The Faculty Colloquia were well-attended and were well-received by the audiences this past year, with approximately 40 or more attendees for each event. All Colloquia were delivered via ITV:
Feb – The Interactive Physiology Syllabus
Mar - New Millennium Faculty
May - K-12 Technology Initiatives
April - Corporate Perspectives on Distance Learning - was postponed to this coming fall

DLAAB continues to focus on faculty development issues and on related topics of interest to our audiences. DLAAB members are encouraged to suggest topics and speakers to Ellen Spaldo - spaldo@fdu.edu

5 & 6) Topics and Calendar for DLAAB Activities – Faculty Colloquia and Meetings - E. Spaldo

Beginning this year, the calendars of all NJEDge.Net activities will be coordinated so as to avoid conflicts wherever possible.

Faculty Colloquia:
A draft of a calendar of suggested dates for DLAAB Faculty Colloquia was handed out and discussed. Changes as follows:
1) Faculty Colloquia for 10/19 changed to 10/12 2) K-12 Topic for 2/8 Colloquia moved to 5/3 3) Colloquium for 6/8 eliminated - too late in the year

Suggested Topics for Colloquia:
Corporate Perspectives on Distance Learning (rescheduled from last year)
Evaluating Online Distance Learning
Showcasing Higher Ed/K-12 Cooperative projects
Closer looks at curriculum issues, perhaps growing out of the faculty showcase events sponsored by NJEDge.Net.

Revised Faculty Colloquia calendar appears in Addendum to these minutes, and will be distributed to members and posted at the NJEDge.Net site. Sites, speakers and titles of sessions will be announced. We will pilot web streaming and web casting with small numbers of participants, and Bernie Solomon and Mike Kolitsky will advise in these pilots. J. O'Brien of Montclair State U suggested that DLAAB should offer some Faculty Colloquia, especially those on the topic of K-12, at the NJECC conference held during Monclair's spring break on their campus. NJ Educational Computer Cooperative usually brings together 300-500 K-12 media specialists, teaching and technology staff and administrators to explore 45 presentations over 3 days. DLAAB could offer some Higher-Ed/K-12 cooperative partnership presentations and would be guaranteed an audience. Also, Colloquia on the topic of Corporate Perspectives could be offered at Montclair State U. at the new teletorium with focus on the corporate community.

Eight DLAAB meetings are scheduled for next year. Approximately half of these will be in-person with lunch and with invited speakers. The balance will be conducted via interactive television (ITV.) Audio conference option will be offered to those who cannot make the long trek to a meeting. Web conferencing and streaming for a few meetings will be explored. (B. Solomon to investigate.) Revised schedule of DLAAB meetings appear in Addendum to these minutes.

7) Additional DLAAB Activities - E. Spaldo
Discussed: Co-sponsoring the ethics conference planned for January, moving into video streaming and webcasting for Faculty Colloquia, links with NJECC, establishing a “speaker’s bureau” to facilitate the participation of higher education faculty in online courses for K-12 sector, using the new network to broadcast institution-based faculty and staff development programming.

8) Ethics Conference - R. Loneker
EATF & DLAAB are working together on this. Setting up a Blackboard course at St. Elizabeth to assist with the planning process Handout on the suggested topics was distributed. Dates are set as follows:

January 9th - Conference
January 10th - snow date
Site: College of St. Elizabeth

Ideas? Please email Ron or the EATF group.

9) Strategies to Increase Faculty Involvement in DLAAB - E. Spaldo
The DLAAB would like to increase the involvement of faculty from NJEDge.Net member institutions. Brochures describing DLAAB and other committees will be prepared and distributed at all NJEDge.Net events. Speakers will be invited to DLAAB meetings to share ideas with DLAAB members on topics of interest. Current DLAAB members are asked to recruit additional faculty, librarians and technology staff from their institutions to serve on DLAAB.

HOMEWORK – Each current DLAAB member will identify faculty (also librarians and staff who are involved in educational technology) whom you would like to invite to join DLAAB. Also think about potential speakers for our meetings. Please share your suggestions with Ellen Spaldo, and she will follow up - spaldo@fdu.edu.

10) NJ Distance Learning Association - New Chapter Progress - P. Shapiro
Handout - Initial letter of interest sent out to USDLA members, the ETTC's, the NJ DOE, and the NJVCCC. Responses were sent a follow-up email (also attached as a handout). Currently seeking initial officers for paperwork to petition for the new chapter. The chapter would be officially petitioned this summer with a membership drive in the fall.The newly formed NJDLA would bring together distance-learning practitioners in Corporate, Medical, K-12, Higher Education and Government sectors. This association would also afford its members automatic membership in the national USDLA. For more information on USDLA please visit http://www.usdla.org

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 pm.

ADDENDUM to Minutes:

A) Revised DLAAB meeting schedule – Meetings will be held 1:00 – 3:00 PM on the following dates. Locations will be announced.

September 24 with lunch
November 1 via ITV
December 10 with lunch and speaker
January 31 via ITV
February 25 via ITV
March 25 with lunch and speaker
April 25 via ITV
May 30 with lunch and speaker.

B) Revised DLAAB Faculty Colloquia schedule – Faculty Colloquia will be held on Fridays from 2:00 – 4:00 on the following dates. Sites, specific topics and speakers TBA.

October 12 - Corporate Perspectives on Distance Learning;
November 9 - Evaluation Strategies in Online Courses;
February 8 - Closer Look at a Curriculum Issue – Specific Topic TBA;
March 8 - K-12/Higher Ed. Cooperative Projects - Specific Topic TBA;
April 12 - Closer Look at a Curriculum Issue – Specific Topic TBA;
May 3 - K-12/Higher Ed Cooperative Projects - Specific Topic TBA.

C) Mark Kassop, Chair of the NJ Virtual Community College Consortium (NJVCCC) has suggested that NJVCC be officially represented on DLAAB. Mark and L. Diane Campbell of Mercer County College, both active members of DLAAB, play key leadership roles in NJVCCC. This seems to be a good recommendation that will foster closer collaboration between DLAAB and NJVCCC.

Respectfully submitted by Peter Shapiro, WPUNJ.
Reviewed by Ellen Spaldo, Coordinator, DLAAB.