1:00-4:40 pm, Monday, Nov. 8

1. Curricular Redesign Update

Of the curricular redesign funds, about 75% is allocated to the various campuses on an FTE basis. The other 25% goes towards salaries, etc. The review committee for allocating the funds is composed of the LTDC executive committee, Bob Jokisch, Hal Schlais, Glenda Morgan, and Lisa Kornetsky of UTIC. Information regarding the curricular redesign grants can be found on the web at www.uwsa.edu/olit/ltdc.

Budget amounts (approximate) for various categories are as follows:
PK-16 Initiative $842,000/year
Undergrad Initiative $300,000+/year
Curricular Redesign Program $450,000/year

When added with other System grants, the total amount awarded is approximately $4 million. For more complete information on UW System grants, see www.uwsa.edu/acadaff/grants/grntprg.htm

Suggestions made regarding the granting process:
1. Simplifying deadlines for faculty, perhaps through a uniform deadline
2. Adding survey reports to the LTDC site
3. Providing mid-term and final reports for the Curricular Redesign grants

The announcement for the new round of grants will go out after the grants review committee meets.

2. WWBLS Evaluation Update/Utilities

Various utilities being used include WebCT, BlackBoard, LearningSpace, and Web Course in a Box. Some have had problems with LearningSpace and its associated high costs to run. Three institutions have taken on support responsibility for web utilities: Eau Claire, Madison, and Milwaukee; these campuses support LearningSpace, WebCT, and others.

Discussion arose as to what was being done concerning evaluation of the effectiveness of these web-based learning tools. Both SLIS (School of Library and Information Science) in Milwaukee and the nursing department in Madison have projects underway in which the effectiveness of this sort of learning is analyzed.

* There is also a proposal from the LEAD Center at UW-Madison to do an evaluation project for $42,000. Hal Schlais mentioned some of the points contained in the LEAD Center's proposal, and this led to some discussion of what might be added to such a report. One LTDC member wished to know if the LEAD Center would address what sort of student support is needed to run web-based learning systems. Also, members wanted to know if the study would identify what disciplines are offering these courses. There was also mention of a package available at UW-Madison called "Flashlight", which is used for developing surveys. *Kathy Christoph will look into what Flashlight might offer.

3. LTDC Membership Issue

It was mentioned that, at its beginning, the LTDC used to be ad hoc, and then it became formalized, with one voting member from each UW institution. The majority of LTDC members are support & training people, not faculty. This led to discussion about what constitutes an appropriate LTDC member, and if the current membership needed to be expanded in any way. It was noted that UTIC currently has 2 reps for each campus, one being a technology support person and the other being a faculty member.

* Questions that arose were: What should the LTDC membership be like? Does the membership need to be updated? How are results of executive committee meetings disseminated? (In response to this question, it was stated that no separate exec committee meetings have been held, except for the purpose of grant evaluation.) Is there a need for "faculty liaisons"? How well-connected is the group already to faculty? Should a letter be sent to provosts regarding campus representatives, so they can either confirm the current rep or offer a new one?

4. Logo Update

The group viewed and voted on LTDC logo mock-ups produced by graphic art students of Asst. Prof. Hillary Warren of UW-Stevens Point. These five logos were the most promising selected from a much larger group by Hal Schlais, Jennifer Smith, and Glenda Morgan. The group's favorite was the "mouse" logo, with a stylized mouse next to all-lowercase lettering for the LTDC's initials. Several recommendations were made for improving the design, which will be communicated by Jennifer Smith to Hillary Warren.

5. Online training for LTDC instructional designers/Discussion led by Bill Winfield, School of Education, UW-Madison

Group members stated that faculty have a great need for help with instructional design. Many faculty find, once they've tried their hands at online teaching, that they need help with facilitation skills and course management as well.

Kathy Finder mentioned that when she introduces LearningSpace to faculty members, she has them first explore the program as students so they can better understand the position their own students are in and get some ideas for course design.

* A major issue that arose is how one gets people to share what they know in this area. One solution offered was to share the training burden by having LTDC members develop on-line course modules. That way, they'd only have the responsibility to develop one short session, yet be able to take advantage of about a dozen others. The group was very receptive to this idea.

Another issue was what sort of recognition people should get for undergoing course design training, whether it be CEU's or something else. The group asked if Bill Winfield could offer a version of one of the courses he does for UW-Madison's new Distance Education Certification Program. Bill will look into this; he'll go to Chris Olgren to talk about developing something, and then run it by a "reactor panel" of April Reed (Green Bay), Nicholle Stone (Stout), and AnnMarie Paulukonis (Oshkosh).

6. Update from Ed Meachen

Ed Meachen stopped by the meeting near its end to discuss the $1 million received by Learning Innovations in the governor's budget. Ed clarified that this money is essentially to underwrite LI's debt. LI is expected to help campuses attract an additional 1,000 FTE students (whether undergraduates or grads was unclear). Ed stated that the million dollars should not be seen as an endorsement of LearningSpace or a sign that all should go to LI for curricular redesign funds.

Then there was talk of the working group organized by Hal, composed of some LTDC members, vice chancellors, CIO's, and some partners outside UW (from K-12's, the technical colleges, etc.). The outcome of this working group should be a report by the summer (July 1 is deadline).

8:30-10:40 am, Tuesday, Nov. 9

1. Strategic Directions for Distance Education committee

* Questions were: Who should the reps be? What is the exact focus of the committee (picking technologies, or something else)? Recommendations from this committee should be put forth by July 1, 2000, or sooner.

Proposed people/volunteers for this committee were:
Marcia Baird
Nick Dvoracek
Patricia Ploetz

Hal will convene and facilitate this committee. Additional discussion regarding this committee was scheduled for later today.

2. Campus Updates

Reps were asked to discuss current developments/projects on their campuses.

La Crosse (Karin Bast): La Crosse is offering hands-on technology training, much of it web-based. They also offer a "tweak and critique" for faculty to improve their course websites. Brown bags are offered on focused topics (such as using PowerPoint in inquiry-based classes). However, faculty turnout for brown bags has been a bit low. Karin also reported that Mac users (about 15-20% of users) are feeling a bit left out.

Superior (Kayt Sunwood): Kayt was pleased with getting permanent space for training and getting more equipment. Superior is using LearningSpace for its online courses. About 30 classes are up & running at this point, with Kayt and her staff member providing support. Brown bags are offered about teaching and learning with a technological bent. Kayt expressed concern about the logistics of switching LearningSpace classes to Eau Claire.

Colleges (Pat Fellows): Colleges has a "point person" at each campus who works with distance education. So far, over 180 Colleges faculty have been trained on Web Course in a Box. Colleges has no help desk, so Pat receives calls directly. Plans for next summer include an instructional design workshop for faculty. Colleges will also soon seek accreditation for an online associate's degree.

Stout (Margy Ingram): Stout has had great success with a one-week "Web Camp" for faculty this past summer. Some instructors had full courses up on the web by the end of the week. Another Web Camp is planned for winter break, and yet another at the end of the academic year. Faculty are compensated for attending the camp by receiving $500 in their services and supplies budgets. Funding for Web Camp came through Stout's chancellor, and about 30 faculty can take this course at the same time. Nicholle Stone has the primary responsibility for Web Camp, and she has also been working with faculty in small groups or one-on-one. A new computer lab is being built with over 30 workstations and multimedia equipment.

Milwaukee (Charlene Douglas): One of the big challenges at the Milwaukee campus has been to introduce BlackBoard. Milwaukee staff have also provided training at 36 different institutions. Milwaukee's business school has chosen to go with BlackBoard. UWM staff has also been involved in initiatives with the Milwaukee public schools. (Note: for more on Milw., see also comments from Bob Kaleta below.)

Parkside (Pat Eaton): Parkside's IT staff recently underwent reorganization. Workshops and brown bags are not in place yet. Currently, there is an 8-station lab with additional space for working on projects. Parkside is currently interviewing for a curricular design person.

Eau Claire (Kathy Finder): Eau Claire offered a week-long, "pre-fall" workshop with 92 participants. Copyright was topic of great interest. (At this point, Glenda Morgan mentioned the online slide show on copyright by Jane Terpstra. The slide show is about 20 min. and requires RealPlayer. URL for the slide show is pocahontus.doit.wisc.edu/copyright/copyrighthome.htm -- you can also download RealPlayer from this page). EC servers are now running almost at capacity. Accessibility (especially on the web) is emerging as a major issue. During 1999-2000 UWEC will develop a more active role with the city advisory board.

Platteville (Anthony Valentine, Tonya Stappert): Anthony and Tonya have been providing support to Platteville faculty and staff. Platteville IT staff recently visited Green Bay, Stevens Point, and River Falls to get ideas for their own development. Platteville maintains a 20-station lab. 10-15% of the population at Platteville is Mac users.

Oshkosh (Nick Dvoracek): AnnMarie Paulukonis is Oshkosh's new instructional designer. The Oshkosh staff is currently trying to decide which web course products to support. They find WebCT to be very robust, with BlackBoard more in the middle. WebCT seems appropriate for more advanced users, and Web Course in a Box for simpler uses.

Green Bay (April Reed): April joined the Green Bay staff in spring of this year. Her position supports about 350 faculty and staff. She offers Power Point, Front Page, and PhotoShop workshops. The Extended Degree and Education programs are the biggest users of WebCT on campus. Extended Degree has about 5 courses on the web right now, with new courses to follow each month. Green Bay is planning to host an upcoming conference; they will invite staff from the UW Colleges and 4-year schools in northeast Wisconsin. Stephen Brookfield will be the keynote speaker.

Madison (Kathy Christoph): Kathy spoke about the Web Works grant program, which provides $1,000 grants to faculty that can be used as they wish (the money is often used to hire student assistants). As for student technical training, 15 students will be ready to support faculty in web-based instruction. In the area of accessibility, a staff member has been appointed to be in charge of this issue. Madison is also working with the University of Washington on accessibility issues. Another initiative at Madison is "Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment," a small program for faculty to learn about learning. There is also a new chancellor's initiative that has brought in lots of funding for three large projects. Those projects are: 1) redesigning Introduction to Biology, 2) distance delivery of the GIS certificate program, and 3) online foreign language instruction, allowing more languages to be taught more often and at higher levels.

Whitewater (Roger Yin): Roger talked about receiving a 1.75 million federal Title III grant, to be spread out over a 5-year span. About two-thirds of the money will be used for PeopleSoft, and one-third for learning environment improvement. In terms of faculty training, Roger spoke about the "Winterim" and summer institutes coming up. Winterim will accommodate about 12 people, and the summer institute, about 20. The content has not been entirely decided, but there will be discussion of pedagogy and learning theory. Participants will receive $1,000 for taking part in the institutes.

Bob Kaleta (Milwaukee): As a closing remark, Bob stressed the notion of trying to make technology a way for faculty to save time, rather than something that will eat up their time and make more work for them. Only in this way will faculty have a real incentive for bringing themselves up to speed on learning technology

Afternoon Session, Tuesday, Nov. 9

1. *Ed Meachen called for the formation of a group to discuss Strategic Directions in Distance Education Technologies. Three LTDC members were selected to represent the LTDC on this committee, Patricia Ploetz (Stevens Point), Margy Ingram (Stout) and Nick Dvoracek (Oshkosh).
2. *Copyright

1. The desirability of a Systemwide digital copyright policy was discussed.
2. It was agreed that there was an urgent need for practical information about what could and could not be done in terms of the new copyright laws. Glenda Morgan agreed to develop a website carrying such information and have it up by mid-December.
3. Glenda Morgan also discussed possible plans to organize a roundtable on copyright and have it broadcast to other UW institutions via ITV.
4. Glenda Morgan agreed to forward the URL for the DoIT copyright animated slide show to the LTDC list and to UWIDL. (Or, use the link here: pocahontus.doit.wisc.edu/copyright/copyrighthome.htm)

1. Winter Conference

1. It was agreed that there were potentially too many conflicts to have the Winter conference in the Winterim period. It was agreed that a mid February conference might be better especially if people could be given as much warning as possible so that they could plan accordingly.
2. *It was agreed that a venue in central Wisconsin would be best. Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids were mentioned as possible sites. Glenda Morgan would follow up and find out details of both sites and report back to the conference planning committee for a final decision.
3. It was agreed that the subject matter for the conference would be core instructional design issues including

1. Accessibility issues (Kathy Christoph said that DoIT would be able to offer some expertise in this area)
2. Visual communications
3. Copyright
4. Instructional design issues involved in transferring material from in-class conventional instruction to technology-enhanced or online settings
5. How to survive in an online classroom
6. Streaming video
7. Technology-enhanced assessment strategies and instructional design
8. Problem centered learning
9. Ethical issues involved in online instruction
10. How to create a rubric
11. A panel on the book Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt