Office of Information Technology

Technology Advisory Board (TAB)
Minutes of Meeting of July 17, 2002

Location: 4th Floor Conference Room, Andy Holt Tower
Time: 2:00 - 3:00PM

In Attendance:

Members: Bill Britten, Chris Cimino, Elizabeth Clement, Stacy Clement, Bill Dockery, Jim Gehlhar, Matthew Johnson, Julie Little, John Mount, Faye Muly, Luther Wilhelm.

Others: Robin McNeil, Judy Travis.

Faye Muly opened the meeting and expressed thanks to all who are serving on this Board. Ms. Muly noted this is the beginning of the seventh year of the technology fee and a lot of good work has been accomplished over this period of time.

Ms. Muly also mentioned the url, http://web.utk.edu/~techfee/ , which includes Policies, Advisory Board Bylaws, Meeting Minutes, Departmental Computing Lab Request Guidelines/forms, as well as other information related to the Technology Fee.

Matthew Johnson, Student Co-Chair, introduced the first agenda item:

Discussion of Color Printers in the Public Lab in Hodges Library

Robin McNeil recommended replacing draft-quality color printers with high-quality color printers - possibly one in the Library and one located on the Hill. A draft-quality color printer could remain in the labs for students to print transparencies. The printers now in use are a constant maintenance problem resulting in down time. If a high-quality color printer is installed, a lab assistant would be required to monitor its operation. Ms. McNeil requested student input of this suggestion. After discussion, the overall consensus was positive for this change. The students will bring this up at the SGA and GSA meetings in early fall and provide feedback to the Board.

Expand General Software Support

One of the areas of importance discussed during TAB meetings last year was academic software in the departmental labs. Luther Wilhelm said this is a concern particularly in the College of Engineering, and specifically with the AutoCad software.

Julie Little suggested devising a method to collect data to see what software is being used and by whom, and check for redundancy. Also, this would show us where the software is most needed. Sometimes a system-wide license is more economical than individual desktop licenses. Perhaps adding a section to the Tech Fee departmental application form might be one option. The Board members present agreed this was an issue warranting more discussion.

Expand Library Laptop Program in Hodges Library

Bill Britten explained the Laptop Loan Program, begun in March of this year, was started as a result of student input and requests and has proven most popular. Twenty laptops are available in the Library and can be checked out for a three-hour period, with renewal possible. During April 2002 (the only full month of school since inception of the Laptop Loan Program), 640-plus users checked out a laptop 2,300 times. This averages four checkouts per day for each and every day of April. This is about the maximum possible use. The program has run relatively smoothly. At present, the laptops are available only in Hodges Library; however, it might be possible to expand to branch libraries in the future. All of today's attendees agreed this program should be expanded if possible by Fall semester.

Update from the Office of Educational Technologies and Innovative Technology Center

Julie Little reported the following:
In an effort to continue tying Blackboard (Online@UT) into the university's back office systems, we have a new initiative called "Instructor of Record" where departments can associate faculty with section numbers. The info is sent to Online@UT to match instructors with course sections and sent to Pam Hindle in the Registrar's office.

Educational Technologies is also working with SAIS (Don Scroggins and Jo Lynch) to develop a custom module in Blackboard that will authenticate users to their online course evaluations (the old CTEP program) where students see links to the department/instructor's selected course evaluation upon logging into Online@UT. Once they complete the evaluation, the link goes away.

The organization sites have really taken off with very little advertising. Departments are using community sites for conducting department meetings (across campuses) and discussing issues by using the chat and discussion forum tools. Academic groups/clubs are taking advantage of the easy interface to host web sites for community information and post announcements to members.

The Innovative Technology Center has developed several new faculty workshops focused on techniques for using Bb to be offered in the fall. Those will be in the Fall 02 newsletter to be delivered 21 August.

Educational Technologies is also looking into how Online@UT can be used to support the Advising process by inserting detailed course descriptions for each course and eventually, a syllabus for every course that students and advisors might peruse in considering programmatic curricula.

Other Business

Matt Johnson encouraged anyone with questions or comments, to feel free to reach him via email (rmjohnso@utk.edu). With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be September 18, 2002, at 2:00-3:00PM in the Fourth Floor Conference Room, Andy Holt Tower.

Minutes prepared by: Judy Travis.