EMTC Minutes: January 2003

UW Educational Media Technology Council
January 23-24, 2003
UW-Green Bay

January 23, 2003

EMTC members present: Lisa Livingston, UW-Madison; Michael Schlicht, UW System; Gary Herlache, UW-Green Bay; Joe Hagaman, UW-Stout; Nick Dvoracek, UW-Oshkosh; Scott Bouffleur, UW-Colleges; Ron Weseloh, UW-Stevens Point; John Grozik, UW-Milwaukee.

Absent: Not Listed

Guests: Dennis Gilbertson, UW-Extension; Michael Schmitt, UW-Green Bay; John Polek, UW-Milwaukee.

Gary Herlache introduced UW-Green Bay Provost, Sue Hammersmith, who welcomed the group to UW-GB.

Secretary's report: Changes were made to the draft minutes of the last meeting. Minutes were approved as amended.

Treasurer's report: There was a $110 deposit and a $121.78 payment to UW-Stout, leaving a balance of $116.73. There were no other financial transactions.

Mike Schlicht introduced himself as filling in for Bob Jokisch as the UW System representative. Mike reviewed his joint appointment duties with WiscNet and UW-System. He distributed a copy of the WENCC schedule of vendor presentations. Mike shared that WiscNet made a presentation to WENCC and established that WiscNet is not a vendor. Language in the RFI clarifies how potential vendors will work with WiscNet. The legal discussion is ongoing. It was asked if WiscNet will have a major role in the new video network. Mike answered that it is not a certainty but after the vendor presentations, WiscNet will help write the RFP.

John Grozik asked if WiscNet will host Web-based course management tools. Answer: Not sure. There was a short discussion about the availability of Blackboard for some non-UW customers in the near future. A WiscNet contract is being worked on.

Lisa Livingston asked the group to introduce themselves since there were new people in the meeting. This was done. John Polek, UW-Milwaukee Tech Support Manager works with John Grozik in support and services. John G. mentioned they are moving closer to the IT group on campus as media technology converges.

Scott Bouffleur, UW Colleges, mentioned their web services are being moved to Madison. Scott also mentioned any new DE classrooms will use IP-based codecs vs: H.321 ATM currently in use.

Reclassification of the Media Service Technician and Electronic Technician Series
The status of the MT and ET series survey and possible changes were discussed. Lisa Livingston reviewed the history of meetings with DER. UW System is not releasing any official information, saying to wait for the budget. Information is coming from the Union. Judy Burke, per Lisa, says if the proposed changes are accepted, re-allocation notices will be sent to agencies and units, and there will be an appeals process if there are problems with the allocations of staff within the new series specification.

John Grozik mentioned they have all Media Specialists for classroom support. Ron Weseloh shared that the media tech series grew from broadcasting and discussed the compression of levels and past action in previous surveys of this classification. He said technology convergence really changes the focus of the classification. Joe asked about who had MTs now. Stevens Point, UWM and UW-Extension have MTs on staff. Nick Dvoracek mentioned there is a confusion of duties and assignments in broadcasting vs. teleconferencing. Lisa mentioned the suggestion that some IT positions may be moved to the media classes. Joe Hagaman addressed the MT dead-end problems by changing duties to include more coordination duties and looking at Media Facilities Coordinator class. The keys are coordination of synchronous learning activities. This class is broad-banded. Joe is moving a second position responsible for classroom DE technology and TV to a Media Facilities Coordinator. Ron mentioned if there is no broadbanding in the new MT class, we may have compression issues with MT-4s. Lisa mentioned that legacy academic staff in technical positions will change to classified classes when the incumbent leaves the position and it is re-filled. Nick is including the word "computer" in position description language where it applies to better reflect duties.

The group moved the meeting from Mary Ann Cofrin Hall to the Green Bay Packers stadium for a tour of the media facilities recently installed by Camera Corner. Classrooms have full presentation technologies including a range of video formats to support the needs of the Packer organization for game films, etc. The systems are computer controlled and linked to provide access by coaches and players from offices and classrooms.

January 24, 2003

The meeting continued on Friday, Jan. 24 with a tour of the Mary Ann Cofrin Hall classroom building and the Weidner Performing Arts Center.

There was a discussion of trends in media development.

John Grozik distributed a questionnaire to the group to be filled out and returned to him. There is the general question of how to elevate content development to be the same level as IT and Web development. How do we get instructors to fully implement technology in instruction? He asked how other campuses are addressing this. (see questionnaire). If media use is increasing, why? What are the success case studies? How do we increase the visibility of media support?

Lisa Livingston said that IMDC was "A/V only" for years. Instructors have separate value systems for A/V, media and data. IMDC prefers to merge data and media and to replicate a real-life experience. They work to integrate voice, video and data. IMDC is a one-stop shop.

John Grozik explained the UWM rate structure to the group.

Joe Hagaman asked how Department Chairs allocate dollars in IMDC-is there a department media budget? Lisa Livingston: In the School of Ed, departments have their own business units and budgets. Some subsidies come direct from the Dean's office to IMDC.

John Grozik: UWM has a central fund of $110k available to draw on to cost share; the rest is billed to the department. This is a partial subsidy structure and there is competition between departments for this funding source. The content development costs, minus the central fund draw, equals the charge to the department.

Ron Weseloh: the fee for service structure encourages entrepreneurial activities in each department. John Grozik: at UWM, they do for the faculty the things they can't do themselves since they may lack either the skills, the abilities, or the time to do it themselves. Joe Hagaman added that the technology has changed things to a do-it-yourself mentality. Ron Weseloh suggested we need more quantity and will accept less quality in the content development in the interest of time and money. Joe offered that quality can come from the using instructional designers. John added that instructional designers don't always media experience. Joe added that quality work is coming from web developers. There's an increase in training and staff development to use technology. In a discussion about whether instructional designers have media choice biases, Joe offered that instructional designers should be media neutral.

The group further shared thoughts, opinions, and experiences on how media production and instructional design are funded and implemented in their environment.

How do we get the quality of the top 10% of well done courses into the rest of the courses? Ron Weseloh pushed to use templates, based on successful examples, to generate other classes. Joe Hagaman offered that taking instructors from a beginning level to the top takes training and learning. This is Stout's approach.

John Grozik shared that UWM tried a free service and faculty didn't use it because they didn't have the time or energy to take advantage of the service. John shared two handouts, from dot.edu and ITS@Wisconsin.

John Grozik reported he plans to roll out a rich media development center at UWM for southeast Wisconsin; he is encouraging System to develop these as an EMTC- supported activity. WiscNet can help facilitate quality in multi-way videoconferences, streaming services and media asset management. Can EMTC play a major role in this?

Ron Weseloh offered that ECB and WiscNet should work together. John Grozk suggested WiscNet invite EMTC to a brainstorming session to make input to WiscNet.

Update on UW System Course Management Task Force
Kathy Pletcher, chair of the UW System Course Management Task Force, presented an update to the group. She provided handouts on the timeline and work plan. She discussed the process. There are two new vendor finalists, Grenada Educational Systems and Desikre2Learn, a Canadian company. Kathy reviewed the search process and the new contract RFP process.

WisLine Web (Placeware) demos are being conducted for both faculty and instructional designers. See the handout list of people who attended. They will get guest accounts.

The overall goal is one choice. This implies conversion to the new software will impact faculty and course conversion. The group wants to make sure faculty stay engaged and are not turned off by the process to change. Kathy Pletcher offered that the vast majority of use of course management software is blended courses, not distance ed. John Grozik suggested a longer-term contract is needed to control price and to have time to implement and adopt and use of a new system.

A question was asked about "why the RFP?" Kathy Pletcher said that it was because they were moving from a PC to server to enterprise level, and to contain costs. There will likely be multiple awards and durations to address a transition to the chosen CMS, and to facilitate migration and implementation. A question was posed if there is a business model to generate a revenue stream back to the content creator to fund, and/or influence, and/or generate activity to update courses and development---royalties flowing back to the professor etc. John Grozik mentioned that EMTC folks have not been invited to the demos and suggested Kathy Pletcher invite members to participate in the process and to make input.

Next meeting Spring Joint meeting: Joe Hagaman offered to host the EMTC meeting in April at Stout to showcase the Stout digital campus. IMTC and LTDC are committed to meeting at Stout. EMTC agreed as well.

A special thanks was extended to Gary Herlache, UW-Green Bay for planning and hosting the meeting and arranging the tours of very impressive facilities.

A motion to adjourn was made by Gary Herlache and seconded by Lisa Livingston. Meeting adjourned.

(Submitted by: Denny Gilbertson, substituting for Marcia Baird)