CSUSB - Technology Advisory Council

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Technology Advisory Council Meeting Minutes -Feb. 20, 2004

Attendees: Jason Reimer, Steve Cuddigan, Mike Ross, Joe Scarcella, Kurt Collins, Tony Coulson, Ramiro DiazGranados, Richard Botting, Javier Torner, Owen Owens, Jim Monaghan, William Aguilar

The minutes from the last meeting were reviewed and approved.

Tech Training Subcommittee - Mike Ross submitted several handouts with a plan and budget for implementing training for campus techs. More than 20 techs attended a meeting and participated in the survey to evaluate what training would be of value. This general training would be offered to techs who would attend the monthly meetings. General consensus was that Colleges should pay portion of the training to create incentive for the tech to complete any training because inconsistency in attendance is a chronic problem. Other suggestions included:

Inverse pricing schedule - monetary penalty for “no show” then zero cost if perfect attendance.

Departments fronting the money then getting reimbursed.

Attendee should a financial stake in training

Recognition for techs but not necessarily monetary

Several discussions followed:

How to determine attendees.First come,first served? By Colleges?

Ensuring good attendance at trainings

The merits of giving certificates of completion

Training incentives.Giving bumps for extra training to techs had not been addressed by the group. The general consensus was to place a certificate of completion in their personnel file.

A motion was made to support in principle BATS the funding of a 2 year Tech Training proposal for up to 20 technicians presented by the Tech Training Subcommittee with the amount not to exceed $40,000 over the 2 year period. The motion was seconded. The motion passed unanimously

Desire2Learn – Jim Monaghan gave quick status report.ODL just began a small pilot with Desire2Learn. This program compares to Blackboard as a course management tool.Tony Coulson had gone to D2L’s training and reported that:

There is more feedback than Blackboard

Design of system is more direct

Many more positives than Blackboard

Functionality is very good

There is a need to compare Desire2Learn with all of Blackboard’s costs including all changeover costs which would cover retraining of faculty and students. If D2L were to host this program then those costs should be included. If this is financially feasible it is recommended that the campus should switch over. Tony Coulson states that D2L has significantly better benefits.

ODL purposely chose a variety of faculty to participate in the pilot which finishes at the year’s end.It was agreed that some of ACM’s staff and Fernando Gutierrez of DCS should be included in the evaluation.Current servers would easily support this program.

ODL is looking for BATS to fund Tony Coulson to do a formal comparison study of this program with Blackboard. Using D2L in his Info 101 spring class, Tony Coulson would set measures and then compare it with Blackboard in his Fall Info 101 class.

Next meeting Jim will bring stats, Tony will bring an outline, and several meetings will take place with DCS and ACM staff.

Virus Software – Ramiro DiazGranados handed out more quotes for the virus software. Steve Cuddigan got competing quotes for McAfee and Symantec.McAfee was $6.50 per seat while Symantec was $8.00 per seat and no home licenses included compared to CA’s InnoculateIT at $3.31 which includes home licenses. All three products are comparable. The pricing for Computer Associates’s InnoculateIT was under scrutiny since it was being offered by a 3rd Party. Ramiro has agreed to directly contact Computer Associates to be certain that the best price was being offered.

A motion was made to fund the Computer Associates InnoculateIT software pending the best deal. The motion was seconded and passed. Year 2004 Computer Specs – Ian Jacobs proposed the purchase of a 2 year license of Symantec’s Ghost software for $10,178 which includes 500 renewals and 1000 new licenses. This software’s primary use is for the lab environment.

A motion was made that when 3 quotes of the Ghost software are obtained BATS should accept supporting this purchase. The motion was seconded and passed.

Computer Standards - Ian Jacobs submitted recommended specs on Dell’s computer. Multiple unit purchases should go through CSUSB’s Dell Representative for better pricing. A laptop minimum specification was requested.It was recommended that Purchasing should get a copy of the specs. Mac specs are coming too.

The baseline specifications were generally accepted and will be posted to BATS website. The meeting ended at 3:05.The next meeting will be on Friday, March 5, 2004 at 1:00 pm in PL-002, ACM’s conference room.

Minutes compiled by Michelle Behne