June 1, 2017

Present: Rich Hansen, Alex Harrell, Heidi King, Lili Krueger Gilka, Sharon Luciw, Leah Mieso (notes), Joe Moreau, Cheryl Owiesny, Mary Pape (co-chair), Lorrie Ranck, Marisa Spatafore (co-chair)

Introductions/Approval Of Minutes

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Members of the Technology Committee provided self-introductions and the minutes of May 4 were approved.

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College Mobile App

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Harrell explained that the mobile app created by Modo Lab is in the early stages of development. He described the following:

Students will be able to drop, register and pay for classes, view courses and the college news feed. The app will provide emergency alerts as well as transit route options. The app can be used for push notifications to segmented populations. It is available for both iPhone and Android. Harrell concluded by saying that the app is scheduled to launch in spring 2018.

Owiesny asked about updating information on the app and Harrell explained that the process is being finalized and may include the use of RSS feeds. The Office of Communications will manage the information.

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District Technology Plan

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Moreau announced that the district tech plan is complete and includes three sections: De Anza’s tech plan, Foothill’s plan, and what the district needs to do to support and supplement the college plans. The next step is to create an annual evaluation and revision process to make sure plans stay relevant, and to maintain a three-year plan. ETAC will be working on this.

Spatafore asked about taking the plan to the board for approval. Moreau said he confirmed with the chancellor that Chancellor’s Advisory Council (CAC) approval, which he obtained, would be adequate.

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Governance Reflection

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The group provided responses to the two annual governance reflection questions. Various answers were compiled and, with the permission of the group, Spatafore and Mieso developed the comments into a cohesive response to be submitted to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning.

1. Reflecting on the work of your governance group over the past year, how did this work help fulfill our mission, Institutional Core Competencies and commitment to equity?
   • Each of these foundational elements is key to the work of the Technology Committee. Over the past year, this was manifest in the clear focus on equity in the development and first-year implementation of the Technology Plan. Two of the ICCs, Communication and Expression (with respect to mediated forms) and Information Literacy (in terms of providing appropriate tools), figure prominently in the plan goals and implementation. The mission and its fulfillment were demonstrated in the work of the committee on Standard III.C of the Institutional Self-Evaluation Report (ISER) for accreditation, in which the mission is the guiding document.
2.  Reflecting on your governance group’s processes and practices over the past year, what has been working and what changes do you plan to implement over the next academic year to ensure continuous improvement?
   • The early collaboration among the district vice chancellor of Technology and chairs of both college’s Technology Committees resulted in the development of aligned frameworks for the college and district technology plans, as well as an appropriately delimited timeline of three years and a feasible implementation plan structure.

Working groups and the larger committee were successful in developing both the Technology Plan and ISER Standard III.C, both acknowledged.

Overall communication and integration with district ETS has improved over time, and maintaining that partnership is important. The college could also benefit from committee members sharing technology information collegewide, with the promotion of the technology map a key example.

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Further Updates on Tech Plan

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• Goal one: Support ubiquitous, agile technology across the campus community
  • Objective 1: Promote the consolidation of technology functions to yield economies of scale and/or foster better communication
    • There has been progress made with the initial app development. Both colleges have come together on Omni Update. There are a number of projects underway such as Starfish, a website that allows faculty and staff to see students who are distressed or need extra help or support. Faculty can get details and give students suggestions on where to go. Starfish brings together services that have been separated before and we've found consolidation tools on a wider scale.
    • The syllabus repository will allow instructors to upload their syllabus online and make office hours and other information more easily obtainable by students. Outreach will increase at a later time, as the repository is scheduled to roll out for some areas this fall.
    • The Communications Office with partner with tech training to ensure the message about trainings gets out.
  • Objective 2: Assist with the transition of the course management system from Catalyst to Canvas
    • Transition complete. All online and all hybrid classes must use Canvas.
  • Objective 3: Create a map for technology support
    • Separate sections for items people would need help with; one section one for students and one for faculty and staff. You can click through and go to what exactly you need help with. This map would be linked to online tech support training.
  • Goal 2: Teaching, learning and student engagement
    • Objective 1: Collaborate with Academic Senate, other partners on the development of open education resources
      • There now is a committee and faculty member to lead the effort.
    • Objective 2: Assist as affordable and feasible in the organized provision of tablets and similar devices in classrooms and programs
      • BSI iPads have been in place for two years now and faculty members are getting used to those now. The iPads are assigned to students for the quarter and allow for pre- and post-tests to track student success. Strong data has been coming back showing the iPads having a good impact on student success.
    • Objective 3: Guide the continual growth of course management system functionality to foster meaningful student-instructor and student-to-student communication
      • A ticketing system in Canvas has been implemented. It will help faculty see where student information needs are not being entirely met.
    • Objective 4: Collaborate with its accessibility expert and Disability Support Programs and Services (DSPS) to continually evaluate accessibility and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance across the website, learning management system and student information systems
      • Due to conversation and interaction in the Tech Committee, Shears is now involved in tech prioritization and accessibility checking. The project to integrate accessibility is in progress; checking which buildings and locations need better access and coming up with a plan to move forward
    • Objective 5: Improve access to student academic services via technology
      • Mobile access for students is being worked on. Upgrades to MyPortal will improve access to academic services. Eprint is being updated for mobile accessibility. Some students have requested a De Anza email address and there was a discussion about possibly giving it to students who request it. At the moment it’s not available to students. Some students are also requesting an Office 360 account. Moreau stated this issue has come up a number of times at ETAC, but there has not been consistent participation and input from ASFC or DASB leadership. The last year there has been great participation by student leadership who have collaboratively developed a plan to provide students with a foothill.edu or deanza.edu email address upon request.  ETS is currently working with Microsoft to deploy an automatic provisioning capability available to students through MyPortal. ETS will also continue to work with student leadership from both colleges to finalize policies and procedures around district-issued email accounts such as retention policies and account inactivation procedures.
    • Goal 3: Deeper research into student success and subsequent responses
      • Objective 1: Collect and analyze data to guide the enrichment of the student experience through technology
        • King is making process towards this objective (see Online Education Advisory Group)
      • Objective 2: Research and work to implement device-independent technologies that improve student access and equity
        • The future mobile app and new website will be key features for this objective. Changes made in some of the purchasing processes have tightened up issues with contracts and proposals. This allows Purchasing to pay closer attention to problems and respond better to those problems for the procurement process. Now that there are no license restrictions, course shells can be automatically created in Canvas. The downside is figuring out if people have been trained well enough to use it. The grade book component on Canvas will also create less manual work.
      • Goal 4: Professional development
        • Objective 1: Cultivate a culture in which technology training is understood and beneficial for all employees
          • Managers can be notified through senior staff meetings to make sure classified staff felt empowered to attend training session. Will make that attempt this fall.
        • Objective 2: Evaluate technology training needs and priorities
          • Krueger Gilkais beginning to have more individual communications with some managers, which she’s finding beneficial. There will be significant changes in the Banner upgrade that will make it a better and improved product. Some of the major criticisms of the current version is that productivity and efficiency is limited.
          • Course Studio will be eliminated with the new Banner update. Users will have time to get trained and transition.

Standing Information Updates

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Online Education Advisory Group

Ranck explained that she, Pape, Luciw and King met to discuss a number of topics and procedure changes to benefit faculty, staff and students. In the meeting there was a discussion about putting a ticketing system in place to track what’s going on in the office. King explained that the new student orientation for the campus is almost finished, online orientation is in place and the group is looking to deepen the trainings offered for Canvas. Catalyst will be offline starting June 30. There will still be access but the site won’t be live. All instructors scheduled to teach in summer are all in progress or already certified.  An email will go out to all online instructors on how to save online content.

ETS

Luciw discussed recent and upcoming Wi-Fi upgrades. She also explained that a new Cenic router will help alleviate network congestion.

Accessibility

An assessment of lab accessibility has been completed, with improvements and upgrades planned.