March 3rd, 2006 Minutes

Academic Steering Committee for Distance Education (ASCDE)

Full Committee Meeting Minutes – March 3, 2006 – 8:30 am-10:00 am

 Participants: Megan Carlson, Jackie Cason, Sheri Denison, Kate Gordon, Tim Hinterberger, Barbara Markley, Tom Miller, Carol Swartz, Kathleen Voge, Hannele Zubeck

Guests: Lauren Bruce (CAFÉ), Interim Provost Jan Gehler (OAA), Shane Southwick (eMedia)

Attachements:
Distance Education Customer Service Call Distribution
Distance Education Customer Service Call Distribution Category Breakdown
Distance Education Enrollments Chart

Approval of Minutes and Agenda

Previous Action Items

1. Invite Diane Byrne to join committee.
1. Diane Byrne will be invited to the April ASCDE meeting. She was scheduled to present at the March meeting, but was unable to attend.
2. Promulgate Distance Education Guidelines approved by the Faculty Senate.
1. The Provost distributed the guidelines at the January Full Council of Deans and Directors meeting. The guidelines will be discussed in more detail at the March Academic Deans meeting. The Provost will pass on any comments or questions from the Deans to ASCDE.
2. ASCDE was encouraged to distribute the guidelines. Shane Southwick reported that they had never been transmitted to eMedia.

Report from Provost

1. The new tool for student evaluations (IDEA) was scheduled for discussion on the March 3rd Faculty Senate agenda. The tool is not yet ready for online use, but the Senate is proceeding with the new paper format. A concern in offering the evaluations online is that the response rate tends to be much lower (20%) than the paper response rate (60%). Shane pointed out that paper evaluations that are mailed out to distance students have a response rate (5%) much lower than 20%. ASCDE agreed that it is important that we continue to evaluate online courses.
2. PBAC will set the standards and process for the strategic opportunity fund call for proposals at their March 10th meeting. Decisions on awards are scheduled to be complete before faculty go off contract in May. The funds will cover projects through June 2007.

Report from Shane Southwick, eMedia

1. The majority of calls to eMedia are questions about registration (25%) and Blackboard (25%). Most calls from students come in during the first two weeks of classes.
2. There is a demand for more depth in distance offerings, such as non-GER courses and complete programs available at a distance.
3. eMedia is in a difficult position, because the office has the responsibility of support on a product they have no control over. He recommended having some form of training for faculty members new to teaching distance courses.
4. Enrollment trends in distance classes are up. There are about 60-70 distance sections per semester.

Announcements

1. The ASCDE website (http://desteering.uaa.alaska.edu) is now up to date with meeting schedules and minutes.
2. The Distance Education Steering Board and the Educational Technology Team will be holding a joint meeting in Juneau on March 30th and 31st. The meeting will focus on how the ETT can implement DESB recommendations. Kate Gordon and Sheri Dennison will attend on behalf of UAA. The steering board is heavily involved in the instructional design job family. It is also funding a study on the state of Distance Education in Alaska with the Alaska Distance Education Consortium (ADEC). Kate encouraged ASCDE members to visit the DESB website (http://distance.uaf.edu/steeringboard/) to stay aware of what is happening in distance education at the state level.
3. Rich Whitney launched a committee to discuss the future of online learning at UAA in December. The committee has not met again since then, but Kate will check to see if it is continuing and report back to ASCDE in April.

Discussion Items

The committee will prepare a year-end report to the Provost articulating needs and issues. This report is a good opportunity to make recommendations. Barbara Markley will submit a Student Services section for the report. Kate asked Tim Hinterberger to make a proposal over email for comments from the group.

The next meeting will be Friday, April 7th from 8:30-10:00 in LIB 302A. Members calling in from other locations can reach the meeting by dialing (800)519-1987 and entering meeting number *9706147*.