Technology Task Force Notes

Wednesday March 21, 2007
ADM 109
Time: 3:00 – 4:30

1) The notes from the previous meeting were approved and added to the record.

2) A demo of the Early Alert System was provided by Kathy Kyne. The grant funded development project is now entering it's fifth year, and may have a public release as early as summer '07. Questions were asked about the three week cut off for adding students to the early alert list for that quarter, while much of the discussion centered around the counseling process itself. It was noted by Fred Sherman that the new ERP system will be on line in about five years, and may include many of the capabilities currently under development in the Early Alert System. Due to this fact, there should be little concern about future compatibility with the new ERP system. It was also noted that the counseling department will add two new staff to support the Early Alert process: An Early Alert Counselor and an Early Alert Administrator. Training on the new system may be offered as part of Opening Day "07 activities.

3) Linda Elvin of Distance Learning announced that De Anza had been invited to partner with SFSU in the establishment of an ePortfolio system that can be used by multiple institutions. Our Creative Arts Division and our Business/CIS Division have expressed interest in the project. The project is part of a larger initiative. led by Barbara Boxer, to create a state wide ePortfolio system. Since many task force members wished to read Senator Boxer's proposal, the issue was tabled until the next meeting.

4) The Technology Plan has been approved by the Classified Senate and the Academic Senate. The document is still awaiting final approval from DASB and, finally, the College Council.

5) The mandated use of district email provoked a lively discussion. The issue centers on the fact that many staff and faculty, in particular, adjunct faculty, use email addresses other than the one provided by the district. This makes electronic communication inconsistent, and can sometimes result in missed deadlines or increased workloads for support staff. Particularly challenging is the fact that newly hired adjunct faculty cannot be provided with an fhda address until the third week of instruction. There were many suggestion as to how we might resolve the issue. Some of the suggestions were:

• All new employees should be provided with guidance and instructions about email forwarding.
• Staff and faculty email could be sent only to fhda addresses -- eventually, everyone would use their fhda mail address.

6) Quick Updates:
• Marty Kahn announced that the WCMS (Web Content Management System) committee has completed the problem statement, the needs assessment, and has defined the selection criteria. The next step will be a closer examination of commercial and open source systems that meet the basic requirements of the campus.

• Linda Elvin discussed the progress of the Catalyst Advisory Committee. The group has held three meetings. Major topics of discussion have included the need for a reporting system to track software bugs and the possibility of using the same Moodle installation that is used by Humbolt, one of our consortium members. One of the reasons to adopt the Humbolt installation is that our current version lacks an email tool, and Humbolt has coded their own custom email tool into their system. The software is available to use at no cost.

• Fred Sherman provided an update on the EIS system selection process. The kickoff has been completed, and we are now in the brainstorming phase. The campus community can provide input by using a web based tool. More information can be found at: <http://www.fhda.edu/eis>;www.fhda.edu/eis

• Fred Sherman also mentioned that the ID Management project is on schedule and will roll out in the Fall.

Notes taken by Marty Kahn