Summary from iLevel Advisory Committee Meeting - May 3, 2002

Marcel O'Gorman
May 08 2002

iSmart Classrooms (Oct. 2002-Sept 2003)
The meeting of the iSmart sub-committee was very productive, and the results of that meeting were first on the agenda. Members of that committee include:

-Judy Miller (architecture and Master Plan advisor)
-Gerry Opalinsky (classroom allocation/registration advisor)
-Bill Allmendinger (networking, technical advisor)
-Emmy Yousey (public labs advisor)
-Dina Dubuis (academic computing advisor)
-Maureen Anthony (Outer Dr. representative)
-Marcel O'Gorman (Title 3/ILevel Grant Activities Director).

The committee determined that the 2 classrooms designated for Life Sciences must be implemented in coordination with the university's master plan, which includes a remodeling of the Life Sciences building in 2002-2003. The best use of iSmart funds would be to install wired classrooms on the ground-level wing of the building. These rooms could be used by a variety of departments.

The committee determined that iSmart funds designated for Fine Arts in the grant should go to Architecture since they are the closest thing we have to Fine Arts, and they are not mentioned elsewhere in the grant. Funds will likely go into a combination of elements:

1) materials for ARC students to design and build innovative computer kiosks to be distributed across campus and at external locations;
2) funds to support technological infrastructure in the ARC exhibit hall.

Finally, Sarah Swart gave a report on how the funds designated for the library will be used. Part of the funds will go toward wireless in the Library. The rest will go toward a faculty training facility equipped with a cart containing several laptops. The committee agreed that this is an excellent idea, and we look forward to seeing this develop.

Assessment/Evaluation Elaine Bell presented a new strategy for evaluating IT proficiency of faculty. A survey will be implemented in the second week of September. The committee will help design the survey, which should be implemented both online and on paper. It would be wise to contact Dept. chairs about this, and request that surveys be completed at the beginning of a faculty meeting.

Tom Jeffrey offered to help create a survey form that can be scanned to compile results.

Emmy Yousey agreed to the idea that we should survey students who have taken the Basic Skills exam to evaluate their progress. This survey will be spearheaded by Emmy and designed with the committee's support.

The committee agreed that it is time to shift our focus more heavily toward students. To begin with, we will be taking the basic skills exam at the next meeting. We have also begun investigating the possibility of a student laptop or computer requirement. Tom Jeffrey and Marcel O'Gorman have agreed to provide data about this at the next meeting.