eLearning Meeting Minutes for October 23, 2024
Minutes
The Academic Senate Committee on eLearning met on October 23, 2024
Committee Members in Attendance:
- Shenaz Ida - Chair
- Barbara Frary - Secretary
- Karan Puri
- Tanya Zhelezcheva
- Emily El Halouani
- Mohammad Javdan
- Daniel Garbin
- Wei Lai
- Wenjian Liu
Liaisons in Attendance:
Denis Bejar (IT Academic Applications Director) - vis Zoom
Arthur Corradetti (Dean for Institutional Effectiveness, OAA)
Business:
The meeting was called to order at 1:10PM
Denis Bejar address the committee about the Brightspace transition. He addressed the fact that CUNY has training classes but he does not have access to the numbers of QCC staff that has gone through it, since CUNY does not share those details with his group. He does have records of faculty that have come to his department for training but that does not give him a complete picture of the overall training at QCC. Denis also introduced us to a new feature under tools called Demo Student. This allows a faculty member to add a Demo student to their class and then impersonate the Demo student to see things that "view as Learner" does not allow.
Various committee members brought up issues they have had with Brightsapce including:
1) Code file rendering - Barbara has a class using C# and Daniel has a python class that has the same issue. However it is only text so they don't understand why it is a problem on Brightspace.
2) No abilility to Save As... submitted files, Sometimes files need to be renamed or saved in particular folders
3) Rubric scores as a C even though all pieces are graded as a B
4) Two Open source Math packages are not integrated into Brightspace, one is being worked on and the other needs a "sponser" who is using the package that will help get the integration done. Karan might spearhead this.
5) Rubric scores force faculty to calculate values when they could just be percentages, it makes changing a rubric a nightmare.
6) Tanya indicated a cummulative grade problem that could not be ignored.
Barbara wondered why there was not a proof of concept installation done, where faculty could try out the software. Her experience with companies she worked for was that they would do an install and the buyer would make sure it did everything they needed. Denis indicated that the decision to go with Brightspace was mostly based on the fact that SUNY uses it and not necessarly on the recommendations of the committee.
Old Business
- Approval of minutes of 5/18/24
- Committee Etiquettes: Chairperson Ida discussed the correct procedure for members to take if they will be absent to meetings or if they cannot fulfill their agreed upon commitment to the committee. Is such a circumstance should occur, then members should notify the committee chairperson or the committee secretary.
New Business
- AI Bookclub
- CUNY AI Series
- Newsletter - Submit to Emily
- Committee Members on eLearning pge have been updated by Daniel
- Annual Report from 2023-2024 need to be updated
Minutes submitted by: Barbara Frary
Minutes Approved November 13, 2024 by the committee after making changes to the attendance
Respectfully submitted by:
Barbara Frary
Minutes typed on November 11, 2024
