IRC News Minutes provided by Sue Ellen Richey, Recording Secretary

IRC Regular Voting Members: Ginny Anderson, Fiscal Affairs; Donna Asher, Administrative Affairs; Walter Bowen, Academic Administration; Bill Buntain, Communications Program Group; Sue Byron, Faculty Senate; Carolyn Cunningham, Student Affairs; Don Grose, Libraries; Jenny Jopling, Instruction Program Group; Joneel Harris, Administrative Program Group; Allen Livingston,Graduate Student Council; Dennis Mueller, Research Program Group (on Sabbatical); Ramu Muthiah, School of Community Services; Jon Nelson, College of Music and Standards & Cooperation Program Group; Robert Nimocks, Director, Information Technology,UNTHSC; Steve Oeffner, UNT Health Science Center Russ Pensyl , School of Visual Arts; Patrick Pluscht, Distributed Learning Team; Jim Poirot College of Education; Mark Rorvig, Research Program Group (acting for Dennis Mueller who is on Sabbatical); Kathleen Swigger, College of Arts and Sciences; Neal Tate, University Planning Council; Philip Turner, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs for Distance Education and Dean of the School of Library and Information Resources (Chair, IRC);; Virginia Wheeless, Chancellor; John Windsor, College of Business. IRC Ex-officio Nonvoting Members: Leslie Bowden, Telecommunications; Wil Clark, GALMAC; Jim Curry, Microcomputer Maintenance Shop; Michael Forster, UNT Health Science Center; Richard Harris, Computing Center; Coy Hoggard, Computing Center; Maurice Leatherbury, Computing Center; Sue Ellen Richey, Computing Center (Recording Secretary). [As of 1/99]

January 19, 1999

IR Steering Committee

The Chair reported that the IR Steering Committee met, at which time he and Richard Harris presented the Internet 2 proposal that was approved at the December IRC meeting. The Steering Committee approved this proposal, but did not give the source of funding.

Distributed Computing Support Management Team

Maurice Leatherbury reported that the Distributed Computing Support Management Team met and discussed the campus-wide roll out of Novell Netware 5.0. The committee is planning the roll out sometime in the summer.

Y2K Code Conversion

Coy Hoggard reported that the Y2K code conversion of the SIMS product was completed around December 1^st. During December, up to the holidays, the end users tested the system to see if there were any problems. Problems encountered were corrected and the system was successfully tested during the holidays. The remediated software is being used for registration now. Coy added that the problems with the Apple MAC users was determined not to be connected with the SIMS conversion.

Communications Program Group

Bill Buntain did not have a report from the Communications Program Group. He said the group is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss streaming video to remote users, and to work on the Internet 2 proposal. He also announced that there is a new UNT home page. There is also a new CBT Systems Web Client, which is much faster than the old one. The Library has indicated that they would like some additional CBT titles, to Bill is in contact with CBT to obtain the new titles.

Administrative Program Group

Joneel Harris expressed her appreciation for Coy Hoggard’s and the Computing Center’s work in converting the SIMS system to Y2K compliance. The Administrative Program Group has not met since before the holidays, but they will meet soon to discuss Phase 2 of Y2K testing.

Research Program Group

Mark Rorvig stated that the Research Program Group has been focused on the Internet 2 proposal. They have created a web site to document various activities, and initially the web site will be used to gather meritorious applications for the Internet 2 grant. He thanked Bill Buntain, Mike Maner and Maurice Leatherbury for their assistance in working on the grant. Rorvig explained that meritorious projects are any research projects that need to use or now use high band-width networks or could benefit from use of high band-width. Examples of meritorious, as well as educational applications, are provided on the web site.

Membership Change

The Chair announced that Paul Dworak has resigned from the IRC, and Jon Nelson is his replacement from the College of Music. Jon will also serve on the Standards & Cooperation Program Group and that group will elect a new chair, since Paul had also served in that capacity.

Distributed Learning Team

The Chair announced that the steering committee for the Distributed Learning Team met for a very constructive meeting. Since Patrick Pluscht did not attend that meeting, Dr. Turner asked Jenny Jopling to report. Jenny Jopling explained that the steering committee is made up of sub-committees: 1) Administration; 2) Faculty support; 3) Student support; and 4) Infrastructure. At the most recent meeting the committee worked on guidelines for approval of distributed learning courses, based on standards of good practice. The committee discussed an approval process to approve electronically-based courses and programs in Texas, as a result of a new ruling by the Coordinating Board to pass that responsibility down to the institutions. The ruling is that courses can be approved at the Vice President level, and programs can be approved at the Provost level, then by the Chancellor and the Board of Regents. This new process does not change any of the process already in place for new courses or programs; this process is applicable to existing programs and courses which have become distributed learning courses or programs. Further, this process only applies to masters’ and undergraduate level courses, not doctoral courses.

Dr. Turner commented that this process should shorten the approval time for courses and programs.

Jenny Jopling added that once course approval is in place, if the course or program needs assistance in putting the courses on the Web, the Administrative group came up with a document for resource allocation to use the services of the Center for Distributed Learning. The faculty support group came up with a possible form for evaluating distributed courses in general, not faculty, just course delivery. The infrastructure subcommittee has distributed a survey to the various colleges and schools asking what kind of in-house support they have for distributed learning.

Jenny also reported that the two instructional consultants in the Center are spending about 30% of their time supporting Web CT for non-distributed learning users. It is anticipated that usage will only increase, so they met with the Library and came to an agreement with them that the Librarians, who are already assisting faculty, be trained in the use of Web CT so that they can assist faculty in putting their supplemental materials in that format.

Maurice Leatherbury commented that the Computing Center recently brought up two new web servers, SUN 450s, which is a step in the support of Web CT.

UNT Internet Connection

Bill Buntain stated that there have been several problems with the upgrade of the Internet connection, but they expect to have the 7.5 mb Internet connection in place within a week, with an upgrade to 9 mb following as soon as possible.

Kathleen Swigger reported problems with connecting to UNT through her Internet provider and stated her hope that the UNT Internet connection be improved first, before going ahead with any construction to provide for Internet 2. Bill Buntain replied that this should improve soon.

February 16, 1999

Distributed Computing Support Management Team

Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Distributed Computing Support Management Team that they have been discussing the Microsoft Campus Agreement and the Computing Center will be making a decision soon. There is an attempt being made to get approval from the Student Association to assess an increase in the technology fee in order for students to be included in the Campus Agreement. Approval was not received in time to present the fee increase to the Board of Regents at its recent meeting. If approved by the Student Association, the fee increase of approximately $20.00 per year will be presented to the Board of Regents for approval at its next meeting. UNT can go ahead with the Campus Agreement without the student inclusion and add them later.

Maurice reported that $145,000 was spent in the last calendar year on products that will be covered under the new Campus Agreement and another $7,000 on products that will not be covered. For UNT to get into the Campus Agreement, based upon headcount of faculty/staff, it will cost roughly $105-115,000. The Campus Agreement provides a one-year license to use the software and is extended to all Office products, upgrade to Win NT, Windows 98, FrontPage and the Visual Studio. The Agreement also grants the right to distribute the products for home use.

There is still a question as to whether it is better to enter into this contract for a lease of the software, as opposed to owning the software, as we currently do under the Microsoft Select Agreement. There was some discussion about this question. Maurice explained that the Computing Center believes it can fund the Campus Agreement in this fiscal year; however, the cost of the Campus Agreement next year may have to be paid for by departmental allocations based on head-count in departments.

Maurice suggested that it would most likely not cost departments any more than they are paying currently. Distribution to students would be by CD check-out in the Library, if and when they are added to the contract. Maurice stated that the DCSMT recommends going ahead with the Campus Agreement because Microsoft is constantly coming out with new products and upgrades. Maurice said when the decision is finally made about how to fund the new Campus Agreement he will contact Deans to let them know.

After the discussion, the Chair asked for a sense of the body. The Council had a split vote with a simple majority supporting the DCSMT’s recommendation.

Year 2000 Remediation Project

Coy Hoggard reported for the Year 2000 Remediation project that integrated systems testing has been completed of the more critical applications with the system set to current date. Future date testing has been delayed until this week due to problems with some Software AG products. It is hoped that the testing will be completed sufficiently to put the converted applications and platform software into production during Spring Break. Problems have arisen with the voice response system because the vendor will not certify their equipment as Y2K compliant, so the Computing Center is having to look at replacement of the system.

Instruction Program Group

Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Instruction Program Group, in Jenny Jopling’s absence. Maurice stated that he has conducted a survey of departments to determine the need for computer classrooms. Responses from 23 departments indicate a significant need for computer classrooms. These departments did not indicate much of a need for computer-based testing, however. Some Network Managers will be discussing how to establish more computer classrooms.

Communications Program Group

Since Bill Buntain was not present to report for the Communications Program Group, the committee minutes were distributed as well as a report on remote access facilities and speed. Robert Pierce reported that Paul Schlieve is the new Chair of the Communications Program Group, and that he is the Vice-Chair.

Administrative Program Group

Coy Hoggard reported for the Administrative Program Group that it has met with the AIS Users’ Group and the SIMS group to work on the integrated system testing of the remediated Y2K applications and will continue that testing for the next month or so.

Research Program Group

Maurice Leatherbury reported for the Research Program Group that there has been email discussion of the Internet2 proposal which was completed by the submission deadline. Maurice also reported that Dr. Hurley has signed the application for membership in Internet2; which brings the total Texas university members to 7; 4 of which are connected to a Gigapop. Apparently membership is by campus, not by university system.

Standards & Cooperation Program Group

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported for the Standards & Cooperation Program Group that in their recent meeting she was elected the new Chair. They will meet again on March 11^th and decide what projects to address.

Distributed Learning Team

Patrick Pluscht reported for the Distributed Learning Team that the new university-level approval process for distributed learning (50% or greater web-based or videoconference) courses and programs is official. Courses will be approved at the Vice President for Academic Affairs level and programs at the Executive Vice President level. Departments should allow about 4 months for the course approval process, and 9 months for program approval. Information about this is posted at www.unt.edu/cdl under the Approval Procedure link. In addition, Patrick reported that the distributed learning funding model has been approved and information distributed to departments through the deans.

Teaching with Technology Grants

Maurice announced that yesterday was the deadline for the Teaching with Technology Grant proposals; he has received 27 applications for $174,000. There is only $100,000 available to award, so the review committee will be looking at the proposals and hopefully announce the proposal awards at Spring Break.

Dorm Wiring

Maurice also announced that the Board of Regents approved a bond issue which will include campus-wide data infrastructure upgrade and the wiring of the dorms. Bill Buntain anticipates that half of the dorms can be wired by next Fall, and the rest wired by Spring of 2000.