All attendees joined remotely, via Zoom.

Attendees (8):
Kristine Artello (Vice-Chair), Jonathan Becker, Michael Cabral, Amita Chin, Hope Kelly, Kathryn Murphy-Judy, Valerie Robnolt (Chair), James Smither

Also in attendance (3):
Ex officio members: Katherine Maynard, Colleen Bishop
Scribe: Jana Avery

Valerie opened the meeting, welcomed everyone.

• Kristine Artello announced that she is leaving VCU August 15, 2022.
• Kathryn Murphy-Judy is retiring September 1, 2022
• Mandara Savage will no longer serve on FTAC. Judith Kornberg, who filled his position in VCU Online was notified, but did not attend today.

With Kristine leaving the committee will need a new vice chair. A Suggestion made that Valerie remain chair and the committee nominate a new vice chair. This would provide an opportunity for the new vice chair to work with Valerie in preparation for becoming chair the following year. 

Action Item: Colleen offered to work with Jana to create a form to send out for vice chair nominations. 

Minutes from the February 2022 meeting were reviewed and there were no corrections needed.

Valerie opened the discussion about the Online Strategy Task Force meeting last week. All five workgroups were represented. It was decided that the task force would work during the summer and through October to have more time to finish their report and make recommendations to the Provost and Tomekia LeGrande. 

Several folks in FTAC also serve on other workgroups:

• High-Quality: Valerie
• Innovations in Teaching & Learning: Colleen and Jon
• Academic Integrity: Amita, Valerie and Colleen
• Student & Faculty Experience: Hope Kelly
• Credentialing - none that are in attendance today

The charge of the Online task force is to recommend tools that should be used for academic integrity and online exams.  Four technologies have been evaluated thus far. The workgroup has concerns about privacy issues and the expense of proctoring solutions. It was noted during the task force meeting that when the university transitioned to online learning during the pandemic, the honor system was no longer getting the same emphasis as it was previously. In the past, there were honor counselors for each school that faculty could consult with, and we no longer have those.

The committee discussed the need for a more holistic approach--making everyone (schools, faculty and students) aware that the honor code and academic integrity are very important.

Depending on which discipline you're in, the nature of your assessment is very different, like the size of your classes being different. This committee is tasked with looking at a solution that hopefully would work for the majority of both campuses, and those differences need to be taken into consideration. A lengthy report that the workgroup submitted to Tomekia Legrande included the recommendations for  academic technology infrastructure, faculty development, etc. 

In the Innovations in Teaching & Learning workgroup there was a unanimous recommendation that VCU not work with third-party, for profit OPM (Online Program Management) companies. 

Colleen shared what proctoring tools are currently being used at VCU, and that any tools integrated with Canvas (VCU’s LMS) are managed and maintained by Learning Systems staff. OPMs claim they can help the university manage this, but this is not necessarily true.  Learning Systems staff would still be doing the work.

• Respondus Monitor & Lockdown Browser - available to everyone
• ExamSoft - Three or four schools have an agreement with ExamSoft, but it is not campus-wide.

Jon Becker shared information about how KUNY and UNC (Kittyhawk project) are using COVID relief funds to start an inhouse OPM (similar language, incentivizing, marketing, etc.). He shared a recent  IHE article which  articulates a lot of what the workgroup discussed, and also a slightly outdated report that demonstrates what the university would lose by not having a system in Virginia.

Valerie opened a discussion about whether we should consider broadening FTAC’s charge to include issues related to online learning. FTAC’s focus is technology, which is an integral part of online learning, so should anything related to online learning be part of this committee's charge? The Online Learning Task Force exists for a limited time, so maybe a representative from FTAC should be involved in their online learning discussions. FTAC’s input is from the faculty perspective, and our feedback about the impact to faculty if technology solutions are adopted could be extremely helpful. Advisory groups are usually designated specifically for something or someone. In our case, we are an advisory group to Alex Henson (Technology Services) or maybe Colleen Bishop (Academic Technologies). There was no motion or action item from this discussion.

Valerie stated that this was a great example of faculty voices being heard. After the letter was endorsed by the Faculty Senate, Valerie sent it to Dr. Rao. The response below came from the Provost, and Valerie and Kristine replied to thank him for recognizing how much faculty had to do during the pandemic.

"President Rao forwarded your message to me and Meredith Weiss and asked that we reply on his behalf.  

First, on behalf of the entire VCU administration, we hear you. There is no doubt that you and your faculty colleagues have carried an extraordinarily heavy load throughout the pandemic - semester to semester. We recognize that you are exhausted. And while we can’t predict what comes next with COVID-19, we feel confident that our trek back to a more normal teaching and learning environment will be completed in the near future.

By no means will we be an “online” university; but post-pandemic our goal is to move the university forward in our ability to integrate technology into the fabric of our teaching and learning. We are committed to leveraging technology and high-quality online learning modalities to create the flexibility and opportunity to innovate in the future.

This will require us to continue to work in partnership and build the appropriate infrastructure to support your work.

The considerations you mentioned are on point.

VCU Technology Services is already well on the way to substantially increasing the number of classrooms with technology that can support technology-assisted courses. A multi-year plan to upgrade every classroom to support the teaching and learning of the future has been developed, and faculty input will be crucial to refining this plan.

The Online Strategy Task Force has been working since last fall to develop recommendations that will inform the next steps in ensuring a positive experience for faculty and students in all forms of online teaching and learning. As you may already know, Tomikia LeGrande, chair of the Task Force, shared your letter with the members asking that they review and consider the expressed challenges - challenges for which long-term solutions lie in the recommendations of the Task Force and its Workgroups."

Classroom Technology Needs

Valerie brought to the committee’s attention that the classrooms are being evaluated for what technology is available and what is needed.  She asked Colleen to share the details.

Centrally supported classrooms
Media Support Services (MSS) Classroom Support annually goes through the classrooms and identifies which ones need to be updated, and they are added to our upgrade schedule. Usually these are the classrooms that have older equipment. Unfortunately, classroom equipment procurement relies solely on HEETF funds. Also, there have been significant delays receiving equipment. Once the equipment is received, staff begin upgrading the rooms on the schedule. The letter from FTAC has made the issue more prominent and the administration has acknowledged that more funding is needed. 

Non-centrally supported classrooms
These classrooms are not managed by Colleen’s team, and leadership is now looking at these. She is not sure how many classrooms on campus are not centrally supported. These spaces are managed by schools and colleges and they don't follow a standard like MSS Classroom Support does. It is unclear what will happen with these classrooms. Perhaps recommendations from the Online Task Force will lead to initiatives that will specifically address these rooms. 

In support of classrooms managed by colleges needing to be addressed, an example given was the retrofitting of the Wilder School’s Raleigh building a few years ago. None of the classrooms were/are equipped or compatible for distance learning. Perhaps the committee overseeing the building project had no faculty involved or providing input, which is a big part of the problem. There is a real disconnect between attention given to aesthetic details, than to teaching and learning functionality.

Colleen shared that MSS Classroom Support will be sending out a classroom survey soon, and reminded everyone to respond and express their classroom needs and concerns, and encourage others to as well.

There was a suggestion that there be a place on the survey for the instructor to give the classroom building and number that they teach in since they don’t always know if centrally supported or not.  Although the survey is intended for centrally supported classrooms, everyone should still share their input, which is applicable to most classrooms. With the attention currently focused on online learning, this feedback can be passed on to those who are reviewing non-centrally supported spaces.

Action Item: Four or five faculty from FTAC will form a small, focused workgroup that will tour some of the centrally-supported classrooms, meet with MSS Classroom Support and share feedback with FTAC about what is really needed to make the classrooms high-tech. This workgroup will be formed at the September 12th FTAC meeting, and an October meeting will be scheduled for the follow-up discussion.  

Action Item: It was suggested that the next FTAC meeting have a portion of the committee in a classroom and the others online, to simulate a hybrid teaching and learning experience. Hope Kelly mentioned the meeting rooms in the Library; Colleen mentioned the TS classroom in Cabell B41; and Kitty mentioned Academic Learning Commons 4100.

Future topic: Jon Becker suggested that FTAC review and discuss the procedures for disbursement of HEETF funds.