Faculty Technology Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes: Monday, November 6, 2023, at 2:00 p.m.
All attendees joined remotely, via Zoom.
Attendees (21):
Members (12): Taylor Barnett, Jonathan (Jon) Becker, Michael Cabral, Amita Chin (Chair), Mark Crosthwaite, Shannon Harris, Jennifer Joy-Gaba, Hope Kelly, Kirk Richardson, Valerie Robnolt, Carmen Rodriguez, Dayanjan (Shanaka) Wijesinghe (Vice Chair)
Ex officio members (4): Colleen Bishop, Alex Henson, Elaine Reeder, Susan Coombes
Guests (4): Katie Shedden, David Morefield, Marcus Mickle, Sam Kennedy
Scribe (1): Jana Avery
The meeting began at 2:02 p.m., with Amita welcoming everyone.
Student Perspectives and Faculty Expectations About AI
Guest Speaker from Technology Services (TS): Sam Kennedy, Director of Technology Support Services and Liaison for STAC
- Sam spoke about AI discussions and feedback from the students via the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC). At the October 27, 2023 STAC meeting, most students expressed interest in using AI, using it safely, and requested guidance on the best path they should take. Their concerns about using AI are possible bias issues, data copyright and security. (Note: FTAC members were invited to the STAC meeting and several attended.)
- During today’s meeting, FTAC members shared thoughts about what clarification the students might need. It was mentioned that students need to know that faculty permission is not required for them to learn and use AI for their studying. It was agreed that an AI guideline for students is needed and that it should be updated each semester.
- FTAC members discussed comments and feedback they have heard from their colleagues. Some faculty are thinking about how to use it for student success, but there doesn’t seem to be any in-depth conversations happening right now. There does seem to be a need for a university policy to clarify what the expectations of faculty are for using AI.
- The question arose about whether or not there is a formal university policy for AI use in Focused Inquiry (FI) and University College (UC). AI is mentioned in some syllabi, but there is no policy explicitly for FI/UC. This is a concern because students can have all their papers written by ChatGPT, so a policy is needed as soon as we have a clear understanding of what should be allowed and what should not.
- A hypothetical situation was mentioned where there is a policy that allows the faculty member to prevent the student from using AI for assignments and how can you prove that the student did use it for the assignment? There is nothing currently available that can definitively say that something is written by AI. This could also impact grade appeals. Additionally, if the student challenges the proof provided for the use of AI and files a lawsuit against us, what protection do faculty have?
ACTION ITEM - AI
There are many things to consider regarding AI use.
- Alex Henson will keep FTAC apprised of any information and updates from the Provost and the Board of Visitors.
- Amita will keep this topic on the FTAC meeting agenda for the February 2024 meeting. She also plans to keep in touch with Mangala Subramaniam, Sr. Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs and will share any updates with FTAC.
Ellucian ILP Meets Canvas Initiative
Guest Speakers from Technology Services (TS): Marcus Mickle, Director of Administrative Systems and Katie Shedden, Senior Manager of Learning Systems (LS)
Katie and Marcus each introduced themselves and gave a brief overview of their team’s responsibilities. They explained that the implementation of the Ellucian Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP) to integrate VCU’s Ellucian Student Information System (SIS), Banner, with Canvas LMS will begin with the Spring 2024 semester. View their presentation.
Key components of this initiative include:
- LMS - Canvas Learning Management System
- Ellucian is the vendor that owns the Banner ERP, Degree Works, and ODS.
- SIS - Banner Student Information System
- ERP - Banner Enterprise Resource Planning System
- ILP - Ellucian’s Intelligent Learning Platform
Benefits:
- Ellucian ILP acts as a bridge, streamlining the transfer of user, course, and enrollment data; faculty assignments; and grades from Banner to Canvas in real time.
- Real-time synchronization is a significant improvement, which eliminates the need for the previous script that ran three times a day to transfer data from Banner to Canvas.
- Canvas courses and enrollments will populate with increased efficiency, real-time updates, and data accuracy.
- This change was implemented as of October 31, 2023, and faculty who are teaching in the Spring 2024 semester are encouraged to log in to Canvas now and see their course shell already in place, as a result of the change.
Results, Changes and Improvements Beginning Spring 2024:
- Student add/drops in Banner, via eServices, will take effect in Canvas right away, instead of waiting for the next (3-times-a-day) script to run.
- Inactive students previously had an indicator in Canvas meaning the student withdrew from the course, but their data was still retained in the course (for appeals, etc). Now withdrawn students will not display in the roster, offering a more streamlined, accurate roster of active, enrolled students.
- Course naming - instructors will no longer be able to change the names of courses in Canvas. This adjustment is necessary to maintain data consistency and integrity.
- Display names in Canvas will be overridden by the “name of use” recorded in Banner.
- Secondary instructors will automatically be added to Canvas courses as they are listed in Banner.
- The SIS ID for courses will shift to the “CRN.TERM” format, further aligning Canvas with Banner. These unique identifiers attached to courses in Canvas also offer the ability to search by CRN. (Previous ID format was “SUBJ-COURSE-SECT-SEMESTER”.)
- Banner cross-listed courses will have sections automatically merged, but the SIS ID will follow a modified format, which is different from manually cross-listed courses. This only affects about 3 percent of the total courses at VCU. Example:
- “Officially Cross-listed” in Banner: INTL-105-001.POLI-105-001 - International Relations - Fall 2023 (23616.202410.23617.202410)
- SIS ID: A2202410
- Term: Fall 2023
ACTION ITEM - Complete
Some questions were asked about cross-listed courses and how course names appear in Canvas and in emails sent to specific sections. Katie will follow-up with her support team to confirm that course nicknaming is a viable option and will be visible to students. She will also obtain documentation and share it with FTAC.
Follow-up and Completion of Action Item:
On November 9th, the following information was provided to Amita and she shared it with FTAC.
- Course Nicknaming:
- Regarding Section Naming:
- With Ellucian ILP, courses and sections are unable to be renamed.
- It is recommended that anyone with concerns about the naming of an official course, contact Records and Registration to ensure that the naming is clear. Otherwise, manual cross-listing procedures will remain the same as they were prior to the Ellucian ILP implementation.
- Additional information: Cross-List (Merge) Courses
Faculty Satisfaction and Use: Kaltura
Guest Speakers from Technology Services (TS): Katie Shedden, Senior Manager of Learning Systems (LS) and David Morefield, Manager MSS Video Production and Teleconferencing (VP&T)
- Katie and David gave a brief overview of their team’s responsibilities with regards to Kaltura. They provided a brief overview of what Kaltura is, and explained that Academic Technologies (AT) is reviewing our current Kaltura system to understand how it is being used, whether or not it meets our needs, if there are issues, and if there is additional functionality needed that Kaltura does not have. View their presentation.
- The usage of Kaltura and other systems managed by Academic Technologies (AT) have changed over time, especially as we have begun moving forward as a more hybrid university in the past year. Kaltura usage metrics from 2022 were shared as a reference point, but it was noted that many variables exist (ad blockers, system testing, etc.) that could prevent Kaltura from accurately reporting usage. While there could be a decline in content creation, there is usually an increase in viewing of existing content. Zoom seems to be the most significant entry source, due to the integration between Kaltura and Zoom. Recordings made with Zoom are kept for 60 days, but are automatically backed up to Kaltura for storage beyond 60 days. Many of our classrooms have hardware installed that facilitate the scheduling and processing of recordings within Kaltura. Due to the automated recording processes and captioning taking place behind the scenes, many may not realize Kaltura exists, that they automatically have access to it, and what additional functionality is available to them, such as adding recordings to Canvas courses or uploading other audio or video content to Kaltura.
FTAC members were asked the following questions, and responses were noted in a separate document. A sampling of the responses are included below.
- Do you use Kaltura? Why/Why not?
- started use during pandemic
- to post Kaltura links in Canvas courses
- better than uploading to YouTube
- use it regularly (second favorite application after DocuSign)
- universally available to all students
- do not use it - no app on classroom desktops; Zoom has the functionality I need
- How do you typically use Kaltura?
- streaming media
- media storage
- ability to make comments for in-service and pre-service teachers who record portions of the lessons they teach
- used extensively by VCU Libraries for media storage and streaming
- Does the Kaltura video management system meet your needs?
- no cost for faculty, staff and students
- supported at VCU
- no access control issues (via Canvas), seamless
- students are not reporting issues
- publishing granularity; access control; options for public-facing or VCU-only content
- secure, cloud-based storage for files (conserves storage space in other systems)
- content organization via channels and playlist
- automated captioning
- access to user-specific analytics (via VCU eID)
- What features of Kaltura do you like?
- quizzes
- publishing to Canvas courses
- captioning (push/pull to Verbit for professional captioning)
- Zoom record to cloud integration
- ability for the students to watch at varying speeds
- ability to capture notes on video
- ability to record and edit class discussions and presentations
- universally available to all students
- What features of Kaltura do you dislike?
- issues with Windows 11
- frustrating when trying to locate and organize files
- editing in Kaltura is limited, difficult and time-consuming
- captioning is inaccurate when using curriculum-specific terminology, speaking with an impediment or accent
- doesn’t have a BAA
- Kaltura cloud is not secure for HIPAA storage
- What other features would you like to have?
- interface feels outdated
- HIPAA limitations; Kaltura cloud is not secure for HIPAA (medical campus)
- Are there any instructional tools that you use to supplement your use of Kaltura?
- Adobe Rush for video editing
- Kaltura cannot be used for web-based and HTML-based lecture-oriented courses
Katie and David thanked everyone for their time and feedback. The discussion today provided insight for how Kaltura is being used throughout the university, what's working well and what isn’t. The positive feedback about the ease of use, it being seamless and streamlined was great to hear.
ACTION ITEM - Kaltura Feedback
- Katie and David will review and consolidate the feedback discussed as well as comments from the meeting chat. Reference their presentation document.
Technology Services (TS) Strategic Goals
Alex Henson, CIO gave an overview of the strategic goals for Technology Services (TS) that are submitted to the Vice President for Administration, the Provost and the President. The high-level plan for 2023/2024 goals begins with a list of everything that Technology Services is currently working on. This list is being updated and will be used to build next year’s goals. Below are examples of a few projects in progress, shown beneath the five strategic goals that are tracked. Each major project is made up of multiple components/projects.
- Infrastructure Optimization
- Data Center Migration - A huge project this year is the new Technology Operations Center (TOC), which involves migrating our entire network and data center operations from downtown to a new building at 707 W. Broad St. on the Monroe Park Campus. This project includes a few other components as well, such as migration and enhancements of cloud, security and mobile capabilities.
- Work on a campus map and way-finding project should be going live in January or February 2024. This will provide an intelligible campus map program that can be accessed from a phone and used for virtual campus tours, etc.
- Hybrid University Transformation
- Work continues on upgrading classroom technology, online instructional technologies, and all other necessary components to enable remote workforce. Classroom assessments, funding, computer hardware and software upgrades, audio/video infrastructure enhancements, etc.
- Strategic Partnerships
- Growing our strategic partnerships and relationships, in particular, the optimization between what we do as a central technology organization and working with various parts of VCU, from IT management and support strategies in projects where it makes sense to do so.
- Focusing on strategic enrollment management, a significant amount of work is being done with OVPRI, the health system and the health sciences schools, and all of the distributed IT units.
- In the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, there is the “Horizon” project, which allows researchers to access health system data securely, with additional computing resources and storage. Collaboration on data management and governance will also significantly ease research processes.
- Work with VCU Health continues, as we assist them in rebuilding their websites, and take on the responsibility for managing many of their basic web services, which could save them a significant amount of money. TS will benefit as well, as we continue to focus on our partnerships with the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC), and a variety of other technology user groups and support organizations in the various schools.
- Diversity and Inclusion
- TS has many internal goals that focus on how we are engaging and onboarding people, which is one of the best ways we promote diversity and inclusion. TS has student workers, many of whom come to work for us full time. This helps represent the diverse nature of our student body, our organization, staff members, as well as the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), that Sam spoke about earlier.
- TS has several ongoing projects such as the “Call Me by My Name” expansion, where we are adding a name-of-use field in all of our systems so that people can have their preferred identity follow them throughout various VCU systems.
- TS continues to focus on making sure that our websites are always accessible and ADA compliant.
- Service Delivery
- In response to customer and staff survey results, and identification of a severe deficiency in our existing knowledge process and tools, TS is working on implementing an improved, knowledge-centered service that will provide support consistency throughout IT teams and tiers, and offer our customers a better self-service experience. Procurement of RightAnswers, a KCS-verified enterprise tool that will facilitate the improved service is in progress. A pilot started this past summer and included the following groups in TS: IT Support Center, AT Learning Systems, IT Service Management Office, and Collaboration Services.
- A few other improvements TS is working on, or have implemented are: making Adobe Creative Cloud available to our faculty, staff and students; IT governance redesign; and development of a streamlined web framework for security awareness training and related-initiatives.
Alex shared the goals document and encouraged FTAC members to email him with comments or questions. Several members expressed gratitude for the amazing amount of work TS does. Alex plans to continue sharing updates on TS goals and initiatives and make sure FTAC has an opportunity to provide input, which is extremely valuable.
FTAC Feedback
Amita reminded everyone of the important role that FTAC has in serving as a conduit with our units, and encouraged everyone to continue sharing the things that we discuss with their colleagues and also share with FTAC what they hear from their colleagues. She stressed the importance of having this exchange of information, ideas, concerns, etc.
Classroom Updates and Feedback
Amita explained that William Nelson was unable to join the meeting today, and reminded everyone to think about the $4,000,000 of HEETF funds to improve the centrally managed classrooms, and if they know of certain colleagues that are teaching in these classrooms, be sure to share any feedback with FTAC. She suggested asking colleagues what their experiences are in those classrooms, especially if they have been updated recently. If the rooms have not been updated, find out what your colleagues need or expect to have in those classrooms.
FTAC Members and Alternates
Amita asked that all FTAC members please identify an alternate member from their unit that might like to be part of this committee. They could attend all meetings if desired, but it would be extremely beneficial to have someone attend if you are unable to. This allows all units to be consistently represented at FTAC. Amita will include this topic in the agenda for the next meeting, for follow-up discussion and questions.
Instructional Tools
Amita asked that FTAC try to gather information from their units about instructional tools. It would be beneficial to know what tools are being used, and why some are not. We can discuss and maybe offer suggestions for encouraging them to use some of the tools. She will include this topic in the FTAC meeting for further discussion, but asked everyone to think about the following:
- Instructional Tools such as Canvas, Respondus, Turnitin, Kaltura, VoiceThread, and TopHat.
- What tools are being used in your unit?
- What tools are not being used?
- Are faculty feeling they cannot use certain tools for some reason?
The October 16, 2023 meeting minutes were shared, reviewed, and approved for posting on the FTAC website.
Amita thanked our guests and everyone for attending, and the meeting was adjourned at 3:30 pm.
Next Meeting: Monday, February 5, 2024 at 2:00-3:30 p.m. via Zoom
- Communication: Google Group, email - mailto:ftac@vcu.edu
- File Sharing: Google Shared Drive - Faculty Technology Advisory Committee
- Website: https://ftac.vcu.edu