UCF Academic Focus Group Proceedings

DRAFT

The minutes of the April 11 meeting were accepted as submitted.

Joel Hartman reported that a faculty advisory committee had recently raised the question of changing existing policy in order to permit auto forwarding from student knights email accounts. Joel asked for discussion and feedback on the issue from the group. Bob Yanckello and Haven Sweet both noted that it is currently possible to incorporate multiple email accounts, including knights email, into a single email client for unified management, using either applemail, or the MS Outlook client.

After a discussion of the history and rationale for the existing policy, the majority of the AFG were in favor of retaining policy, which does not permit auto-forwarding in student knights email accounts.

RO Updates

Dore Carter introduced new Assistant Registrar Tina Bott, who shall be responsible for graduation and certification activities. Dore also reported that the record-setting commencement ceremonies went well last week, and that Spring term grade collection resulted in the fewest number of missing grades of any previous term.

CS Updates

Bob Yanckello reported that migration to the new active directory identity management process completed last weekend with no apparent issues. Joel and Elisabeth noted that the COS pilot for tenure and promotion electronic workflow is continuing and training materials are being developed for faculty.

Pam Vongraff introduced former faculty member and now Assistant Dean Lynn Becker as the new representative from the College of Business Administration.

respectfully submitted,
Bob Reed

The minutes of the Feb 29 meeting were accepted as submitted.

Brian Boyd provided an update on PERC issues. A problem reported is that when a drop transaction is requested, it may not be completed if there is a dependent co-requisite, and no indication of incomplete transaction is given.  Other schools have reported the issue and Oracle is reportedly working on a mod request to provide a specific option to override and proceed with the drop. Steve Sesit has shared an inspection process that will report on failed transactions in this circumstance.

Lee Ann Kirkpatrick also noted some incomplete or bad PERC data resulting from possible operator error, and Elizabeth Hale will provide a cleanup routine to correct it.

Brian reported that 5 spring commencement ceremonies are planned for May 3-5.   All are reminded that grades are due on Thursday May 3, and audits may begin on May 4.

CS updates

Bob Yankello reported that Sunday May 6 is a scheduled maintenance day and systems will be offline, Included that day is a significant change to identity management process, which should be transparent to users with business start on May 7.

Bob also noted that a test of electronic workflow for promotion and tenure process is underway in the College of Sciences, with eventual rollout University-wide.

The 3 Learning Management Systems (LMS) under consideration for adoption university wide by Spring 2013 will be demo’d next week on April 16-18 in the Morgridge International Reading Center. All are welcome to attend, more details available at http://teach.ucf.edu/migration The 3 LMS systems will be piloted in a handful of Summer 2012 classes, and a decision is expected by July 2012.  Migration to the new system for academic classes will begin for the Fall semester and should be complete for the spring 2013 semester. Non academic users of Webcourses should also plan to convert and migrate their teaching and training programs during the Fall semester.

In new business, Bob Reed shared that Distributed Learning intends to recommend that the University blacklist 5 or 6 states and restrict enrollments in online classes for students resident in those states due to burdensome state authorization requirements. It is expected that students with Florida residency status will be exempt from authorization or jurisdiction of other states and not subject to enrollment restrictions.  Full compliance with all US state authorization requirements has been requested by federal authorities by July 2014.

respectfully submitted,
Bob Reed

The minutes of the Jan 25 meeting were accepted as submitted.

Melissa Dagley noted that students discovered access to the future schedule build before the formal schedule release date of Feb 27. Steve Sesit confirmed that this was recognized by the RO and is not the same back door access issue that we identified and resolved last year at this time. This time, term activated students had access beginning about Feb 13. We will continue to maintain a formal publication/release date for the schedule information. Steve has opened a mod inquiry to resolve the advance access issue so it does not recur and will report back to the group on the outcome.

Melissa also asked about the references to enrollment plan functionality in the student portal. Steve confirmed that they were non-functional, and we continue to support and offer the shopping cart functionality for student enrollment assistance.

Registrar’s update

Dore Carter noted that the future class schedule was released this week, and registration appointment times have been issued.

Dore reported that the end date for online Summer ITG is June 22.

In reply to a question, Steve reported that most PERC issues have been resolved. The issue of not calculating all students when running an entire roster has not been duplicated or resolved. Steve asks if anyone encounters this instance to notify him so that he can investigate.  It was also raised that a drop class transaction may be incomplete due to dependence upon a co-req class, and there is no indication of the incomplete transaction.  Steve will investigate.

Steve also noted as of now, recent graduates should not be able to access degree audits. He asks if to be notified if anyone observes otherwise.

Computer Services Updates

Bob Yanckello reported that identity management upgrade is planned for May 6 and the database migration to divide HR records and student records is planned for October 6.

Joel Hartman reported that vendor support for our Learning Management System (LMS,) branded as Webcourses, will be discontinued after Spring 2013. UCF will be piloting and evaluating 3 possible platforms, including the Blackboard successor product, in the Summer 2012 term. All three platforms will be conducting demos and Q&A for the campus community on April 16-18.

Bob noted that the recent UCF Technology Commons project was featured on the cover of the Feb 2012 issue of College Planning and Management.  http://collegeplanning.epubxpress.com/

Diane Chase noted that the College of Sciences will be piloting a new electronic workflow for the promotion and tenure process in AY 2012-13 . The intent is to it roll out University-wide in 2013-14.

respectfully submitted,
Bob Reed

The minutes of the Jan 4 meeting were accepted as submitted.

Diane Chase provided a brief review of the scope and procedures of the Academic Focus Group. She reminded that group discussions sometimes extend to issues beyond technical operations and user interfaces. Often the objective of agenda items is to identify stakeholders, set priorities, and mutually explore strategies for resolution. Bob Reed added that agenda items that are raised after the Friday prior to Wednesday meeting will be placed under ‘new business,’ with the presumption that it is for open discussion and immediate resolution is not expected.

In followup to previous discussions with Jessica Simmons, Brian Boyd relayed that the RO has implemented a change to now include ‘in progress’ (IP) credits on DARS audits.

In related discussion, it was noted that a student with IP credits on record is ineligible for UCF graduation certification. There is presently no policy to exempt IP records that are not relevant to the UCF degree. This matter is deferred to the AAC for discussion and/or development.

Gordon Chavis provided an update on changes under discussion for transfer admissions processes. Among items being discussed are admission standards for transfers; creating a new direct connect admission status of ‘contingent on AA’ which would permit students to begin the orientation process; and working toward a requiring all transcript information prior to admission decisions. These suggestions were favorably received by AFG members.

Steve Sesit reported that the modification request discussed on 10/19/11 to curtail student access to their degree audit after they have either graduated or otherwise become inactive has been completed and rolled into production.

Diane Chase noted that there was a periodic reminder from the RO to alert M class instructors of possible conflicts in final exam scheduling. Brian Boyd commented the most issues are resolved by faculty, and Diane asked to keep the group informed of developments in dealing with the issue.

Joel Hartman reported that a group with participation from facilities management and OIR has been working on standards for information posting in classrooms for facilities assistance. The posting will include telephone contacts for emergencies, for facilities and/or furnishings, and for technical media equipment. The current challenge is to develop or extend telephone coverage for the CS&T service desk to handle technical equipment calls after working hours of 8-5pm. Joel will provide updates as this initiative develops.

In reply to a question, Elizabeth noted that online self service password reset functionality is in development.

Respectfully,

Bob Reed