NOTES

Meeting Educational Technology Advisory Group Date Monday 11 August 2008 Time 9.00 – 10.30 am Location 8.8.23 Attendees Amgad Louka (Chair), Laura Snell (minutes), Jim McGovern, Rod Van den Akker, Lyn Atkinson, Warren Nageswaran, Garry Allan, Morgan Morris, Joyce Kirk, David Thompson Apologies Garry Bradley, John Benwell, Craig Anderson, Rodney Noble, DVC Jim Barber, April Weiss

Item Discussion/Outcomes Action Confirmation Notes from previous meeting accepted as true and accurate of Notes recording of the meeting.

Business from 2.1 Business TAFE shared drive shut down previous Lyn reported that the Head of School had sent around an email to Notes all Business TAFE staff, asking staff to reply explaining why the shared drive shouldn’t be shut down, to ascertain what the drive is mainly being used for. While there is no definite date for the shut down, Business TAFE is determined to go ahead at some stage. Lyn will forward the email from Business TAFE about this. Lyn

2.2 iTunesU Implementation The Chair explained that Rod would take the lead on this project, and a paper with recommendations will be presented at the next ETAG meeting.

2.3 E-Learning Uptake Project Lyn asked if the E-Learning Uptake Project report presented by Rodney Rodney at the last ETAG meeting could be forwarded to the group. (Laura in Rodney’s absence) Business 3.1 Electronic Communications Policy Update (David Thompson) David presented a draft. The Electronic Communications Policy would be a high level explanation, with underpinning procedures documents providing more detailed information.

ETAG agreed on the following recommendations:  Policy name should be “Acceptable Use of Information and Communication Technology Resources”.  VP Resources should be the owner of the policy.  ETAG agreed with the suggested list of initial procedures, but suggests that ‘Social and Education Networks’ should be retitled, and the word ‘networks’ should be replaced. After discussing alternative titles, ETAG agreed that the title should

0320dbda448fe23d9b67e1cfe51d79ca.doc Author: Laura Snell 28/08/2008 01:10:00 PM Page 1 of 3 be decided after the procedure was written and the content was clearer.  Where relevant, the policy and procedures should link to David copyright website. David to discuss this with Anne lennox  Owners of the procedures were discussed.. Change ‘Teaching and Learning’ to Director LTU. It was also suggested that ‘Web Master’ replace the owner’s name for the Website Development procedure.  The policy should not be released before the procedures are written, as the policy refers to these procedures.

ETAG proposed that all procedures be written by the end of September, to give ample time for them to be reviewed and confirmed by the end of the year, at which time the Policy can be released. David agreed to this timeline. The Chair will take Chair, responsibility of the procedures under Learning and Teaching, and David David agreed to speak to the other owners about their procedures.

3.2 Augmentation of usage report capability in RMIT’s Blackboard System (Garry) Garry distributed an information document at the meeting. The plan is to create a Blackboard Functional Usage Reporting Tool, to provide more accurate and detailed reports on Blackboard usage.

To finalise the reporting requirements for REAP the Chair will Chair, Jim organise a meeting with Jim McG. McG

As an interim, MOP statistics for 1st semester will be sent to the Lyn, Chair by Lyn, Warren and john. Warren, John

3.3 Directions and actions with the LTIF ePortfolio project (Garry) Garry presented an update document and presented PebblePad to the group.

In addition, the following points were discussed:  Though there are several other programs on the market, PebblePad seems to be the most popular because of ease of use.  ePortfolio link can be embedded into BlackBoard.  Users must authenticate again after BlackBoard to get through to PebblePad.  Access from the new Student Portal will be investigated.  ePortfolio will be student managed. They will have control over who they give access to and to which parts of their ePortolio.  Employers of TAFE students can also be linked into the ePortfolio.  It was suggested that students (both those who have and those

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28/08/2008 01:10:00 PMPage 2 of 3 who haven’t used ePortfolio) be invited to the November 28th Forum.  The possibility of unstructured use of PebblePad, outside particular course use.  Career Track could be linked from each ePortfolio.  RMIT currently has student licences commencing at the start of next year, with permission to use the product for planning and preparation this year.  Total cost for a PebblePad licence for all students would be over $100,000 per year.  How to identify initial students to trial PebblePad is still being discussed. Could be broken up among portfolios, or identify particular programs that would benefit.  Staff would assess the student output, not their ePortfolio.

3.4 REAP Update (Chair)

The Chair distributed a REAP status report.

The following points were raised:  REAP has been discussed at meetings with each Head of School.  The Training Needs Analysis has been sent out to all schools (phased release) and responses from schools in the first phase have been reviewed in order to develop a training program tailored to the needs of each school.  Training will start in the next 2 – 3 weeks.

3.5 Ideas for supporting strategic edTech/e-learning initiatives in 2009 (All) The DVC would like to be more strategic in how the LTIF is used. Staff can still nominate ideas, but the University will also offer strategic projects that staff can nominate to undertake.

The Chair listed several strategic initiatives that have been put forward. He asked that ETAG members send him any further suggestions by the end of the week (15 Aug). The Chair will then send a consolidated list to all ETAG members for feedback. Chair

Other 4.1 ETAG webpage update Business Lyn asked that the ETAG webpage be updated, and notes from previous meetings be added. Laura agreed to do this. Laura

Date, Time & Tuesday 2 September, 9.00 – 10.30 am, building 8, level 8, room Location of 23. next meeting

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