In attendance at the WUG meeting: Shabana Kausar, Melanie Kroening, Embe Kugler, Terri Martinez, Brad Kincaid, Rick Effland, and Peggy Johnson.

WHY WIKI?

Rick Effland is very enthusiastic about using a Wiki for class reflections with both his on-campus and online classes. The depth of student comments and analysis surpasses anything he had seen with a threaded discussion format.

The public nature of a Wiki encourages students to do quality work so they will not be embarrassed when others access it. Students can include links within their Wiki to references they have used but Rick warns them they need to put their on twist/perspective on the topic. He perceives students are thus more reluctant to just copy and paste from other authors.

Rick and Shereen Lerner have partnered to have their respective anthropology classes (Lost Tribes and Buried Cities) posting to the same Wiki site, AnthroWiki ( http://wiki.mc.maricopa.edu/anthrowiki/index.php/Main_Page).

Students in one course study the Old World; students in the other course examine the New World. Instead of focusing on geography and time as most anthropology courses do, Shereen and Rick have students considering themes that cut across the various civilizations they have studied.

Students examine what these civilizations have in common and how they differ. The questions posed by Rick and Shereen encourage the student to make connections across these diverse worlds, leading to critical analysis and thoughtful postings.

The Wiki is open to anyone on the internet, but Rick has not seen postings by people outside his class. One exception is when his class was studying an article about Easter Island. Students used the Wiki to discuss a journal article about it. You could set up the Wiki for a discussion between your class and students at another college or university.

Somehow the author of the article found the site and posted, describing something she had found in work the previous summer. Having the author be part of the discussion was a highpoint for both instructor and student!

Rick created detailed directions for his students to help them get started with the Wiki (http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthrowiki). Most students did not need the directions; they could figure it out on their own.

However, some students who were used to the WebCT Discussions tool were unwilling and/or unable to use the Wiki. They wanted the threaded discussions they were comfortable using. In the future, Rick thinks he will not use the WebCT Discussion board with the class, but do all discussions on the Wiki.

In contrast, one student asked Rick to keep the Wiki available for several months after the semester ended. He wanted to continue to work on his project and continue posting on the Wiki. It's encouraging to see the student acknowledging the value of continuing his education beyond the class meeting time, and using a public forum (Wiki) to do so.

Rick's students seem to prefer working alone on their Wiki postings. However, the Wiki lets one edit other's postings and should work extremely well for collaborative group work.

Rick plans to use the Wiki with six Chinese students that will be visiting MCC in the spring semester. He will have them "introduce" themselves to MCC students on the Wiki before their arrival.

Faculty who want a Wiki for their classes will need to contact Andrew Kasian for assistance (480-461-7386, akasian@mail.mc.maricopa.edu).

iTLC

Rick belongs to iTLC (Instructional Technology Leadership Council). This very important group is charged with helping the district decide how to spend bond money for instructional technology development.

This group provides an opportunity for instructional technology staff to discuss significant issues with faculty. For example, what would be the impact of a proposed technology fee added to all courses? What would be the implications for courses that already have a high fee for specific software usage?

The district is interested in using GoogleApps for student papers. What are the instructional implications of using this tool?

iTLC will be sending out a survey to students on all our campuses. The survey is designed to decipher how students are accessing technology, whether they are using My Space,You Tube, etc. A similar survey will be distributed to district faculty. These surveys will give us some benchmarks from which to make future decisions.

In January, on Wednesday and Thursday, during the week of accountability, Shelley Rodrigo and Rick Effland will host a strategic conversation on technology at MCC and the district. We will be addressing such questions as:

* How do we make the use of technology more comfortable for all?
* How do we adjust for the competing needs of different departments/areas on campus?
* Where is technology leading us as a campus?
* What are the latest technology trends in education?

TLTR will be revived as a committee to continue this dialog.

LMS Review Process & Timeline at MCC

Melanie Kroening reminded the group that MCC's current license for WebCT CE6 will expire in June, 2009. Thus we want to review our current system and determine where we want to go in the future. (This review process is likely to happen every two to five years for the foreseeable future at MCC.)

Do we want to continue with CE 6 for a couple more years or move to another system?To make this decision, we need to do some work.

In the fall, 2007, semester, the CTL and IT will test and research the Learning Management Systems (LMS) that re available. Issues involved in migrating courses from CE 6 to another system will be identified. Cost, programming ability (so we can automatically populate students into a course), authentication process, and Linux base will be considerations.

The CTL will also send out a survey to gather data from faculty as to what features of an LMS are critical to instruction. These criteria may include timed testing, random test question generation, threaded discussion board, group management, flexibility in content arrangement, gradebook and assignment dropbox.

In the spring, 2008, semester, the CTL will cull survey results. A second survey will be distributed, asking faculty to rank criteria by level of importance. Vendors will demo their products to faculty, IT, and the CTL staff. The CTL will gather feedback based on the criteria from faculty and staff attending the demos.

Based on the demos,feedback, and criteria that key groups have created, the CTL and IT will develop a recommendation for an LMS for July 2009-June 2012.

The CTL will solicit a recommendation from teh faculty senate, department chairs, and from the distance learning committee.

The CTL will take all the recommendations (demo feedback, CTL/IT recommendation, faculty senate recommendation, dept. chair recommendation, distance learning committee) to the VP for approval.

Questions? Contact Peggy Johnson at johnson@mail.mc.maricopa.edu or phone(480)461-7703.