CCFIT > Calendar & Minutes > April 25, 2006 Minutes

Present: Tor Cross, Pat Kava (for Liz Gibson), Jan Dickens, Jan Ilkiw, Tim Leamy
Guests: Rick Sprunger

1. Podcasting Update

IET has been running a digital lecture recording/podcasting pilot for the last few quarters. There were 4 classes in Fall, 13 in Winter, and now 14 in Spring. The pilot worked on issues with recording lectures as
MP3 files and uploading them to the web so students can download them.

CTS originally loaned portable MP3 recorders to faculty to use. At the beginning of Winter a built-in recorder was installed into the 123 SLH media cabinet. The built-in recorder was identified as the best option since it created the smallest files (better compression) and faculty only had to carry a compact flash card. The Registrar has agreed to fund installation of the built-in recorders in the 10 largest lecture halls this Summer. Those lecture halls will have both the built-in MP3 recorders and cassette tape recorders for a year so faculty can transition.

Faculty are uploading the MP3 file to a server maintained by Mediaworks.
The upload scripts make sure the MP3 file has the appropriate ID3 tags added into the the file. Students then can download the MP3 file to play on an iPod or other MP3 player, play it on their computer, or subscribe to a podcast for the class.

CTS did a survey that showed students overwhelmingly prefer MP3 files to cassette tapes to get lecture recording. This and more info about the pilot is at http://podcast.ucdavis.edu/.

Jon mentioned that the TRC is getting requests for portable MP3 recorders. But he is wary about using TRC funds to buy them since there isn't a good way to ensure the are continued to be used for instruction.
So the TRC might work with CTS to buy recorders and had A-V loan check them out for a quarter.

2. Jon Wagner Introduction

Jon Wanger is the new director of the TRC. Tor and others gave him an overview of our subcommittee and what we have been doing.

Jon's discussed his thoughts about the focus of the TRC. He feels the TRC needs to become more grounded about instruction and have somewhat less focus on technology. The TRC's mission is to serve instruction on campus.
There are several areas such as supporting TAs or supporting the University Writing Program that can be improved.

The TRC will be building more communities and support around teaching topics such as:
-writing
-small group discussions
-how to organize evidence to support a proposition
-large enrollment classes
-freshman seminars

The campus tries to build systems that work for all faculty. Give the diverse faculty community it's hard to generate programs that apply to all faculty. The TRC has a responsibility to make something work for every faculty.

The TRC needs to be shaped by investigation and research. Jon would like it to be the TRRC (Teaching Research & Resource Center). They need to figure out what works and then build best practices.

3. Audience Response Systems

Rick Sprunger from CTS is investigating ARS systems. Currently, the system from eInstruction is the front runner. We discussed some issues that needs to be considered before choosing a system:
-RF based
-software support for both Mac and PC
-low cost for faculty/department for receiver
-low TCO for students

The eInstruction "clickers" would cost around $10-$40. They could be sold at the Bookstore (and sold back also). Then there a per class $15 registration fee or $39-$59 (not sure of the number) one-time registration that would cover the student for all classes. Tor believes there is a cap around the same amount so students won't get charged $15 per quarter.

Currently each student needs to go to the eInstruction website to register for each class. It's needed since the signals can go through walls and the software on the faculty's laptop needs to know which clickers to listen to. So each student would have to register and the faculty member download the list from eInstruction.

We discussed that it would be very nice if UCD could maintain the database of student to clicker ID. That way the data could be in Banner (or some such system) and faculty could download a roster with students emails and clicker IDs. Since Banner knows which students are in each class we can avoid a lot of steps which could cause confusion in using the ARS system.

Tor will be doing a test class in Summer Session II. But with the older model. But it would be good to get some experience with eInstruction's system.