MELA Meeting Minutes 2003 - 2017

i. Jennifer Leimer mentioned that the D2L conference is July 8-11 in Duluth, MN.

f. Distance Learning Administrators’ conference

i. Audra Kimble mentioned that this conference will be held in Savannah, GA on June 24- 27 th . Ms. Kimble stated that they publish a really good journal and will send the link to members. g. Other conferences were mentioned, and Jennifer Leimer asked if the association could begin evaluating other associations related to elearning, distance learning, or technology in education to see if our association could come up with a list of recommended conferences or associations members would most benefit from attending/joining. New eLearning Position a. Applications accepted through May 11 th . Week of May 14 th committee will be developed to evaluate applications. Interviews will be conducted during the week of May 20 th . Proposed starting date would be June 1 or July 1 (probably July 1). Statewide Blackboard Implementation a. Audra Kimble submitted a TENTATIVE implementation schedule. b. Institutional Effectiveness (Research) Personnel from each college will meet on May 9th to plan the Outcomes Implementation. c. During the week of May 21 st the first major implementations meetings will take place. During the first two days of the week all 15 institutions will need to be present to discuss the implementation. During the remaining three days, the first 7 institutions (phase 1) who are being converted will meet. Representatives from the phase 2 institutions are encouraged to attend the remainder of the week in order to have a stake in the decisions that are made. The Client Manager/System Admin will need to plan to spend at least 20 hours per week during the implementation process. d. Each college needs to provide an Executive Sponsor. This person should be a key decision maker at the institution: one who can acquire needed resources quickly, make appointments, etc. e. Ellene McCrimon asked Audra Kimble to provide a detailed description of all needed personnel for this process for members to bring back to their administrators. f. Representatives from ALL SCHOOLS need to plan to travel to Jackson on the following dates for Blackboard Implementation: i. Week of May 21: May 21-22 ii. Week of June 11 g. Phase 1 schools for the Academic Suite will need to be available for the whole week of May 21- 25 and the week of June 11-15. h. Other communication related to implementation of the academic suite will be conducted by teleconference and/or onsite visit. i. The upgrade from 6.3 – 7.1 or 7.2 will occur between July 30 - August 16. The server will not be accessible during this time. Please notify instructors to plan ahead for this down time .

VI.

VII.

VIII.

Learning Circle a. Article Presentation – Coahoma

i. No article was presented since the college representative was absent. Ellene McCrimon recommended that if a member will not be present for their rotation, they should either provide the article to another representative to present for them or contact the next member in the rotation to present.

b. Coahoma will present in June, and then Copiah Lincoln is next in the rotation.

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