MELA Meeting Minutes 2003 - 2017

The Strategic plan was discussed and Tish suggested that we table the approval after the Strategic planning committee has looked at it. The committee will probably meet in Grenada. It was proposed by Hubert Yates and seconded by Buffy to list the colleges on the committees instead of individuals. Please send to Tish by March 24 th . The Strategic planning committee will meet in Grenada and make final changes.

Madison hall at Hinds, Ridgeland campus, will be the meeting place of the April 3 rd & 4 th

Policy and procedure changes will be made in the fall. It was recommended by Christian that each committee should report each month on what has taken place during that month.

New Business:

Jennifer gave an update on the D2L. May 6 th will be the Desire2Learn for the state. It will last from 7:00am to 3:00pm. No costs associated with the upgrade. Mark Smith is using the upgraded version at the college where he is and had a seamless transition. Desire2Learn and Bb lawsuit: Bb won the lawsuit and it should not interrupt services. Patent validity is still in limbo. Desire2Learn is confident that they will provide the same services to customers. Christian Pruitt reported on how Bb is working on support structure. He stated that they were conscientious on getting problems solved. He went to Bb to discuss how to solve issues in the registration process. He wants to take a step back and look at the big picture. Persidium is talked to weekly about problems with Bb. A plan of action is being put into place to be given to Persidium so they can help the customers. Christian stated that we are trying to work out a plan with them.

The Presidents want to look to using technology in the future. A summer and fall goal is to have a clear support structure to help with customers. Christian feels that the structure is getting better. A lot of the email problems are being looked at. Messaging is being used by a lot of instructors because of the external email problems.

There needs to be a smooth transition between IT groups and DLC group. Discussion on seeing the MSVCC snapshot so we can fix mistakes. Ive put a link in the course archive for us to check what was send in the snapshot from our colleges.

Respondus: Price options were passed out and discussion held. Tish made a motion for Christian to go to the company and Presidents to negotiate prices for all colleges. Jennifer seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Wimba: Pilot Wimba for 50 instructors for the summer session. Names need to be submitted to Christian. Cost was $100,000 to $150,000 to $200,000. Jennifer Lemeir said that we need to keep up with cutting edge

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