MELA Meeting Minutes 2003 - 2017

C. Blackboard Update-Jason Pugh

 Mr. Pugh stated that he believes that Blackboard, the company, has improved. Blackboard personnel have been in contact with Mr. Pugh as needed and Blackboard technical support has received fewer complaints.  Mr. Pugh distributed a price list for individual community college licenses. Mr. Pugh requested a discounted rate for the individual community colleges from Mr. McCully, the Blackboard account manager. Mr. McCully declined a discount for the Basic level Blackboard license but offered to negotiate a discount for those purchasing the Enterprise level Blackboard license.

D. Course Evaulations-Jason Pugh

 Jason Pugh requested that the DLCs encourage participation in the Student Surveys, Course Evaluations, and Faculty Evaluations.

1. Some students and faculty are having problems submitting the surveys and evaluations. Mr. Pugh asked that the DLCs copy the reported errors to his office.

E. MSVCC Financial Status- Jason Pugh

 Mr. Pugh distributed a memo sent from George Walker, Chair of the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges.

 Mr. Pugh stated that Dr. Stonecypher sees the proposed budget cuts by the legislature as dire for the SBCJC and especially the MSVCC. The MSVCC is funded completed by the Operations budget and the legislature has proposed to cut the Operations budget.  Mr. Pugh stated that these cuts may mandate the conception of a new funding strategy. He asked that we discuss any funding strategy ideas with our individual community college presidents.

F. MSVCC Username/Password Naming Convention-Mark Smith

 Mr. Smith asked for any new ideas on developing a new MSVCC username/password naming convention. The association members are still brainstorming ideas. Mr. Smith suggested that we wait until the spring semester to implement any changes due to the fact that fall registration has begun.

G. HorizonLive-Mark Smith

 Mr. Smith proposed that the association consider the purchase of HorizonLive software. He sees it as good way to implement cross-state training. The software is purchased by X number of seats per year. HorizonLive has offered to set up a trial DLC meeting to demonstrate the use of the software. HorizonLive offers free conferences on a variety of subjects. Anyone who wishes to learn more about the software can contact Mark Smith.

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