To : Academic Senate, Larry Pagel - Chair

From: Mark Flaherty, Chair ETRPC

RE: ETRPC Annual Report for the 2006-2007 Academic Year

Date: April 13, 2007

The Educational Technology Resources and Policy Committee (ETRPC) consists of representatives from each academic department, two student representatives, the Instructional Technologist, the Vice-President for Academic Affairs, and standing members representing: ACS (Academic Computing Services), IMS (Instructional Media Services), ADIT (Administration Information Technology), and Olson Library. The diverse membership of this committee enhances the exchange of information across the NMU campus, and ensures that the technology needs and concerns of all academic departments are addressed in a timely fashion.

ETRPC met every other Friday at 11:00am in West Science 2803 during the fall and winter semesters of the 2006-2007 academic year. Mark Flaherty served as committee chair and Diane Sautter served as committee secretary.

There were two primary visible accomplishments of the committee:

  1. TLC Faculty Awards (presented in December 2006) – the committee reviewed three applications and recommended that two awards be presented.
  2. TLC Student Awards (presented in April 2007) – the committee reviewed four applications and recommended that three awards be presented.

In addition to these two visible accomplishments, the committee devoted considerable time to a number of other issues:

·  Faculty Laptop Changeover - At the request of Darlene Walch (Dean of Academic Information Services), the committee provided input for a review of the laptop changeover process for faculty.

·  Appropriate Use – At the request of Fred Joyal (Vice President for Academic Affairs), the committee revisited the topic of “appropriate use” of laptops and other technology in the classroom. This involved reviewing and revising an existing web page (http://it.nmu.edu/Faculty/laptopuse.htm - “Suggestions for Addressing Computer Use in the Classroom”) which had been created previously by ETRPC and the Teaching and Learning Advisory Committee (TLAC). In December, all NMU faculty members received email messages from the chair of the committee and from the Instructional Technologist encouraging them to take advantage of this updated resource. Continued discussion of this topic led to further revisions of this page during the winter semester.

·  Servers – Faculty frustrations regarding the location of key student information (NMUIN, email addresses, etc.) on several different servers (MyWeb, MyUser, etc.) was discussed at length. These discussions ultimately led to enhanced options in http://myweb.nmu.edu (thanks to Karl Mulder - ADMIN INFO TECH/TECHNICAL SVS), which allow faculty to include more information in rosters downloaded from this location.

·  The committee provided input for the “E-Packs Workshop” sponsored by TLC and the NMU Bookstore in March of 2007.

As in previous years, the regular reports from the Academic Computing and Instructional Technology representatives proved to be quite informative. Topics presented in these reports led to in-depth discussions of WebCT issues, wireless connection problems, hardware concerns, course management systems, Help Desk issues, online testing difficulties, iBook and MacBook issues, new software applications, academic honesty issues, etc. For many regular attendees, these reports and discussions are the most valuable aspect of ETRPC membership.

The committee will elect a chairman and a secretary for the 2007-2008 academic year during their upcoming meeting on April 27, 2007.

If you require more detailed information, please feel free to contact me.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark R. Flaherty

Chair of ETRPC 2006-2007

Assistant Professor of Music