Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education and Integrated Technologies Committee
November 11, 2003
Notes from Joint Committee Meeting

Present: Fred Nay, BSU, ITC Chair, and Erv Boschmann, IU, IPSE Chair; Sean Robinson, Allen County Public Library; John Burton, BSU; Edie Huffman, Indiana State Library; Melissa Hughes, Bob Jefferson, and Ron Payne, ISU; John Beeson, IU; Bob Sorenson, Abu Moniruzzaman, and Becky Nickoli, Ivy Tech; Allyn Beekman, Indiana Wesleyan; Joetta Burrous and Pat Smoker, PU; Kevin Mahaffy, Taylor University Center for Lifelong Learning; Carla Mueller, University of Saint Francis; Karen Bonnell and Wayne Bohm, USI; Carmin Schnarr, VU; Barrie Zimmerman, WTIU-Bloomington; Carol Brunty, Tim Fisher, Max Gordon, Betty Hart, Dave Kaufman, Dave King, Richard Miles, Tim Ping, Lynn Ward, Susan Scott, Kevin Siminski, and Ed Stockey, IHETS staff.

Nay called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. with introductions.

Product demonstration
Dane Dittemore, Account Executive with n/Frame, Inc., demonstrated a product called NetBotz, which monitors environments in equipment areas to provide pre-emptive notification before problems actually arise. The package includes a camera with motion-sensor capability and can be networked around a campus for central monitoring.

IP Video Task Force
Ed Stockey reported that the second-generation task force is now working but would welcome additional participation. The group is currently conducting vendor presentations, with particular attention to the new H.264 standard (which doubles resolution at a given bandwidth). The group is also revisiting the state’s dial plan and working with the national community through Internet 2 to assure consistency with national and international directions. The task force expects to have a draft report in February and final report for publication in April.

Stockey noted the rapid acceptance of IP video as compared to ATM video, noting that having Quality of Service on the network has been valuable. In the first year of implementing IP video, IHETS certified some 400 codecs. Nay asked for a list of certified sites to be generally available, and Stockey indicated that the list is now accessible on the IHETS web site and currently being updated. He added that the network does have membership in Internet 2 Commons for increased reach. The Accord video bridge purchased a year ago reached peak capacity last summer, so ITN has purchased a 100-port software bridge from First Virtual in addition to the original 32 ports still available on the Accord bridge. He noted that the new software bridge works very well with the Click to Meet directory service.

Today’s framework for e-learning
Scott presented an overview of e-learning activity among Indiana public institutions for 2002-03. Course enrollments jumped by 38% over the previous year with a total over 67,000 [Ed. Note: with updated figures, now 42% and over 68,000 respectively.] and approximately 83% of those enrollments in online courses. Enrollments via IHETS TV were flat; two-way video use increased by 38%; videotape and cable enrollments grew by 14%; and Internet enrollments grew by 48%--in fact, Internet enrollments in 2002-03 were 18% higher than the total by all delivery methods in 2001-02. Students continue to strongly prefer asynchronous delivery (Internet, videotape, CD-ROM/DVD, and cable/PTV) over synchronous modes such as IHETS TV and video conferencing, with a 90% to 10% proportion. At the time of the report, some gaps existed in Ball State and Purdue enrollment data; since the meeting, much of that data has been provided, and the new data are incorporated into the full report now available at http://www.ihets.org/progserv/education/icn/enroll_02-03.html.

Scott also indicated that program and course growth appears to have stabilized over the past two years: there are still approximately 1,600 technology-delivered credit classes offered per semester, and recent growth in Indiana College Network listings has been due primarily to new high-school courses and continuing-education programs. Increased enrollments have been handled largely through expanded class sizes and by opening new sections as needed. In addition to noting that most of these students are working adults with families, she noted the parallel significant increases in the use of technology in campus-based courses and for student services delivery.

Scott emphasized the new policy context in Indiana emerging from creation of two key documents: the “Indiana P16 Plan” adopted in October by the Education Roundtable and the “Framework for Policy and Planning” adopted in November by the Commission for Higher Education. The former sets an aggressive agenda for improving preschool, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary student learning outcomes and transitions between the educational segments, while the latter addresses increased postsecondary participation (including adult participation), improved preparation (including high-school to college transitions), increased persistence and completion, and sustained economic growth. Achieving the goals of both plans will require increased access to and improved use of technologies, creating numerous opportunities for IHETS member institutions. At the same time, funding is unlikely to increase, so creativity in applying technology collaboratively will be equally important.

Important projects under way
Tim Ping reported on staff progress in planning for the Satellite to Streaming Initiative for IHETS TV and distributed a milestone timeline envisioning best- and worst-case scenarios for moving from requirements-gathering to solution-identification to pilot-testing to an overlapping operational service. Lynn Ward reviewed communications planning to assure mechanisms for inbound and outbound communication, assuring that all stakeholders have an opportunity to ask questions and express needs, including a new section of the IHETS web site dedicated to the initiative. She focused more specifically on plans for extensive use of focus groups and surveys during the initial requirements-gathering process, targeted for completion by early March. There followed active discussion of concerns from both originators and receiving locations.

Richard Miles reported on the expanded partnership for IDEAS! moving from only the central Indiana public TV stations to a statewide level through Indiana’s Public Broadcasting Stations. IDEAS! on TV will be a digital broadcast channel dedicated to educational programming along the lifelong learning spectrum, including carriage on some cable systems as well. The six-hour pilot will launch January 5, 2004, airing from midnight to 6:00 a.m. daily (some stations will repeat the signal throughout the day); initial participants include WFYI-Indianapolis, WTIU-Bloomington, WNIN-Evansville, and WVUT-Vincennes. IHETS will create the program stream using Windows Media 9 and feed it to the stations via satellite (microwave in the case of WFYI). An associated web site should go live later in January.

Kevin Siminski provided an overview of progress with I-Light 2, now conceived as a next-generation ITN for Indiana. The project will draw on dark fiber already in the ground and available at a good price to extent network capacity for the next decade. Phase 1 is already under way, with IU and Purdue having secured an NSF grant to link to the National LambdaRail at Chicago. Phase 2 will acquire fiber to several nodes in major population centers around the state, and the Indiana Department of Administration will issue an RFP in November for that phase, with a target for contract completion by the end of April. Phase 3 will address connection from the fiber nodes to end points.

Identifying the gaps
King led a discussion of gaps between current collaborative services and identified needs for improvement. He pointed out that technology and content are so intertwined that we can’t discuss one without the other and that we need to continue focusing attention on areas where impacts may not be obvious. He asked members to identify questions we need to keep pushing.

Nickoli noted that the Ivy Tech distance education coordinators have emphasized the importance of having a customer-service base in place when the technology is put in place. Smoker added that, based on CES focus groups and faculty comments, success will depend absolutely on buy-in from clients—that any new technology has to be easy to use, such that faculty can deliver the way they’ve always done, and then allow new possibilities to become apparent. Boschmann underscored the importance of faculty development along those lines; faculty members aren’t concerned about the particular cost issues of operating the network and aren’t interested in change for change’s sake.

King also observed that the rate of change is compounding: improvements could take years if everything had to be linear, but we can’t afford to take years. The curve can be stepped up only if those in the field help that to happen. Sorensen pointed out that the issue is really change management, not simply a change in technology, and that our own committee structure may not be optimal for dealing with the kind of change-management needs we now face. The source of funding for change also affects attitudes: I-Light 2 has moved quickly in large part because it was funded by a separate appropriation. Boschmann also pointed out the need to keep focusing attention on pedagogy; recent learning research confirms that humans learn by doing and by interacting, and one-way video without interaction may not be the best pedagogy, just as a steady diet of “one-way” classroom lectures may not be effective pedagogy.

King closed the discussion by observing that Indiana is unique in being able to bring these multiple perspectives together. He asked the IPSE and ITC to work more closely in future to address common problems.

Announcements
Huffman announced that the Indiana State Library will have a week-long re-opening celebration from December 8 – 12 to which all are cordially invited.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:35 p.m.