Operating policy and procedures

Description

IHETS Interactive is a real-time Web conferencing service available to faculty and staff at all IHETS member institutions. The service can be used for teaching, administrative meetings, training and professional development, or any other activity consistent with the mission and business of IHETS’ member colleges and universities.

Purpose

In 1967, the Indiana General Assembly authorized Indiana colleges and universities to make joint arrangements for telecommunication services to share scarce educational resources.  Working together through the resulting organization, the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System (IHETS), these institutions have consistently sought to develop and operate services where there exist clear benefits from aggregating demand and utilization of technologies for educational purposes. The purpose of IHETS Interactive is to create a flexible platform for instructional and administrative interaction that enables widespread access to educational opportunity and communication.

Operating policy

IHETS Interactive is available to all IHETS member institutions on an elective basis; no member is required to use this or any other IHETS service. In addition, when capacity is available, IHETS Interactive may also be used by other public or non-profit organizations for educational purposes.

Those using IHETS Interactive are responsible for purchasing, installing, and maintaining any equipment and connectivity needed to support their use of the service.

IHETS cannot be liable for loss incurred by a user due to human or technical error or other malfunction. 

Priority will be given to member institutions’ courses using IHETS Interactive as primary or secondary delivery method, as described in the Scheduling section of this document. Once an activity has been scheduled, the reservation is firm for that schedule period (fall, spring, or summer) unless relinquished by the originating user.

In no case shall IHETS Interactive be used for any activity that results in personal monetary gain of IHETS staff or of the faculty or staff using the service; this includes, but is not limited to, professional consulting, paid presentations, or commercial activity resulting in personal income.

The IHETS Interactive system will be operated on a cost recovery basis.

The IHETS Interactive system will be evaluated on a regular basis, based on metrics to be developed and adopted.

Operating procedures

Responsibilities

As provided in IHETS’ enabling legislation, the operation, conditions of use, and fee structure of IHETS Interactive are governed by IHETS’ leadership committees, with primary oversight by the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education Operating Committee, or its successors, and final authority of the IHETS Board of Directors. Scheduling of the shared resource and monitoring of capacity and performance will be fulfilled by a designated committee reporting to the IPSE.

The IHETS staff is responsible for hosting and management of the servers and software systems that enable conferences via IHETS Interactive and for overall administration of the service. Staff schedules the service on behalf of IHETS member institutions and other users of the service in accordance with this policy.

Each user assumes certain risks in delivering or participating in activities via IHETS Interactive. IHETS staff will provide technical support via mechanisms described on the IHETS Web site, working with users to resolve problems in a timely fashion to the extent possible.

All IHETS Interactive users are responsible for their content when using the system, including assuring necessary copyright clearances and safeguarding others’ copyright and intellectual property. The sponsoring or offering institution also retains ownership and/or copyright of materials shared via IHETS Interactive, including archived recordings of presentations, according to its own policies.

Financial structure

The financial structure of IHETS Interactive is determined by the IHETS Board of Directors on recommendation of the IPSE and Finance Operating Committee. During its initial year of implementation (fiscal/academic 2006-07), there will be no fees charged for use of IHETS Interactive in order to encourage exploration of its potential uses, value, and actual operating costs. Beginning in 2007-08, the service will be supported primarily by subscription or per-use fees in a structure that accommodates multiple levels of participation for different institutional purposes. Current pricing information will always be available on the IHETS Web site.

Evaluation

Quantitative and qualitative metrics will be established and reviewed bimonthly by the IPSE, with at least annual reporting to the IHETS Board of Directors.

Administrative authorizations

Any IHETS member institution or campus wishing to use IHETS Interactive as a primary or secondary delivery method for instruction must designate a single point of contact. This individual will be responsible for making the scheduling request. If secure access to meetings and recordings is required, the contact will also be responsible for providing and updating student roster information in a format designated by IHETS. Participant rosters will be used to create student accounts on the system.

Member institutions or campuses may choose to designate a single point of contact responsible for scheduling the system for purposes other than instruction (e.g., meetings, collaborative projects, etc.). If an institution elects not to designate one or more scheduling contacts to mediate requests for non-instructional uses of the system, IHETS will accept such requests directly from the institution’s faculty and staff.

In no case will IHETS knowingly accept scheduling requests from a student without specific authorization from a faculty or staff member at the institution.

Once scheduling contacts have been established for a given campus, IHETS will not schedule or modify a class or event for the campus without prior approval of the contact(s) of record.

Definitions

Two definitions are provided for clarity of the following operational procedures:

• Meeting room: A virtual meeting place assigned to a group of users. Each scheduled class, meeting, or event has an associated meeting room with a unique URL and custom permissions that determine who can enter the room and with what privileges.
  
• Meeting host: A permissions-based role assigned to the person or persons, usually the class instructor of meeting convener, who has control of the meeting room. Additional hosts can be defined when the meeting is scheduled. In addition, a host can “promote” any attendee to the host role during the course of a meeting.

Technical support

IHETS will provide help desk support during common hours for live class sessions and on-call support at other times. For purposes of trouble-shooting and technical support, IHETS reserves the right for IHETS staff to enter any IHETS Interactive meeting at any time, whether explicitly requested or not by the meeting room host or originating institution. When exercising this right, staff will enter the room with the user name helpdesk to inform the host of their identity and will work as unobtrusively as possible.

Storage and recording arrangements

Unless extensions have been requested and confirmed in advance, meeting rooms and recordings for semester-based classes will be deleted from the server at the end of the semester following completion of the class according to the schedule below:

• Fall classes: May 30
• Spring classes: August 30
• Summer classes: December 30

IHETS reserves the right to revise this schedule if demand for storage significantly exceeds IHETS storage capacity. Changes to this retention period will be announced at least three months before the effective date. Requests to extend the retention period for a meeting room and associated recordings must be received in writing at least thirty days before the scheduled deletion deadline. Originators will be charged for storage on a per-megabyte basis for each month beyond the scheduled deletion date.

Recording of classes or events is optional, to be designated on the scheduling request form. These recordings must be started and ended manually by the meeting room host, if desired; IHETS staff cannot perform this function for users. To be accessible to participants, IHETS Interactive recordings must be moved to a content folder within Breeze Manager. Recordings can be moved by the meeting host or by IHETS staff at the request of the host. When scheduling a class or meeting, the requestor will be asked whether IHETS should be responsible for moving recordings. If IHETS assumes this responsibility, all recordings will be moved to a content directory visible by all members of the associated meeting room. Recordings moved by IHETS will be available by the end of the next business day. If greater control over meeting recordings is desired, the meeting host must take responsibility for managing the recordings.

Training and user support

IHETS will also create test meeting rooms for individuals or groups who wish to experiment or learn how to use the Breeze Meeting software. Requests for test rooms should be submitted through the IHETS Interactive scheduling system. To control the proliferation of test rooms, members are encouraged to request no more than one test room per department. Test rooms are for learning purposes only, and no more than five people may enter such a room at one time. A test-room host who wishes to conduct a live class session or meeting should submit a separate schedule request, and a new meeting room will be created for that purpose.

Scheduling

IHETS Interactive is a scheduled resource. Requests and reservations for use must be submitted in advance via an online scheduling form. Procedures for the overarching scheduling process are outlined here, with up-to-date detailed procedures always available on the IHETS Web site along with access to the necessary online forms.

Consistent with the policy regarding priority use, distance education classes using IHETS Interactive as the primary delivery method will have priority over other uses of the system if scheduled at least 12 months in advance of the first class meeting. Scheduling conflicts will be discussed and resolved by mutual agreement among the affected institutions.

Classes using IHETS Interactive as a secondary delivery method will have priority over other uses of the system (except those already scheduled for primary delivery) if scheduled 90 days in advance of the start of the class.

All other requests will be accommodated by IHETS in order of receipt as long as capacity is available. Scheduling requests for meetings and ad hoc events must be submitted at least ten (10) working days in advance if the meeting host(s) needs training from IHETS on the use of Macromedia Breeze software. If training from IHETS is not needed, the request must be submitted at least two (2) working days in advance.

IHETS Interactive meeting rooms are persistent, meaning they are available for access 24x7 with the exception of a six-hour maintenance window on Sunday mornings from 6:00 a.m. to noon. Meeting hosts may enter their assigned meeting rooms with as many as nine additional users without scheduling the session with IHETS. However, sessions involving more than ten concurrent users must be scheduled in order to guarantee performance and availability for scheduled events.

Approved by Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education
April 7, 2006