Scheduling policies and procedures

Introduction

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 Indiana’s colleges and universities. 

Like several other IHETS services (e.g., video bridging, audio conferencing, etc.), IHETS Interactive is a scheduled resource. Requests and reservations for use must be submitted in advance via an online scheduling form. The policies and procedures governing the scheduling process are outlined below.   

Definitions

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 or meeting convener, who has control of the meeting room. Additional hosts can be defined when the meeting is scheduled. In addition, the host can promote any attendee to the host role during the course of the meeting.

Policy and Procedure

• 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.
  

• 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 (9) 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.
  

• 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.
  

• 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.
  

• 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.
  

• 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 (5) 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.
  

• By default, test meeting rooms and associated recordings will be deleted at the end of the semester in which it was created.  Rooms can be renewed for another semester by submitting a new scheduling request.