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University of California, Berkeley

Meeting of October 24, 2001
Chancellor's Conference Room - California Hall

Members present: AVC Greg Brown, VC Beth Burnside, Trish Cascardi for VP Bill Webster, AVC Ron Coley, Director Jon Conhaim, Director Phyllis Hoffman, VC Jim Hyatt, Executive Director Helen Kelly, Executive Director Rosemary Kim for VC Don McQuade, University Librarian Tom Leonard, VP Christina Maslach, Dean Mary Ann Mason, AVC Jack McCredie, VC Horace Mitchell, Director Ralph Moon, Director Barbara Morgan, Professor Philip Stark.

Also attending: AVC David Moers, Human Resources; Director Victor Edmonds and Obie Greenberg, Educational Technology Services; George Kaplan, Communication & Network Services, and Carol Stillman, Cisco Systems.

Due to EVCP Paul Gray’s absence, Vice Chancellor Jim Hyatt presided over the meeting. He introduced AVC David Moers, Human Resources. All present introduced themselves.

David Moers reported that the new HRMS system (including academic personnel) will be rolled out on July 1, 2002. To meet this schedule, HR, Payroll, and Academic Personnel will all have to increase (staff) support for the project. He also said that the scope of the project will be somewhat reduced, although only the Compensation unit will be affected. Initially a pilot will be done in 20 units, with full rollout no later than 60 days after the pilot. Some capabilities will not be in the initial release, such as labor settlements, changes in the compensation structure (range adjustments), and mass title changes.

Ron Coley announced that Greg Brown will hold a two-day session at the end of the month with key staff members, to review travel processing and e-travel requirements. Coley’s office will develop an RFI which will be sent to several vendors. Field trips to current Extensity users are planned; the first will be to UCLA in November. The relationship between UCLA and Extensity appears to have improved as a result of UC Berkeley’s firm position (UCLA must endorse Extensity before we will go ahead).

Victor Edmonds distributed a status report on the LMS project (course web sites and related services for faculty and students). Part One is to scale up LMS support, staff and services, organizing Educational Technology Services and the new Web Services group, and gathering data from faculty to guide project decisions. Part Two is focused on enhancing services. There has been a change in direction from buying new Blackboard software to an immediate expansion of the Course Web program plus “Strawberry Creek,” a new vision for “integrating the business of courses and the learning experience in one integrated course web site (and eventually student portal).” As part of preparing specifications for Strawberry Creek, we are participating in the Stanford/MIT Open Knowledge Initiative (an open source LMS, with components that can be shared by many schools).

Philip Stark and Jon Conhaim prepared a draft description (handout in meeting packet) of the BRIDGE (Berkeley Resources for Internet Delivery of General Education) fundraising initiative, which is part of the undergraduate education initiative being developed by Christina Maslach. The first courses to be targeted will be 20 large-enrollment classes (a five-year project). This initiative would:

A rough estimate of costs for developing the online courses is $86M for the first five years and 20 courses. These courses would be offered free of charge, and attractive incentives would be offered to encourage faculty participation.

Carol Stillman suggested that the initiative could be related to the “digital divide,” which might tap into federal funding; the UCOP outreach program for professional development is another possibility for funding. Ms Stillman offered Cisco’s cost estimate experience and research as a resource.

Helen Kelly, Jack McCredie, Jon Conhaim, Ralph Hexter, and Philip Stark formed a small working group to formulate ideas for a symposium in the spring. The group set a target date for April or early May, and chose the BRIDGE initiative for the “flagship application.”

Horace Mitchell said that the September meeting of the UC Administrative Vice Chancellors was cancelled, and the next meeting will be held on November 29. UCOP is currently reviewing funding options for an E-Procurement system, which will cost between $25-$40 million in the first two years. Funding alternatives will be discussed at the November 29 meeting, and campuses and labs will be asked whether they want to participate in an RFP to be issued in January 2002.
There is still a lack of consensus among campuses as to whether and how to proceed with a systemwide HRIS. The need for a common HR data warehouse is recognized and proposals will be presented at the November 29 meeting.

Jack McCredie said that several campuses are building credit card modules as part of the 2010 Architecture initiative, using many different credit card processing services. UCOP would like to see this program consolidated. An RFP is being sent out, and bids will be evaluated in January (our experts are helping). McCredie has asked his staff whether UC Berkeley has developed a system that may have to be abandoned in favor of a systemwide choice; he was assured that our system is modular and easily adjusted.

Ralph Moon announced that the new e-Architecture guidelines have been approved by ITAC and EBITF. The document is posted on the web, at http://socrates.berkeley.edu:4259/itatf/GuidelinesForE-Arch.1.1.html
The document is short and gives clear guidelines to help departments integrate new applications they may be buying or building with the e-Berkeley architecture.

Victor Edmonds and Obie Greenberg presented the Webcast Service offered to the campus and encouraged committee members to try it, at http://webcast.berkeley.edu. This was a collaborative development by ETS, IST, and the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center. Sixteen courses and labs are now available for viewing over the web. Students are using Webcast to catch up on courses, view what they’ve missed, prepare for finals.
Criteria for course selection include demand, point of origin and quality of production facilities (only 28 rooms are usable; only Pimentel is good), and cost (charge per semester is about $2,000 per course). It was suggested that some of the more “awarded” courses and professors should be pursued for webcasting, with a pool of funds available for departments unable to afford the $2,000. Many improvements need to be made, including browser software to allow searching of lectures, CalNet authentication, accessibility for the disabled, equipment in the classrooms that are sub-standard, and mobile equipment to webcast campus events.

Jack McCredie demonstrated (by secure wireless connection) examples of a dozen “Little-known but Useful Web-enabled UCB Transactions” by taking the committee through a list of URLs he handed out. He had sent the list via email so that members could use the live links in the email to view the web sites on their own. One important aspect of these applications is that they are secure, requiring a CalNet ID. None of the projects that McCredie demonstrated were funded as e-Berkeley projects; they are the result of coordinated effort by departments using the infrastructure to make transactions available on the web.

Horace Mitchell distributed a list of 16 BAS eBerkeley Initiatives, showing projects completed and the date they were implemented, as well as projects underway and the proposed completion date. Most of these projects are also being done without formal e-Berkeley funding.
Philip Stark will be communicating with the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate about various educational technology initiatives. He will send a draft document to the Steering Committee for a quick review first.

8. Future Meetings
Tuesday, January 29, 2002, from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon in the Chancellor’s Conference Room, California Hall
Thursday, March 21, 2002, from 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., in the Chancellor’s Conference Room, California Hall.