SIS Academic Liaison Group Advisory Committee Level 1 Meeting Minutes November 4, 2004 Members Present: Chris Roberts. Hospitality & Tourism Management, Committee Chair Elizabeth Pyle, Registrar Rosio Alvarez, OIT (represented by Heidi Dollard) Richard Rogers, Resource Economics & Provost's Office Wendy Matys, Sociology & Political Science Claire Christopherson, Computer Science Deb Picking, Plant and Soil Sciences Howard Stidham, Chemistry Minutes from last meeting (October 5, 2004) were passed out in Deb Picking's original font (see attached). Richard Rogers was shamed into accepting his long overdue term of writing the minutes. Nikki Stoia (Music and Assistant Dean of Advising in HFA) will be joining this committee to replace Bruce Byers (Biology). Rosio reported the testing of PeopleSoft has gone well and "we are hopeful" at this point we will not experience the level of problems encountered last time. With reconfigurations, they can handle 1,500 simultaneous fictional users (using purchased software that allows simulated testing using extremely high-end demanding users without any time lags to digest or read information from previous task). Class searches remain a resource intensive activity and when they are not constrained to a small department it becomes more problematic. For example, the School of Education does not have departments and hence their searches are long. However, class searches are a needed function and we must continue to improve them. Elizabeth does not want to return to printed, static lists as they are out-of-date so quickly and lack any advantages of electronic searches. Elizabeth mentioned her training session on Tips and Tricks that she will hold on Friday, November 5, 2004 in ISOM. She will cover many features of Spire. Wendy mentioned two items that were causing concerns in her area: 1) the use of +/- is used differently within Spire and this causes confusion, and 2) students are using cell phones to call the department or their advisors and then leave their long-distant phone number and expect a return call. Perhaps we should just respond with email rather than calling long distance. Chris asked if the PeopleSoft platform was becoming stable. Rosio said we are doing better and are working with PS and other experts to improve it. The purchased testing software has allowed extensive testing on the weekends and the collected data has been shared with consultants. Some problems still remain but most have been resolved. Elizabeth added that efforts have been made to identify problems before they cause a crisis. Rosio added that this allows them to address the problems earlier. Chris asked if this information could be shared with all users in a communication from OIT and the Registrar. Elizabeth said yes, but we may need three levels of detail in sharing this information as the discussion gets technical which most users don't care to read about. We are tracking system use and can present a daily log, things like CPU usage. Chris asked if the upgrade is complete and Rosio said yes but we continue in stabilization mode. She said we need one more registration period before we know for sure if we have a stable system. Chris asked if we have a plan in case things go bad. Elizabeth said yes, but this is our system and workarounds are unacceptable. This tool must work. Rosio added the problem is too many users at the same time. We may need filters to slow down traffic. This will slow the process down but keep us up. Chris asked if there was any danger of losing student schedules. Rosio said it was essentially a zero chance of losing student data but of course it is not exactly zero. During the last registration period we were caught off guard and we are more prepared this time. Chris asked about training. Rosio said they are hiring two people (but will get only 1.5 positions) to train users and prepare documentation. They start soon, within two months. Rosio said there is interest in online, self-paced training. Elizabeth added that the Spire grade upload from WebCT that is being piloted this semester drew a disappointingly low number of instructors. Richard agreed and thought faculty would use this tool but they are not thinking that far ahead yet. Chris asked if we can do this from WebCT Vista. Rosio reported that OIT is evaluating WebCT Vista, both going it alone and with UMass Online. She felt the UMass System approach causes branding problems for individual campuses. She added that Sharon Fross, our new Vice Provost for Outreach and Continuing Education, is very interested in bringing CE into the central part of the campus and having OIT support. Wendy asked about the trouble ticket data. What are students/staff/instructors having problems with? This led to a discussion about tier 1 and tier 2 support. The first level results in Heidi Dollard organizing the data and often leads to the development of the "Frequently Asked Questions". Wendy said she often avoids calling the general help desk line (9400 number) as it takes too long. She would like to call the Registrar's Office. Elizabeth added that there is a Registry Help Line for course information, so one should call that line for course related information and the OIT line for technical, computer-related problems. There is no doubt that November is a big test of the Spire system. Rosio added that much has been done to get ready and as of today, we are feeling good. Elizabeth mentioned that much work still is being done to prepare for the Faculty Senate's Gen Ed requirement changes. For example, the science I requirement will be changing and affected courses must be edited accordingly. Also, the New Students Program is trying to get netids to students earlier, soon after a deposit is received. Deb asked "can we post a reminder for students to check their email?" This led to a discussion about our official UMass email address and some student's preference for off-campus email services (e.g., Hotmail). We must continue to stress our official email address and leave it as the student's responsibility to check it regularly. We may need to find ways to remind them but the Collegian has become too expensive to use as a tool to advertise such messages. Rosio was asked if Spire can create email distribution lists. She replied that it is a feature that is coming soon, perhaps by next summer it will be available as they are testing it now. Meeting adjourned at approximately 1:45 p.m. Our next meeting is set for Thursday, December 2, 2004. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meeting minutes cheerfully submitted by Richard Rogers.