Notes from CIT Advisory Board meeting Sept. 25, 2007
Attending: Wayne Miller (Law – for Dick Danner), Jean Ferguson (Library), Roger Loyd (Divinity), Owen Astrachan (Comp. Sci., A&S), Lynne O’Brien (CIT), Amy Campbell (CIT), Patricia Pawlak (CIT), Trey Turner (Nursing), Lee Willard (A&S Dean), Len Spicer (Bio-chemistry), Jackie Gottlieb (visitor; Nursing-Web Tech Solutions), Bob Price (OIT – for Julian Lombardi)
1. Announcements:
Notes from last meeting – No one had changes
Dan Gilbert from Stanford U. will be at Duke discussing Teaching in Flexible Learning Spaces on Oct. 1 & 2, 2007. Please share information and encourage your colleagues to attend.
- Lynne: Dan will discuss experiences with flexible learning spaces at Stanford as part of a series of events that CIT will offer in anticipation of Duke’s TLC opening next Fall
- Action item: Trey: Will discussion be recorded? [Note from Lynne: Yes, this was recorded. See: http://lectopia.oit.duke.edu/ilectures/ilectures.lasso?ut=196&id=5698 ]
- Trey: Use the TLC as a catalyst to spur large grant projects like the DiVE tank.
- Can Faculty Fellowship grants be used to assist faculty in teaching in flexible spaces? [Note from Lynne: See proposed Fellows program on this topic]
Update on meeting with Bruce Cunningham, Registrar’s office, re: student privacy issues in using non-Duke systems
- CIT staff met with Bruce and are in the process of putting together a document. Hope to have the doc available for Oct. meeting.
The departmental reports on faculty participation in CIT programs will go out this month, first to IT directors in the schools, then to department chairs. Your input on the format for these reports was very helpful!
- Lee: realized there is no intellectual property rights policy for student at Duke. Believes Kevin Smith has been consulted. More info to follow.
2. Grants and project support – past, present future
Guest: Amy Campbell, Assistant Director, CIT
Amy described how CIT funding and support programs have changed over time, and why those changes were made. CIT has used data from these past grant programs to shape the way each year’s offerings have evolved. For example, streaming servers, Blackboard came out of early experiments with course web pages and streaming media. As more faculty became interested, we sought ways to meet their needs through changes in the IT environment and tools available to all. Grants also include consulting for faculty if requested. Faculty sometimes need direct stipends for work. This has been difficult to do fairly; there is wide variety in faculty salary levels and different expectations across schools about recovering salary money when faculty work on projects. Incentive grants no longer include direct stipends.
CIT also has had a number of grant programs which use students to assist faculty. One challenge has been matching the time of year when students are most available to work with the patterns of when faculty are best able to work.
- Len: question on direct stipend. Can Dean’s contribute to the faculty salary or time part? If policy was in place more faculty may submit proposals. Make Dean review part of the proposal. Projects/Grant proposals shouldn’t be ad hoc.
- Important to have an outcome evaluation on grants. Evaluation should feed back in to project.
- Trey: Fellowship grants most helpful.
- Lynne: CIT efforts have moved to shorter term support and direct contact w/faculty from large scale funding.
Action item: Revisit idea of getting commitment from Dean’s?
- There is $175,000 available for all grants this year, although CIT could combine its funds with resources from other sources in order to fund more projects.
- Wayne: Law School worked with private entities on large grants but the program was not sustained. Need to help faculty think about follow up on funding from educational sources. Must know how to locate funding to sustain projects after grant program is over.
- Len: encourage grant seekers to contact outside sources with a cost share from Duke. Let CIT be a partner for larger grants. Dept of Education is looking for cost-share opportunities.
- Lee: would still want the Dean of the school to sign off on these grants apps. Need to be involved and take ownership of the grants.
- Trey: a good example is the DiVE tank. Student collaboration is key.
- Len: Interested in course development grants.
- Bob Price mentioned a potential project with a hardware vendor interested in doing a project with Duke (confidential for now). Free equipment can stretch the $ in a grant.
- Lynne: Agreed - funded laptops and PDA’s in the past as experimentation items.
Amy asked for ideas about the larger scale grants we used to offer – should we do this again in some form?
- Len: Is funding available for strategic plans? Do themes fit in with University strategic plan? Seems it may be easier for faculty to get follow-on funding if project is aligned with the plan.
- Len: Are there invited speaker grants available? Many individuals may not know who to invite. Can CIT compile a list of IT speakers that would be a benefit? Should be discipline specific.
- Lynne: Ed Ayers is a good example. Was a speaker in past years. Co-sponsored with History Dept. Very beneficial.
- Trey: Lots going on at Duke that many not aware of.
- Lynne: Do we need a campus wide discussion of large projects?
- Lynne: CIT will return with list of possible projects with funding available in April/May timeframe.
