Introductions:

• MM
  • Russell King, North Carolina State University

Minutes of March 15 Meeting - Minutes were approved by common consent.

Program Committee Reports

• Agriculture and Natural Resources
• Don reported on behalf of Joan Dusky, who was unable to join the call. She expects competencies and taxonomies to be finalized at or before the PLN meeting in August 04. Modules in progress include the flagship module, risk management, forestry, horse body condition (waiting on conversion by Craig Wood), Food Safety (possibly), and seven first detection modules (being developed by the Southern Plant Diagnostic Lab—Joan will coordinate conversion to CECP with Gerald Holmes).
  
  
• Communications
• Ellen Ritter reported since Frankie Gould was not able to participate. Modules underway include ones on Newsletters (KY and TN) and four modules on marketing (TX). She also indicated that work was slow due to home-based work loads.
  
  
• Community Development
• Alan Barefield reported that CRD met in Tampa and devoted a half day to CECP. CRD competencies should be finalized by the August 04 PLN meeting.


• Family and Consumer Sciences
• Carolyn Nobles reported in Ellen Murphy’s absence and indicated that the extensive list of FCS competencies are being made more consistent in format with other PCs, that module development teams are being reconstituted, with subject areas shown on the web. They have also formed a review team.
  
  
• 4-H Youth Development (via email)
• Jeff Howard reported that he is working with each SR state to identify a contact person to work with; work is continuing on the PRK model (with the addition of C for competencies). A national group is working on competencies, identifying currently existing modules that can be integrated into the CECP system, and identifying gaps that show need of new modules.
  
  
• Information Technology
• Don reported in Larry Lippke’s absence; Larry provided a written report:
  
  1. Specialists from Kentucky and Texas are teaming up to develop a course on information security. They have the course outlined and are now beginning to get the content entered on the system. Craig Wood is heading this effort, and I expect they will have a lot done on it this summer.
  
  2. Courses in the system can now be flagged as "CECP Approved." The CECP campus home page now gives users the option of getting a listing of only those courses that have gone through the CECP review process and are approved. Clicking on that link today gets you list of courses that I "approved" just to see how the system works; they are not really approved. When implemented for real, the results of the review process will need to be conveyed to a "campus administrator" who has the rights to change that status.
  
  3. The programmers for the CECP campus are planning to implement an integrated user forum in all their applications, so this should be something we'll begin to see later this summer. What I asked them to do was provide the ability for a course author to choose whether to provide this feature at the course level, who would moderate the forum, and determine a few other parameters implementing that feature. Discussion in the forum should be constrained to the topic of the course.
  
  4. It appears e-Extension will be adopting the Dublin Core metatagging system and not SCORM. While our system currently has minimal metagging included, it is not really compliant with anything other than itself. Therefore, I do not envision our switching to Dublin Core (if that's what we decide) would really cause any problem. I think it is probably adequate for the level of complexity we have in CECP. I will, however, need to get with the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) folks to assure that they are really getting metatags included in the various content and that they are compliant with our (and eExtension) standards. I also want to visit with them about providing RSS services from our CECP approved courses, if possible.
  
  5. We have also asked the TEEX programmers to provide us the ability to extract a number of ad hoc reports from the system along with a few other administrative features to help us manage it. Since I'm not giving them any more money for now (other than the annual maintenance fee Texas Cooperative Extension is providing), they are trying to work these changes into the system simply under the guise of "maintenance." That means, they get to it when they can. So, as has happened recently, when their agency director establishes other priorities for them, guess who takes back seat. One of the changes that I asked for is a way that I can manage the content category lists (taxonomy). Right now if we need changes, I have to ask them to make them directly in the database. We really need an administrative interface allowing us to make that kind of change ourselves.
  
  
• Middle Management
• Russell King was not on the call and no report was given.
  
  
• Program and Staff Development
• Mitch Owen reported that four modules are underway, he expects at least two to be completed, but that they were hampered by on-campus workloads.
  
  

ACTION: Those who reported are asked to review/modify their sections above.

Report of Review Committee - after considerable discussion, it was decided that we should focus on development of the “Users’ Guide” as a higher priority that forming review committees. ACTION: CECP Steering Committee members are to review the document drafted by Susan Seal and distributed by Frankie Gould and provide reactions to Frankie and Susan by the end of July. Frankie and Susan (with assistance of Ellen Ritter?) will prepare a final draft for distribution prior to the PLN meeting in August for discussion at the meeting. It was also decided that Program Committees would be asked for their proposed procedures for internal content validity review. The idea is for the Steering Committee to articulate an expectation of quality, and put the responsibility on the Program Committees to develop their own review procedures. There would still be an overall “editorial” review process.

Flagship Module Development - Julie Sexton reported on development of the landscape module and encouraged committee members to review its status on the CECP Campus site. She indicated that it would be ready for the August meeting, although she needs help most in the area of pieces that are interactive.

ACTION: Julie Sexton will send out reminders to the Steering Committee to review the module and provide relevant input.

e-Extension Update - Ron Brown provided an update on e-Extension. Major points include:

• A Governing Committee has been formed and approved by ECOP. It includes one person from each Extension region (Drs. Paul Coreil and Dalton McAfee represent ASRED and AEA, respectively). In addition to regional representatives, Dr. Dick Wootton, NASULGC, is ex officio; Dr. Linda Willis represents the ECOP Program Subcommittee; and Dr. Greg Crosby represents CSREES.
  
• A search process has yielded good candidates for director and the two associate director slots. Interviews will be held during the joint COPs meeting in late July 04.
  
• A finance taskforce has been formed by ECOP. It is focusing on 4 areas of funding – redirected Extension funds (assessments), grants and contracts, CSREES commitment, and a new formation of a new 3d line.
  
• Draft Rules of Operation have been developed and will be reviewed by the GC.
  
• Two teams are working. Fred Piazza is leading an IT work team and Dan Cotton is leading a Content Development work team.
  
• Relative to earlier CECP work, the e-Extension work teams appear to be focusing on Dublin Core as a preferred meta data tagging system.

ACTION: Don Hamilton will ensure that this is discussed at the IT Committee Meeting in Biloxi.

Other:

• Christine Rizzuto, who works with Head Start audiences, has inquired about using CECP materials, processes, etc. ACTION: Don Hamilton, Carolyn Nobles, and Julie Sexton will conference with Ms. Rizzuto to learn more about how we might collaborate with her. Based upon their discussion, they will have liberty to determine next steps, if any.

• The CECP presentation to be given during the general session of PLN was discussed. It was the consensus of the group that this presentation needs to be outstanding; it should make others want to collaborate in developing modules. The presentation should provide a remarkable example module, a user-friendly guidebook, offers of training, etc so that Program Committees are encouraged to actively take up the cause. In addition, possibly as part of Gloria Mosby’s transitional comments, we need to provide the url, a full list of completed modules and modules underway (see Emily Shaw’s database?), plans for training, etc. ACTION: Julie Sexton, Don Hamilton, Frankie Gould and Susan Seal (guidebook) will plan the presentation. A preliminary draft must be sent to Kathy Ibendahl by August 1, with a conference call to be held in early August. If all presentations can be held to 30 minutes or less, the CECP presentation will be the last of 5 presentations during the general session. ACTION: Ron Brown, Emily Shaw, Kathy Ibendahl, and Don Hamilton will assist Gloria Mosby in preparing for her assignment.

• CECP Steering Committee Meeting – ACTION: During the PLN meeting, PLN-SC/CECP will meet beginning at 5 pm on Sunday, include dinner, and conclude after dinner. (Hamilton has e-mailed Ibendahl requesting a room for the Committee).