Officers:

Chair: Howard Beck, UF
Vice-Chair: Rhonda Conlon, NCSU
Secretary: Kappie Mumphrey, LSU AgCenter

Attendees:

Anne Adrian, AAMU
Nina Boston, UA
Michael Bratcher, NCAT
Jonathan Davis, AAMU
Dwayne Hunter, OSU
Larry Lippke, TAMU
John Toman,UT
Fred Piazza, LSU AgCenter
Lalit Rainey
Jamie Profitt, KY
Dan Brook

Agenda Items:

1. Roll Call
   
   Everyone checked in as they connected to Centra.

   Review of minutes from Annual Meeting in Charleston - Howard Beck and Kappie MumphreyMinutes were emailed to the group prior to the meeting. Nina brought up the minutes online for viewing and feedback. No comments were made by attendees. Minutes will be posted on the PLN site as presented.Procedure for handling state reports - Nina Boston Nina reported that Kathy Ibendahl said we could use the online survey for the state reports in the other PLN committees. Nina asked for feedback on any needed changes to the survey. Larry suggested that questions be reviewed because the other committees' annual reports may necessitate different questions. Nina said as long as they gave the input to the questions ahead of time (planning) they can ask/report on whatever they'd like. It was suggested Nina bring the survey to the November PLC meeting and show it to them. Also, Kappie suggested presenting a timeline for using the online survey. Howard asked about summarizing annual reports across the IT committee. Nina said we currently only ask for free form information not things that can be quantitatively summarized. Howard asked about resources to support using the online survey across all committees. Nina said as long as we keep it simple as it is now, she doesn't need additional resources.Review of 05-06 PLN-IT Plan of Work - Howard Beck04-05 Plan of Work - carried items forward to the 05-06 Plan of Work. Howard asked everyone to review the below items because we talked about them at several different times during the annual meeting.

   1. CECP ModulesDistance Ed and Master Online Educator - Nina and Tim
      Nina has looked at the Master Online Educator program but she has not gotten together with Tim yet. Over the next year, they will see how they can "merge" the Master Online Educator with the program that they have been working on with Debra Davis (Distance Education). That program is waiting on Debra Davis because Debra is heavily involved with Katrina recovery. Larry mentioned that they are working on a program that will allow them to create a "certificate" at the successful completion of a course. Information Security - Kappie and AnnKappie said that the presentation sent around prior to the meeting was the one put together by the LSU System. Larry said the content is in line with a course they are offering at A&M. He also indicated that they are trying to expand the training but are currently working on getting a list of employees that may need the training. TAMU would like to participate in reviewing and possibly incorporating their information into this CECP module. Howard asked about localization in general for the module. Kappie said it would be made generic but maybe we could add a template or area for local security guidelines. Anne said that they had someone on staff that could help us to "generalize" it.Acrobat - JohnJohn has begun on it. He is working with someone to determine which functions to include for level 1, level 2, etc. She is starting with courses she has taught in person and will be putting those courses into online form.Web Technologies - Jamie

      Jamie has been talking with someone on staff at Kentucky about reviewing possible content. He mentioned on open course in CECP that is also related to web technologies. So should we be looking at "Fundamentals of Web Development" or "Web Technologies" for our CECP module? Larry said that the open course he is talking about may be outdated and may be removed. Jamie said he'll look at both to see what to put out there and whether or not there is any redundancy.

      Video Conference Inventory - Tom and Larry

      Tom (IFAS) was absent. Larry indicated that the inventory is in maintenance mode but he was supposed to look into "linking" the inventory with the IFAS inventory so it is updated in both places with no duplicate entry required. Howard asked if this needed to be a P.O.W. item if it is just maintenance. Larry said we just need to make sure that everyone keeps their inventory updated. Howard said we'll leave it on with the only action item being to remind everyone to update the list for their institution. Nina suggested just adding a question to the online state report, asking the responsible parties to fill it out.

      XML Standards/LMS, work with eXtension Advisory Group - Howard

      Howard reiterated how the Southern Region could form an advisory group to work with eXtension on this topic. How can we get this item moving? Kevin Gamble indicated their technical advisory group should be looking at it. The problem is, that is not their priority right now. Howard asked Larry and Fred if they could bring this up to eXtension so some movement can happen.
      Fred updated everyone from last eXtension IT Advisory Group conference call. He said Kevin indicated all standards need to be reviewed and voted on. He thought XML would be high on the list but it might still be several months before any progress is made. He also suggested anyone who had input for the eXtension IT Advisory Group send their input to him or Jonathon.

      Look at CECP taxonomy in relation to authority term standards such as CIP codes and NAL thesaurus - Howard, Tim and Kappie

      Larry provided a file for CECP courses and Howard will have someone look at that list and compare it to the available, current CIP codes. Kappie was reminded she needs to generate a list of meta-data fields the LSU AgCenter is currently requiring in their CMS implementation. She indicated she would get with Fred to generate that list.

      Develop a step by step guide to evaluating outsourcing as an option. Who has outsourced anything? - Group

      Howard asked if we had someone who should be the contact person for this initiative: maybe someone who has outsourced before? No volunteers came forward to be a lead person. Nina asked about having more structure in our current reporting so it can be compared across institutions. Howard said he would keep things rolling with this item.

   2. Explore relationship between CECP Online and eXtension hosting platforms - Larry

      Howard met with Kevin Gamble and yes, eXtension does want to have an in-service training component in their system. Kevin indicated that CECP could be a model and a Pioneering Community of Practice. Larry indicated he was familiarizing himself with AgLearn to see how it compared to CECP. He described a multi-step process for getting access to AgLearn. Through this process, Larry generated a contact within CSREES for AgLearn. Howard said the steps to connect CECP to eXtension need to be defined, and that in addition to AgLearn, we need to look at Lenya and XML standards for exchanging the content of the CECP modules. He also suggested we look at classification taxonomies.

   Other Business - Group

   1. Greg Crosby/One Source update - Howard

2. Adjourn