Name of Committee: Digital Media Committee
Current Committee Members (please indicate chair and any other officers):
Maria Bibbs
Don DuMont
Susan Maakestad
Haley Morris-Cafiero
David Chioffi
Howard Paine
Hannah Park
Meredith Root
Zark Strasburger
Jill Wissmiller (Chair)
Gordon Dover
Leslie Holland
Ian Sterling
Part 1: MCA Faculty Handbook Description
1) The 2011-2012 MCA Handbook includes the following description of the Committee:
Digital Media— Guides the acquisition of digital technology to serve the curriculum. Membership: Director of Institution Technology, Instructional Technology Associate, Academic Affairs Coordinator, Interested F-T & P-T faculty, and a student representative.
2a) In the opinion of the committee, does the handbook description accurately describe the function, purpose, and membership of the committee? Please explain.
No, current activity exceeds far beyond the reach of the above description. In addition, the committee assess the ability of the school’s technology to meet curriculum needs, offers faculty education on school technology, research and tests new educational technology, and
acts as a repository and distribution point for technology related initiatives and information
There is a general sense that this is too much work, and that the structure needs to revolve around more sub-committee work. There is dissent among the members as to whether the committee should be responsible for faculty education.
2b) Please suggest changes/edits/rewrites for the Handbook description of your committee. If the Handbook does not currently include a description for your committee, please write one. (Answers to this section of the self-study are suggestions only. They are intended to help the faculty move toward Handbook revisions, but they should be regarded as draft versions at this stage. Please don’t spend an inordinately long time trying to craft the perfect description—they can be changed and edited as we go through the process.)
Digital media committee:
· guides new media acquisition
· tests educational technologies
· trains the faculty and staff on educational technology usage
Part 2: Committee Charge, Duties, and Goals
1) Does the committee operate under a clearly stated committee “charge” (that is, a statement of purpose explaining what the committee is charged with doing on behalf of the faculty or college—this may be different from the catalog description of the committee)? Is this charge written down and made available to the members of the committee and the college community at large? Please explain. (If you feel that the current catalog description or any revision to the description that you made above functions adequately as a charge, please say so).
Answered in 2b – new handbook write-up would be the committee’s charge.
The handbook needs to be revised before the charge will be written. This will then be made to all committee members, and posted online with meeting notes in the admin server.
2) Does the committee maintain a set of specific duties? Are these written down? If a set of such duties exists (written down or in the minds of the chair or other members of the committee), please list them here. (In other words, what is the committee specifically responsible for? What does the committee do?)
Committee needs to further analyze, as a greater emphasis needs to be placed on sub -committee creation, a necessity due to the expanding role of the digital technology in the curriculum.
3) Does the committee have a set of goals (short and/or long-term)? If so, please list them and briefly explain the process the committee used to arrive at these goals.
See minutes 10/12/11 meeting for this answer.
4) Other than verbal reports at faculty meetings, does the committee make reports in verbal or written form to the faculty or administration? How often are these reports made? Where are written reports housed and are they available to other members of the college community?
No – In the past reports were made verbally to the Dean.
5) Please add any additional comments about the charge, duties, and goals of the committee.
Committee is vast in its scope and its responsibility.
Part 3: Committee Membership
1a) To the best of the committee’s knowledge, how are faculty members of the currently committee chosen?
By the Dean, who made the decision based on how extensively members used digital technology in the classroom. Additionally, Gordon and Ian were appointed for obvious reasons. Additionally, this year we had volunteers as requested by the liberal studies and fine arts divisions. Susan and Maria serve to assure all voices are heard.
1b) If it is not explicitly stated in the description/rules/by-laws of the committee, how do you think the members of the committee should be chosen?
There is dissent within the committee as to the effective size. It is currently large and unruly, however due to the broad range of work necessary, not sure how we could handle it with less members. Most are in agreement that the best process would be to have clearly defined sub-committees.
2a) Do the faculty members on the committee have limited terms of service?
NO -- not that we know of.
2b) If it is not explicitly stated in the description/rules/by-laws of the committee, should there be terms of service? Please explain.
There is agreement that the chair position should be held for a maximum of three years. It is unclear whether that position should be appointed by the dean or elected by the committee. As for other members, there need not be any timeline for their involvement. It depends on how involved the member is with digital technology. Obviously Digital media faculty and IT staff would presumably always be on the committee.
3) Does the current committee membership structure make sense? Is the committee too big, too small, the right size? Please explain.
As mentioned several times in previous answers, this is something we are still in discussion about.
4a) Does the committee as it currently exists have faculty members from each of the Divisions of the College? If so, do you feel (or is it a requirement of the committee) that it always have representation from each of the Divisions?
It currently does, and the committee for the sake of equal voices and transparency think that this should always be the case.
4b) If the Committee does not include members from each Division, should it? Please explain.
See above
5a) If there are administrators on the committee (according to Dean Strickland’s committee grid), explain their role(s).
No
5b) If administrators are members of the committee, do you feel that their roles are necessary? In other words, does the committee feel that administrators should be members of the committee? Please explain.
N/A
6a) If there are staff members on the committee, explain their role(s).
The two IT staff membersare critical as experts in the field and maintainers on the ground. They are not, however, nor should they be, the final vote/word on all IT/ET issues.
6b) If staff are members of the committee, do you feel that their roles are necessary to the successful functioning of the committee? Please explain.
Yes absolutely. Our usage, training, and acquisition should be a collaboration of equals with our staff counterparts.
7) To what extent are the decisions of your committee autonomous? In other words, do you make decisions that do not go to the full faculty for approval? Or do you make recommendations that then must be approved by the faculty or others? Please explain.
We are solely recommenders, be it to the policy on policies, budget committee, administration, or faculty as a whole.
8) Please add any additional comments related to membership, committee structure, the appointment or election of members, participation of non-faculty members, etc.
The committee decided that student should be involved with the committee only if they are invited to attend. Zark disents , adding that it would be nice to consider all voices of the college.
Part 4: Committee Meetings and Time Commitment
1a) On average, how many times per semester does your committee meet? Please indicate if the number of meetings varies by semester and explain why.
4 meetings
varies semester to semester
1b) Is there a set meeting schedule (e.g., once monthly, bi-weekly, etc)? If not, how does the committee determine if a meeting is necessary and who calls the meeting?
see above
1c) If there is no set meeting schedule, do you think that there should be a set meeting schedule or a minimum number of meetings for your committee per semester? Please explain.
I think the frequency of meetings should be based upon the size of our agenda for the year. Don’t meet too much if you don’t need to. We already have too many meetings to go to.
1d) How long is the average meeting?
one hour
2) In general, how many hours of commitment per semester does this committee require of members?
It depends on the projects and who is doing them
3a) Does the committee take minutes, keep notes, or otherwise track and archive the activities of the committee?
Meredith is keeping minutes currently. These will be made available on the Admin server.
3b) If you do keep minutes, where are they housed? Can other faculty (or administrators) not on your committee look at these minutes easily?
Server folder, and yes they will be available for all interested parties to access.
4) Please add any additional comments on committee meetings and the time commitment required of faculty on this committee.
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