West Virginia University at Parkersburg
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
December 2, 2013
Present: Senators/Representatives: Torie Jackson (Chair), Dianne Davis (Vice-Chair), Maggie Berdine (Secretary), Aaron Crites (ACF), Matthew Santer (BOG), Rob Anderson,  Teresa Cowan, Mary Beth Held, Uta Hempel, Roger Lewis, Al Newhart, Craig Rabatin, Missy Spivy, Joyce Stover [unable to connect from JCC), Jodie Christian (for Cynthia Watkins), Dave Williams. 
Updates:
Academic Affairs Report: Dr Rhonda Tracy, Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs,  Conference call with Mr. Andy Gates from Open Class to discuss faculty concerns:   
1. A lack of tracking features within Open Class, including when, what, and how long students access features. Of particular concern is the inability to track when students access exams and how long they take to complete individual questions.
2. Matt Santer reported that while a student was working in math lab, the student’s work was interrupted by a Pearson commercial,
3. Aaron Crites, ACF Representative, registered a complaint that when one of his students complained that she did not have access to a history exam, in spite of the fact that the exam was announced and this student was the only student who cited this problem. In turn, Mr. Crites had no way to verify the truth of the student’s claim. He felt he had received no administrative support, particularly in light of the fact that the student’s tuition was refunded.
4. Missy Spivy, Education and Humanities Senator, cited the importance of attendance verification to meet financial aid requirements.
5. Dr. Tracy requested that the Open Class representative sent her response to faculty concerns first to Jessie Wass and Chris Fahey, then to Dr. Tracy and President Jackson, who will then forward the response to the Open Class teaching team.
6. A suggestion was made to research industry standards for online classes
7. Dr. Tracy expressed a need to deliver learner analytics, which are important for predicting student success.
8. Jessie Wass reported that Banner integration with Open Classroom is underway
9. Jessie Wass: Faculty need to control student access to coincide with start and end dates for courses. Currently, once students are enrolled, they have access to course content. However, access to content and exams needs to be controlled to prevent students from capturing and sharing course materials.
10. Concerns were raised as to the qualifications of course designers. One faculty member reported finding errors in Pearson materials. The question was raised as to what faculty should do if inaccuracies are found in course materials.
11) Faculty should be able to create test pools from which to pull exams. Currently, faculty must recreate exams each time they are given. 
12) The ability to copy the assessment is needed.  
Additional concerns/ needs: After the conference call, the following were addressed:
1) a testing center for online courses is needed
2) a Faculty Development DA is needed
Upcoming Senate President’s meeting with Dr. Gnage: Issues to be discussed include:
1) rationale for reduction in summer salary for fully-subscribed courses. It was suggested that full-time faculty salaries for summer school should, like WVU, be commensurate with regular semester salaries. 
2) base salary increases for masters and doctorates

Motion: Ron Anderson moved and Maggie Berdine seconded a motion that the Faculty Senate oppose cuts in summer pay scale for fully-subscribed courses.  Furthermore, copies of this motion should be sent to both the administration and to the Board of Governors. The motion passed without dissent.
The meeting adjourned at 12:20.
The next and final meeting for the semester will be Monday, December 16.
Submitted by Maggie Berdine, Secretary
P. S. Following the meeting, Jessie Wass forwarded to President Jackson a copy of “Must Haves” that she had sent to Pearson based on the tracking concerns discussed in the Senate meeting. A copy follows.
TO: Torie Jackson
FROM: Jessamine Wass, Director
               Center for Teaching and Technology                     
I wanted to be sure to share the latest must haves that I have sent to Pearson.  There are others that have been identified but those listed are the things that I want to have in place before spring or as close to the beginning as possible.  Some of the other items I know are on target for release ASAP but I do not have a timeline.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tracking - minimally we need to have the ability to track the following criteria:
•	Student First Access Date/Time
•	Student Last Access Date/Time
•	Sessions with ID number
•	Student Total Time for each session
•	Read Messages (Mail)
•	Sent Messages (Mail)
•	Discussion Messages Read
•	Discussion Messages Posted
•	 Chat - Started and with Who
•	Assessments Began
•	Assessments Finished
•	Assessments Total Time
•	Assignments Read
•	Assignments Submitted
•	Assignments Total Time
•	Tools Viewed
o	Web links
o	Content Items
o	Files
Start and End Dates for Sections Within Terms: We MUST have the ability to prevent students from accessing course material prior to and after a section closes within a Term.  Faculty are very careful to create unique experiences for students however it is not practical to redevelop material each semester due to the fact that students can access and share assignment and discussion material.  I have instructed them to hide course content before and after a classes duration but for accreditation and faculty satisfaction with the system, we will need to be able to guarantee this.
Selective Release: We must be able to set release dates on course material.  Most importantly, for our ADA students who need extra time for exams and assignments.  We have no way to do this currently in OC.  Our alternative right now is to create an additional "testing center" course and enroll the student there.  This can cause billing confusion as well as extra work for faculty.
Sent Messages in OpenClass: When an instructor sends a message using the Mail tool there is no record of it in their Gmail account.  Instructors need to be able to see and prove in some cases that an email was sent to students without having to remember to CC themselves.
Student View: Instructors must have a way to see what the student is able to view.  This allows them to confirm the release of specific items and to feel confident that hidden items are hidden.  It also helps in the trouble shooting process.