Notes for Google Drive & Course Hub, Adobe Connect

Announcements

  • Horizon report – Joe has been asked to sit on the Expert Panel for the 2017 Higher Ed Report – will inform our work for making cyberinfrastructure projections.

 

Course Hub/Middfiles/Google Drive

Provisioning Google Drive folders and Middfiles folders using the Course Hub. – Joe

  • Meeting w Jim Stewart and Mike Roy about this
    • Use of middfiles has declined 20% over the last few years – let’s provision course folders on demand from the course hub instead
    • It is possible to provision Google Drive folders using the Course Hub, allowing the Hub to set up appropriate permissions and add rosters.
    • MIIS courses don’t use local storage
  • What communication needs to happen?
    • There needs to be clear messaging that Google Apps is available to everyone, and provisioning of course folders is an option.
    • Exit strategy needs to be in place
  • The plan is to move away from local storage to cloud services
    • What do we lose in this transition?
        • Media projects have to be downloaded every single time
    • Moving directories to the cloud
  • Before this gets automated in Course Hub, do we need to consider other configurations e.g. OneDrive?
    • Course Hub can allow for all sorts of provisioning, do we need to make a strong recommendation for one or the other?
  • There is currently no proposal/ask to decommission Middfiles/course folders. That functionality will still exist.
  • Google folder provisioning through Course Hub will not be in place for the fall semester
  • Are we supposed to make a recommendation for one or the other?
    • People are already using Google Drive privately, they’re not using Office 365
    • Should we do a comparison pilot to determine the unique affordances of the two platforms?
      • Only one program will have dedicated support – once we make a decision about which one is supported we need to articulate an exit strategy
      • At the end of the pilot, would we turn the unselected platform off?
  • Tenure review process and current 2-year retention policies are at odds
      • We’d have unlimited storage with google apps, but we can’t guarantee google wouldn’t change their terms of service – exit plan necessary
  • How long Moodle archives will be accessible after decommissioning is undecided

 

Recommendation: Create functionality that allows for the provisioning of Google Drive spaces for courses using the Course Hub.

Recommendation: Create functionality that allows for the provisioning of Course Folders on Middfiles using the Course Hub.

 

Video Conferencing (Mack and Petar)

  • Adobe has discontinued its educational pricing for Adobe Connect, and the new price is prohibitive; we need to plan for a replacement for next fiscal year
    • We are in agreement that there is a need for adobe connect-like functionality beyond our other platforms
      • Large scale curricular events that allow for screen sharing, file sharing, interactivity, recording, etc.
      • MIIS Recruiting, International Education Mgmt program, and other departments are dependent upon Adobe Connect for virtual events
        • virtual symposia, recruiting webinars, synchronous sessions for hybrid courses (presentations, roleplays, lectures)
    • Alternatives to Adobe Connect
      • 6 week Skype for business pilot took place
      • WebEx by Cisco is being piloted now
      • GoToMeeting by Citrix – not much for academic use
      • Additional tools being piloted
        • Some of these tools could potentially meet the needs that Adobe Connect currently serves, but they are being evaluated as replacements for our telephone systems. Is that sufficient consideration for curricular use?
        • What would be missing?
          • Given how heavily MIIS programs rely on Adobe Connect, if tools are being piloted that could replace it, MIIS and the DLC must be part of that conversation and any potential pilots
        • Mack and Petar could do demos for us
        • We could potentially do a curricular/academic pilot of one of these platforms
        • Seems like Zoom is the strongest contender for curricular purposes
          • Potential pilot participants – MIIS’ International Education Mngmt program does a symposium every semester. 60 students will be presenting this November (majority of presentations rely upon web conferencing).
      • Would be great if alternative platform could also replace polycom infrastructure, but that’s not the primary purpose of the evaluation

 

  • Next steps: Petar will share spreadsheet for us to respond to/indicate our needs in a replacement. Make additions by 8/9

 

 

From Petar:

 

Per our conversation at the ACTT meeting, we need to look for a replacement for Adobe Connect as we cannot afford their new pricing model (which is twice the cost = $40k). This is the link where Mack and Petar have begun to collect a list of features that are required/desired to have in a replacement, and a list of potential replacements. Please add any features or solutions that you think are missing. We are hoping to have the feedback collected in the next two weeks and review the list again and choose the top three solutions.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vv1LwQNz-cY0EOnVofZEl3vDdKet3KWpFF48twQFElo/edit#gid=0