NITLE Resources RSS Feed

Integrating Library Resources and Sakai

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:37:00 GMT

Project name: Integrating Library Resources and Sakai

Project lead: Mike Osterman, Middleware Analyst, Whitman College

Key collaborators:

The Claremont Colleges: Jezmynne Westcott, Science Librarian
Whitman College: Beth Hoppe, Reference & Information Literacy Librarian/Access Services Coordinator
Willamette University: Cheryl Cramer, Director of User Services

Summary: The deployment of Sakai as an institution�s Learning Management System provides a unique opportunity to consider new approaches to structuring avenues of access to academic and course-related resources. Rather than twisting Sakai to create Sakai-Blackboard and Sakai-WebCT courses, institutions, faculty, librarians, and IT support providers need to be challenged to explore new modes of integration and collaboration that exploit the strengths of the Sakai toolset. Libraries would seem to be an ideal candidate for the exploration of new ways to use Sakai to deliver resources. While many faculty are adept at teaching their students to perform traditional library research and some are quick to employ the expertise of librarians, the traditional model of bricks and mortar, shelves of books, and reference librarians working a fixed schedule is rapidly giving way to e-journals, online searching, and 24/7 access.

Key audience: Faculty and students at liberal arts campuses.

Intended outcomes: Using Sakai to integrate the library into course sites and research workflow has benefits for all users. Students are already in the Sakai environment and are familiar with how Sakai manages content resources. Once over the initial learning curve, Sakai is easy to use and even users with little to no web programming knowledge or experience can build rich collections of materials and instructions.

Project timeline:

February 2008: Select a date for the workshop. Will happen in the April-June 2008 time-frame.
March 2008: Workshop planning
March 2008: Registration opens
Mid-Spring 2008: Integrating Library Resources and Sakai, Whitman College
Late Spring 2008: Follow-up and assessment

Community of Practice to Support TEI-Based Projects at Small Colleges

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:27:12 GMT

Project name: Community of Practice to Support TEI-Based Projects at Small Colleges

Project leads:

Scott Hamlin, Director of Technology for Research and Instruction, Wheaton College
Suzanne Bonefas, Director of Special Projects, Rhodes College

Project update:

July 16, 2008 -- Rhodes College and Wheaton College invite faculty, librarians, and technologists from NITLE participating colleges to a 2 1/2-day workshop on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) at Wheaton College, October 10 - 12, 2008. The workshop will begin with lunch on Friday, October 10, and end at 4:30 PM on Sunday, October 12.

About the workshop

The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) has evolved to become the resource on which scholars depend when transcribing and encoding primary source and archival texts.Text encoders create true digital scholarship through their work � employing a set of eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based standards to create richly annotated digital files in an open non-proprietary scheme. This standard is an ideal preservation format. It also allows scholars to annotate texts by embedding interpretive, descriptive, and analytical metadata directly into a document. TEI documents are electronic critical editions of a text that also include standard cataloguing metadata required for basic and advanced searching.

The goals of this event are to:

highlight the work done in the last few years at small liberal arts colleges;
discuss the advantages of TEI mark-up for electronic archives and other digital asset management applications;
continue to explore encoding as a pedagogical tool;
encourage new work in this area by participants from other schools;
update the NITLE community on new developments in the Text Encoding Initiative's guidelines and tools for creating and supporting TEI-based archives; and
discuss and develop strategies for supporting TEI-based projects at small institutions.

Training and instruction will be provided by personnel from Brown University's Women's Writers Project (WWP), and will be geared specifically to participants from small liberal arts colleges. Trainers from Brown's WWP will provide an overview of the TEI, strategies for planning a successful project, and hands-on training sessions to introduce users to new developments in the TEI guidelines. In addition to the content provided by WWP, the conference will highlight projects within the NITLE community through a series of presentations.

The program will enhance current understandings of TEI, provide training in new developments within the field, and allow participating institutions to share experiences and build relationships for future collaborations. Those attendees who are new to TEI will get a sense of the benefits and challenges that working with this technology entails. Most importantly, we will continue to build and support a community of practice among faculty and staff who are using TEI to further their own scholarship and pedagogy and who are building and maintaining TEI-based digital archives at NITLE participating institutions.

Selection Criteria

Preference will be given to participants willing to present their project at the conference and who are already engaging in TEI projects. We will also strive to accommodate participants new to TEI, space permitting. Participants will ideally apply in teams that include both faculty and support staff, but individual applications will be considered as well. To apply, fill out and submit the online application by September 2, 2008.

Travel and Accommodations

Participants are responsible for their own travel arrangements and costs. The NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund will cover food and lodging for all selected participants, and there is no workshop fee.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this event, please feel free to contact Scott Hamlin (508-286-376 or shamlin@wheatoncollege.edu) or Suzanne Bonefas (901-843-3739 or bonefas@rhodes.edu).

Key collaborators:

Julia Hammond Flanders, Director, Women Writers Project, Associate Director for Textbase Development, STG, Women Writers Project, Brown University
Sydney D. Bauman, Senior Programmer/Analyst, Women Writers Project, Brown University
Jacqueline Wernimont, Textbase Editor and Project Manager, Women Writers Project, Brown University

Project summary: A two-day series of workshops will be held at Wheaton College in October 2008. The goals of this event are to

highlight the work done in the last few years at small liberal arts colleges;
discuss the advantages of TEI mark-up for electronic archives and other digital asset management applications;
continue to explore encoding as a pedagogical tool;
encourage new work in this area by participants from other schools;
update the NITLE community on new developments in the Text Encoding Initiative's guidelines and tools for creating and supporting TEI-based archives; and
discuss and develop strategies for supporting TEI-based projects at small institutions.

Key audience: Scholars, technologists, and librarians from the NITLE community interested in new developments in the Text Encoding Initiative's guidelines and tools for creating and supporting TEI-based archives.

Intended outcomes: The program will enhance current understandings of TEI, provide training in new developments within the field, and allow participating institutions to share experiences and build relationships for future collaborations. Those attendees who are new to TEI will get a sense of the benefits and challenges that working with this technology entails. Most importantly, we will continue to build and support a community of practice among faculty and staff who are using TEI to further their own scholarship and pedagogy and who are building and maintaining TEI-based digital archives at NITLE institutions.

Project timeline:

February - March 2008
- Create a planning committee composed of staff and faculty from Wheaton and Rhodes College, and potentially other interested NITLE institutions.
- In coordination with Brown's WWP, finalize a date for the conference.
April 2008
- Develop a call for presentations, to be publicized at NITLE institutions before the end of the spring term.
April � June 2008
- Develop the curriculum and schedule for the workshops with the planning committee.
June-July 2008
- Select from applications for presentations and finalize the conference schedule.
- Make logistics arrangements at Wheaton.
- Develop a call for participation.
- Develop a survey instrument to assess workshop impact on participants.
August 2008
- Publicize the Call for Participation sent to NITLE institutions.
September 2008
- Select Participants for the conference in early September.
- Finalize conference details.
October 2008
- Conference held over two days.
- Evaluations distributed at the end of the conference.
- Compile evaluations and report back to NITLE.

Geospatial Technologies in the Liberal Arts � A Pre-Planning Meeting for a Conference for Instructional Technologists

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:18:04 GMT

Project name: Geospatial Technologies in the Liberal Arts � A Pre-Planning Meeting for a Conference for Instructional Technologists

Project lead: Meg Stewart, GIS Instructional Technologist for Academic Computing Services, Vassar College

Key collaborators:

Jon Caris, GIS Specialist and Coordinator of the Spatial Analysis Lab, Smith College
Andy Anderson, Academic Technology Specialist for Mathematical and Spatial Data Analysis, Amherst College
Sharron Macklin, GIS Instructional Technologist, Williams College
Jennifer Lund, Faculty Liaison for Research & Instruction Technology, Wheaton College
David Tatem, GIS Instructional Technologist, Trinity College
Alex Chaucer, GIS Coordinator, Skidmore College

Summary: This proposal will serve to develop a planning meeting to organize an inter-institutional conference or symposium on the use of geospatial technologies on college campuses. Potential topics for the event include:

Web-mapping applications in teaching
Virtual globes and their impact on teaching
Mobile mapping (GPS, PDAs, tablet PCs) in teaching
Supporting ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server, and other web-mapping servers
Mash-up development
Data management issues
Licensing issues
GIS lab support versus GIS project support (can or should one person do both?)
What does it mean to be a geospatial instructional technologist?
Interdisciplinary geospatial research
Getting faculty and students interested in using geospatial technologies
Develop a GIS support matrix among the attendees to benefit less experienced geospatial technologists
Open-source GIS software

Key audience: Geospatial technologists at liberal arts campuses.

Intended outcomes: All key collaborators will meet in May 2008 to plan out a very detailed agenda for events at a conference. The outcome of this meeting will be the definition of areas of importance; an evaluation of ways to support those areas; and plan a detailed agenda for a conference or symposium.

Project timeline:

May 2008 � We will convene a two-day, one night meeting with the project�s key collaborators to identify goals for a conference, identify agenda topics, identify outreach ideas to solicit other geospatial technologists for needs assessment; write a draft for a conference proposal to NITLE or another source. Following this meeting, we will continue our inter-institutional collaboration by email, a blog, phone calls or video conference.

Digital Objects In The Classroom: Virtual Material Culture Collections At Liberal Arts Institutions

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:07:59 GMT

Project name: Digital Objects In The Classroom: Virtual Material Culture Collections At Liberal Arts Institutions

Project leads:

Virginia Jones, Academic Computing Consultant for the Social Sciences, Vassar College
Arden Kirkland, Costumer, Dept. of Drama and Film, Vassar College

Key collaborators:

Holly Hummel, Lecturer, Dept of Drama and Film, Vassar College
Sarah Goldstein, Visual Resources Librarian, Vassar College
Matthew Slaats, Academic Computing Consultant for Visual Resources, Vassar College

Summary: This proposal is for a conference at Vassar College to assist liberal arts institutions in the creation of digital access to material culture collections. This conference will bring together faculty collectors, technologists, librarians, and media specialists.

Key audience: Technologists, media technicians, and librarians at liberal arts campuses charged with providing guidance in the digitization of material collections.

Intended outcomes: By digitizing material culture collections owned by faculty who use them in their teaching, access can increase tremendously, perhaps even to a global audience. Also, the utility of such digital collections have the potential to live on long beyond the life span of the collector. Having knowledgeable technologists, media technicians, and librarians on campus that can provide immediate guidance and leadership in undertaking the digitization of such collections will prove to be the greatest impact of this event. In addition, the community of practice that grows out of this event will serve those campuses that are unable to send participants to this event.

Project timeline:

March 2008
- Identification of potentially qualified and interested speakers
April 2008
- Contact identified speakers and confirm availability for conference date
September 2008 � December 2008
- Call for participation through NITLE
January 2009
- Confirm attendees, travel arrangements made through participants� home campuses
March 2009
- Digital Objects In The Classroom: Virtual Material Culture Collections At Liberal Arts Institutions conference held at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Digital Design: Courses and/as Technologies

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:55:25 GMT

Project name: Digital Design: Courses and/as Technologies

Project lead: Diane E. Boyd, Instructional Development Consultant-Humanities, Center for Teaching and Engaged Learning, Furman University

Key collaborators:

John Armstrong, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies, Furman University
Lloyd Benson, Professor, History, Furman University
Debbielee Landi, University Archives and Special Collections, Furman University
Jane Love, Collaboratory for Creative Learning and Communication, Furman University
Andrew Mansbach, Digicenter Alumni Fellow, Furman University
Pongracz Sennyey, Associate Director of Libraries, Furman University

Summary: A series of collaborative learning events designed to promote course redesign by rethinking learning goals through technologies. Furman's faculty, librarians, technologists, and staff will benefit from their collaboration during these programs as a result of their shared wisdom, their theoretical exploration of asynchronous content delivery, and their hands-on experiences in learning new technologies to support enhanced learning through outcomes-driven course design.
An important feature of the events is that they will themselves integrate the technologies under discussion, primarily through our development of a dedicated website, www.56to42.com. While the idea for these events springs from situational factors here at Furman, we believe that our approach to teaching with technologies will be useful to other NITLE institutions. This website will not only provide both synchronous and asynchronous connectivity for remote participation in the proposed events; it will also provide an ongoing venue for NITLE faculty to explore the technology of course design and the design of course technology.

Key audience: Faculty, librarians, technologists, and staff with an eye to incorporating sound course design principles with technological, digital applications and asynchronous delivery of content.

Intended outcomes:

Faculty will achieve better learning outcomes in fewer contact hours with no sacrifice of content. Students will engage more fully with their courses. Faculty and technologists will collaborate to enhance student learning.
Digital repository collections will be used as teaching tools, with digital resource development merging with course development.
The website will host a multi-institutional scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project as a measure of its impact and as feedback for ongoing development.

Project timeline:

Planning committee selection and website construction began in January, and the core planning group will continue to meet monthly through June.
Keynote speaker selection will be finalized in February.
Teaching and Learning Showcase with keynote address will be held May 29, 2008.
Workshop events to be held June 16-20.
Asynchronous posting of final projects will be posted by the end of June, with a closing event to be held on Friday, June 27.

Developing a Computer-Driven Clinical Research Laboratory at an Undergraduate Liberal Arts College and Forging Relationships Across Disciplines and Professionals

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:05:29 GMT

Project name: Developing a Computer-Driven Clinical Research Laboratory at an Undergraduate Liberal Arts College and Forging Relationships Across Disciplines and Professionals

Project lead: Cole Barton, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Davidson College

Key collaborators:

Terry Blumenthal, Professor of Psychology at Wake Forest University
David M. Coppola, Professor and Chair in the Department of Biology at Randolph Macon University
Wilant Van Giessen, Product Specialist and Trainer for Noldus Information Technologies
Kristen Eshleman, MS, Director of Instructional Technology and Media Production, Davidson College
Paul Brantley, MS, Instructional Technologist, Davidson College

Summary: A multidisciplinary team of scholars and Information Technology [IT] professionals will develop a Clinical Psychology research laboratory at Davidson College to forge research mentorships between faculty and students at an undergraduate liberal arts institution. The narrow and specialized research problems require multidisciplinary collaboration by a clinical psychologist from Davidson College, a psychophysiologist from Wake Forest University, and a neurobiologist from Randolph-Macon College. The technical expertise requires IT professionals from Davidson College IT staff, as well as a software expert from Noldus Information Technologies. This laboratory will encourage faculty members and students to collaborate in studying problems in Clinical Psychology with very sophisticated and engaging technology, at the same time that it will tax implementation and support resources for our IT staff. Improvements in computing hardware and software are making it possible to provide student learning experiences at undergraduate institutions heretofore available only at research universities. Computing hardware and software encourage collecting and analyzing behavioral sciences data in user-friendly, compelling, and cost-effective ways. Besides extraordinary opportunities for student learning, these resources offer bountiful faculty development. Technology-driven laboratories foster faculty-IT professional relationships requiring collaborative learning and development. However, faculty support by IT professionals with specialized niche software poses significant challenges to effective implementation and support of specialized labs in an undergraduate liberal arts environment. Other NITLE schools with faculty with similar research interests would benefit from the particulars of our lab technology. Additionally, the process of developing faculty-IT collaborations and building prudent implementation and sustainability features into the lab should be of even broader interest to member institutions. Therefore a program evaluation describing and documenting the time and expense associated with lab development, pedagogical impact, and faculty?IT collaboration issues will be disseminated via Multipoint Interactive Video Conferencing Service for NITLE schools.

Key audience: Scholars and IT professionals. For the scholars on the team, the goal will be to share academic and technical expertise to promote collaboration on research problems and teaching resources of common interest. An additional benefit will be the opportunity to reap the benefits of developing a more shared expertise between the scholars and IT professionals on the project. Dialogue will educate the IT professionals about the research questions at the same time that the IT professionals are informing the scholars about how software tools have potential to capture and analyze empirical data in cost-effective ways.

Intended outcome: The project collaborators are developing laboratory resources to engage students in studying health problems at a biopsychosocial level of analysis.

Project timeline:

February-May 2008
- Equipment ordered. Hardware assembled and software installed
- Training with software, development of project Research Protocol
- Operations and Protocol documentation developed for Faculty and Students
June-August 2008
- Research project conducted by Summer Student Research Fellows
August-December 2008
- Laboratory used for Laboratory Exercises and Class Projects
- Laboratory used for Data Collection in Collaborative Projects for Thesis Students
January-May 2009
- Laboratory used for Final Data Collection for Thesis Projects
May-August 2009
- Presentation of Project Results at Research Conferences
- Report of Lab Developments presented at Teaching and NITLE Conferences
April 2009
- E-mail invitations and website announcements disseminated to NITLE institutional liaisons for Multipoint Interactive Video Conference [MIVC]
May-June 2009
- Program evaluation compiled and written up for project
- PowerPoint, video streaming, Camtasia, instructions, and other content developed for MIVC
July 2009
- MIVC held disseminating results for NITLE participants
August 2009
- Final report of project and MIVC submitted to NITLE

Characteristics of Quality Collaboration in Information Services in Liberal Arts Colleges

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:17:02 GMT

Project name: Characteristics of Quality Collaboration in Information Services in Liberal Arts Colleges

Project lead: Tom Kirk, Coordinator of Information Services, Earlham College in collaboration with Charlotte Slocum Patriquin, Director of Information Services and Resources, Beloit College and Peter J. Gilbert, University Librarian, Lawrence University.

Project update

July 22, 2008 -- Faculty, librarians, technologists, and senior administrators from participating institutions in the Midwest will be invited to participate in an event to be held July 25 - 26, 2008, at Lake Forest College. Participants will examine collaboration through their diverse personal, professional, and institutional lenses. This workshop will 1) seek to identify the characteristics of effective collaboration, 2) permit participants to apply the tools and techniques at their own institutions and assess the outcomes, and 3) distill the ideas and experiences for wider dissemination.

Cultivating Quality Collaboration
supported by an award of the NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund, based on a proposal submitted by Beloit College, Earlham College and Lawrence University

The deep, synergistic linkages that exist among information, teaching, learning, and technology require concomitantly deep and synergistic partnerships among librarians, technologists, and faculty to advance our campus� learning goals. But what are the underlying fundamentals of, and best practices for, successful faculty, librarian, and technologist collaborations at liberal arts colleges? How can we enhance and develop these synergistic partnerships on our individual campuses to advance institutional learning goals? These are the basic questions this project seeks to answer.

The resulting project proposal is for a workshop that seeks to identify the characteristics of effective collaboration, permits participants to apply the tools and techniques at their own institutions and assess the outcomes, and distill the ideas and experiences for wider dissemination. Midwest NITLE faculty, librarians, and technologists and senior administrators will be invited to participate in examining collaboration from our diverse personal, professional, and institutional lenses. The event will be held July 25-26, 2008, at Lake Forest College.

All developments in the project are reported at http://sites.google.com/a/earlham.edu/cultivating-quality-collaboration/

Summary: The project intends to develop a practical workshop for librarians, technologists, teaching faculty, and administrators from interested NITLE institutions to explore the question: "What are the underlying fundamentals of, and models for, successful librarian and technologist collaborations in liberal arts colleges?" The goal of the workshop is to compile the outcomes into a toolkit or set of documents that can be used to assist in more effective planning by these institutions and a broader audience. This project is important because: (1) effective partnerships and collaborations between librarians and technologists do not exist at all institutions, (2) they may exist but not function up to their potential, (3) administrators are interested in knowing more about the alternatives and the considerations involved in developing new models of support, (4) and as users� behaviors evolve, and technology, information, and the needs of our institutions change, we all have need to enhance our understanding of the art and science of effective partnerships. More information on the project is at http://www.earlham.edu/library/Project Description.doc.

Intended outcome: By the February deadline of the Midwest NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund this project will have developed a proposal to conduct the workshop on successful librarian and technologist collaborations in liberal arts colleges. The proposal will include an initial draft of the toolkit which will be the subject of the workshop.

Improving Students� Information Literacy: Analyzing and Using Results from the Spring 2007 Research Practices Survey Project

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:02:58 GMT

Project Name: Improving Students� Information Literacy: Analyzing and Using Results from the Spring 2007 Research Practices Survey Project

Project Lead: Jo Beld, Professor of Political Science and Director of Evaluation and Assessment, St. Olaf College

Project Update:

July 16, 2008 -- The Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) will administer the Research Practices Survey in 2008 - 2009. NITLE participating institutions are invited to participate in the administration of the survey, which is transitioning into HEDS administration as one outcome of the "Improving Students� Information Literacy: Analyzing and Using Results from the Spring 2007 Research Practices Survey Project," a recipient of a NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund Award. HEDS is offering a single administration to incoming first-years, with a sample of any size, for an institutional cost of $500; the cost of two administrations, whether cross-sectional or longitudinal, is $650. Register to Participate (.pdf, 23.34 KB, includes full information on how to register) | Sample Survey (56.85 KB).

Note that HEDS must receive your completed registration form at least two weeks prior to your requested survey start date and no later than August 25, 2008 (for Summer/Fall 2008 administration) or April 20, 2009 (for Spring 2009 administration). For more information, contact Erika Shehata at the HEDS office.

About the Survey

The Research Practices Survey assesses the development of information literacy among undergraduate students and is a fifteen-minute online questionnaire that provides data about students� experiences, dispositions, and proficiencies in conducting effective academic research in a liberal arts setting. The instrument was developed by a group of librarians, classroom faculty, assessment professionals, and information technology professionals from eight NITLE participating institutions in Fall 2004. After piloting and revision in 2005 - 06, it was administered in 2006 - 07 in twenty different institutions. Half of them used the RPS to gather baseline data about the research practices of incoming first-years, before they had received any instruction in college-level academic research; the other half used it as both a �pre-test� and a �post-test,� administering the instrument to first-years at both the beginning and the end of their first year of college. Librarians and classroom faculty alike have found the results illuminating, and many are using the findings to inform and improve instruction.

Participating institutions can add up to ten of their own questions to the instrument. Item results permit comparisons between the responses of the institution�s own students and the aggregated responses of students from all other participating institutions. Institutions electing to participate in two administrations can also compare the responses of their entering first-years with the responses of their second cohort of participating students. They will also receive an Information Literacy Benchmarking Profile with composite measures of various dimensions of students� research attitudes and abilities. Institutions will receive their own raw data as well as reports prepared by HEDS. Finally, participating institutions will be invited to share suggestions for further improvement to the instrument and the accompanying reports, so that it will be as useful as possible in future administrations.

Key Collaborators:

Carleton College. Carolyn Sanford, Head of Reference and Instruction and Senior Lecturer; Baird E. Jarman, Assistant Professor of Art History
Cornell College. Jean Donham, College Librarian and Professor
Knox College. Jeffrey Douglas, Librarian of the College
Lewis and Clark College. Dan Kelley, Coordinator of Outreach and Instruction
St. Olaf College. Diane LeBlanc, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of Writing
Swarthmore College. Pamela Harris, Instruction and Outreach Librarian
Trinity University. Michelle Millet, Assistant Professor and Information Literacy Coordinator
University of Puget Sound. Peggy Burge, Humanities Librarian and Instruction Coordinator
Wellesley College. Megan Brooks Adams, Director of Research and Instruction
Research Consultant. Shauna J. Sweet, University of Maryland

Summary:

Data analysis: Completing the analysis and interpretation of the data gathered during the Spring 2007 inter-institutional administration of the Research Practices Survey, an innovative online tool for assessing the development of information literacy among students in liberal arts institutions, including the preparation of institutional and comparative survey results and benchmark reports for each institution.
Supplemental research: Piloting and sharing findings from follow-up focus group interviews with students on two participating campuses (Carleton and St. Olaf), to �unpack� the on-line survey results. We selected Carleton and St. Olaf because (1) they have served as project leads to date, and (2) they are located in the same city. We plan to share and discuss the findings in a video-conference using NITLE�s MIV system.
Faculty/staff development: Gathering from, and disseminating to, participating institutions information about the ways faculty and librarians are using RPS results to improve teaching and learning around information literacy.
Feasibility study: In consultation with NITLE staff, conducting a feasibility study at St. Olaf College to determine whether and how St. Olaf could assume responsibility for the interinstitutional administration and data analysis associated with the Research Practices Survey in the future, depending on the outcome of NITLE�s anticipated assessment of its own future role in the FYILLAA project.

Key audience: Faculty and librarians who are using RPS results to improve teaching and learning around information literacy.

Intended outcomes:

Educating students: Strengthen students� information literacy by improving the instruction of first-year students through faculty and librarian consideration of FYILLAA pre-test and post-test data. The competencies that characterize information literacy are described on the assessment website of St. Olaf College.
Educating faculty and staff: Inform faculty and librarians about dimensions of students� information literacy prior to and after the first year of college; help faculty and staff gain experience in using assessment data to inform and improve instruction.

Project timeline:

October 2007 � Research consultant completes data analysis and provides summary reports and information literacy benchmarks to participating institutions
October � December 2007 � Participating institutions disseminate findings on campus and prepare reports for PI on what they shared, how, with whom, and likely effects; PI consults with NITLE staff, research analyst, and Information and Instructional Technologies staff at St. Olaf concerning future roles and responsibilities in sustaining the FYILLAA project as an inter-institutional collaboration
November 2007 � Research consultant conducts focus groups with students at Carleton and St. Olaf; PI and research consultant conduct videoconference with participating institutions � January 2008 � PI and research consultant present project findings at AAC&U
February - March � PI gathers reports from participating institutions on data dissemination and uses for instructional improvement
April � PI provides final report to institutions and to NITLE

Data Sharing Systems: Supporting Quantitative Analysis across the Curriculum

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:48:46 GMT

Project Name: Data Sharing Systems: Supporting Quantitative Analysis across the Curriculum
Project Lead: Emmanuel I. Kaparakis, Director, Quantitative Analysis Center, Wesleyan University
Key Collaborators:

Grinnell College, Katie Dunn, Reference & Instruction Librarian; Fred Hagemeister, Curricular Technology Specialist for the Sciences and Social Studies
Kenyon College, Michael Roy, Vice President for Library and Information Services
Oberlin College, Peter Naegele, Psychology Department Research Technician
Wesleyan University, Steven Bischof, Science Librarian, Lisa Dierker, Associate Professor of Psychology; Chair, Quantitative Analysis Center Advisory Board, Henk Meij, Applications Technology Specialist

Summary: This project seeks to establish a study group that through surveys and focus groups will document current practices, identify common grounds and outline a framework for the development of a shared infrastructure. This exploratory work will be the basis of a subsequent proposal to fund the development of appropriate systems which will be submitted for consideration in early 2008.
Key audience: Librarians, academic technologists, faculty, and institutional research staff.
Intended outcomes: A primary outcome of this project will a report documenting findings. This report will be distributed though the web sites of the participating institutions as well as NITLE and organizations such as �Academic Commons.� Collaborators will also attend and discuss the report at the upcoming NITLE event on �Developing and Supporting Data Fluency� (March 13-15, 2008, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN).
Project timeline:

October 2007
- Preliminary conversations of working group via videoconferencing on focus group protocols and survey design.
November
- Regular meetings of working group via videoconferencing
- Development of survey questions and pilot testing
- Kick off meeting of participating schools and first set of focus groups
- Finalize survey instrument
December
- Regular meetings of working group via videoconferencing
- Analysis of evidence from first set of focus groups
- Survey launch
January
- Regular meetings of working group via videoconferencing
- Analysis of survey responses
- Second meeting of participating schools and second set of focus groups
- Development of recommendations and next steps
February
- Publication of findings
March
- Presentation of findings at the �Developing and Supporting Data Fluency� meeting (Macalester College, St. Paul, MN.)

Fashioning the Policy and Best Practices Framework for a Successful Shared Institutional Repository

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:36:18 GMT

Project Name: Fashioning the Policy and Best Practices Framework for a Successful Shared Institutional Repository
Project Lead: Kathryn J. Monday, Vice-President for Information Services, University of Richmond
Key Collaborators:

Carleton College, Sam Demas, College Librarian
Trinity University, Diane Graves, University Librarian
St. Lawrence University, Bart Harloe, University Librarian
Grinnell College, Richard Fyffe, Librarian of the College

Summary: This project seeks to implement two programs that will result in working policies and practices on the following essential pre-requisites to implementing a successful shared repository:

Collection focus: Defining the purpose of the repository including, what content will be included and excluded and a vision statement for the repository. Guidelines for submission of content and options for configuring local intake workflows. To a considerable degree, decisions about collection definition will drive site organization and access control decisions.
Site organization: developing a logical architecture at the community (top, or shared repository level) and at the institutional or sub-community level in a manner that will support an evolving repository and facilitate future migration to another IR platform. A related task is to develop metadata standards and practices to ensure effective search across the shared repository.
Access controls: identify needs and options for restricting granularity of access with respect to content and to readers. Which decisions need to be made at the repository level and which at the institutional level?

Key audience: Librarians, academic technologists, faculty, and institutional research staff.
Intended outcomes: The key outcome is the potential to turn a shared implementation of DSpace into a viable shared repository. The programs proposed here are critical to the success of this venture in actually cohering a useful shared repository. We are building a foundation to demonstrate the benefits of IR technology in a liberal arts setting, and to realize the promise of a collaborative approach to developing institutional repositories.
Project timeline: Both programs would take place before July 2008. It is likely we would conduct the first program in January and the second in March or April. The polices and practices resulting from these programs would be promulgated within and beyond the NITLE community by July 2008.

Interactive Timeline Tool for the Sakai Learning Environment

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:19:47 GMT

Project name: Interactive Timeline Tool for the Sakai Learning Environment

Project leads:

Sarah Hurlburt, Assistant professor of Foreign Languages & Literatures, French, Whitman College
Mike Osterman, Middleware analyst, Whitman College

Key collaborators:

Mary McMahon, Director of Instructional Services, Pomona College
Melissa Zhuo Instructional Technology Specialist III, Claremont-McKenna College

Summary: Sarah Hurlburt of Whitman College proposes to develop an interactive timeline application for the CLEo/Sakai learning environment, in collaboration with IT and faculty members from Whitman, Pomona and Claremont-McKenna Colleges. This application would build on an open-source timeline tool from SIMILE, a joint project conducted by the MIT Libraries and MIT CSAIL. (http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/). The project seeks to make it possible for users (students and instructors) not only to manipulate the timeline, zooming, dragging and searching as one might do with a map application, but also to contribute information to the timeline, whose overall shape and emphasis will evolve through their contributions. Students working with this technology will thus acquire a new level of awareness of their critical responsibility in the creation as well as the consumption of information.

Key audience: Faculty and students at liberal arts campuses with a preference for visual and/or kinesthetic modes of information presentation.

Intended outcomes: As part of the assessment plan for this project the application of the timeline in classrooms in Spring and Fall of 2008 will form the basis for an article on teaching literature to visual learners, which will be submitted to the pedagogy section of the French Review.

Project timeline: November 2007 � Spring 2009

Call for Participation: Games and Simulations for Situated Learning in the Liberal Arts Classroom

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:07:07 GMT

February 1, 2008, 6 p.m. � February 3, 2008, 1 p.m.
Hosted by Dickinson College

Dickinson College is looking for professors, technologists, and librarians who are interested in using games and simulations as way of providing context and experiential learning to the traditional classroom.

This conference will focus on how instructors from a variety of disciplines have used games and simulations to pursue new models of teaching and learning. Presenters will describe how specific immersive and interactive technologies�from commercial games to more academic simulations�can engender collaboration, the visualization of complex ideas, and the connecting of concepts across courses and disciplines. Participants also will experience the games and simulations from the perspective of the learner through hands-on training in the technologies demonstrated by the presenters. The conference will conclude with participants forming groups based on shared ideas for future pedagogical uses of the technology, including gaming across campuses as part of clubs or collaborative classes.

Participants can expect to acquire a practical knowledge of specific games and simulations as well a broad familiarity with the pedagogical theory behind these examples. Participants will also be introduced to what their peers in their own and other disciplines are doing in this new area of instructional technology.

Program

Friday, February 1st, 6 p.m. � Keynote speaker, followed by dinner and reception.

Saturday morning, February 2nd � Presenters demonstrate their game and/or simulation along with its implementation into their class.

Saturday afternoon, February 2nd � Presenters conduct workshops on the games or simulations they presented in the morning. Participants choose the game or simulation on which they wish focus.

Sunday morning, February 3rd � Participants are organized into groups according to interests. They will meet to discuss plans, obstacles, and opportunities for implementing the games and simulations they have chosen into their classes specifically and at their institutions more generally.

Registration

Those interested should send an email by October 5th to Todd Bryant at bryantt@dickinson.edu (mailto:link) briefly describing their interest and any previous experience implementing games and simulations in the classroom. Registration is limited to 28 participants.

Note: Each participant will be given a flat stipend of $750 to cover travel, lodging, and meals. Information will be provided regarding local accommodations.

Archived Projects

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 23:05:02 GMT

Games and Simulations for Situated Learning the Liberal Arts Classroom Award Letter

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:28:57 GMT

May 10, 2007
Rafael C. Alvarado
Dickinson College
Todd Bryant
Dickinson College
Dear Rafael C. Alvarado and Todd Bryant,
On behalf of the NITLE Eastern Advisory Council, I am writing to inform you that the Council is pleased to award Dickinson College with $25,400 to implement your project �Games and Simulations for Situated Learning the Liberal Arts Classroom.� Per the guidelines of the Instructional Innovation Fund, the award is being made to the proposing group�s lead institution. Dickinson College will provide all information and administrative support for the project. This IIF program runs through June 2008. Work supported by awards must be completed and reports submitted by June 30, 2009. You should note that at the conclusion of the planning process unused funds must be returned to NITLE.

The Council expressed strong support for the proposal, which it viewed as demonstrating intent to engage in the types of projects and programs that the Council desires to see implemented. The participating institutions and principal participants in the project represent a valuable and diverse array of roles and disciplines, and the interdisciplinary collaborations reflected in the proposal also represent an objective of the Advisory Council. In general, the Council viewed the proposal as well-constructed and exemplifying the work that it anticipates supporting in the context of the NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund.

Per the requirements of the Advisory Council, you must submit a final report. To submit this report to the Council, please send it to me at michael.nanfito@nitle.org.

Sincerely,

Michael Nanfito
Participant Relations Coordinator
NITLE

CC:
Neil Weissman, Provost and Dean of the College, Dickinson College
Robert Renaud, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Dickinson College

Games and Simulations for Situated Learning the Liberal Arts Classroom

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:12:01 GMT

Project name: Games and Simulations for Situated Learning the Liberal Arts Classroom

Project leads:

Rafael C. Alvarado, Director of Academic Technology Services, Dickinson College
Todd Bryant, Language Program Administrator; Academic Technologist, Dickinson College

Summary: Games and simulations are an exciting and frequently debated topic among instructional technologists because of their potential to recreate traditional pedagogical concepts in an exciting way. Learner-centered and learner-driven activities such as collaboration, visualization of complex concepts, and connections of concepts between classes and disciplines are some of the useful effects in many of today�s commercial, as well as �serious games� and simulations. Taken together, these provide educators with opportunities to create a new kind of pedagogy founded on the concept of situated learning. In this method of teaching, students are placed in an environment and are provided with tools and guidance from the game and the professor in order to identify problems and solutions.

The project will introduce the learning potential of games and simulations in general, provide demonstrations of successful uses of games in the classroom, and include hands-on training for the participants. Participants will experience the games and simulations from the perspective of the instructor as well as the learner. The project will conclude with participants forming groups based on shared ideas for future pedagogical uses of the technology, including gaming across campuses as part of clubs or collaborative classes.

Intended outcome: The participants can expect a theoretical background of games and simulations along with examples in different fields; in addition, ample time will be given to provide the participants with experience in the environment along with guidance from the presenter and others.

The project will use the information collected from the participants the evening before to suggest groups of common interests and potential collaborative projects. These groups will meet to discuss the steps needed to create these projects and opportunities, and to share information on implementation on their campuses that will be useful to the group as a whole. The project will collect information related to overcoming perceived technical, administrative and pedagogical issues at the participating institutions. The information collected, having begun as a practical guide for instituting games in different fields at different institutions, as well as a directory of technologists, librarians and professors interested in games and simulations will, become an evolving resource for use by all NITLE institutions. It will also form a basis, for proposals to present at the NITLE 2008 liaison summit and CNI Task Force Meeting in the spring of 2008.

Project timeline:

May 22nd: A committee is formed to select participants and presenters. The committee will include Dickinson staff and/or faculty, as well as members from other NITLE institutions with a strong interest in games and simulations.
July 9th: The committee members are sent a proposed program and will meet to discuss changes and additions.
August 30th: The event is announced by NITLE. Applications for attendance are requested. Dickinson provides information regarding hotels and travel to Carlisle.
September 6th: The committee meets to discuss presenters and possible keynote speaker(s)
September 13th: Proposals are requested from potential presenters
October 5th: The committee meets to accept participants, presenters, and decides on a keynote speaker.
October 8th: Dickinson staff contacts presenters and participants.
January 21st: Dickinson College prepares labs and final arrangements.
February 1st: Reception and welcome.
February 2nd: Demonstrations and workshops
February 3rd: Discussion of projects and departure
April 4th: Participants are contacted about the status of projects in gaming and simulations on their campuses. Information is placed on the conference wiki.

Boot Camp: Training Language Assistants in the Use of Technology in the Liberal Arts Language Classroom Award Letter

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:54:10 GMT

Felix A. Kronenberg
Instructor of German
Language Technology Specialist
Pomona College

Luz Delia Forero
Associate Director of the Keck Language and Culture Studio
Occidental College

Dear Felix and Luz,

On behalf of the NITLE West Coast Advisory Council, I am writing to inform you that the Council is pleased to award Pomona College with $24,000 to implement �Boot Camp: Training Language Assistants in the Use of Technology in the Liberal Arts Language Classroom.� Per the guidelines of the Instructional Innovation Fund, the award is being made to the proposing group�s lead institution. Pomona College will provide all information and administrative support for the project. This IIF program runs through June 2008. Work supported by awards must be completed and reports submitted by June 30, 2009. You should note that at the conclusion of the planning process unused funds must be returned to NITLE.

The Council received your revised proposal and is very supportive of the project. The revised proposal gives two options for funding: Option 1 for $24,000 without $4,000 for student assistants and travel costs; and Option 2 for $28,000, with the student cost. The review group decided to award Option 1 for $24,000 with the following comments:

The proposed budget lists $1,000 travel costs per person for 20 attendees ($20,000). This is to be reworded to say "up to $1,000 per person" Since many of the attendees are likely to be "locals," they should not need the entire $1,000.
They may use the cost savings from the above (for travel) to fund student assistants and their travel costs.

Per the requirements of the Advisory Council, you must submit a final report. To submit this report to the Council, please send it to me at michael.nanfito@nitle.org.

Thank you for your participation in the NITLE West Coast IIF program.

Sincerely,

Michael Nanfito
Participant Relations Coordinator
NITLE

CC:
Cecilia Conrad, Associate Dean of the College, Pomona College
Irene Montefiore Girton, Associate Dean of the College, Occidental College
Mary McMahon, Director of Instructional Services, Pomona College
Pamela McQuesten, Chief Information Officer, Occidental College

Boot Camp: Training Language Assistants in the Use of Technology in the Liberal Arts Language Classroom

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:49:37 GMT

Project name: Boot Camp: Training Language Assistants in the Use of Technology in the Liberal Arts Language Classroom

Project lead(s)

Felix A. Kronenberg, Instructor of German, Language Technology Specialist, Pomona College
Luz Delia Forero, Associate Director of the Keck Language and Culture Studio, Occidental College

Key collaborators:

Principals

Felix Kronenberg (Pomona College)
Luz Forero (Occidental College)

Confirmed Contacts

Josefa Lago Gra�a (University of Puget Sound)
Patrick Duffey (Austin College)
Jennifer Wood (Scripps College)

Interested Contacts

Ethan Benatan (Reed College)
Ranjani Krishnan (Lewis and Clark College)
Natalia Shevchenko (Willamette University)

Summary: Many liberal arts institutions employ language assistants to share the target language and culture with American students, to conduct conversation courses, to serve as mentors and tutors, and to plan extracurricular activities. They are a very valuable part of any language program. But while language faculty receive good training and support, these language assistants or language residents often have little to no teaching experience and may have a very different institutional and educational background. They are often unfamiliar with common methodological approaches such as the communicative approach and the intercultural method. Technology not only ties in with these approaches but allows for creative, motivating, and effective teaching and learning. Technology also reflects the reality of many students at American liberal arts colleges and is crucial in common administrative tasks.

Intended outcome: This project is envisioned to ideally function as a follow-up workshop to the NITLE session on �Technology and the Language House Curriculum� in September. Participants would be chosen over the summer of 2007 and the planning group would start planning a workshop, which would be held in the spring of 2008 at the new Foreign Language Resource Center (FLRC) at Pomona College, which will be inaugurated in January 2008 and would serve as an ideal venue. Some language assistants will be invited to join the meeting at Pomona. The vicinity of several participating colleges would make this feasible.

The participants would identify training goals and develop an agenda and training schedule. These would include topics such as multimedia production (videos, narrated photo stories, comics, manga, etc.), communication and collaboration solutions (video conferencing solutions, wikis, blogs, voice boards, course management systems, etc.), possibilities of outreach (web sites, posters, podcasts, etc.), motivational possibilities (computer games, multimedia projects, etc.), and online language tools. Pomona College and Occidental College would then jointly develop a training program and produce materials that can be used for training and teaching purposes at participating campuses. These materials would be in the form of a training manual, which includes the topics, teaching guides, sample lesson plans, sample materials, lists of resources, a glossary, and a guide to hardware and software. The manual would be made available online as an interactive PDF document on a web site hosted by Pomona College and maintained by Felix Kronenberg and the Pomona College FLRC.

The web site would also include files that can be readily used in conversation courses or extracurricular activities. These would include self-produced and thus royalty-free videos (for example to create voice-overs), comics, photo stories, audio and text files. Pictures could be shared with the existing REALIA project database. Students at Occidental College will collect materials that could be suitable for inclusion on the site. Other Occidental students will create multimedia materials to be distributed through the site. Language assistants often struggle to find appropriate and legal multimedia materials that can be used in conversation classes and, together with sample lesson plans, would help the assistants understand and learn how to teach creatively and successfully with (and without) technology. The page would grow through contributions from project participants and, certainly, present and future language assistants.

Project timeline:

August 2007

Boot camp at Pomona College. Will be recorded for later evaluation. Some language assistants from other schools will participate.

Spring 2008

Meeting of 20+ attendees at Pomona College to discuss a sustainable, readymade training program and shareable resources. Attendees include educators, technologists, and administrators from NITLE institutions, but not language assistants other than those from local institutions.

August 2008

Boot camp at Pomona College. Will be recorded for later evaluation. Some language assistants from other schools will participate.
New materials and results will be incorporated.

Project Ionic: Intellectual Online Network of Inorganic Chemists Building VIPEr: Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource Award Letter

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:40:54 GMT

Margret J. Geselbracht
Professor of Chemistry
Reed College

Ethan Benatan
Director, Computer User Services
Reed College

Dear Margret and Ethan,

On behalf of the NITLE West Coast Advisory Council, I am writing to inform you that the Council is pleased to award Reed College with $9,750 to implement �Project Ionic: Intellectual Online Network of Inorganic Chemists Building VIPEr: Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource.� Per the guidelines of the Instructional Innovation Fund, the award is being made to the proposing group�s lead institution. Reed College will provide all information and administrative support for the project. This IIF program runs through June 2008. Work supported by awards must be completed and reports submitted by June 30, 2009. You should note that at the conclusion of the planning process unused funds must be returned to NITLE.

The Council is pleased that this project will help complete this project previously supported by two Interinstitutional Grants for Faculty Career Enhancement from the Mellon Foundation during 2006 and 2007.

Per the requirements of the Advisory Council, you must submit a final report. To submit this report to the Council, please send it to me at michael.nanfito@nitle.org.

Thank you for your participation in the NITLE West Coast IIF program.

Sincerely,

Michael Nanfito
Participant Relations Coordinator
NITLE

CC: Peter J. Steinberger, Dean of the Faculty, Reed College

Project Ionic: Intellectual Online Network of Inorganic Chemists Building VIPEr: Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:35:41 GMT

Project name: Project Ionic: Intellectual Online Network of Inorganic Chemists Building VIPEr: Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource

Project lead(s):

Margret J. Geselbracht, Professor of Chemistry, Reed College
Ethan Benatan, Director, Computer User Services, Reed College

Key collaborators:

Adam R. Johnson, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College
Hilary J. Eppley, Associate Professor of Chemistry, DePauw University
Barbara Reisner, Associate Professor of Chemistry, James Madison University
Joanne Stewart, Professor of Chemistry, Hope College
Lori Watson, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Earlham College
B. Scott Williams, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Joint Science Department of the Claremont Colleges

Summary:

Inorganic chemistry, one of the main subdisciplines of chemistry, is defined principally by what it is not. It is not organic chemistry, which focuses primarily on the chemistry of carbon, but covers everything else, essentially the chemistry of the entire periodic table of elements. As such, the field of inorganic chemistry is extraordinarily broad and diverse. Faculty trained in inorganic chemistry each develop a deep specialization in a different subfield: bioinorganic chemistry, coordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, or solid state and materials chemistry to name a few. At any given primarily undergraduate institution (PUI), there is typically only one inorganic chemist on the faculty, trained in-depth within their subfield but expected to represent the entire field of inorganic chemistry to their students. This narrow specialization coupled with a sense of professional isolation can hinder curricular innovation, particularly in subfields that are outside an individual�s �comfort zone.� In courses this leads to challenges in developing a complete set of curricular materials that reflects the diversity of inorganic chemistry in the lecture and laboratory.

IONiC, the Intellectual Online Network of Inorganic Chemists, was founded to combat these issues and to foster communication, collaboration, and networking among inorganic faculty at PUIs with the ultimate goal of advancing teaching and research in inorganic chemistry across a range of institutions.

Intended outcome:

To develop and launch VIPEr v1.0, a web-based collaborative learning environment for faculty containing a wide range of curricular resources and enabling such items as userbased ratings systems, wikis, discussion boards, podcasts, visualization tools, remote access technologies, and other emerging tools for virtual, asynchronous networking
To forge collaboration on curricular reform that makes use of the shared expertise within different sub-disciplines of inorganic chemistry
To build a vibrant intellectual community amongst inorganic chemistry faculty at PUIs to support, encourage, and mentor inorganic faculty, thereby attenuating the adverse effects of professional isolation
To build networks and collaborations between

Through its multitude of resources and collaborative tools, it is envisioned that VIPEr v1.0 will serve the needs of inorganic chemistry faculty throughout their careers. In particular, the myriad classroom and human resources available through VIPEr v1.0 will be invaluable assets to the junior faculty member, sabbatical replacement, or colleague who, for a variety of reasons, may find themselves teaching outside of their comfort zone. However it is students who will be the true beneficiaries of these efforts. Their experience of inorganic chemistry in all its complexity will be richer and will more accurately reflect the current frontiers of the field.

Project timeline:

May 2007:
- Finalize design and storyboarding for VIPEr v1.0
June �July 2007:
- Professional programming of VIPEr v1.0 platform
- Content collection by the IONiC Leadership Council
August 2007:
- Implementation of initial collaborative tools (ratings, discussion threads, wikis)
- Final review of VIPEr v1.0 before public launch August 20, 2007
September 2007�May 2008
- Modifications and editorial oversight for growth and evolution of VIPEr v1.0

Sakai West Coast Symposium Award Letter

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:24:10 GMT

Melissa Zhuo
Instructional Technology Specialist
Claremont McKenna College

Gale Burrow
Coordinator of Library Instruction
Libraries of The Claremont Colleges

Candice Cetrone
Computer Support Specialist
Scripps College

Susan Roig
Director of Academic Computing
Claremont Graduate University

Dear NITLE participants,

On behalf of the NITLE Western Advisory Council, I am writing to inform you that the Council is pleased to award Claremont McKenna College with $8,100 to implement the "Sakai West Coast Symposium.�

The Council is very supportive of this project which will position NITLE institutions as leaders in the development and dissemination of Sakai. The Council requests three modifications to the proposed project: (1) the symposium web site and announcement will be modified to reflect NITLE�s co-sponsorship of the event, (2) the symposium will include a session for just the NITLE attendees to have a discussion on further collaborative possibilities, and (3) the funds for travel must be reserved for participating NITLE institutions only (as you have already proposed).

Per the guidelines of the Instructional Innovation Fund, the award is being made to the proposing group�s lead institution. Claremont McKenna College will provide all information and administrative support for the project. This IIF program runs through June 2008. Work supported by awards must be completed and reports submitted by June 30, 2009. You should note that at the conclusion of the planning process unused funds must be returned to NITLE.

Per the requirements of the Advisory Council, you must submit a final report. To submit this report to the Council, please send it to me at michael.nanfito@nitle.org.

Thank you for your participation in the NITLE West Coast IIF program.

Sincerely,

Michael Nanfito
Participant Relations Coordinator
NITLE

CC:
Gregory D. Hess, Dean of the Faculty, Claremont McKenna College
Michael Ballagh, Assistant Dean of Faculty, Pitzer College
Cecilia Conrad, Associate Dean of the College, Pomona College
Michael Deane Lamkin, Vice President & Dean of the Faculty, Scripps College