FLVC Members Council of the Distance Learning and Student Services (MCDLSS)
Meeting Minutes
October 8-9, 2015
A regular meeting of the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) Members Council on Distance Learning and
Student Services (MCDLSS) was called to order by Chair Len Roberson at University of North Florida,
Jacksonville, Florida at 11:06 a.m. on October 8, 2015 and was properly noticed.
A quorum was met and present were MCDLSS members: Patty Anderson (FGC), Gary Baker (SCFMS),
Sidney Beitler (PBSC), Debbie Blair (SFC), Christine Broeker (SSC), Victoria Brown (FAU), Lisa Ciardulli
(SFC), Susan Colaric (SPC), Mirtha Collin (USF), Ineabelle Colon (STU), James Cook (BC Representing
David Shulman), Mike Davis (FGC), Cynthia DeLuca (USF), Marilyn Dickey (TCC), Lynn Drees (SCFMS),
Franzetta Fitz (FAMU), Arifa Garman (GCSC), Robert Greene (FSCJ), Jack Hall (SJRSC), Melanie Jackson
(SFSC), David Jaeger (FGCU), Heather Jones (SJRSC), Jeff Larson (MDC), Mark Lewis (HCC), Mary Myers
(FSWSC), Susann Rudasill (FSU), Rob Saum (DSC), Brian Marchman (UF), Deb Miller (UNF), Vikki Milton
(CC), Michael Nathanson (LSSC), Nathan Neuman (PSC), Paul O’Brien (IRSC), DeLanie Priest (UCF), Vivian
Pope (TCC), Joseph Riqelme (FIU), Len Roberson (UNF), Robert Seniors (FAMU), Dedra Sibley (EFSC),
Kendall St. Hilaire (IRSC), Josh Strigle (CCF), Kelvin Thompson (UCF), Jennifer Veloff (PHSC), Vicki
Westergard (SPC), Bill White (VC).
FLVC Staff: Pam Beck, Lisa Close, Nashla Dawahre, Robin Donaldson, John Opper, Tammy Elliott, Heather
Thompson, Shawn Wilson
MCDLSS Chair
 New Members - Chair Roberson welcomed new members and attendees.
o Rodger Krull, UWF – Continuing Education. Here for Vance Burgess.
o Joe Clark, FSU
Previous Meeting Minutes
After review of the previous meeting’s minutes, Vicki Westergard made a motion to approve, Lisa
Ciardulli seconded, and the minutes of the MCDLSS Meeting Minutes on from 6-7, 2015 were approved
unanimously. No corrections noted.

New Business - Volunteers for Secretary. Lisa Ciardulli from Santa Fe volunteered for Secretary to
finish this year.
Kick Off/Topic Set Up
Dr. John Opper presented, Rethinking the Traditional Learning Models: Why Now?

Mark Cuban quotes regarding higher education
o “Where else but higher education can you pay so much money for such a crappy user
experience?
o He made some major investments in four education start-ups.

Context:
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o
o
o
o
The percentage of public funding to education continue to decline. State budgets
continue to face challenge from competing interests.
There are limits to the rate of increase in tuition and fees that are possible or allowed by
policymakers.
There ARE new players challenging colleges and universities and disrupting established
instructional models.
Education faces continued criticism.

Student Debt vs. Students Return on Investment: New models are springing up to address that
issue:
o Live Mocha – foreign language learning
o $99 per term subscription models
o Udacity

Graphic: America as 100 College Students: What American education would look like if it were
boiled down to 100 students.
Plato quote: “Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren's grandchildren will develop a
new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires
glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and
knowledge.”


He stated that technology is the salvation that will allow colleges to innovate themselves out of
a decline.
o What does instruction look like when students can be connected to information
instantly?
o The future of the Web is real time. Over 50% of the Internet is things (example, a wine
bottle chip that can tell you everything about it).

Other challenges that higher education faces:
o Plagiarism
o Course quality
o Textbook affordability/open educational resources.
o The country is not moving forward in a big way regarding the cost of textbooks. Libraries
are changing from physical places to digital ones.

How should student support services look in a technology rich environment?
o D2L has a new tool, Degree Compass, which suggests to students which courses they
should take to be successful based on statistical analysis.
o Students who are in crises: we can tell who they are now, but do we have the resources
to support them?

Video: Humans Need Not Apply [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PqS557XQU&index=2&list=PL55Y_q-NObkDj3KvCCfnnitoZdvf_9Prk]
o Many jobs have already replaced humans with robots and many more are to come:
auto-driving cars, for example.
o It started with the technology sector, but is moving into the white-collar area and even
professional jobs, like bots that can go through mounds of paperwork for lawyers or
even the doctor robot, Watson.
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o
How will robots affect education?

Iron triangle: Access, Quality, and Cost.
o You cannot impact one without impacting all of them.

If we were tasked with designing an eCampus model today without the constraints of an existing
institution…What would it look like? Others are looking at this question. Examples include:
AfterNext, the state of the Georgia system, and Stanford 2025,
Stanford 2015: http://www.stanford2025.com/#fast-forward
AfterNext: http://afternext.completega.org/
Round Table Discussions
John’s last question transitioned the group into a small group discussion exercise. Each table was to
answer two questions:
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1) What are the three most critical issues Florida faces relative to online and higher education?
2) What can the member’s council do to positively impact those critical issues?
After some time to discuss, each table reported out. Many examples were similar. Some of the answers
were:
 A Florida online course quality rubric similar to QM
 A statewide database of certified online course reviewers
 Open educational resources
 Services around adaptive/personal learning
 Faculty professional development
 Master online courses/faculty collaboration on course creation
 Academic policies and procedures
 Best practices
 Competency-based learning models
 More representation and two-way communication with the Florida legislature
One-Minute Updates
Each representative had one minute to showcase major initiatives at his/her institution.
Broward College (BC) – Will begin to use a vendor to do required online proctoring for all students; the
college will cover the costs. Getting ready to deploy a new adaptive learning platform to be tied to
some of the competency based courses.
Chipola College (CC) – Implemented single sign-on with Link Web and their LMS (Canvas). They are
piloting course evaluations through the LMS using Evaluation Kit, and are using the LMS for attendance
reporting.
College of Central Florida (CCF) – Preparing for a SACS visit very soon. Josh asked if anyone had
addressed the issue of being able to guarantee to students that they would have all the courses they
needed to complete an online degree in a specified timeframe?
Daytona State College (DSC) – Working on an ERP conversion to PeopleSoft. They are also closedcaptioning of resources in online courses.
Eastern Florida State College (EFSC) – Looking at universal design and incorporating ADA compliance in
all courses. They are also doing case management advising by meta-major.
Florida Atlantic University (FAU) – Launching a one-stop student services portal called OWLS, which also
includes social events and student clubs/organizations.
Florida A&M University (FAMU) – Using analytics tool to increase student completion. They now have
40 online master courses. They hosted a distance learning conference in September where they
included an interactive Web presence from India.
Florida Golf Coast University (FGCU) – Piloted Respondus Monitor for online test proctoring during
summer. So far it has been successful with three faculty members so they are going to expand the pilot.
They had a successful rollout during fall of requiring that the LMS be used to take attendance for
financial aid reporting.
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Florida International University (FIU) – Have a new provost who is creating a five-year plan where 40%
of credits will be online by the year 2020, 30% will be hybrid, and 30% face-to-face (F2F). They are also
looking for a new streaming server solution with lecture-capture and would appreciate any ideas/help
from those that have gone through a similar.. They are continuing their analytic efforts with a Starfish
pilot.
Florida Southwestern College (FSC) – Finalized a college procedure which requires faculty members to
reply to all correspondence in their online courses within one business day. Faculty must also have a
course introduction video. Failure to comply could result in being pulled from teaching online.
Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) – In process of ERP with PeopleSoft. Working on ADA
compliance for courses. Developed 400 master courses in 2.5 years. Adjuncts must use, FT faculty can
modify. They guarantee course sequencing of online programs for students.
Gulf Coast State University (GCSC) – Migrating from Angel to Canvas.
Indian River State College (IRSC) – Now have ten completely online QM certified degree programs. All
faculty must use the grade center. Using analytics to provide specific reports: course success for
deans/divisions and advisors, and content item analysis for instructional designers. Using data to drive
decision-making about redesign of courses. Using Echo 360, an active learning platform. Conducting
research.
Lake Sumter State College (LSSC) – Working with other colleges on a shared services model to review
online course quality.
Miami Dade College (MDC) – Working on analytics. 4 new courses.
Palm Beach State College (PBSC) – New president. Working on proposal for transforming/re-imagining
online learning at the college.
Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC) – Formed an ad-hoc committee to look at expectations and
student success in online courses. They have created an “Are You Ready for Online Learning”
foundational course that students are required to take.
Polk State College (PSC) – Using Chalk and Wire ePortfolio Tool, integrated lecture capture to autocaption media content, and using badges for micro-credentialing. Changing ERP. Launched
Online@PolkState. Currently have six online programs and support services, including a competencybased engineering program with a lab component. They put 10-12 courses through official QM reviews
each year.
State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF) – Using Evaluation Kit for online course evaluations in
the LMS. Students must complete the evaluation before moving on. For every class, online and F2F,
faculty must post their syllabus and office hours in the LMS. They are piloting Starfish as part of their
QEP. In the process of establishing online scheduling independent of the F2F scheduling.
Santa Fe College (SF) – Running a newly updated faculty professional development program called the
“Certificate of Online Design and Instruction” (CODI) where faculty members must complete an online
course plus the QM training and two additional PD workshops as electives. Everything must use the
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portfolio tool in Canvas to document completion of several competencies. They hope to make this a
mandatory training for all online instructors in the future.
St. Johns River State College (SJRSC) – Distance learning is now a stand-alone department. Starting QM
and revamping their DL academy to include QM concepts. Using Class Assign to do student evaluations.
Saint Petersburg College (SPC) – Creating standard courses based on Quality Matters (QM) and are
delivering the first group currently. Anecdotally, the students seem to be more engaged, and there are
fewer course withdrawals. They are also changing the delivery of student surveys through the LMS and
seeing improved participation.
Seminole State College (SSC) – Moving from Sakai to Canvas and now have single sign-on with Link Web
for library services.
Tallahassee Community College (TCC) – Has a new Provost who wants to new vision for online/distance
learning. New online RN to BSN program. Launched a new DL summer institute using UCF’s model as a
guide that integrates QM.
University of Central Florida (UCF) – Won the WCET WOW award for their Direct Connect Pathways
program, which is a transitioning process for transfer students. They are also rebranding and marketing
UCF online. They have a new SuccessfulYou video series created by students for students and
distributed via their LMS that can be found at http://bit.ly/sy_playlist or
https://vimeopro.com/cdlvideo/successful-you.
University of Florida (UF) – Exploring new options for a marketing and recruiting company for UF
Online, primarily to attract out-of-state FTIC students. Adding several graduate certificate programs.
Currently have about 8,000 DL students total.
University of North Florida (UNF) – Working on their annual academic technology innovation
symposium for online learning on November 6th. The keynote topics are strategies for engaging
students and blended learning. They also have a new video-recording studio for faculty to use.
University of South Florida (USF) – Selected Proctorio as the exam proctoring tool for all online courses
beginning spring 2016. They are in the process of training faculty. They are also doing intrusive advising
pilot where two advisers are embedded into an online business course to nudge students along who are
not participating or are falling behind.
University of West Florida (UWF) – Getting more faculty to take the two online QM courses to be
certified course reviewers. Also using a third-party vendor to provide a course which students can use
to demonstrate mastery in the prerequisite course for the business program. Saves students time and
money and eliminates the barrier to students who wish to get into the program.
Breakout Groups
After the break, the members were divided into three groups. Each group rotated through three breakout rooms identified for the three parts of the triangle John Opper mentioned earlier: Quality, Access,
and Affordability.
Topical Questions:
1. Why is ____ a critical issue for us to address?
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2. How could addressing ____ improve the learning model for online education here in Florida?
3. What needs to be done here in Florida to address the topic of ___?
4. What resources or changes in practice, procedures, or policies do we need to address the topic
of ___?
5. What can the DLSS Member Council specifically do to help address the issue of _____?
6. What should we do today and tomorrow to positively impact the topic of ____?
The groups were to discuss:
a. What are the key issues around each topic?
b. What needs to happen in Florida regarding the key issues?
c. What does the member’s council need to do to move the state forward?
In each room, FLVC and UNF staff captured notes and then submitted them to Len.
To close, Len asked everyone to think about which of the three parts of the triangle they wanted to
participate on as part of a working group. On Friday, the group would generate a list of actual projects
and deliverables for each group. The idea is that the working groups will use part of the FLVC meetings
and time in between meetings to accomplish tasks.
The meeting adjourned at 4:10 p.m.
DAY 2: Friday, October 9, 2015
Call to Order
Chairman Roberson called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m. and members participated in a networking
breakfast until 9:05.
Summaries
Len stated that he sent two documents to each member the night before: a summary of the roundtable activity from Thursday morning, and a summary of the break-out groups. The links to the
documents can be found at:
 Triangle (Affordability, Access, Quality) Knowledge Capture notes – http://tinyurl.com/tkcoct8
 The Roundtable discussions summary - http://tinyurl.com/oct8rts
Len then showed a short PowerPoint presentation with a summary slide for each topic document from
the group brainstorming activity on Thursday. He asked each person to move to a specific area of the
room designated by topic. The largest group was Quality, but there was a decent-sized group for
Affordability and Access as well.
Working Time
The groups were asked to reconvene in the three break-out rooms. Each group was to accomplish the
following:
1. Select a chair for the working group.
2. Decide upon 3-5 concrete and realistic actions for the workgroup for the year. Divide into subgroups, if necessary.
3. Create a timeline.
4. Consider needs to accomplish tasks: resources, information/data needs, models, examples
5. Be prepared to report to the whole group.
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The three groups reported the following:
Affordability Workgroup
Chair: Nate Neuman (PSC)
Goals:
1. Open Educational Resources – research models to reduce course materials and text costs to
students
2. Strategic Licensing - state-wide/consortium pricing for online proctoring and captioning service
3. Institutional Collaboration – looking at competency-based programs, master courses, grant
opportunities
Quality Workgroup
Chair: Arifa Garman (GCSC)
Goals:
1. Design three sets of markers to define excellence: course design, content, and delivery
2. Create a statewide recognition and award based on above markers of excellence. They will
develop a body of evaluations, marketing plan, and funding possibilities for awards
3. Highlight award-winning courses in catalog, on FloridaShines, etc.
Access Workgroup
Co-Chairs: Kendall St. Hilaire (IRSC) and Lynn Drees (SCF)
Goals:
1. Statewide student readiness course package that each institution can customize and brand for
own use
2. Develop recommended minimum standards for online student support
a. To include best practices nationally and in Florida
b. Scorecard for institutional use
c. List of resources
3. Address digital divide by researching mobile-friendly and universal design standards, including
ADA compliance
4. Looking at statewide list of programs being offered by both FCS and SUS and determining what
additional programs are still needed
SLACK Demonstration
Joseph Riquelme (FIU) set up a SLACK site [flvstest.slack.com] for all the groups
 Can communicate and share and edit files together, get notifications
 Can upload Google Docs, and there is a strong search function
 There is a “channel” for each topic
 Joseph will administer the test site until possibly someone from FLVC can take over or create an
official site for the member’s group
Announcements
 2016 Symposium – The State of Adaptive Learning: Taking Florida to the Next Level. February 4
& 5, 2016, in Orlando at the Caribe Royale. If you have speaker suggestions, let Heather know.
If you’d like to help, the symposium working group could use some help.
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
Member’s meeting will be from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on February 3rd, with the Executive
Council meeting in the morning.

Executive Committee will meet online in early December.

June member’s meeting will be held on June 1 & 2, or June 22 & 23, possibly at Valencia.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.
Next meeting, February 3rd, Orlando
Lisa Ciardulli
Lisa Ciardulli, FLVC MCDLSS Secretary Pro-tem
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