MELA Minutes 2021-2022

Gillespie stated that the “Feedback Studio” of TII is a component that her instructors find very valuable. Due to the time frame, it may not be feasible to look for another solution at this time.  Link-Systems: After purchasing a huge pool of hours, we stopped using it for a while. The contract was amended to allow us to exhaust the hours purchased. The contract will now expire at the exhaustion of hours or July 31, 2022. We have about 7000 hours left. The hours are being used now and there is no limit as to who can use the hours. Since we bought a huge number of hours, we have not been budgeting for this service. If we decide to look at alternate solutions, we will need to ensure the funding is there before beginning a new RFP. This will need to be discussed with leadership to determine if this is a critical need for the tutoring services. Michele Mitchell reminded the group that a tutoring solution is something that is needed because of SACS documentation. Christa Wilhite will look through previous minutes for the discussion by the group about other services that were looked at and the wish list that was presented.  MOA Survey: There were no changes made to the MOA Survey. All presidents have signed and it is available in the MELA course site.  DEMOS: Vendors have been reaching out to Dr. LeBrun and instead of pushing them through to the Instructional Technology Committee she has been fielding some of the requests since institutions have been busy with beginning of the year issues. One service that reached out was SmarterID. Would the MELA group be interested in a Demo of this product? Michele Mitchell commented that since we have not had much luck with any of these products, maybe we should demo this product to see what they have to offer. Katherine Puckett also stated that she would like to see what they have to offer. Another vender that reached out was Class (Zoom). This product allows for synchronous online sessions, track attendance and engagement and is similar to a lecture capture type product. Dr. LeBrun does not have any pricing but if the MELA group is interested a demo could be set up. Several members stated they were not interested for eLearning purposes but it could be beneficial for on campus classes.  API Training via Canvas: Some Cares Act funds were allocated for Canvas templates when initially received. Canvas has reached out and stated they have requests from institutions for more trainings due to changes in eLearning personnel. Therefore, MELA is allocating more Cares Act funds to provide API training. Dr. Wilhite will be working