finalreport07

=Report of the EDC Communications Subcommittee=

Members of the Subcommittee

 * **Name** (alpha by surname) || **Institutional Affiliation** ||
 * Trevor Holmes || University of Guelph ||
 * Eric Kristensen || University of Ottawa ||
 * Jennifer Jasper || University of British Columbia ||
 * Jeanette McDonald || Wilfrid Laurier University ||
 * Gillian Siddall || Lakehead University ||

History of the Subcommittee
The Communications Subcommittee was formed at the February 2007 Educational Developers Caucus conference at the University of Guelph. The EDC Executive charged the Vice-Chair Communications with the task of Chairing the Subcommittee from February to June 2007 inclusive, during which time it carried the following mandate.

Mandate from EDC Executive
1. Designing and implementing the EDC webspace so that it is a truly "resourceful place" for the membership including:
 * Up-to-date and easily accessed information about the Caucus and its officers.
 * Key procedural documents such as the By-laws so that the membership has clear access to this information
 * A place for the EDC conference website to connect to in a consistent manner.
 * A permanent home for EDC resources (e.g., monthly resource bulletins, bright ideas, etc.)
 * Helping new members who want to sign up (and motivating them to do so)
 * Reinforcing a sense of collegial community and a philosophy of sharing of resources within that community.

2. Making recommendations about how the EDC website should connect with the website of the STLHE so that they support each other's goals.

3. Recommending policies to Executive regarding private and public access to the EDC website, and determining ways that security and privacy are protected whilst still allowing easy access for our Caucus members.

4. Establishing a process, in consultation with Sylvia Riselay, by which new material can be added to the site easily and in a timely fashion.

5. Documenting the subcommittee's deliberations and actions so as to facilitate the transition for whoever is elected to serve as the new VC Communications.

Preamble
As a Committee we are offering recommendations about all aspects of our mandate, with the exception of actually implementing a new web space on the main STLHE site, a task which we recommend be given to someone with the appropriate expertise at an appropriate time in conjunction with any planned changes to the main STLHE site.

History of EDC Communications Tools
The following history of electronic communication tools used by the EDC (and its former incarnation as the IDO group / task force) demonstrates the development and growth of the group's electronic communication, and thus provides a useful context for the recommendations we are making in this report.
 * **2000:** Carole Dence, Carleton University, creates Discussion Lists for "STLHE IDO" group and separate "Ontario IDO" group
 * **2002:** Ros Woodhouse, Queen's University, creates CommunityZero site for working group activities and documents and recommends this or similar site going forward for Caucus once it is formed
 * **2004:** Trevor Holmes / Rich Couto, University of Guelph, create EDO Profiler and Web Community based on members' requests for password-protected sharing of information about Centres, people, and Caucus business
 * **2004:** Sylvia Riselay, McMaster University, takes over STLHE site hosting from Guelph, creates ED caucus site on it
 * **2005, 2006, 2007:** Queen's U., U. Vic., and U of Guelph respectively host a conference website for February conferences

Current Practices for EDC Communications
Currently we are using the Carleton-based Discussion List (STLHE-IDO) with 250 subscribers for our main communications tool. Members-only mailings (elections and other business) are sent by Sylvia Riselay, who keeps track of our members (approximately 130 at the time of writing). We will have to abandon the Guelph Web Community now that WebCT 4 is no longer in use or transfer everything to Blackboard 6. The Profiler still exists but is rarely used. The ED Caucus portion of the STLHE website is informative but fairly static and not currently under the control of ED Caucus Executive (any changes need to be sent to McMaster). The most recent business documents have been placed on the Guelph conference site.

Regular mailings to STLHE-IDO include requests for information from developers across the country, job ads, the monthly reviews coordinated by Jennifer Jasper, and updates by the Vice-Chair Communications.

Currently, and specifically since the Secretariat in Ottawa was abandoned, most communications are English-only or only partly bilingual.

The Problem
There are currently too many sites housing content related to the EDC, and not all of them have a direct connection with STLHE. Neither is the content of these sites accessible to all members of the EDC community, particularly our current or prospective Francophone members. In addition, there is a lack of clarity on what should be private content for the EDC website and what should be open to the broader community. Finally, not enough members are accessing these various sites, and so they are not "truly resourceful."

**Private vs. Public Aspects of a New Site**
The Committee had several conversations about what ought to be password-protected and what ought to be public. While we understand that anything electronic in some ways will never truly be "private," we would argue that the principles of openness and collaboration that undergird our Caucus as well as public accountability mean that only a few items ought to remain password-protected (see below). We are in the process of building a community of practice (CoP) for our members, and access and openness are important elements that allow a CoP to form and develop. For ease of use, we recommend that the current STLHE Membership Directory have its EDC member field activated as a sortable feature and be searchable by membership status (i.e., STLHE and EDC). This way, members can find other Caucus members in the password-protected area of the STLHE site and need only one password. For the work of executive and sub-committees, as well as for in-camera or sensitive report summaries, access can be restricted either in a wiki space environment or on a server hosted by McMaster or another institution (we recommend commitments of several years' duration).

**Recommendations for Protocols Governing Private vs Public Content**
We recommend that all content on the EDC website be public, with the following exceptions:
 * EDC membership list and contact information (already private; maintained by Sylvia Riselay, STLHE with database support from Rich Couto, University of Guelph)
 * Working documents of Executive and Subcommittees; and communication spaces for same
 * Draft MOUs or letters of agreement
 * Minutes that have not yet been approved, unless they are being made public for the purposes of revision and/or approval
 * ED documents of a sensitive and private nature, including summary results of office surveys (e.g. 2005 re: budgets), anything related to employees or individuals volunteering within EDC, etc.
 * Archives of Discussion List: access limited to current Discussion List subscribers

Further Recommendations
a) Discussion List - As the most consistently used and useful tool, we recommend that...
 * the Discussion List remain open to any interested current or former or imminent developers in Canada or elsewhere regardless of their membership status in ED Caucus;
 * official announcements regarding elections, constitutional changes, or other business matters for members continue to be handled by Sylvia Riselay, who has the paid-up membership list at hand and can mail ED Caucus members directly most efficiently; and
 * the Discussion List be migrated to a system that is more user-friendly (e.g., sign-up, archive access) than the Lyris software currently in use.

b) EDC Website - If possible within one year, we recommend that...
 * the EDC redevelop and use its website hosted by STLHE as its primary communications tool, supplemented by the Discussion List. This way, the EDC maintains a visible connection with STLHE, and will enhance the important ways in which these two bodies work together;
 * the EDC executive gain control over content of its website on the STLHE website. This way changes and updates can be made in a timely manner that will make the website "a truly resourceful place;"
 * an EDC URL in French and English be created that redirects members and non-members to the STLHE website where the EDC page is located; and
 * the STLHE-hosted space be revised to include a section for archiving conference websites and other resources.

c) Private but collaborative workspace: in order to facilitate the work of the EDC, we recommend that...
 * the EDC Executive purchase wiki space that is private, robust, easy to use, and has sufficient memory capacity.

d) Bilingualism: in order to fulfill STLHE's commitment to bilingualism, we recommend that...
 * at least one francophone position be created on the EDC Executive (for example, a Co-Vice-Chair Communications Francophone or a Liaison position);
 * a translation service be identified by STLHE to facilitate French/English communication; and
 * a future Executive meeting and General Meeting provide a forum to facilitate dialogue on welcoming English and French scholarship, culture and language within tertiary educational development in Canada and internationally.

e) Regarding the EDO Profiler / Web Community and previous EDC conference web sites, we recommend that...
 * the EDO Profiler and its associated Web Community be phased out while preserving the information about Centres and any other resources for use in the redeveloped website;
 * existing conference web pages be preserved for a period of one year after each conference and then archived in the redeveloped website;
 * future conference web pages and any linked resources be hosted by the host institution(s) for a period of one year following the conference, after which time the EDC website will become the archives host.

f) Regarding communication strategies, we recommend that...
 * the Vice-Chair Communications (incoming) establish a regular bulletin to the community in keeping with the by-law aims (e.g., availability of new resources, updates from executive, profiles of developments/initiatives/project at member colleges and universities, grant/other announcements, new Centres/members, etc.);
 * the Vice-Chair Communications establish a process for assessing new technologies and their utility for ED Caucus members and for Caucus business (podcasts/vodcasts, blogging, wikis, role-specific fora, etc.).


 * Appendix A: Chart of current and recommended practice

Appendix B: Working chart of pros and cons for communication tools

Glossary and links**