Faculty members were brought up to speed on the proposed transition from Blackboard to Moodle during Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting.
Provost Randy Pembrook and Simon Maxwell, vice president of information technology, spoke at the meeting pointing out the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed change.
“I was looking for reasons not to use Moodle, and quite honestly, I couldn’t come up with one,” Maxwell said, and pointed out that Moodle’s share of the marketplace was increasing, slowly eroding Blackboard’s popularity.
The final decision has been made about the switch.
In new business, faculty senate dealt with four issues: interterm and writing course requirements for transfer students, a new course proposal, a proposal for a change to the economics minor program and approval of December graduates.
Bruce Anderson, chair of the Educational Programming Committee, introduced the first motion to clarify and regulate interterm requirements for transfer students and to clarify writing course requirements.
“It was brought to EPCs attention that it’s a little muddy as to how many interterms transfer students have to take depending on when they come in,” Anderson said.
The proposed wording clarifies students who enter with freshman or sophomore status must successfully complete at least three interterm courses. Students admitted as transfer students with junior status must complete at least two interterm courses, and those admitted as seniors must complete at least one. No student will be allowed to graduate without completing at least one interterm course.
Lisa Johnston, assistant dean for student academic services, was concerned that some transfer students with aggressive course loads would be unable to graduate on time under those requirements. However, Judy Smrha, assistant dean for institutional effectiveness, recognized exceptions to the rule would always exist.
“I have no words that will eliminate all possibilities,” Smrha said. “But this way, the students know walking in the door their first semester what’s needed. We all know as advisers of transfer students that it’s a crapshoot as far as how things will unfold for them and when they’ll graduate.”