MASTER'S/SPECIALIST PROGRAM TEAM MEETING MINUTES
FRIDAY, September 10, 1999 2:00-3:30pm in the Gregory Room
PRESENT: BESANT, K. BURNETT, CONAWAY, DRESANG, FORSTER, HART,
LOGAN, MAATTA, McCLURE, AND BLAZEK (Conveanor),
ABSENT: DAVIS
SUMMARY:
At the initial meeting each proponent presented to the team issues for the team to study concerning existing curriculum problems and also possible solutions regarding the graduate program. Following the presentation, the team decided whether or not the matters need immediate attention (first priority), subsequent engagement (second priority) or least pressing conditions (deferred priority).
AGENDA ITEM -- Class sizes in the masters program
- Logan (proponent) revisits class size matters from last curriculum meeting.
- Advanced courses enrollment is declining.
- Possible causes: administrative guidelines for class sizes or time conflict
for students who work within the profession and are only available for
evening classes.
- Need class size comparisons between other FSU programs.
- Need comparisons within the field.
- Possibly call other schools and ask about graduate
class enrollment.
- Trend seems larger enrollment for introduction courses and
smaller enrollment for advanced courses.
- Need to review who are seeking a masters and for what reason.
- McClure asks what is the current FTE at the graduate level.
- Hart and Dresang answer 250 FTE at the graduate
level for on and off campus.
- Conaway suggests the team research the issue of the "Disappearing" Graduate
Student
- Need data for research. Possible reasons include:
- Student dissatisfaction (not treated very well)
- Convenience of web courses.
- Unknown
- Ask administration for data by a given date.
- Besant inquires about the concept and premise of the masters program
currently on the schools web site.
- Need to revisit what is the mission of the College of Information.
- Need descriptive information on what is happening with enrollment.
- Need descriptive information on the role of the masters program.
- Logan and McClure will work on a proposal that will discuss the key
issues of these matters.
- Conaway and Besant will meet and discuss getting data on the
"disappearing" graduate student.
- All team members agree upon getting data before decisions can be made.
SECOND AGENDA ITEM -- Acquiring approval to develop additional web courses.
- Dresang (Proponent) inquires:
- How to get approval for developing new courses on the web. Issues discussed:
- Is it an administrative decision?
- How much room is in the budget for developing and offering web courses?
- Implication for staffing and funding a web course
- Web courses require more staff
- How many people to support our web staff
- What is the procedure for a permission to develop a web course?
- Web courses are labor intensive
- Team suggests that there needs to be a predictable procedure to get a
course on the web, taking into account faculty and staff resources
- Team decides to create a draft policy of procedures and propose
solutions.
K. Burnett addressed the following issues:
- Fall Student Orientation - The previous committee will provide input with suggestions
- Follow-up on status of courses sent to the University level for approval. Apparently some have been misplaced somewhere in the process. Burnett will provide data on status for future recommendations
- Need for better articulation of the school media certification within our degree program. Matter to be discussed further.
- The need for a faculty-available student tracking system for advisement purposes (as well as for the administrative purposes for demand-based scheduling) was raised. Burnett reported that Reist was working on the problem and would have a system available in the next couple of months.
The matter of who would be the Team Leader was not satisfactorily resolved.
For upcoming meetings:
Statement of the "12-hour" rule and its various sources and interpretations.
The possibility of using the unit of reporting from each semester individually to the two terms constituting the academic year, allowing the flexibility to meet student demand for courses and the needs and preferences of faculty more effectively.
The relative numbers of graduates declaring themselves as LS and IS majors during recent terms and any apparent trends.
Need to review the SLA necessary competencies survey for purposes of comparison.
Need to examine the wisdom of making further distinctions between the LS and IS majors, additional specialized courses, and the possibility of separate degrees.
Need to solicit additional lists of recommended courses for specializations within the MS program, for those not currently available. (Estimates are that there are only four available currently.)
Need to articulate the Foundations course to subsequent courses in students' sequences.
The meeting ended at about 3:30, with the next to be scheduled for the Gregory Room on Friday, September 24th, from 11 to Noon. Subsequent meetings are scheduled for the same hour on October 8, October 22, November 19, and December 12.
These minutes were the result of consolidation of notes by Blazek, Conaway, and Forster.
Posted by Conaway (conaway@lis.fsu.edu) on