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ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

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Page 1: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool

Dale Voorhees

University of Central FloridaNLII January 2004

Page 2: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

In an effort to encourage student-to-student and student-to-faculty community building, the University of Central Florida (UCF) created eCommunity.

As this tool grew in popularity, so did legal and policy issues related to its use.

eCommunity

Page 3: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

eCommunity: What It Does

• An eCommunity account is automatically created each semester for all classes.

• Students can view a list of all students in each class they are taking.

• Faculty and students can email any (or all) students in their class.

• Students and faculty can learn about each other.• Faculty and students can see the photos of each

other.

Page 4: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

eCommunity: Why Students Like It

• They get to know each other better.

• They can contact each other more easily.

• They don’t have to fill out a “getting to know you” sheet in every class they take!

Page 5: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004
Page 6: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

eCommunity: Why Faculty Like It

• They can learn the names and faces of all their students even before class begins!

• They can contact the entire class or individual students even before class begins.

• They get to know their students even before class begins.

• Helps faculty manage large classes

Page 7: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004
Page 8: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

Faculty can see photos of their students

Page 9: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

Faculty & students can email each other

Page 10: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

eCommunity: Technical Information

• eCommunity was built by CDWS:– The Instructional Design team designed the

functionality and purpose – The Advanced Systems team developed the

code. – The Digital Media team provided the graphics

and the look,

Page 11: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

eCommunity: Technical Information

• eCommunity is built in JSP, using Java, servelets, HTML, and an Oracle database backend.

• The JSP is powered by Tomcat. • Development was done mostly with NetBeans (a

Java IDE) and Dreamweaver for the HTML.• eCommunity is running on a Sun Solaris machine

although because it's Java, it can run practically anywhere.

Page 12: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

Expected Legal and Policy Issues

• Some students need their identity protected (i.e. witness protection, undercover police, etc…).

• Some students have been or are afraid of being stalked by other students.

• Some students just don’t want others to know information about them.

Page 13: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

How eCommunity Protects Students’ Privacy Rights

• Student photos are not released to other students until they give permission.

• Student biographical information is initially blank.

• Student emails are visible only to students in their classes

Page 14: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

This page provides FERPA information as well as online training documents for faculty

Page 15: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

How eCommunity Protects Students’ Privacy Rights

• Students who complete the FERPA privacy form in the Registrar’s Office have their name, email, and all other information removed from the view of all other students at the university.

Page 16: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

Unexpected Legal and Policy Issues

• Some faculty fear their intellectual property will be abused.

• Some faculty fear students will become empowered to organize against them.

• Both faculty and students fear eCommunity could be used to enable spamming within the university.

Page 17: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

Planned Improvements for eCommunity 2.0

• Faculty Communities - A faculty member will be able to browse any department and add other faculty to their communities.

• Better support for larger classes/groups • Better internal email support - The internal email

composer will be able to handle attachments, allow saving of draft messages, and allow very large numbers of email recipients.

Page 18: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

Planned Improvements for eCommunity 2.0

• Improved profile management of various roles.• Integration with other systems - WebCT,

Directory Service, ePortfolio system, and the UCF Portal.

• Student created groups - students will be given the ability to create their own communities.

• Design for the Open Source Community?

Page 19: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

What We Have Learned

• It is critical to protect the privacy of students.• Faculty and students appreciate community

building tools, if they are useful to them.• Faculty and students fear that abuse of

eCommunity could lead to curtailment or abolishment of the tool altogether.

• Clear statements of what uses are allowed and not-allowed must be clearly communicated to all users.

Page 20: ECommunity: UCF’s Community Building Tool Dale Voorhees University of Central Florida NLII January 2004

Contact Information

Dale VoorheesAssistant Director

Course Development & Web ServicesThe University of Central Florida

[email protected]

Presentation Available:http://cdws.ucf.edu/presentations/educause2003/UCF_eCommunity.ppt