Network For Inclusive Distance Education

NIDE Meeting Minutes
Synchronous Communication Group
August 25, 1999

Present: Deborah Fels, Bertha Acevedo, Carolynn Whiteley, Anastasia Cheetham, Luo Dongchuan, Chris Ridpath

The meeting was held at the Center For Learning Technologies and started at 9 a.m.

1. Chris told the group that there is a machine available at the ATRC that can be used as a server for this project. The machine is slow but is capable of running the NT server software and will be able to handle 5-10 users. Luo noted that this machine may be too slow when we get a larger number of users and is slow to develop on. We decided to use the machine for our initial implementation and to upgrade later when more computing power is required.
2. Luo will install the server software and install Microsoft Access database software on the server. He will create a demo system that will show how a Java application/applet can communicate with the NT server and gather data from the MS Access database.
3. Deb offered that Gary could provide Luo with a good NT server 'bible' book for the project.
4. Bertha briefly discussed her UI component and informed us that there have been a few problems in getting different colored text to appear in a single list box for the user interface. She is continuing to work on the problem but will be including other information in the list box to distinguish different topics and users.
5. Deb discussed having a usability study to help design the user interface. We thought at about 5-10 subjects would be needed for the testing. Deb will ask the Ryerson ethics committee for approval of the study.
6. Chris noted that we still have not received contact from Learn Ontario regarding their work with seniors. Chris will contact Jutta and try to set up lines of communication with Learn Ontario.
7. Carolynn presented the status of her user survey. She has received 10 responses from the 18 that have been sent out. The initial data appears to support the direction of our development. We appear to be working on the types of problems that are faced by our target users.
8. Deb will perform the statistical analysis of the data when we have accumulated enough data.
9. Chris will try to get statistics from ATRC's SNOW site to find out the types of users that are on the system.
10. Bertha gave a brief demo of her user interface and will have a more complete mockup for our next meeting
11. Next meeting scheduled for September 8, 9:15 a.m. at the same location.

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